Follow the Fox

Pine Grosbeak Pinicola enucleator

American Robin Turdus migratorius

House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus

Follow the fox

Follow the crow?

Follow the birder

The end of the 'Great Horned Owl woods' in Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemtery?

Sleepy NDN

Rush hour at Mount-Royal Cemetery

Mount-Royal Cemetery and Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery, February 14, 2021

  Old news! But time is relative anyway, eh. MRC was super crowded, whereas NDN was abandoned. Maybe that’s because it was near impossible to find a way in, what with all the closed gates and mended fence gaps. Is it closed on the weekend? Probably should look into that.

  Nothing much going on in NDN, but it was worth a try. Who knows what avian mysteries lurk in those chronically underbirded dells.

  A rambling set of fresh Red Fox prints made for an entertaining game of Follow the Fox (“Y’know, technically, if we follow these prints there’s a fox at the other end.”). In spite of being able to smell fox musk at times, the fox won this particular round. I think Buddha discussed that once.

  Ended up with 15 species in four hours – nothing super unexpected, but overall much birdier for this time of year when compared to past years. What else? Pine Grosbeaks were showing well in MRC.

All Redpolls, all the time

Hoary Redpoll Acanthis hornemanni?

Another interesting Redpoll, showing some Hoary features,
but...too much pink? Or just enough?

spot both White-winged Crossbill Loxia leucoptera

spot both White-winged Crossbill Loxia leucoptera

male Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus

female Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus

House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus
(with an interesting amount of white in the greater coverts)

Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus

And a long-forgotten, lonely cairn of stones

Mount Royal Cemetery, February 6, 2021

  Super cold in the MRC on February 6, but not unbearably so. Canada, eh! Faffed around with the Redpolls some more, and saw a couple of good candidates for Hoary, one of which I’m gonna go ahead and declare a Hoary Redpoll — fight me! I guess I come off a bit silly in that last post, whingeing and moaning about how frustrating birding is and how shit I am at it. Oh well, I reckon most birders will relate to that if they’re honest.

  About ten White-winged Crossbills were showing well in the conifers by E5, and one female Red Crossbill was well seen nearby at first, before it flew off with a brace of unidentified finches. The day ended after four hours with 16 species (and 16 unfrozen digits), which is respectable for this time of year. I have a weird feeling something nutty will turn up soon at the cems.

  In other news, Harry dug a giant hole.

  In other other news, there are some twitchable owls around, but I’m a misanthrope at the best of times, and I get extra crabby at owl twitches. Apparently there have been 30-50 photogs mobbing a Boreal Owl, and I would lose my shit if I was there. Better I just not go.

  Still not used to the idea of 2021. I swear I typed 2018 the other day when trying to write the date, no joke.