Just Babbling

As Ive mentioned in previous posts, spring is almost here.
Well.. I just checked the weather network and i pray that there wrong ! They are calling for snow over the weekend..Up to 15cm in total will fall over the course of 2 days. By Newfoundland standards that's nothing but it should be spring ! I want to hear warblers calling and sparrows appearing but, that's all put on hold once again... Some people say that Newfoundland has only 2 seasons, a very cold and wet one and a cold and wet one. I'm starting to believe that...
Ill be posting Saturday about the osprey nesting platforms I'm building. Might even get out birding !
Until then here's a photo of one of the my new backyard residents an American robin !

Black Headed Gull

Saturday morning past, the same day as my last post. Brad James and i also headed to quidi vidi lake to see what was still lingering around or had maybe just arrived.
The very first thing we noticed was that the black headed gulls had black heads !

Its amazing how much more attractive looking the birds are when there in there breeding plumage (well 80% plumage). One thing i noticed which i hadn't noticed before was that the newly arrived ring billed gulls do not like black headed gulls.As soon as one walks by or is too close the ring billed gulls flips out and bites the little black headed gulls.
I don't have many pictures of this species, so I'm going to try over the next few weeks before they leave to get some nicer shots of them !

The Purple Sandpiper-Living on the Edge !

Saturday morning fellow Photographer/Birdwatcher Brad James and i headed to cape spear to see what the wind might have blown in, seeing as now there was not much action around town..
After about a 25 minute search for the resident flock of purple sandpipers we finally seen them fly by, we followed....

We made sure to approach the birds very slowly and kept a close eye on there behaviour so we made sure we didn't disturb them ! After slowly inching our selves closer and closer we couldn't believe how comfortable they are around people ! They were roosting with us just feet away !

At one point the purple sandpipers began taking a bath in a tidal pool ! I thought this was amazing, Ive never herd anyone tell me that they have seen the whole flock of purple sandpipers bathing !
It is defiantly a moment that i wont forget !

Here are just some of the shots i got from the day that i thought you might enjoy:

Migratorius !

Migratorius- Better know as The American Robin !
After 2 months of waiting on robins to show up to eat the dog berries that i put all around my back yard, Today i was finally surprised to see 7 robins having a much !

The plumage of some of the robins that were in my backyard today leads me to believe that they are early migrants.Some of them had about 90% of their breeding plumage ! Strange ?

I predict that with in 2 weeks we should start seeing spring migrants because of the very warm weather that the rest of Canada is seeing.....Not surprisingly Newfoundland isn't seeing this warm weather...

Bring On The Warm Weather !!

Today was Newfoundland's first taste of SPRING ! And i think i can speak for the province when i say we are done with winter and we can wait to be able to enjoy the nice warm weather and sunny days !

This morning i got to hear the birds singing which in itself was great ! I also installed two more tree swallow nest boxes at Nevile's pond and i checked to see if i needed to replace or fix the hen houses i had installed there last spring.


As you can see the base pipe was about all that remains of this hen house, I tryed a plastic material instead on metal mesh because it was cheaper but it didn't work, so i will replace the hen house its self probley next weekend.The feathers on top are a clear sign that ducks are getting on top of it to preen.Its good that they are not afraid of the hen house but hopefully they will soon see that its not for sitting ITS FOR NESTING !

Soon i will be posting about the new spring arrivals, until then i will keep the blog updated on the hen houses and nest boxes !

Its That Time Of Year Again !

Spring is now on the horizon and the cold winter will soon be behind us.That means its time to start the years batch of hen houses and nest boxes !
I have Newfoundland Power placing not one but TWO osprey nesting platforms for me in a few weeks and the town of paradise is working to help me build some hen houses ! I also plan on making a few golden eye nest boxes like i do every year and of course a few tree swallow nest boxes !
The biggest thing that i would like to see this year would be for the local birding community to come together and do a conservation project !

Photo Contest !

So one of my photos got entered in Delta Waterfowl website contest ! This is the first time one of my photos has been in a contest !
So here is what you have to do:Go to this link http://www.deltawaterfowl.org/pix/contest/1203/index.php
click on my photo and vote for it.
Every last vote helps ! So tell your friends !
Thank-YOU !

Heres the photo your looking for:

A Warm Morning at QV lake !

This Morning i got to go birding with a well known local birder which was nice for once to get out and learn some new things ! We headed to QV lake where we studied some of the local iceland gulls and a common gul !

This is my first common gull, i dident expect to see a lifer today.I gess you can never guess what you might see in a day.While trying to get some gull shots buying a few packs of weiners always gets the gulls flying around and trying to snag a snack !


One thing that standed out today from other days was the number of raptors we seen ! when the ducks gulls and peigions all take off you know you have a raptor in the aera.Today we seen a nice adult pregrine falcon and a goshhawlk and a juvi bald eagle !