The favourite

In the afternoon of 8 November 2015, I pushed myself out the front door to go on a walk with birding friends. Knowing that I'm supposed to do a lot more walking than I do (which cuts into my Fickr time, sorry!) and also seeing that the weather forecast was for snow the next day, made the decision that much easier.

We met at Votier's Flats in Fish Creek Park and walked eastwards to Shaws Meadow, where we climbed the hill up to the houses that border the park. Managed to catch just this one quarter-decent shot of this speedy little Black-capped Chickadee when it flew down to someone's hand when we were walking through the forest down below. It looks like it may have picked out a piece of nut rather than a Sunflower seed - nuts do tend to be the favourite. Actually, looking at this photo again, I think that that IS a Sunflower seed, seen from the wide end : )

"The Black-capped Chickadee is notable for its capacity to lower its body temperature during cold winter nights, its good spatial memory to relocate the caches where it stores food, and its boldness near humans (they can feed from the hand)." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-capped_Chickadee

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/black-capped_chickadee/id

The following is the final list of 14 bird species prepared by our leaders, Gus, Janet, Bernie and David:

Bald Eagle-1 ad.
Sharp-shinned Hawk-
Ring-billed Gull-2
Downy Woodpecker-2
Hairy Woodpecker-1
Northern Flicker-2
Black-billed Magpie-8
Common Raven-11
Black-capped Chickadee-30+
Boreal Chickadee-2
Red-breasted Nuthatch-8
White-breasted Nuthatch-3
Red Crossbill-1 m
Dark-eyed Junco-1

Red Squirrel-1
Mule Deer-4

After the walk, four of us went for coffee at Tim Horton's. I always enjoy this, just as much as the walk itself.