November in Weaselhead

Not exactly a spectacular scene, but I always like the trees reflected in this creek that joins the Elbow River at Weaselhead. On this day, 16 November 2015, it would have been my older daughter’s birthday. Feeling that I needed to get out for a while, I met up with a group of friends for a three-hour walk in Weaselhead. It had snowed a bit overnight and, though it was mostly sunny, the temperature was around 1°C. This meant winter jacket and winter boots complete with ice-grabbers as the paths were very icy and slippery. 27 species of bird were seen. Only two or three people saw what they reckoned was an owl (Great Horned) in flight from the forest. A Snow-shoe Hare in its white, winter coat was barely visible, hiding in the snow in a tangle of bushes.

We had quite good views of several White-winged Crossbills. These are such colourful birds - at least the males are. The females are a greenish yellow, but still beautiful. Their bills are crossed, to enable them to get the seeds out of the cones. They tend to land high up in tall trees, so my photos are usually zoomed and cropped.

1.Canada Goose-200+
2.Swan sp.,-7
3.Mallard-4
4.Common Goldeneye-1 f.
5.Northern Goshawk-1
6.Rough-legged Hawk-1
7.Killdeer-1
8.Ring-billed Gull?-1
9.Great Horned Owl-1
10.Downy Woodpecker-4+
11.Hairy Woodpecker-1
12.Northern Flicker-2
13.Blue Jay-4+
14.Black-billed Magpie-20
15.Common Raven-2+
16.Black-capped Chickadee-50+
17.Boreal Chickadee-4
18.Red-breasted Chickadee-1
19.White-breasted Nuthatch-1
20.Bohemian Waxwing-100+
21.Dark-eyed Junco-1+
22.Pine Grosbeak-10+
23.House Finch-1
24.Red Crossbill-1 f.
25.White-winged Crossbill-75+
26.Common Redpoll-30+
27.House Sparrow-6