When winter really was winter
Glenmore Dam, Calgary, Alberta
Downy Woodpecker
Clark's Nutcracker
Snow Bunting / Plectrophenax nivalis
Barn-shaped mailbox
Focused, listening, watching
Old barn with a different style
Moose cow looking for salt
Northern Pygmy-owl, one year ago
Davisburg Community Church, Alberta
A most challenging bird
Snowy Owl - just close enough
A fine old barn
Little forest muncher
Beautiful bird, but grainy and blurry photo : (
Four more months to wait
Poppy art
Watchful eye
Feasting on cone seeds
Narrow strip of light
Yesterday's treat - a Great Gray Owl
Remembering a cold, frosty bird count
Common Redpoll on the wire
Male beauty
One of yesterday's Snowy Owls
Fancy silo with stairs
Davisburg Community Church, Alberta
When the clouds roll in
A friendly greeting
Common Redpoll / Carduelis flammea
Aging gracefully
Northern Hawk Owl with Meadow Vole
Varied Thrush - a lifer
Delicate colours of summer
Sweet little garden ornament
A quick glance
Little country church
Pine Grosbeak / Pinicola enucleator
'Superman, where are you now?'
The cross and the moon
A photographer's nightmare
One year ago
Time for an old barn again
Dainty little Common Redpoll
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Varied Thrush


Of course, I would love to have had this bird closer, out in the open with a lot more light and no tangle of tiny branches in the immediate background, but I was still absolutely thrilled to finally see a Varied Thrush! This had been in the top three birds on my Wish List for quite a few years, but on the very rare occasion that one has been seen in Calgary, I was never there when it was seen. I got just two photos that were not really blurry - this one and one I posted a few days ago. I haven't had a chance to go back to the park to see if I can see it again.
Six days ago, on 16 February 2016, I was on a birding walk in Fish Creek Park, that turned out to be longer and more fast-paced than I can manage. By the end, I was in such pain, but knew that I just had to go further when friend, Phil (from England), offered to take three or four of us back to near the beginning of our walk, to look again for this glorious bird. We had not been able to find it when we had tried earlier in the morning. Phil is a superb birder and we are always so lucky when he spends two or three months over here before going back to England for a few months. After waiting to see if the bird would appear, the others decided to leave. I followed Phil around a corner to look at the back of the trees we had been viewing - and there it was! Quite a distance away, but it was there! I couldn't believe my eyes. Can't thank you enough, Phil!! Now I have to decide which bird should be number 1 on my Wish List - perhaps the White-tailed Ptarmigan.
"The Varied Thrush’s simple, ringing song gives a voice to the quiet forests of the Pacific Northwest, with their towering conifers and wet understories of ferns, shrubs, and mosses. Catch a glimpse of this shy bird and you’ll see a handsome thrush with a slaty gray back and breast band set against burnt-orange breast and belly. Common in the Cascades, Northern Rockies, and Pacific Coast, Varied Thrushes forage for insects in summer and switch to berries and seeds in winter.
Varied Thrushes hop on the ground or low in shrubs and trees. They eat mainly insects and other arthropods in the summer and switch to nuts and fruit in fall and winter. On breeding territories, male Varied Thrushes sit on exposed perches to sing their haunting, trilling songs." From AllAboutBirds.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Varied_Thrush/id
The list of species seen, compiled by our leader:
FFCPPSoc. Birding, Bebo Grove to Shannon Terrace, FCPP, Calgary, 0915-1215, Tue16Feb2016. Mostly sunny, N wind 15kph, -3 to 10°C. Two groups;
1. Canada Goose- flock heard
2. Downy Woodpecker-6
3. Hairy Woodpecker-5
4. American Three-toed Woodpecker-1
5. Northern Flicker-1
6. Pileated Woodpecker-2+, seen three times at different locations
7. Blue Jay-3
8. Black-billed Magpie-2
9. Common Raven-7
10. Black-capped Chickadee-30
11. Boreal Chickadee-6
12. Red-breasted Nuthatch-12
13. Brown Creeper-2
14. Golden-crowned Kinglet-1
15. Townsend’s Solitare-1
16. American Robin-1, seen by Phil Q.
17. Varied Thrush-2 (1 m. seen, another heard)
18. Bohemian Waxwing-1
19. Pine Grosbeak-6
20. White-winged Crossbill-1
21. Common Redpoll-7
22. Pine Siskin-20
Red Squirrel-15
White-tailed Deer-6
Six days ago, on 16 February 2016, I was on a birding walk in Fish Creek Park, that turned out to be longer and more fast-paced than I can manage. By the end, I was in such pain, but knew that I just had to go further when friend, Phil (from England), offered to take three or four of us back to near the beginning of our walk, to look again for this glorious bird. We had not been able to find it when we had tried earlier in the morning. Phil is a superb birder and we are always so lucky when he spends two or three months over here before going back to England for a few months. After waiting to see if the bird would appear, the others decided to leave. I followed Phil around a corner to look at the back of the trees we had been viewing - and there it was! Quite a distance away, but it was there! I couldn't believe my eyes. Can't thank you enough, Phil!! Now I have to decide which bird should be number 1 on my Wish List - perhaps the White-tailed Ptarmigan.
"The Varied Thrush’s simple, ringing song gives a voice to the quiet forests of the Pacific Northwest, with their towering conifers and wet understories of ferns, shrubs, and mosses. Catch a glimpse of this shy bird and you’ll see a handsome thrush with a slaty gray back and breast band set against burnt-orange breast and belly. Common in the Cascades, Northern Rockies, and Pacific Coast, Varied Thrushes forage for insects in summer and switch to berries and seeds in winter.
Varied Thrushes hop on the ground or low in shrubs and trees. They eat mainly insects and other arthropods in the summer and switch to nuts and fruit in fall and winter. On breeding territories, male Varied Thrushes sit on exposed perches to sing their haunting, trilling songs." From AllAboutBirds.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Varied_Thrush/id
The list of species seen, compiled by our leader:
FFCPPSoc. Birding, Bebo Grove to Shannon Terrace, FCPP, Calgary, 0915-1215, Tue16Feb2016. Mostly sunny, N wind 15kph, -3 to 10°C. Two groups;
1. Canada Goose- flock heard
2. Downy Woodpecker-6
3. Hairy Woodpecker-5
4. American Three-toed Woodpecker-1
5. Northern Flicker-1
6. Pileated Woodpecker-2+, seen three times at different locations
7. Blue Jay-3
8. Black-billed Magpie-2
9. Common Raven-7
10. Black-capped Chickadee-30
11. Boreal Chickadee-6
12. Red-breasted Nuthatch-12
13. Brown Creeper-2
14. Golden-crowned Kinglet-1
15. Townsend’s Solitare-1
16. American Robin-1, seen by Phil Q.
17. Varied Thrush-2 (1 m. seen, another heard)
18. Bohemian Waxwing-1
19. Pine Grosbeak-6
20. White-winged Crossbill-1
21. Common Redpoll-7
22. Pine Siskin-20
Red Squirrel-15
White-tailed Deer-6
Daniel Palacin has particularly liked this photo
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