"National Bird of Canada"

Meet our family of Gray Jays. Our feathered friends visit us and we hand feed them on a daily basis.  Blueberry pancakes is one of their favorites!!

Did you know that Gray Jays are actually shown

scientifically to be the smartest bird on the planet?

They are tough little birds and never migrate out of Canada, wintering in the boreal forest where they nest.  They've been observed sitting on eggs in temperatures as low as minus 30 C.

Gray Jay is also nick named Whiskey Jack

****50,000 online votes****

The Gray Jay was chosen the National Bird of Canada

Hiking Buddy

Black-capped Chickadee

We love it when they hang out

with us on our hiking trails!!

Evening Grosbeaks

This large flock of Evening Grosbeaks visit here on a daily basis.  They know the platform feeder very well.  Although they do just fine on their own eating the buds of maple, willow, oak and elm trees, to name a few, we enjoy offering them some sunflower seeds during the winter.  They also drink maple sap by breaking off small maple twigs.

We sprinkled some seeds on the hard

packed snow for the rest of the flock!

As you can see, it was freezing rain when I captured these

images, but that didn't stop either of us!!

Red-breasted Nuthatch

This very active little bird is the only North American nuthatch that has an eyestripe and rusty underparts.

The Red-breasted Nuthatch gets a special view of everything, by looking at the world upside down. They are able to descend head downwards on branches and tree trunks.  This is how they search for food.

.... Or, if you are lucky and patient enough, like I was, they will come to your hand!!!!

 See video here:

Nuthatch eating from my hand!!

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Here is this year's Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird.  Isn't he handsome!  The females are here too and busy making their nests.  Maybe this year, I will find a nest with the babies!!

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The hummers are back!!  This little beauty, a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird is filling up on some nectar.  She just traveled many miles to get here!! She and a few males are sharing the feeders and we will enjoy their presence until sometime in September!

Want to see one of the male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds we had here last summer?

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warblers are mainly insect eating birds, but you will see them hanging from a suet, fetching sunflower seeds and peanut butter, or maybe even the odd raisin.

Chickadee-dee-dee-dee

The Black-capped Chickadee has to be the cutest songbird I know.  They can accept you as a natural part of their environment and can be your favorite feathered friend. 

Did you know:

Each year, around autumn, Black-capped Chickadees allow brain neurons that contain old information to die, replacing them with new neurons.  This is so they can adapt to changes in their environment and social flocks.

Black-capped Chickadees hide seeds to eat later. They can place them in thousands of hiding places.  For the tiny brains they have, they are extremely intelligent.

Watch Me Grow

Dark-Eyed Junco eggs nestled in the perennial garden by our house!!  The female incubates the eggs for 12-13 days and the nestling period is approximately 10-13 days!!

All four babies were hatched successfully

and are growing very quickly!!

Mom and Dad are not too far away!!

These little babies fledged the nest the day after this photo was taken!!  We are fortunate to have them with us year round!!  They will soon be introduced to our backyard feeders.... They prefer millet over sunflower seeds.  Dark-Eyed Juncos also eat insects including flies, moths, butterflies, ants, wasps and beetles.

Great Blue Heron

The Great Blue Heron, which is the largest North American Heron, is poised on top of this spruce tree by our fish pond.  His plan was to do a little fishing, but his view was slightly obscured this morning as he noticed our Pekin ducks were having their morning bath and there was a lot of splashing going on!! He only stayed long enough for me to snap a couple of quick photos and then he was off!!  He will return, as he does most days.  Great Blue Herons can hunt day and night.  They have a high percentage of rod-type photoreceptors in their eyes that improve their night vision.

The Great Blue Heron has a wingspan of almost 7 feet and stands almost 4 feet tall!!

Bad Hair Day

Female Purple Finch enjoying some sunshine at the feeder

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Then the next day....

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What a difference a day can make.... !!

Despite the rain, our feathered friends were visiting the feeders all day long!!

(although soaking wet, she's still a little cutie)

Our Tree Swallows are Back !!

Our tree swallows arrived a couple of weeks ago and there are lots of them....they are so amazing and fun to watch!!  They fly so fast and are darting everywhere....They perform awesome acrobatics while chasing after flying insects...

This male tree swallow is stretching.  He has been sitting on this branch for a few minutes keeping a close eye on his female.

We have a breeding pair nesting in the box again this year....When the female is producing her eggs, she needs extra calcium, so we offer some crushed egg shells for them to eat.  We raise laying chickens, so there are plenty of eggs!! And, our pekin ducks help out too....When the tree swallow prepares the nest, they are looking for soft bedding and one of the supplies they seek are freshly preened feathers.

Here is the very dedicated female looking quite comfortable and ready to lay her eggs!! If you want to read some interesting facts about the tree swallow or see some more images of them, stop by over here and check them out!!

Yellow-Rumped Warbler ~ (day 2)

The Yellow-Rumped Warblers were feeding all day around our pond....and I couldn't pass up the chance to photograph these beautiful birds once again!!

Yellow-Rumped Warbler ~

Adult male Yellow-Rumped Warbler (eastern "Myrtle")

The warblers are back and lots of them!!!! it is amazing to watch them catching the flying insects over our pond... they share their space with the tree swallows.... it is great entertainment and we are looking forward to another nesting season!!

Blue Jay ~

Blue Jay posing in exchange for some sunflower seeds!

Male Evening Grosbeaks

Pair of Male Evening Grosbeaks

Assuming three is a crowd??

These plump, yellow-bellied Grosbeaks were a pleasant sight for us to see and hear while enjoying our morning coffee!!  They love sunflower seeds and flock to the feeders when there is a good supply.  They don't mind sharing with some of the regulars, mainly our blue jays, gray jays, juncos and chickadees and we cannot forget the downy woodpeckers.

Do you want to hear an evening grosbeak? click on this link for their unique chirps and calls!!

Like my Mascara ?

Our feathered friends are doing everything they can to stay warm this winter....the temperature this morning was -25 degrees C  (-13 degrees F) and this little Gray Jay had icicles growing on his eyelashes!! Looks like a frosty mascara!!

We make sure their feeders are full and everyone has plenty to eat during these cold winter months.... Nothing goes to waste at the breakfast table here....This little fella is our regular and we enjoy his presence over our morning coffee!!

Good Morning Sunshine ~

Our regular morning visitors, including this darling little Gray Jay, patiently waits for his breakfast every morning.... If you would like to see some more fun-feeding antics from our feathered friends, you can visit them here

Mourning Doves ~

This adorable pair of Mourning Doves are waiting patiently for the backyard feeders to be filled....

A Mourning Dove in the morning sun....

Mourning Doves are not very easy to photograph as they are shy birds.... They can fly very fast and their wings make a whistling noise after taking off... Their call sound resembles oooo-OOOOO-oooo-oooo-oooo

Downy Woodpecker.... part 2

After my post from yesterday, Downy Woodpecker, I just had to create a part 2!!

There was a lot of activity going on outside that immediately caught my attention.... I heard the sounds of distress from a little bird, but could not locate it immediately.  Then, I found him....

Baby male Downy Woodpecker

He managed to get himself lodged between two branches and could not get himself out....

I was able to gently lift him up with my fingers and he was able to re-position himself on the branch....I took a few photos and then he flew to a nearby tree.

This story doesn't end here!!  It wasn't until I put my photos on the computer that I noticed in one of the pictures that his left eye was closed.  It was like that in all of the photos.  (very visible in the first photo posted above and slightly in the one below) I then realized that something was wrong with his little eye.  Was it poked by a tree branch or a siblings beak in the nest?  Or could it be a birth defect?  I felt so bad because he was now gone from the tree where I initially helped him get ''unstuck''.  Then a few hours later.....

....There he was hanging onto the post above while his mother was feeding below!! I snapped this photo, then set my camera down and proceeded to walk closer to the baby to see if I could get a closer look at his eye!!  The mother flew to a nearby tree, and the baby didn't move.... I slowly raised my hand closer towards him and he still didn't move.  He made it very easy by allowing me to put him in my hand. (Maybe he remembered me helping him from earlier in the day.... )

Once he was comfortable in my hand, I took him into the house and began to take an even closer look.  Our two house cats, Philly and Misty and our Border Collie, Skye are getting used to our feathered friends coming into the house these days.  This was the second bird that needed help in less than a month!! Here is our Hummingbird Rescue !!  To make a long story short, I got out my homeopathy kit and wet a soft cloth with some colloidal silver and gently held it over his eye.  I massaged the area and in a few minutes, his eye began to open up!!!! I was excited and I am certain he was too!!  I put a drop or two of colloidal silver in some water and let him drink it.  Colloidal silver helped in this situation as I was able to clean the area and prevent possible infection in the eye.

His eye is open now and all cleaned up!!

Once confident that his eye was looking better, I gave him a little snack of peanut butter and another drink of water before releasing him outside with his family.  I put him back on the bird feeder and he looked around for a moment and then flew to this stump....

Baby (left) and Father re-united!!

 

How precious is this!!  The father feeding the baby moments after he was in my hand!!

I came to notice that there are at least 3 babies being taken care of by mom and dad... Two boys and a girl!! Here (see photo below) is the female baby now about a week older from this photo !!

Glad to see another happy ending and hopefully they all live long productive lives!! :-)