03-FEB-2010
Northern Cardinal, female
Over at the Ash Woods feeder there was no more activity than at the BYG feeder. However, this pretty female cardinal sat quite still for several minutes allowing a fairly close shot. In addition to her, there were a few house finches, chickadees, a couple of mourning doves, a few grey squirrels and a couple of crows nearby.
01-FEB-2010
Northern Cardinal, male
A nice way to start the month is with a splash of bright colour in the form of this male cardinal. At the Backyard Garden feeder, located behind the Interpretive Centre, there was little bird activity. A few house finches, about 6 chickadees, a female downy woodpecker, and a dark-eyed junco. Three red squirrels were also hanging around beneath the feeder.
01-FEB-2010
Sharing a meal
Initially the chickadee thought better of joining the cardinal and veered away at the last second, but then decided the seeds were too good to pass up, I suppose, for he came back.
While watching these two, I could hear the crows harassing the local red-tailed hawk which was perched out in the open on the north end of the Ash Woods, visible from the BYG. Over at the feeder on the south side of the woods, there was a flock of 30+ house finches, a starling, mourning dove, cardinal, and a few chickadees, along with four grey squirrels. Not a lot. But just think.... now that February is here, it will only be about 6 weeks before we see red-winged blackbirds and after them, all the other early migrants that quickly follow!
01-FEB-2010
Pond opening
A few days ago, even with temperatures of -20, this section was still wide open. Today, it was frozen. It looks, however, as if the beaver has been chewing at the branches just over the opening. If so, that is a good sign of life from him.
01-FEB-2010
Dried hydrangea flower
There is a large hydrangea shrub along the section of the service road we call Green Heron Way. It is one of the more visible signs that "our" wildlife garden was originally planted with all manner of garden plants and trees, such as all the different types of lilacs, the many crabapples, and the two magnolia trees, amongst many other plants at the FWG. As far as I know, the hydrangea has little to no wildlife value. I have not seen insects around the flowers, for example. But it is a pretty splash of huge white flowers in summer and it is not taking space away from our own planting activities. These flowers in winter are just as visible and remind me of the pre-FWG days of our site.
01-FEB-2010
Rabbit signs
You wouldn't think that the hairy stems of sumac would be that palatable, but the rabbits seem to enjoy chewing on the bark and in years when we have more than a couple of rabbits around the site, we can see many of the young sumac stems chewed to bits. Sumac spreads like crazy so we have lots of it and don't begrudge the rabbits and squirrels their meal of sumac bark.
