17-FEB-2009
Northern shrike
Another view of this handsome bird.
17 February 2009
Red squirrel with piece of ice
I was particularly intrigued by one little squirrel who ran off with a piece of sumac cone in his mouth, only to drop it and pick up a piece of ice. This he proceeded to nibble and lick for a short while, before discarding it for another bit of ice. Over the next three or four minutes, he picked up and nibbled on about 5 different bits of ice. At times it looked like he was licking a popsicle!
Unfortunately, I was some distance off when taking this photo so it is cropped quite a bit and not the greatest.
17 February 2009
Red squirrel lapping sap
Later, another red squirrel was busy gnawing on a Manitoba maple. He had probably been there a little while when I came upon him because sap was running freely and he was having a great time lapping it up.
17 February 2009
Sap tapping
Another shot of this little guy tapping for sap!
15 February 2009
Common Redpoll
Diane was at the FWG this morning. "I saw Cardinals, BC Chickadees, House Finches, Crows, Mourning Doves, but the highlight was the 4 Common Redpolls close to the backyard feeder."
15 February 2009
Common Redpoll
Another view of the common redpoll.
15 February 2009
Common Redpoll
We haven't seen any redpolls at the FWG this winter until today, although they have been common elsewhere around Ottawa.
11 February 2009
Willow catkins
What a gorgeous day. Yes, it was overcast and it rained a bit, but it
was WARM! In the Arboretum there is a small willow (unsure of species),
whose catkins open long before any other willows in the area. I took a
look, and sure enough, the catkins were opening, lovely soft, fuzzy
buds. After that, I walked over to check out the willows at the FWG. One
had a couple of open catkins, but then this tree is always several weeks
behind the other. But, a sign of spring, isn't it?
11 February 2009
Willow catkins
Another shot of the willow catkins. I took lots of photos. I think I went a bit mad at this sign of warmer days to come. But of course, we're bound to get much more cold weather yet. Hope these survive.
11 February 2009
Birch seed catkin
While on the subject of catkins, though nothing to do with spring, alas,I photographed a couple of the birch seed catkins. These are the mature catkins from last year, not the immature ones which will emerge in spring.
Birch seed close up
I'm also attaching a photo most of you have seen before, which shows one tiny seed from a catkin cluster, photographed under a microscope. It is interesting to see the whole and the part together. These seeds are gobbled down by many of the finch species such as redpolls and goldfinches and seeing how minute they are, you can imagine how many it would take to keep even a small bird satisfied.
Red squirrel eating crabapples
I was rather entertained by the antics of a red squirrel this afternoon at FWG. He had a withered crabapple from which he was carefully peeling the pulp. Once that was done, he spent quite some time finding just the right spot to hide the seed, which he'd been holding firmly in his mouth. With his nose he pushed and shoved the seed into a crevice until it was quite well lodged. Then he rushed off to repeat the process. Only problem was, the crabapple he wanted was out of reach on the end of a tiny, flimsy twig. Several times he attempted to walk out along the twig, but each time it bent dangerously and finally he gave up. Sitting on a nearby branch he appeared to be considering the problem quite carefully. At last, he ran up another branch and tried to reach down to this elusive prize, still to no avail. Each time he was thwarted he'd stamp his feet in frustration. After about 10 minutes of this, he gave up and sped off across the trees. This photo was NOT taken today, but it does show a fat little red in a crabapple, peeling pulp.