common redpoll – Jennifer Sawicky Photography

March 8, 2020

2020-03-08: Redpolls

For two seasons in a row, I didn’t see a single redpoll over the winter, but over the last few weeks they have been in my yard in droves, jostling for position on the feeders with the chickadees and adding little flashes of colour to the otherwise rather drab winter landscape.

I still find it a bit baffling that anything would consider my area a good place to spend the winter, but I do get that in comparison to places even further north, it’s probably a bit easier to make it through the season here.

I’m enjoying their presence while it lasts, as soon bird feeding time will be over as the bears begin to emerge. There’s still a while to enjoy the birds as we are still pretty deep in the grip of winter, despite my best attempts to will the snow to melt with the power of my mind 🙂

Here are a few images I captured a couple of days ago, when it wasn’t -20C!

I’ll keep up my mantra, spring is coming soon! Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead.

March 13, 2016

2016-03-13: What I’ve seen this week

Last Sunday brought clear skies and a showing of the aurora; unfortunately I knew I would be really busy Monday morning, and decided to just hang around the yard and snap a few photos. I did see a few glimpses, but I’m sure if I would have headed for an area with fewer tall trees, the view would have been outstanding.

I spent a bit of time outside today watching, and photographing, the redpolls. I don’t think they will be here for much longer, but I know their absence will be filled with other birds heading back after wintering further south.

Signs of spring are all over the place; tree branches in bud, and more visible ground than snow, though yesterday we had quite the afternoon storm with driving wind, hail and a bit of snow. My attempts to photograph the near sideways hail left me flat.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week; here are the photos.

20160313_What I've seen this week-3 — Aurora glow and a satellite passing by.

20160313_What I've seen this week-2 — The house, garage and forest getting in the way of a clear shot!

20160313_What I've seen this week-5 — The hairy woodpecker stopped by one morning for some suet and to browse the trees in the back yard.

20160313_What I've seen this week-4

20160313_What I've seen this week-7 — The lovely redpolls. I will be sad to see them leave, they are very spirited and chirpy in the yard.

20160313_What I've seen this week-6

December 20, 2015

2015-12-20: What I’ve seen this week

I managed to take a lot of photos this week; the skies cleared after a large snowfall, and I spent some time shovelling a pathway out to the bird feeders, and then hung around with my camera to see who would show up.

It’s been a full weekend and I almost bailed on putting together this post, but since going through my photos and editing is one of my happy places, it seemed wrong to deny myself that joy just because I’m a bit fatigued.

I hope you enjoy my selections for the week.

20151220_What I've seen this week — A beautiful grey jay. These were taken while standing on tip toe in my office through the window; I couldn’t risk trying to go outside as these guys are very shy.

20151220_What I've seen this week-2 — The other grey jay of the pair, dropping the suet chunk tat it was trying to eat. I like how it is using its tail for counterbalance.

20151220_What I've seen this week-3 — A chickadee pauses long enough for me to get a decent photo 🙂 I have some seriously chunky chickadees that visit my feeder, some of them, I wonder how they manage to get airborne!

20151220_What I've seen this week-4 — I was so excited when I saw the first common redpoll earlier in the week; now there is a fair sized group of them joining the chickadees for some sunflower seeds.

20151220_What I've seen this week-8 — A male common redpoll perched on a snowy branch. I’ve only seen these starting this week; they are winter migrants to my area from locations even further north!

20151220_What I've seen this week-5 — A female common redpoll.

20151220_What I've seen this week-6 — Redpolls and a chickadee sharing the seeds (and the granola too – this was before the big visitors!)

20151220_What I've seen this week-7 — Not the best photo, but it is the first time I have seen a brown creeper, so I am including it anyways!

20151220_What I've seen this week-10 — Definitely the largest guests at the bird feeders!

20151220_What I've seen this week-9 — I recently bought some organic granola from the bulk store, and it was horribly stale. I put it out when I refilled the feeders, thinking something might pick away at the oats and nuts. This was definitely not the visitor I had in mind!

20151220_What I've seen this week-11 — The little deer has the most comical eyebrows. To me, she looks like a cartoon character drawn to be grumpy!