Sunday, January 18, 2015

Morgan Arboretum, Montreal, January 17, 2015






Welcome to Hoth



Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus
Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura
female Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus
female Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus
Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea
  It was COLD at the Arbo. We're talking eyelashes and beards icing up Shackleton-style cold. In spite of an overabundance of layers, our fingers and toes kept alternately dying and reviving, in a painful, tingling hell-in-boots. But that's what gives us Canadians character, innit! I'll just keep grimly telling myself that.
  It was great to see four species of woodpecker, and the birds of the day definitely had to be the pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers we spotted several times high in the treetops. Gorgeous bird! We weren't lucky enough to stumble onto a Great Grey Owl like we did two years ago (Jan 16, 2013 Arbo Report), but there were some nice birds about. Some spots were dead, while others were uber-birdy. We had to cross a Hoth-like field to confirm a group of Common Redpolls feeding in some reeds, and were rewarded with ridiculously close views of a nearby Pileated Woodpecker, thundering away at a low tree.

Mourning Dove – 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 2
Downy Woodpecker – 5
Hairy Woodpecker – 1
Pileated Woodpecker – 2
American Crow – 2
Black-capped Chickadee – 40 ish
White-breasted Nuthatch – 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch – 1
American Robin – 3
European Starling – 35+ in NDG
House Sparrow – 30 in NDG
American Goldfinch – 1
Pine Siskin – 1
Common Redpoll -10

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