Pintails and Finches

Another dreary cold day….

as this picture taken from the viewing platform shows…more fresh snow all around, in fact it was snowing/sleeting down here earlier in the morning…

The only ducks seen today…

was this pair of Northern Pintail…a species we don’t see all that often here at the estuary….

over at the log bay…

there was quite a large, and very busy flock of American Goldfinch…here is one of the males – I’m starting to get the hang of what program to use on the new camera to at least get it to focus on the bird…

and here is a female Goldfinch…neither picture quite as crisp and clear as I’d like, but we’re getting there!

Again, Ruby Crowned Kinglet were seen from one end of the walk to the other…and this picture is crisp and clean…showing the potential that this new camera has.

At about this point a Northern Harrier flew down low…spooking a Greater Yellowlegs.  I hadn’t been able to see any shorebirds, until this one flew up in alarm from an area not visible from the pathways ….

Heading back I noticed…

a male House Finch….

which was soon joined by a female…this isn’t a ‘daddy’ bird feeding a baby bird…but a courting ritual where the male regurgitates and feeds the female….

This will be my last posting for a few days.  We are off in the morning to take advantage of a long weekend in order to make sure everything in the RV is in working order before we head off for our big trip in a months time…Happy Easter to everybody, maybe the Easter Bunny will bring some seasonal temperatures…we don’t seem to be getting them any other way.

House Finch!

Well it is nice to know that I wasn’t totally ‘out to lunch’ with my predictions for the month of March ~ saw the first House Finches today over at the log bay…didn’t manage a picture but this is good opportunity to discuss House and Purple Finches….

First though we’ll quickly go over today..

Not a bad day, we’ve seen a little bit of sun and few showers….there was bird song coming from all directions….Robin’s were everywhere…including here.

this one enjoying poking about in the muck for edible tidbits!

at first glance it would appear there was nothing here…but looking closer…

There were 2 pairs of Canada Geese…

While checking that the Robins I were seeing were indeed robins…I also spotted a pair of Killdeer.  There is only one in this picture…towards the right….they were being completely silent, if they hadn’t moved I would never have known they were there.

heading back there was another Rainbow…but this one was very low and I couldn’t really capture it, due to the bushes…

Now…Finches…there are actually 3 types of ‘red’ Finches; House, Purple and Cassin’s.  In the 14 years I’ve been keeping watch here, Cassin’s have only visited our area once…so I won’t confuse the issue with them.

Since we saw ‘House Finch’ today, we’ll start with them.  House Finch, as the name suggests, like urban settings.  Originally native to Mexico they extended their range northward as urbanization took place, arriving in B.C. in the late 1930’s (Information taken from Birds of Southwestern British Columbia)

Female House Finch (the top bird) are a soft tan color…they do have markings but they are ‘soft’ in appearance.  Males are, usually, what I describe as a ‘strawberry’ red in colour however they can also be..

orange….like this male or….

even yellow, like this male seen over at the park on February 23, 2009.  There are lots of theories as to what causes this different coloration, including diet…

This male was a mixture of both orange and yellow!

Purple Finches, are our native finches and although they will come to bird feeders, especially while on migration, they much prefer a setting of mixed forest (which we, in this area, are lucky to still have)

Female Purple Finch (pictured above) are much darker than a female House Finch with much more definite markings especially over and under the eye…they also have an overall olive yellow cast to their color.

Male Purple Finch (pictured above) are a Raspberry red in color…in fact the whole bird, even the brownish wings and tail, look like they’ve been dipped in raspberry juice.  It is very rare to find a male purple finch with any different coloring…

This orange male, pictured with a normal male and two females, is the only one I have ever seen.