Birds

  • A long time coming

    I had been waiting for this moment for thirteen months. On the first days of July of last year two Pacific Loons appeared on a pond by the outflow of our water lake, Marcil Lake. It wasn't the first time I'd seen Pacific Loons, and when they established a nest a couple of days later

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  • Tuitui

    If you could see this photo in higher resolution, you might notice something strange about it. The bird is a Tuitui, in Inuktitut. A Baird's Sandpiper, one of our more common summer breeding birds, and by far the most common shorebird around here.  They are long distant migrants, some travelling as far as the southern

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  • Lapland Longspur

    These colourful little birds never cease to bring a smile to my face. The males sing their songs while parachuting down from a height, their wings held stiffly out to the side. The females, while more cryptic, are every bit as beautiful.

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  • Red-necked Phalarope

    Last night, thanks once again to my sharp eyed son who saw the bird drop in behind me, I saw a Red-necked Phalarope at my favourite spot, the outflow of Marcil Lake. Now its a new bird at that location for me but I have seen them before. This however, is the first time I've

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  • Opening the flood gates

    I've got a new post up on 10,000 Birds, And so it begins.  My new schedule there is the last Sunday of each month. So go visit and show me some love. Migration is underway up here and although I speak of it as a large influx, it is nothing compared to the fall out

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  • Predatory Songbirds

    We don't often think of song birds, or the passerines, as predators. Some people are aware of the shrikes, or butcherbirds, as being just that. Tiny birds of prey, which sometimes hang out at feeders, picking off redpolls and the like. They earned their moniker "butcherbirds" from a habit of impaling their prey on thorns

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  • Panegyric

    There are few things that helped establish me as a blogger as much as I and the Bird. Way back in the Dark Ages of blogging when I started out, well the Renaissance is probably a better analogy, I discovered carnivals. I believe that the first one I sent a post to was the Tangled

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  • Cold comfort

    I've a new post up at 10,000 Birds (a couple of days late), The Stab of Cold.  Go show them some love.

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  • B&W Photographs

    After our family outing yesterday, we went for a drive around the neighbourhood.  It gave me an opportunity to do some Black and White photography. Black… … and White.

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  • Copulating Kiggavik: A love story.

    I almost missed what is indubitably the highlight of my birding year so far. I'd taken the day off work. I'm off tomorrow to Iqaluit with my daughter who needs some dental work done. With the short week there was little point in going in for one day, so I found myself at home. And

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