Most of you know that I am a birder. I do Christmas and spring bird counts. I've done the Christmas count over 40 times and all in the same area.
Yesterday was a very good count day for me. I saw more than 18 species. Well, how do you know that? At this time of year there are many warblers here. They are hard to spot among all the fresh green foliage. I can recognize one warbler species by sound. There were several warbler calls that I could not recognize nor find them. There were also some sparrows that fly up quickly from a patch of brush and just as quickly settle in another patch of brush. So there were probably 5 or 6 more species that I couldn't identify. So I consider that I had a very good count.
The count started off well before I ever left my yard, I heard a flock of Canada geese. They were quite high up and flying directly north. So that was easy.
On my way home in the afternoon I stopped on my favorite walking bridge to rest and also watch for birds.
Here I am on the bridge watching for birds , but the photo is at least 20 years ago.
A woman came along with a very attractive spaniel. We got talking about dogs birds and other things. We had been talking about 15 minutes when in one part of the conversation she said she was brought up in one of the nearby houses. Since I've lived in the same area for 50 years I would probably know her family so I asked who her family was. Yes, I knew them well. So she told me she was J. Now , I said you know me. Do you know who I am? Of course, she didn't have a clue since she hadn't seen me for about 40 years. So I introduced myself.
I had taught J and her brother and sisters.
So now the conversation really got started. It was great to meet J and recall old times.
Did I also tell you that I like meeting old students.?
Many of you know that I lead a weekly bird watching session. I take people for two hours on Saturday mornings. We meet at various locations throughout the season and see how many bird species we can find.
I have from 8-16 people attend and a total of 25 people who have participated. This spring we went out 9 times and 7 were at in town locations. We saw 70 species in that amount of time.
We know our birds as several people are super knowledgeable on birds and they don't mind sharing information. They are good teachers. However , we are a fun group and lots of good visiting takes place. There are standard jokes like seeing the " penguin."
We don't bird in the summer so our last session was June 20. We went to a place known as Spring Brook Natural Area. It's 160 acres of natural habitat. There are wetlands, grass areas, riparian, brush and old growth forest so a wide variety of habitat.
I didn't take photos on Saturday but I have photos from last year.
I used my ipad for 6 or 7 posts. I did not find out how to post photos on posts I did with the ipad. When I tried photos the ipad seized up.
So now I can post some fall photos. However, tonight is not fall . It's winter. We've had snow for three days and have about 10 cm ( 4 in). I have shovelled the driveway and sidewalks three times.
So posting fall photos takes me back to better times.
Last Saturday Oct. 28 was a beautiful day. Jackets and coats came off as it was about 17 C (65 F). In my last post I shared one photo that I liked so I found out that there was very good light that day for the colors that were involved. So here are more photos from Heritage Ranch.
This is my Saturday afternoon birding group. They know how to have fun!
