Redpolls Galore!

This birding morning I went to a new place and good, old place for Winter birding. If you have read my previous post, you will know where that is. But this time I was out birding with a couple great friends which made the trip much more enjoyable. The first place we went to was a private property who has some bird feeders and the owner gets some great birds come by and the second place is Carburn Park. If you would like to watch the birds on the cameras here, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/@FoothillsBirds

My goal going to that property with the bird feeders was hoping to see the Saw whet owl that was spotted a couple days prior. Sadly, it didn’t make an appearance, but we got to see some other cool birds. I got some fantastic shots and I fully plan on printing some of them for my next market. The bird we saw the most of and were absolutely everywhere was a bird called a Redpoll. There were tons of them and I went from not being able to get any photos to having heaps of photos.

The other bird we saw quite a bit of was our iconic Blue Jay. It is such a beautiful bird and it is always fun to watch. I have a series of photos posted on the Hidden Hills Tours instagram of one snatching up a couple peanuts and then taking off. It is a very cool series of photos.

Another great Winter bird we saw is called a Pine Grosbeak. You could only catch small glimpses of them through the trees, but I got a cool photo of one as shown before. I had seen them before and gotten some better photos, but this photo is so unique that has a nice charm about it.

Two other birds we saw were a Downy Woodpecker and a Hairy Woodpecker. Downy has a shorter beak than a Hairy, but outside of that they look very similar. I didn’t get a decent photo of the Downy, but I have a lot of those anyway and you can see them a lot throughout the year. You can even feed them at Carburn Park. I did get a really awesome photo of the Hairy Woodpecker and is probably one of my favourites from the day.

After spending some time at the feeders, we made our way to Carburn Park to see what we can find there. Turned out to be even quieter than the last time I was there, so it ended up just being a nice walk. No swans, very little geese, and the same old ducks. I didn’t take too many photos at all there.

We saw a lot of people fishing in the water which may be a factor as to why not as many birds were there. Nature does what nature does. After we had a nice walk around the park (and not going on the skating rink pathway to the porcupine because we didn’t have crampons), we left and called it a day.