Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Hike At Homer Watson Park

Today at 9:00am my dad and I did some Erinn's then we went to Homer Watson Park. We arrived there at 11:00am we started walking in the trail I heard a very quiet bro. I heard it continually until I heard chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and other forest birds. Then the bro started to get louder and finally my dad heard it. Everything went quiet for about ten minutes then all the birds started singing again. This was obviously a male Snowy Owl, I was very excited because I have never seen or heard a Snowy Owl before. Now I can finally say I've seen or heard all the owls in southern Ontario, even the rarest ones! This day will be very remember able for me! Have you seen all the local owls in your area? If no, I hope you do sometime. If your a intermediate birder like me you'll know how great it feels to accomplish this. To find out what level of a birder you are go on the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (http://birds.cornell.edu/), go on All About Birds and take the Bird Brain Challenge. I will be posting pictures again once the temperature rises to at least 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit in Kitchener.
Goodbye,
Birdman

New Winter Birds!

Some of you who live in southern Ontario may have seen Common Goldeneyes and Snow Buntings recently. If you have seen these birds or any other birds please make an account on eBird (http://ebird.org.) It is a website where you report your observations and helps orthinologists study birds. These birds have arrived a little late due to the recent fierce storms in southern Ontario, also they had to take a different route due to the storms in New York and other northern states. Anyway, some of you may have neve heard of these birds so here is a few facts about them. Goldeneyes nest in tree cavities near water. They winter in small flocks by water. Best indentified by bill and head. The Common Goldeneye or Bucephala clangula has a length of 18.5 inches. It has a wingspan of 26 inches and a weight of 1.9 pounds. Flies with deep wingbeats. The Snow Bunting