Pipits and Another Snow Bunting

 A few more Winter birds, American Pipits and a Snow Bunting.

Longspurs

 I found a small flock of Lapland Longspurs feeding in the frozen beach wrack in early February.  They or another group were still there feeding 3 weeks later.  These are shots from the latter date and include 3 different individuals. Most of my attention was focused on the brightest looking (more colourful) bird.

For an explanation on beach wrack here is a quote from google.

"What is beach wrack? Natural material that washes onto the beach is referred to as wrack and includes algae, sea grasses, and some invertebrates such as sponges and soft corals. Wrack serves as the primary source of nutrients to beach communities and is the foundation for the food chain."

Juvenile Male Hooded Merganser

 For anyone not familiar with these birds, they are the smallest of the three species of mergansers found here. The most obvious difference between the sexes of the juveniles is the colour of the eye (yellow in the males) and the colour of the bill.  All black in the males and black with mostly orange/yellow lower mandible in the females.

Fox Sparrow

 Like most Winters in this part of the province there were a few Fox Sparrows around.  Some at feeders and some, like this one,  at any patch of bare ground they could find during the snowiest stretch of the season.

Purple Sandpipers

 I didn't have too many opportunities to photograph Purple Sandpipers this Winter.  This might have been the only time and nothing at close range. 

Red-breasted Merganser

 Female or immature male,  I can't say which with any certainty.

Another Common Goldeneye

 This bird had me a little confused when I first saw it.  I always think of Common Goldeneyes as having a green sheen on the head and the Barrow's having a purple sheen.  This one definitely had a purple sheen,  I don't know whether it was the direction of the light - mostly side and back-lit - or if this bird is just not typical of the species in that regard.

Preening Black Duck

 

Snow Bunting and Seagrass

 I found one lone Snow Bunting feeding in the marram grass early one weekend morning.  It would fly to the top of the seed head and balance there while it picked at the seeds. Anything that fell to the ground was retrieved later. I thought it was a bit odd there was only one bird at the time but a few hours later it was joined by about 3 more which quickly became a couple dozen and eventually probably a hundred or more before the entire flock disappeared.

Canada Goose

 It will soon be time for the Canada Geese and other waterfowl to start pairing off and nesting.

Mallards and Mallard/Black Duck mixes

 These two species frequently interbreed.  Here are a couple of examples of how those offspring look,  both male and female.

Brown Creeper

 There have been a couple of Brown Creepers hanging around my yard all Winter feeding on suet, this is one of them.

Greater Scaup with eel and without

 I guess there are a lot of eels at this location. This is at the same spot as the previous post, and one of these shots was taken on the same day.

Common Goldeneye versus Eel

 

Hooded Mergansers and Fish

 I haven't posted for a while so with it still being Winter I'll resume for now with some Wintertime images.