The adult female merganser was giving her young brood a little space to explore the world around them.

Though more subtle than male Red-winged blackbirds, the females have fine markings.

Grackles are animated, active and very intense.  I don’t know what caught the bird’s attention but it was completed absorbed by whatever it was.

Always a welcome sight.

We saw a large group of scaups at the very beginning of May. They were swimming in a small man made lake in a park close to the river. As the river was still high I guess they preferred the more shallow water. We only saw them that once and at quite a distance but I was happy with the sighting.

I almost walked right past the mourning dove until someone pointed it out; it blended in so well with its surroundings. I usually see them on rooftops or in trees so this one was a surprise.

We saw several male Red-winged Blackbirds but she was the only female I spotted. She’ll have her pick of the fellas  😊

I took this photo two weeks ago before the trees had really begun to bud.  This male downy woodpecker stood out nicely against the bare tree.

I saw this goose on a small patch of grass close to the river.  The current was strong and the water was high given the recent ice melt.  We only saw a few geese on the water; this one was looking for something to eat but I can’t imagine the grass holds much nutrition yet.

Geese are returning after a long winter. I took this before today’s snow 😏

I believe this is a leucistic Canada Goose, it lacked the usual pigmentation of the other nearby geese but otherwise resembled them. I hope he joined the group after a while, he looked a bit lonely 😏.

We’re lucky to enjoy these birds all year round.

I saw two robins recently when the weather was a bit nicer. It’s been a stormy weekend. Hopefully, that’s it for the snow and ice and scenes like this are around the corner.

On a recent walk, several house sparrows flew past me and landed in a nearby yard. This one had a mouthful of fluff that I imagine was going to be used in nest building.

I took this photo at the beginning of April a few years ago. The water had begun to thaw so I imagine he found something to eat.  I had never seen a heron return this early before or since; usually they wait until the ice has melted and the locals come out.

Usually black-capped chickadees don’t stay in one place for long. I’ll raise my camera just to miss them as they fly to another tree,  I was more fortunate with this bird, it stayed put long enough for me to get the shot, Another year round bird here.

Regular readers will have noticed that it’s been a few weeks since my last post. I was out of town for a while and then picked up a nasty bug (yes, Covid is still very much out there).  I’m on the mend now and what better evidence than to feature one of my favourite ducks 😊

A sight I love at the end of the day😊