It got down to -18c last night after a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm weather. One of my chores for today was filling the woodbox, so I decided to do it in one load. This is an engineering masterpiece even if I do say so myself.
My feeders are very busy right now with the cold temps. I have Evening and Pine Grossbeaks, Many Common Redpolls 50+, lots of Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted nuthatch, Downy, Hairy and Piliated Woodpeckers and of course the Common Magpies coming to steal the beef fat I put in the suet feeders. WE only have about 15cm of snow on the ground compared to about 80cm we had at this time last year which makes foraging for food a little easier for the birds.
On my walk today there were many animal tracks on the road including Mouse, Weasel, Martin Squirrel,Snowshoe Hare, Coyote, wolf, Deer, Moose and of course Ruffed Grouse. The walk was brisk with about -8 temp, clear skys and bright sunshine Made photography a challenge with the snow fooling the exposure meter.

feeders

It is feeling a lot like snow today, the feeders have been very busy today with the cool weather, 1c with wind chill making it feel like -5c. I spend some time today filling all the seed and Suet feeders because of the increased use. This year we have about 50 Evening Grosbeaks which is exciting as I was just reading an article stating that the Evening Grosbeak population has declined 78% in the last 40 years.

Short-eared Owl

I spotted this little beauty just off our property while driving to town. He was good enough to stay in place until I got my camera. After taking some pictures i turned around and spotted another, sitting on the power line behind me. I suspect it was a family group and this was a youngster and the other an adult.
We generally get them showing up in October and November on the way south, and again in the spring after the snow goes. One year I did discover one here in the middle of summer so I suspect that they could nest around here.
It is looking a lot like winter will soon be here, we have had a few days of snow and I think it will soon be staying.
The seed and suet feeders are all full and I am in a search for a supply of pork fat to nail to the trees as the birds seem to like that the most. Sunflower seeds are getting very expensive, I bought a 18kg bag for $17.99 last week and this week in the same store the same bag was $29.95. We have started to put out the shelled seeds which are costly also but there is much less waste.

Drove to Dawson Creek yesterday to spend the weekend with family. Today we moved some logs from a neighbours to the home place to be cut up for firewood. It took 3 trips with the trailer to move the logs home and most of the day was used up by the time we had finished.
As we were so busy i hasd no time to do any birding but managed a few new year birds anyway.
Eastern Phoebe
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Bluejay
Chipping Sparrow
Western Tanager
White-throated Sparrow
Pectoral Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Tomorrow I will try and go to McQueens Slough and Jackbird refuge and see what is there, the forecast is not very good for the day with a late snowstorm for tonight and tomorrow possibly mixed with rain. Sometime at this time of the year that is good for seeing migrants as they are forced down by the bad weather, I hope this is the case as otherwise it is going to be an ugly day.

Stupid mistake

This morning I was down at the Lake and saw a beautiful Red-throated Loon swimming and diving in an open lead in the ice near the community jetty. I rushed out shooting pictures every time the bird surfaced, getting some great shots. As it was a very bright day I was unable to get very good looks at the pics due to the bright sun and my tinted glasses. Very proud of my self I drove home and downloaded to the computer only to find that they were Black&white due to the fact that I had been shooting in Monochrome last night and had forgotten to change the settings. So much for my fantastic shots of a beautiful Red-throated Loon. It is a boring shot of a Grey-Throated Loon :). I now have decided that I should do my Black&white pics in Photoshop.

Ruffed Grouse

The Ruffed Grouse Male picks a special perch for the spring season. He will stay on this perch for hours drumming his wings rapidly sounding like an old engine trying to start. .they will stay on this perch day after day trying to attract a willing female.
This Grouse has been using this same log for at least 5 years. I check on him every year to see if he has survived another winter. In past years I was unable to walk my dogs on the road up to our neighbours because my Boomer knew where this guy was and would rush after him as soon as we were near his drumming log and chase him away.
My Pal Boomer Died last year which has been sad for me and I really miss him, but is good for the poor grouse, they can drum in peace.

Stuart Lake ice

It is May 3 and Stuart Lake is still covered in ice. I scanned the open area at the mouth of the river for birds yesterday. There is an amazing amount of birds in the open water.500+ Western Grebes, 100+ Red-necked Grebe, 25 Common Loon, several hundred Northern Pintails and many others that were lost in the crowd.
The area around home has White-crown Sparrows everywhere, several hundred in the area. They will be around for a couple of weeks then leave for the northern nesting areas. The spring birds are slowly arriving, we had our first and so far only Rufous Hummingbird arrive on Thursday. I hope it is a good year for them, we have had up to 250 coming to our feeders in past years.