Author Topic: Winter 2013/2014 Sightings  (Read 7196 times)

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Offline birdcamfan

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Re: Winter 2013/2014 Sightings
« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2014, 22:46 »
They are very prehistoric looking. They don't seem to mind us when they have hung around in previous years and will come up to the suet just off our deck while we are sitting there. The red headed woodies chase them off the suet this year.

Offline irenekl

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Re: Winter 2013/2014 Sightings
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2014, 21:11 »
I have never seen a redheaded woodpecker but sure would like to.  I always wondered if they really existed in Manitoba.  This past wknd at our cottage, in the Whiteshell, we tramped through the soaking wet bush to observe 2 pileated woodpeckers as they flew from tree to tree pecking on each. Those birds fascinate me, they're just odd somehow.  So big!  Besides the mosquitoes there sure is a lot of wildlife this year, everywhere.

Offline birdcamfan

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Re: Winter 2013/2014 Sightings
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2014, 20:39 »
We have a cottage with a forested lot in Winnipeg Beach. It is great for bird watching. We see many types of woodpeckers and flickers and at least once a year see a Red Headed. This year we have a pair of Red heads hanging around the property. They are very shy with people but totally aggressive towards other woodpeckers including Piliated's, crows and bluejays. I hope they hang around all summer.

Offline The Peregrine Chick

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Re: Winter 2013/2014 Sightings
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2014, 13:09 »
Gyrfalcon around Winnipeg

Not all the falcons have headed south this winter.  Besides the merlin reports in Winnipeg (and Fisher Branch, Hodgson, Selkirk, Stonewall, etc), it looks as though there has also been a gyrfalcon around Winnipeg.  Gyrs usually head down to South Dakota for the winter and given how cold it has been here this year, it is interesting there is at least one hanging around Winnipeg.  Plenty of food here of course. 

The bird was first spotted December 14th south-east of Winnipeg near Landmark, then again a bit further east near Ste Anne on January 9th.  Today (January 25th), a gyr was spotted flying south toward Selkirk along Highway 8.  Even though not likely I had to check the Radisson cam in case we might have had a visitor, but nothing. 

Not unusual to have a gyr in downtown Winnipeg, for a number of years a gyr regularly visited an unused nestbox on the old Royal Bank building (now part of Assiniboine Community College's downtown campus).  Don't know if the gyr was there in the winter because this was before the cams but I used to see it during spring migration and a couple of times late in the fall.  The building was on our regular route because the peregrines used to use this same perch when hunting over the Exchange District. 


Offline The Peregrine Chick

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Winter 2013/2014 Sightings
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2014, 21:46 »
From a report on ManitobaBirds ...

An early morning snowshoe trek produced literally no sightings of live creatures, but I was unpleasantly surprised to find the frozen carcass of a Ruffed Grouse along the side of the trail.  The bird was in a natural resting posture, almost covered by snow, and appeared to have frozen while sheltering in the snow in an attempt to gain some benefit from its insulating qualities.  Almost spooky.  The temperature at the time was -32C, windchill of -41C. 

Pretty much says everything that needs to be said about the weather in southern Manitoba .... climate change not all mai-tais and sunblock ...

(with thanks to John M for his report)