Evenings with my backyard visitors
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What moving to the country (or outside the city at least) has meant.
Morning light in the kitchen in the early days of June.
I know that I’ve mentioned it before, however this move to the “country” has had a significant impact on the way that I’m spending my time. I hadn’t envisioned that I would be spending quite as much time as I do outside - I mean I thought I was outdoorsy before, but now a huge portion of my day is spent outside - and I keep looking for more reasons to head on out the door.
Wandering around with my weed digger doing my weekly rounds is a great way to survey the yard and see what has changed since my last check in.
Watching the garden change as the days and weeks have gone by is such a treat and now that we’re into autumn all of the colours and other changes are starting to really kick off.
I spend time seeing how the light changes throughout the day from all of the different areas in the yard - it’s a real treat to come across a pleasing vantage point with lovely light and imagine some bird or wildlife in the frame.
This really feeds my photographer’s eye and imagination.
Regular visitors to the garden
Cedar Waxwings in the early summer - one coming in for a landing on an evergreen branch.
The biggest difference that I have experienced is the number and variety of birds and other wildlife that I see in our yard - which has also changed as the days and weeks have passed.
The constant seems to have been Cedar Waxwings which are a treat for me as they were very infrequent sightings at our old address.
In the early summer (June) they started to arrive and I soon learned to identify their buzzy chirping call. It was a real treat to see them and watch their antics as they hunted for nesting material.
A recently fledged juvenile cedar waxwing being fed.
Later in the summer (i.e., early July) I noticed groups of cedar waxwings gathering at the tops of evergreen trees each evening.
This became a wonderful quiet interlude with me sitting on the back deck with my long lens on a tripod waiting for the golden rays of the setting sun to touch the tops of the trees. Their golden bellies sun kissed as the day started to wind down.
I was a bit surprised one evening to hear one bird squawk quite loudly and repeatedly - then I noticed a second bird coming in and feeding what is clearly a juvenile newly fledged.
It was beautiful to spend time watching this behaviour and see the bonds that are clearly formed between parent and juveniles.
Cedar Waxwing enjoying a haskap berry.
In the later days of July I was treated to the sight of Cedar Waxwings again in my garden and this time they were feasting on haskap berries. I had noticed these blue berries on several shrubs in the garden, but I didn’t know what they were until the birds started eating them and I got curious.
It was fun to watch this nightly pre roosting behaviour - i.e., catching a late evening snack before finding a place to settle in for the night.
Haskaps are sometimes called Honeyberries and they are a member of the honeysuckle group. They are often compared to blueberries, but they are very different and also much more nutritious with higher levels of antioxidants and high levels of vitamin C. I’ll have to look for some recipes and see what I can harvest next year, but I do like that the birds are feeding off of these berry bushes.
Other avian visitors to the garden
American goldfinch on the catnip.
A similar occurrence happened in the front garden. I was sitting out on the front porch watching what appeared to be a spectacular sunset forming with wispy clouds that were catching the hints of pink and rose colours from the sun when I saw flashes of bright yellow out of the corner of my eye. I turned in my seat and sat quietly - patiently waiting to see if the bright colours would reappear.
Soon enough the flash of yellow darted by again and came to perch on a dogwood shrub in the front yard - he then proceeded to hop down to the patch of catmint (aka catnip) and feasted on the tiny seeds. I didn’t realize that I had such a huge patch of catnip - Roxy is no help as she rarely reacts to the scent. The birds and bees however love this patch of lovely purple flowering shrub and they spend countless hours feasting on the nectar and seeds.
Mountain chickadee with a white patch above the eye.
I took a quick photo of the bird and used Merlin to identify it as an American Goldfinch - the first time that I’ve seen one. I’m starting to learn which plants/shrubs they like and what times of the day they frequent the garden. The goldfinches came in late June/early July for several weeks and then disappeared and I’ve not seen them since. I often use Merlin to identify new to me birds as it has a handy function to use a photo that I take or I can also record their song and get ideas of the birds I’m hearing - this helps to then know what to look for.
One thing that I am really enjoying is my ability to observe and photograph the wildlife around our home at my leisure. I have seen mountain chickadees (I didn’t even know that they existed) - and they differ from black capped chickadees because they have a white patch above their eye.
Not so transient visitors
Pete - the ring necked pheasant caught in the rain..
In addition to our transient bird visitors, we’ve had some more consistent wildlife that has called our back yard home. When we first moved in I thought that our neighbours were raising chickens as I would hear a rather sickly sounding crowing each morning at daybreak. I was curious where these chickens were housed as I couldn’t see any sign of them during the day.
A few weeks later my husband mentioned that he’d seen a ring necked pheasant wandering around in our little patch of forest and when I heard the strangled crowing sound again I did a Merlin sound search and lo and behold it came up with ring necked pheasant and so began my continued association with Pete the pheasant.
One morning I awoke to a torrential downpour and looked out to see a rather bedraggled Pete shaking off the rain and crowing proudly to his ladyloves (we only saw them together once).
Fawn crossing in front of our little patch of forest.
We have also seen a family of deer (2 fawns and a mother) frolic across the back yard and they have even come right up to the lower windows of the house.
We’re guessing that they are going to continue to be regular visitors to the yard and forest as they seem to wander through consistently.
I’ve even seen the mother deer chasing a coyote and I can only assume that she is the mama of the 2 fawns which the coyote got too close to.
Young Swainson's Hawk on our roof.
Swainson’s hawks are frequent visitors to the skies overhead, but this juvenile decided to have a rest on the dormer outside of my studio space.
He was quite comfy staying there and also very vocal.
I’m assuming that he was a recent fledgling as he was calling to his parents who kept circling close by calling back to him - presumably trying to encourage him to fly.
I was a bit surprised to see that his chest feathers looked very wet (it was a dry day out) and I’m wondering if he had an unplanned dip in the river as we’re fairly close to the Elbow River. This is one mystery that I’ll never be able to solve as he wasn’t forthcoming with an answer.
His parents continued to circle and call to him - no one seemed to bother with me or my long lens as I captured a few images of this handsome young fellow.
After much dialogue he finally made the decision to take flight and join them, but I was fortunate enough to spend some time capturing his image.
Blue Jay hanging out in a blue spruce tree.
My most recent visitor has been the Blue Jays. Again it was a flash of colour darting across the yard that alerted me to their presence.
A bit of patience and I finally spotted them darting about a blue spruce tree.
Their colourful feathers reminds me of the ones I used to see frequently when I was growing up in Ontario - Cardinals and Blue Jays were frequent winter visitors and I’m hoping to see more of the Blue Jays here.
Three months in and already so much wildlife
I am finding a lot of joy and satisfaction being able to grab my camera and photograph the birds and wildlife when the conditions are good and the light is special and just a couple of nights ago I had a wonderful experience with a jack rabbit (hare). I was making dinner and saw the beginnings of a beautiful sunset, so I headed out the front to have a look and I saw a jack rabbit calmly eating grass, but the light was so lovely that I had to go grab my camera.
I proceeded to quietly make my way down the steps and crawled on my belly to get a better vantage point - not the easiest thing to do with a 400mm lens on your camera, but it was well worth it. I spent a good 30 minutes photographing the rabbit and I was just glad that no one thought to capture my rather ungraceful commando crawl to get into position.
I have been pleasantly surprised by the variety of wildlife and birds that we’ve seen so far and I’m sure that this is just the beginning of our sightings. It is not unusual to see moose and the occasional bear wandering around as there is a no fence rule in this area to allow for the free roaming of wildlife. We have plans to set up trail cameras so that we can get a better idea of what we don’t see wandering about.
(Update note: after putting up a trail camera I was rewarded with a nocturnal visit from a black bear, moose and her calf and a skunk - so much activity already!).
Do you get many birds or wildlife in your garden? Do you set up bird feeders to encourage them to visit? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below or drop me a note using the Connect With Me button.
My friend the Jack Rabbit wondering what I'm doing.
final image is what gets used for the thumbnail
I hope you’ll come back soon, share a cuppa, relax and enjoy more of my musings.
