Wildlife

The wildlife around our cottage is quite remarkable, and often changing.  When I was out at Easter I noticed that there were a lot of new bird species around.  We had two kinds of chickadees, two kinds of juncos, two kinds of nuthatches and two kinds of woodpeckers.  I also noticed a bird that were new to me... a Varied Thrush.  At first I thought it was a Robin, as it is about the same size.  But it is more Orange than Red, has a black ring around its neck, and the back feathers are more varied.

This time around things have changed.  The thrushes have moved on.  I still see the occasional chickadee, but only the black-capped variety.  I also only noticed one or two juncos.  The woodpeckers and nutchatches are still around, and very active.  The Robins have now returned from their winter migration and there are lots of them around now.  The little tiny Pine Siskins are all over my feeders again, but not in the numbers that we saw last summer... at least not yet.  I also noticed another bird that is new to me.  This is a White Throated Sparrow.  There have been quite a few of them visiting the feeders and competing with the Siskins and the Nuthatches.

The deer are still around, but they are more dispersed now that the snow is gone.  I see them in the yard from time to time, but not in the numbers that we had over the winter.  The bucks are already starting to get little knobs of new antlers.  

I saw the resident Red Fox once as well.  This time she wandered through the yard one evening.  She settled down behind one of my wood piles, curled up into a ball, and went sleep.  She had a snooze there for about an hour.  Then she woke up, had a big yawn and a stretch and then wandered off into the bush.  It had just started to rain, and was turning to snow, and that's probably what woke her up.  Not really sure if the fox is male or female though.

Several times over the last few days we have experienced intermittent snow flurries.  It seems as though spring just does not want to arrive.  I cant wait until this unsettled weather comes to an end.