Bird Alley Winter Activity

 Watching the birds is a wonderful daily fascination for us. As the seasons change, so often does the bird species that visit and feed here. It is only during the winter months when we get to view Cardinals daily.

Chickadees are all season visitors. the Bluejays

seem to disappear during the summer months but they are here in full force daily during these cold winter days. Also we most often have Nuthatches daily, both the White-breasted and the Red-bellied

and the Red bellied. Woodpeckers seem to be quite scarce this winter, but we used to often have the Hairy Woodpecker

and its little look alike cousin, the Downy

almost daily during winters. We have not seen any Juncos this winter, which is surprising as often with a fresh sprinkling of snow we could predict the arrival of little Juncos.

This winter we have experienced visits from Common Redpolls

which seemed to be missing from Bird Alley during the past two winters. And I have a tendency to forget to mention American Goldfinch

which are not here daily but frequently. We have not seen any little`` finch cousins, the Pine Siskins yet this winter. And also missing is my favourite little northern sparrow, the Tree Sparrows. Last winter I saw a Tree Sparrow only once in Bird Alley and that was at the end of the winter or early spring. Starlings

are seen occasionally but not often. Crows

of course are daily visitors feeding on food scraps thrown in the driveway for them to feed on.