Puffed up Black Capped Chickadee

1.  Get puffy.   When birds puff up their feathers it provides an extra layer of insulation to help keep out the cold.

Ruffed Grouse soaking up the last sun of the day

2.   Sunbathe.    On really cold sunny days birds will find a sheltered spot out of the wind and sit and sun themselves, soaking up as much warmth as they can.

Barred Owl sunning itself

One way to find birds is to look on the sunny side of stands of evergreens.   I have found hawks, owls, and all kinds of songbirds this way.

Female Evening Grosbeak pigging out

3.   Eat!    It takes a lot of food energy for birds to keep themselves warm.   But if birds find a reliable food source, they can even put on a layer of extra fat.

Ring Necked Pheasant

During particularly tough winters birds may go outside of their normal ranges to find food.

Bohemian Waxwings

Having some native shrubs and vines planted around the yard will help birds that are looking for berries and fruit.

Blue Jay getting ready to carry away as much food as it can.

4.   Cache food.   Some birds don’t just eat at the feeders.   They load up on food, then take it away and cache it.

Nuthatches cache food too

That way if food is hard to come by, these birds can use their stores of cached food.

Wild turkeys- taken with a remote trail camera

5.  Find a flock.    There are many advantages for birds when they hang out in groups.   They can find food together.  There are more eyes to look out for potential predators.

Common Redpolls

Little birds will even roost together at night in a hole in a tree, or a bird house.   They snuggle together and keep each other warm until the morning.  Can you imagine finding a little roost of birds like this?   Sooo cute!

No, not in here.

Perhaps they would not like to use this birdhouse, however, since there is a Screech owl inside.   Which leads us to another way that birds can survive the winter:

6.   Find a “Bird Feeder”

Coopers Hawk surveys the offerings in my garden

Like it or not, busy bird feeders also become the hunting grounds for birds of prey like this Coopers Hawk, who will make visits to bird feeding areas to grab a bite to eat.   Literally.   The first thing I saw the other morning when I looked out the window was a Sharp Shinned Hawk scooping up a Junco for breakfast.

It’s winter

Birds have a number of adaptations that allow them to survive even the harshest, coldest, iciest conditions.     Another reason I think they are absolutely amazing.

The post How Do Birds Survive the Winter? appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

Good Morning Presqu’ile!   Oh how I love you!

There are so many reasons to love Presqu’ile Park, no matter when you visit.You can show up early on a hazy fall morning, and observe as Presqu’ile’s beaches and offshore islands start to come alive with sound and activity.

Migrating shorebirds start to wake up, and begin their daily search for food.

If you sit or lie down very still, the shorebirds will walk right past you as they are feeding.   It is endlessly entertaining to watch them.

A fall drive around the park may reveal a Ruffed Grouse, foraging at the side of the road for breakfast.  Look at those gorgeous feather patterns!

As seasons change and the weather turns colder, the park becomes very quiet.    I think winter is when Presqu’ile really shows its magic.

Little by little the lake freezes over.   Depending on the wind and the waves, the lakeshore looks different every time I visit in the winter, and each time is spectacular.Presqu’ile is famous for its ice volcanoes.   When the wind is just right, water from the waves will spray up through these holes in the ice.  I like them best at sunset, when they are lit up like some alien landscape.   Snowy owls love to use the offshore islands to hunt. Even in the dead of winter there is so much beauty to be found at Presqu’ile.Spring comes to Presqu’ile, and with it, the busiest time of year.A walk along the boardwalk in Jobes Woods reveals little sprouts of green, and some unexpected company.Look who’s watching you now!Early spring also brings the arrival of waterfowl, who are great show-offs for their potential mates.   What characters. As the ice moves out of Presqu’ile Bay, huge “rafts” of waterfowl can be seen feeding along the ice edge.Spring also brings bugs- lots of them!   But isn’t that perfect timing? The migratory birds are on their way back north.

Lots and lots and lots of them!.   How exciting to be at the park when the trees and bushes are just full of colourful birds singing and eating and flying about.  I am very grateful to have met some very experienced and knowledgeable birders at the park, who can help me learn about all these birds, their names, and their habits.     The diversity of species at Presqu’ile is amazing!

One day I got stuck out in a thunderstorm down by the lighthouse so went into the duck viewing shelter to get out of the rain.   In the tree next to me were so many different kinds of little birds I could barely keep track of them.   Above is a little Yellow Warbler shaking off the rain.Oh, and “fallouts!”   A fallout is when weather or wind conditions cause many thousands of birds to come to the same area all at once.   I will never forget being at Owen Point early on a May morning this year, and experiencing a fallout of shorebirds.   They were everywhere the eye could see, in flocks in the hundreds, soaring around, and feeding on the beaches.

I think I took over 1000 photographs that day!    It was so great because the Ontario Field Ornithologists Young Birders were at Owen Point that morning too, and this enthusiastic group of young people got to experience this spectacle as well. I don’t think any of us will ever forget it.

Did I mention you could see a fox at Presqu’ile?   And if that’s not enough for you…How about watching a fox walk down the road and then having a deer cross right in front of it, say “Good Morning” and carry on.   Is this the Bambi movie? I don’t know.    Presqu’ile is so cool.On the first hot hazy days of the year, the momma snapping turtles will come out of the mud and start to lay their eggs at the side of the roads.     A couple of years I have been down there on just the right day and seen 4 or 5 of these beauties all in the same trip.  I love their long sharp claws!Of course, Presqu’ile is for recreation too!   Walter loves to swim and run on the rocky beach.    The sandy beach is for the shorebirds, and of course all the campers and day trippers that flock to Presqu’ile in the summer.No matter when I visit, Presqu’ile always has something beautiful to offer.    I’m never disappointed.

Presqu’ile Provincial Park is located on the north shore of Lake Ontario, just south of Brighton.   Check it out!

The post Why I Love Presqu’ile! appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

Here are 4 simple things you can do to help them along in their journeys.

Tiny Ruby Crowned Kinglet

1.   Help prevent daytime window collisions.

Birds will fly into windows because they see nature in the glass and think they can fly right through.     You can make your windows more visible to birds by applying UV  reflective decals (available at the Bird House and other nature stores) to the outside of the windows. You can also put strips or blocks of tape on the most deadly windows.

I’m sure these folks appreciate the plug from me.

Cedar Waxwing

2.  Guard against nighttime window collisions.

In the spring and fall, turn off exterior lights and draw curtains at night to prevent migratory birds from colliding with windows.  Birds migrate at night and are fatally attracted to lights on buildings.

Thank you!

3.  Leave leaves under trees and shrubs – they make excellent foraging sites.

Less work for you, more places for birds that are passing through to find insects that they need to fuel their journeys.

Great place to eat!

4.  Put up a bird feeder.

Feeders provide supplementary food for birds that can help them fuel up for their journeys.    Feeder placement is very important in preventing window collisions.  Feeders are safest when they’re closest to windows, or even attached to windows or frames—because if a bird takes off from the feeder and hits the window, it won’t be going at top speed and has a better chance of surviving. Place feeders closer than 3 feet to a window, or farther than 30 feet from a window.

Pine Siskin pigging out!

The most popular food  with birds is black oil sunflower seed, which is readily available in nature stores, grocery stores, and hardware stores.

This place is great!

For more information on what you can do to help birds around your own home, here are some links:

FLAP  (Protecting birds from window collisions)

Bird feeding basics

Who migrates when?

The post 4 Simple Things You Can Do to Help Migrating Birds Right Now appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

Mmmmmmmm!   Coffee!   Here in North America, we are addicted to it- consuming over 300 million cups of its deliciousness every day.  That is big business.   It also means that our coffee drinking choices can have a big impact.

Let me introduce you to shade grown coffee.  My hope is that you will become very good friends.

Migrating yellow rumped warbler

Shade grown coffee is grown in the shade of other trees.  This traditional coffee-growing method depends on the shade of the forest canopy, which supports local wildlife, our migratory birds, and produces beans of better quality for premium, delicious coffee.

In the 1970s the introduction of a new hybrid coffee plant requiring full-sun exposure led many farmers to cut down their forests and abandon their traditional ways.  An environmental nightmare ensued.  This sun-grown coffee makes larger beans, and therefore produces twice the yield of shade grown coffee.   It uses the robusta bean, and has a more bitter taste.   It is a cheaper coffee, and what you would find in cans in the grocery store, and in instant coffee.    Sun-grown coffee requires enormous amounts of fertilizer to grow its big beans because there is no leaf litter from large trees above the coffee plants to nourish the soil, and because it lacks the benefit of nitrogen fixing which tree roots provide.

Bay Breasted Warbler

A great majority of our coffee comes from Central and South America, where vast tracts of forest have been cleared for agriculture such as the production of cheap sun-grown coffee, leaving migrating songbirds at a loss for winter habitat.

Devastatingly, the overall population of migratory birds has declined by 40% in the last few decades.   A part of this decline can be attributed to the loss of wintering habitat for the birds.

Where am I supposed to go?

Birds are hard-wired to fly south to a certain specific geographical region each year.    If they arrive there to find their forest has been cleared, it is not simple a matter of them flying somewhere else to find a suitable place to spend the winter.   This means that every time a forest is cleared, there is an immediate impact on that year’s migratory visitors. Though scattered tracts of forest on coffee plantations cannot replace virgin rainforest, they are certainly better than deforestation and monoculture. They give the birds a chance to find a winter territory where they can live, and fuel up for their spring journey north to their breeding grounds.

Black Throated Green Warbler

Plantations that grow coffee under the shade of other trees can help migratory birds, but they have many other benefits as well.   Farmers can harvest fruit, nuts, and wood from the other trees in the coffee plantation.  The trees also prevent soil erosion, and fix nutrients in the soil so that vast amounts of fertilizer that pollute the soil do not need to be used like in sun-grown coffee plantations.   As well, native birds, mammals and insects thrive in the biologically diverse mini forest that these shade grown coffee plantations provide.

Lots to eat here!

The benefit to us is that shade grown coffee tastes so delicious!   Sure, sun-grown coffee is cheap, but it doesn’t taste nearly as good.   For those of us for whom coffee is an essential part of the morning routine, we might as well make it good.   Really good.    And by doing so, we can know we are helping migratory birds, as well as the people, the animals, and the environment in Latin America.   The higher the demand for shade grown coffee, the more shade grown coffee plantations will be started.   It is as simple as that.

Young Rose Breasted Grosbeak

I am often so overwhelmed by all the environmental havoc that people are spreading on this earth, and wonder if there is anything I can do to stop the madness.    I am so happy to know that I can make a difference every day just by the coffee I choose to buy.    It’s not hard to find – some brands like Kicking Horse are available in grocery stores in the premium coffee section.   We had been buying it because it tastes so good, and were relieved to find out that it is shade grown as well.     There are also many sources of shade grown coffee available online.   Below I have made a list to get you started.

Coffee drinkers can be a powerful force for saving biodiversity in tropical countries, and improving the wintering grounds of our migratory birds.

Knowledge is Power

Yes, knowledge is power.  So, here are some sources of shade grown coffee, as well as links where you can find more information.

Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory Shade Grown Nicaraguan Coffee 

Kicking Horse Coffee (in supermarkets)

Birds and Beans

Timothy’s World Coffee

Starbucks: Organic Yukon Blend® and Organic Shade Grown Mexico

It was hard to find any conclusive data on Tim Hortons coffee.   They are working with farmers in Columbia and Brazil, two of the leading producers of “Sun coffee” but they are also working with farmers in other countries.   They do not claim to be sourcing shade grown beans, but do seem to be educating farmers in more environmentally sustainable growing practices.  Jury’s out…

Read more:

The Rainforest Alliance

Silence of the Songbirds by Virginia Stutchbury

You can make a difference!

Please share this post!

Just as I was writing this blog tonight, two fellow nature photographers commented to me that they hadn’t seen any warblers around this fall.  That just made me even more determined to share what I have learned.

Let’s start a conversation and make a difference.

Thank you!   Leslie

The post Why We Should All Be Drinking Shade Grown Coffee appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

Red Eyed Vireo

Though we may think of migration in terms of the louder, bigger species like Canada Geese, what we may not notice is that there are a whole lot of little birds on their way by too.

Young Indigo Bunting will head far south for the winter

The numbers are astounding! In the spring, 3 billion birds migrate north to breed, and in the fall 5 billion birds pass by again, on their way to the southern US,  Mexico, and Central and South America.

Magnolia Warbler

Many of them are tiny little birds, like this Magnolia Warbler.

Common Yellowthroat

Or these Common Yellowthroats, who breed around here as well as further north.

Flycatcher (Eastern Wood Peewee?)

I think of the epic journeys these little birds have to make, and it astounds me.   One of the first big obstacles they face in this area is crossing Lake Ontario.    That’s why it is often fruitful to look for groups of these little birds in trees along the lakeshore.   They are feeding and getting ready for the next leg of their journey.

Chestnut Sided Warbler having a meal

And eat they do.   If you are lucky, you may come across a tree just full of little birds, chowing down on bugs.     Another good place to look is in trees along a stream, as migrating birds are attracted to the sound of running water, and will follow along the path of a stream as they travel.

Red Eyed Vireo eating a caterpillar by our stream

Yum yum!

Black and White Warbler

So, keep your eyes and ears open these days.    You might hear sounds you’re not accustomed to having around.   Or you might spot a whole lot of movement up in a tree.    If you’re lucky, you’ve found a little pocket of birds, just passing by on their way south.

American Redstart

When’s the best time to look?  Most importantly, when the wind is from the north.   Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Common Yellowthroat

Morning is the best time to look, but it doesn’t even have to be that early.   Birds need a bit of time to warm up and wake up and get going for the day, just like we do.

So, as our beautiful summer winds down, and you enjoy the great outdoors, keep a look out for some of these little, but mighty, migrants.      Good luck!

Don’t forget about me!!

Yes, shorebirds are migrating too- more on them in my next blog!

The post Mini Migrants You Might Miss appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

First,  perhaps the most surprising one: the Belted Kingfisher!

Last month my husband was talking to our neighbours who are in the process of building  their house.    As they all stood there chatting, they could not believe their eyes when a kingfisher flew in front of them, and right into a pile of topsoil they had in their backyard.

The Kingfisher had flown into its nest! Upon further investigation, we found out that Belted Kingfishers make their nests in tunnels between a foot and 8 feet long in the sides of vertical banks of soil.  The male and female work together to dig it out in the spring. Who knew?  Not I!

We had the unique opportunity to see the five little fledglings when they came out.   They could not fly, but were hopping around pumping their tails up and down, and rattling just like adult kingfishers do.

I didn’t stay long, as I knew the babies were waiting for food.  Adult Belted Kingfishers are quite wary of people (I have never actually gotten a good photo of one) so I fired off a few shots of these little ones and then carried on.

These little birds are fascinating! I found out that baby kingfishers have very acidic stomachs that break down the bones and exoskeletons of the fish and invertebrates they eat.   But as kingfishers get older, their stomachs become less acidic, and they actually regurgitate pellets to get rid of the hard parts of what they are eating, quite like an owl would.   I learned so much from this opportunity.   What a thrill.   They were adorable, in a kind of prehistoric way (pteranodons?).

Everyone knows that groundhogs live under the ground. No surprise there.  I have a special place in my heart for groundhogs, as they were the first animal I photographed when I got my telephoto lens.   I well remember lying on my stomach on the grass in Centennial Park in Trenton, and watching this little groundhog family go about its business. Luckily, they were the ones covered in flies, not me.  The telephoto lens allows me to get a great close up view ( count the flies!) of different types of wildlife and watch their behaviour, without being right up next to them.

After hibernating in their underground burrows all winter, groundhogs give birth to about half a dozen little ones in the spring, and the babies stay with their mothers for a couple of months. They gorge on food throughout the spring and summer, and return to their burrows to hibernate after the first frost in the autumn.

Although we most often see these charming members of the squirrel family on the ground, or peeking up from a hole, they are actually very good at climbing trees, and are also capable swimmers. The one in the photo above lives right beside a pond under a big pile of old logs.

Hey Big Mama! If you see a snapping turtle out at the side of the road in the summer, it is most likely a female.   Snapping Turtles much prefer to be in the water, and usually only come out to lay their eggs.  They like to lay their eggs in loose soil, such as at the side of a road, or in a garden.

These beauties hibernate in the winter, under the mud or silt at the bottom of ponds or streams.  At our house each year, a snapping turtle emerges from the mud in our stream,  lays her eggs in our garden, then climbs the 5 foot high page wire fence to get to our pond, where I assume she spends much of her summer.   When she reaches the top of the fence, she teeters back and forth a bit flailing her legs around, and then falls onto the other side. The first time we saw this, we couldn’t believe it!    And of course when my kids went to school and told their friends that a snapping turtle could climb our fence, nobody believed them.

Years later we finally got a photo, but I couldn’t find it for the life of me when I was writing the first draft of this blog. Somehow my Mom and Dad still had it, so after my Mom saw the blog she sent the photo back my way.   Saved!   See- snapping turtles CAN climb fences.

Snapping turtle nests can contain up to 50 round, white eggs.   The incubation temperature determines whether the baby turtles will be male or female.    I am not sure which this baby is, but if she is a girl, she will not be ready to mate and lay eggs until she is at least 17 years old.   Both male and female snapping turtles can live into their 70’s. Snapping turtles look prehistoric because they are- the snapping turtle as we know it has been around for 40 million years, and its close relatives walked with the dinosaurs.

So there you have it- 3 very different creatures who spend part of their lives under the earth, along with countless other animals we have never even heard of.

For more on Belted Kingfishers see the Cornell Lab of Ornithology pages

Visit the National Wildlife Federation site for more on Groundhogs

For more on Snapping Turtles you can visit Ontario Nature

The post Under the Earth appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

Whoah! Look at all those seeds!

I usually hear them before I see them. The Evening Grosbeaks are back!

It is really special when these beautiful birds from the northern forests decide to pay us a visit.   In the 17 years we have lived in our house, they have come about 6 different winters.   In fact, the first winter we lived here was when we saw them for the first time.  I had no idea what they were!

Party on the back deck

The only thing predictable about Evening Grosbeaks is that they are unpredictable.   They live in the northern forests, as well as at high altitudes throughout North America.  In the summertime, Evening Grosbeaks eat insects and fruit as well as seeds.   One of the main insects in their diet is the spruce budworm- a very destructive pest.    In the winter they come to feeders like ours when their winter food source in the north- cones and seeds- is running low.

Eat up!

So if Evening Grosbeaks come to call- look out!  A feeding frenzy will ensue.   They love to eat sunflower seeds.   Lots of them.   And they come in big flocks.   We have had flocks of up to 40 individuals some winters.   This year I have counted 18 to 20 birds in the flock that frequents our feeders.  Their favourite feeding station is, in fact, our deck railing, where they can all land and feed together.

Is it something I said?

Evening Grosbeaks are members of the finch family.   Their beaks are very large (“grosbeak”) and powerful, which allows them to crack large seeds. The name Evening Grosbeak apparently comes from the fact that when they were first discovered, they were singing in the evening.   They don’t just sing in the evening, but that’s ok.  Listen to the call of the Evening Grosbeak on this bird sound webpage.

Female Evening Grosbeak

The female Evening Grosbeaks are mostly grey, with some yellow, black, and white on their wings.    At our house, the females are always the first ones to come down to the feeders.

Male Evening Grosbeak

The male Evening Grosbeaks are yellow, black, and white.   They have quite an impressive black head with a yellow visor over their eyes.   When my kids were little they used to call these “motorcycle guys.”   Both males and females have large yellowish beaks.   When breeding season comes their beaks turn the most incredible lime green colour.   That’s one way of knowing spring is coming.

Lunch with the girls

Like I said in my previous blog on Winter Bird Feeding, if you set the table, you never know who might show up.    I think we see these beautiful birds at our house because we have a really busy feeding area with lots of food.   When we run out, I go buy more.  The birds have me well trained.    It’s worth it!

Reference:

All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The post The Gang’s All Here – Evening Grosbeaks appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

Presqu’ile Provincial Park is located south of Brighton, Ontario, Canada.   Birding there is spectacular, because Presqu’ile lies in a major migratory bird route, and has a variety of habitats such as forest, marsh, fields, beaches, and islands.

There are wonderful things to see in the park no matter what time of year, but here’s what Presqu’ile has to offer in August.

Mute Swan Family

Many birds breed in Presqu’ile Park, and it’s not unusual to find a variety of birds raising their families in the summertime.

A walk on  the marsh boardwalk will allow you to see a number of birds and their babies, such as this Mute Swan family.

The Ugly Duckling was really a Beautiful Swan

Eastern Kingbird families can be found all over the park in August, with the young birds chasing their parents screeching for food.  Kingbirds are fascinating to watch as they perch on an exposed branch, then swoop out for insects.  I caught this young Kingbird sitting still for a second!

Juvenile Eastern Kingbird

Cedar Waxwing Eating Berries

If you like Cedar Waxwings, Presqu’ile is the place to be.   Flocks of them are everywhere!   They easily can be found eating berries from bushes.   Yesterday I also found a flock with a large group of young birds, begging for food.   They can eat by themselves, but that does not stop them from begging.

Juvenile Cedar Waxwing Waiting for Berries

Two berries may not be enough!

Presqu’ile may be most famous for its shorebird migrations.  Migratory shorebirds are true wonders of the natural world. Each year, they undertake grueling migrations from their wintering grounds in South America to their breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic, and back again. 

Shorebirds in Flight

Along the way, they stop at various staging points to rest and refuel.  Presqu’ile is one of these important staging areas.  At any given time in late summer into autumn, you can see dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of shorebirds feeding along the beaches.

Last week, a couple of days of windy weather washed up huge piles of algae onto the beaches at Presqu’ile.   Not so great for swimming, but great for the shorebirds. This mat of decaying algae is full of fly (Diptera) larvae which shorebirds find irresistible.  Eat up!

Windy day at the beach

Juvenile Spotted Sandpiper on Mountains of Algae

Resting and Preening

I am still learning how to identify shorebirds.   Many of them are very small, and have very subtle differences in markings.   For example, there is a Greater Yellowlegs and a Lesser Yellowlegs.  Virtually identical, except the Lesser Yellowlegs is smaller.   So…if I am only seeing one bird, then what?

Ask someone.

Lesser Yellowlegs it is…

Looking for Larvae

The best place to look for shorebirds is at Owen Point.   A trail of less than 1 km will take you to a viewing area where you can get up close and personal with the birds.   They are so busy feeding they don’t pay much attention to humans.  Of course the normal rules for success apply- be still, and be quiet.

Sandpipers are also known as “Peeps” It’s the noise they make.

Juvenile Semipalmated Plover

Sandpiper Having a Beach Buffet

So, Presqu’ile in August is a place to go to really appreciate nature’s marvels, from the busy activity of birds raising their families, to the appearance of travelling shorebirds. The shorebird migration will continue on at least into November, with various species making their appearances.

I, for one, plan on going back.

Watching Shorebirds at Owen Point (Photo by Allie)

For weekly reports on what birds have been seen at the park, see Fred Helleiner’s Presqu’ile Birding Report, published each Thursday evening.

One great source of shorebird information: Ontario Field Ornithologists article on Southbound Shorebirds 

The post Baby Birds and Shorebirds: Presqu’ile in August appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.