By Clarke Birchard
Saturday January 21 was the kind of winter day you would photograph and put on a calendar or tourist brochure to advertise Canada: cold (-10C), still, clear, sunny and enough snow to make the landscape sparkle and people feel good.
Ten SFN members and friends gathered at the home of Clarke and Dianne Birchard for muffins, coffee or cider and to rotate from windows in the living room, dining room and den to view birds at the feeders on different sides of the house. From there we moved on to 4 other backyards, the landfill site and sewage lagoon. (The latter 2 are everyone’s back yard.) We ate our lunches in Trudy and Ken Watson’s dining room overlooking their well wooded, south facing yard and numerous feeders.
After others left, Gerard, Gary and Clarke added 2 Red-tailed and 1 Rough-legged Hawks on a small tour out of town Back at Birchards we added 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker and 2 Cardinals.
The list for the day included: Black-capped Chickadee (many), American Gold Finch (great many), European Starling, Bluejay, Dark-eyed Junco, Down Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, House Finch, Northern Cardinal, American Tree Sparrow, Common Goldeneye, Mallard, Herring Gull, American Crow, Red-tailed Hawk and Rough-legged Hawk.
