Killdeer video
Just a little something for killdeer fans.
Archive for June, 2010
Birds, birds and more birds
Last Sunday we popped out in the morning and when we got back we had a huge pigeon in the garden. He seemed enormous compared to the other birds. We took a couple of pics of him and expected he would be gone in minutes. However later that evening he was still in the garden. We put out some corn and grain for him and he was drinking from the trough we have in the garden for the birds.
The following morning he was still around, so now we were a little concerned that he was a homing pigeon who was lost. Sure enough after winning his trust a little more we were able to get close enough to see the numbers on his band. I then scoured the internet for websites for pigeons and sure enough found one where I could register that we had found him with his number etc. I did this on Monday evening and received an email from the website giving the owners details in Woodstock Ontario. As by then it was quite late we decided to wait until the morning to call him.
The following morning there was no sign of the pigeon, but we had received an email from the owner’s son confirming he was AWOL. Apparently he had been released in Havelock to return home to Woodstock, but had ended up at our house instead. I told him that although he had been around for the past two days we had not seen him that morning but would contact him as soon as he turned up. However about an hour later he let us know that the bird had in fact made it back to the loft. Great news for all. He must have left the evening before and finally gone home. Lets hope he doesn’t end up in a pigeon pie for getting so lost.
We have also managed, with the help of a zoom lens get a couple of photos of the killdeer. Previously I reported that only three of the original four babies had survived, but I am glad to say I was wrong. We still have four and they are now almost as big as the parents. In fact unless they are with the parent as a comparison we cannot tell them apart. I think they will be off soon to pastures new.
And last but not least a photo of one of our favourite birds, the flicker. This is the female and it is so hard to get a good photo of them as they are almost always constantly hammering their heads into the ground. However, this one is not too bad.
