January was short for birding. since the birding group started part way through the month. The first outing was to one of my favourite spots, Carburn Park and while there weren’t many of the smaller birds to be seen, there were some eagles and quite a few different waterfowl.
The eagles were making a lot of noise. It turned out that there were a couple of third-year juveniles hanging about. Next year, they become adults and a threat to the existing pair, so there was some chasing going on with the adults telling the third-years that it is time to move out.
There were countless Canada Geese on the river, not surprisingly since there were a lot of goslings relocated there in the spring from other parts of the city. One in particular decided to shoot his beak off. Who knows what his point was but he seemed intent on making it.
There were a couple of familiar ducks – the Common Merganser and the Hooded Merganser as well as the male and female Goldeneye. The two new ones for me were the Ringnecked Duck and the female Redbreasted Duck.
As usual, there were deer wandering about, completely unfazed by all of the people.
