Downy Woodpecker

Yesterday morning, 22 February 2016, I went on a birding walk at the Bow Valley Ranch, Sikome & Hull's Wood areas in Fish Creek Park. This little Downy Woodpecker was one of the birds we saw on this rather birdless day. We had split into two groups, and the list is a combined list from both. My group didn't see the Pheasant or Shrike (i.e the two best sightings!).

"The active little Downy Woodpecker is a familiar sight at backyard feeders and in parks and woodlots, where it joins flocks of chickadees and nuthatches, barely outsizing them. An often acrobatic forager, this black-and-white woodpecker is at home on tiny branches or balancing on slender plant galls, sycamore seed balls, and suet feeders. Downies and their larger lookalike, the Hairy Woodpecker, are one of the first identification challenges that beginning bird watchers master." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Downy_Woodpecker/id/

FFCPPSoc. Birding, FC Hq & Sikome, FCPP, Calgary, 0915-1200, Mon22Feb2016. Sunny, N. wind 15kph -2 to 6°C. Two groups;

1. Canada Goose- 500
2. Mallard-100
3. Common Goldeneye-30
4. Bufflehead-10
5. Ring-necked Pheasant-1 m
6. Bald Eagle-2 (1ad/1juv).
7. Great Horned Owl-2, pair nesting.
8. Downy Woodpecker-10
9. Hairy Woodpecker-1
10. Northern Flicker-15
11. Northern Shrike-1
12. Blue Jay-1+
13. Black-billed Magpie-6
14. Common Raven-7Black-capped Chickadee-25
15. Black-capped Chickadee-15
16. Red-breasted Nuthatch-3
17. White-breasted Nuthatch-5
18. European Starling-5
19. House Finch-2
20. White-winged Crossbill-8
21. Pine Siskin-4
22. House Sparrow-3

Eastern Gray Squirrel-3

After going home for lunch, I then called in at Fish Creek Park again, but at a different location of the park. I was really hoping to see the Varied Thrush again and hopefully get a few much better photos. I passed a couple that I recognized and asked them if they had seen the Thrush and they told me that, yes,it was there. Well, do you think I could find it, lol?! Of course not! Also had a most interesting chat with another couple down there, whom I had never met before - Mike and Cheryl. So nice to meet you both.

From Fish Creek Park, I finally went and washed my absolutely filthy car. A few months of driving through muddy slush in the city and on the gravel backroads out of the city, you couldn't tell what colour my vehicle was. Now it just sparkles, and I changed my mind about doing a drive out of the city today. I think I just want to enjoy seeing such a gleaming, clean car for at least one more day. Also, I have been out four days in a row, so I need to catch up on a few things at home.