Gray Jay - Canada's new National bird

It's that time of year when life becomes crazy, with very early mornings, long days and the exciting search for birds. Yes, it's the time of Audubon Christmas Bird Counts.

Two days ago, on 27 December 2016, nine of us took part in the annual Sheep River/Priddis/Turner Valley Christmas Bird Count.

Our time was spent travelling by car, driving the backroads SW of the city and calling in at several farms. I took part in this Count last year but had missed it for a few years before that. I believe I had only ever done it once before (December 2007?), a few years ago, and that time I was with friends covering a different section of the count circle. I remember it as being very slow and extremely unrewarding, This time, like last year, our area was in the centre of the count circle and I'm so glad I decided to go again.

A great stop was at Rod Handfield's place. Some of us go there on botany trips and he always has the best mushrooms and other fungi growing in his forest in the fall. Rod and his wife have such a beautiful cabin there. A Gray Jay gave us a few photo opportunities, which was appreciated. Not the best lighting, but usually these birds are difficult to photograph, so it was nice to see one this close. Rod is always so delightfully hospitable!!

After two years, nearly 50,000 votes and thousands of public and expert comments, the Gray Jay is the bird that has finally been chosen as the National Bird of Canada. For all the reasons this bird was chosen, see the link below.

www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/meet-our-national-bird-...

www.calgaryherald.com/news/national/98hardy+intelligent+g...

Thanks so much, Donna, for driving half of us - so much appreciated! This also meant that we were lucky enough to see two tiny Northern Pygmy-owls after the Count, too. A beautiful sunny day really helped - not all that cold (for Alberta!). A lot of snow everywhere (almost 8"), but that was OK, as we did so little walking. A great day!

Yesterday, I had a nice, leisurely day, before having to set my alarms for 4:15 am this morning. I woke up after only an hour's sleep and, as my alarms were going to go off in another hour, I didn't dare risk going back to bed in case I slept right through all alarms. Never a good thing for a dreadful night owl who gets to bed around 2:00 am!

I will add the list of species seen, in a comment box below.