If you feed them, they will come...

The last two winters have been very difficult for the birds in Northern Ontario. The lack of spruce cones, among other things, have forced many bird species to leave the area or starve. We have really missed seeing some of our beautiful winter birds and it seems, a few are beginning to return this year.
We usually have two, or four, mourning doves on a regular basis. This is the first time we have seen seven together. They are a placid, pretty bird, and hope they will stick around.

There are presently two female hairy woodpeckers "in residence" on a daily basis. This one is fluffed up for warmth.

And this one is hanging on a sunflower seed feeder, swinging in the wind. They are very comical to watch

And this is one of my assistant bird feeders, Jess....

A cute little nuthatch showed up a few days ago....the word is spreading...food, food, food...

The first redpoll to arrive, another two quickly followed. These birds used to plentiful in numbers in the winter, will be interesting to see if they are making a comeback.

My other 'assistant bird feeder', Trust, is collecting snow while she watches....

Lots of Birds/Lots of Seed!!!

The birds were cold this morning and when not gorging themselves on seed, they were fluffing up to keep warm.

You can see the amount of snow on the branches, it finally stopped last night, got colder, and was a lovely sunny day today. This bluejay is annoyed to find the sunflower seeds gone from this feeder!

Doesn't this bluejay look like a little fatty?! He's not, just really fluffed up to try and keep warm.

This is how they "insulate" themselves.

This female hairy woodpecker is finding more food on the ground than pecking on the tree trunks

We have seen only male evening grosbeaks so far, not sure why the females are missing. This year seems to be bringing back more grosbeaks and bluejays than the last two. It will be nice if we are back to normal bird populations this year, except for having to purchase way more seed again

Looks like a little dancing circle here....All these pictures were taken from a bedroom window, including the one below.

There were 4 deer almost directly behind the window, but by the time I ran for the camera and came back, they were on the move. They actually just went over to the west side of the house and found a few apples over there.

Snow and cold...

I'm glad we don't have the amount of snow that some poor folk in southern parts of Ontario received recently, but we've got more "cold" today. Our walks were pretty brisk!!! First sunny day in a while.

I just hope we don't lose all our trails again this year. We were running out of nice places to walk last winter. Oh, this is about as far as Blast goes and then turns around to make sure I'm coming....

Blast the predator in this photo. He's certainly begun to fill out a little and looks quite a bit more mature...19 mons. now. He was the only one this morning not to get "cold feet" in the snow.

Happy Birthday, Jess!

The little princess, Jess, turned sixteen years old today. Hard to believe, in many ways. I'll add a link at the end for those that do not know "The story of Jess" if you are interested. She came to live with us at 9 1/2 from an awful earlier life. Became a pet therapy dog and just recently retired from this 'job' after visiting for six years. Jess got a PEN number with CKC and earned a Rally Novice title when she was 13. She then began to track and earned her Tracking Dog title just two months before turning 15.
Jess is getting ready for her little birthday party here. We usually have all the dogs together and have iced carrot muffins. However, I changed the menu for Jess and Storm, who is attending, as they are getting a little old for the usual 'party'.

They look like they think I'm going to set them on fire...instead of the muffins, they are having a little ice cream with strawberry yogourt.

Yummy, yummy, this is even better, I think they are saying.

I think it went over well! The other dogs know exactly what we're doing, and got theirs a little later. Oh, and Storm is due to turn 16 in January...another party!

http://www.dogsincanada.com/jess-story-an-old-dog-learns-new-tricks

There is also a link in this story describing Jess' former life in B.C. before she came to us.

Her biggest thrill today was probably rolling in the deep, fresh snow early this morning. She's a real little cutie.

I think winter is here to stay..

Another walk in the forest today and the dogs were just loving it. All kinds of fresh tracks out there to inspect...fox, rabbit, deer...and the usual rodent hunting.
Trust was having a great time looking for "things" under the snow.

It's a race back, with Tank in the lead, leaping over a log, and Trust close behind....

Blast is checking out what's up there with the Frog Princess. Our Frog Princess is chalkware, was a gift years ago from a friend who painted her up nicely, as a princess frog should be. She has lost her glow, but still reigns supreme over the comings and goings in the forest.

Heading back on one of the trails, Blast is giving his impression of a wolf. I can imagine if we ever came across a wayward person wandering onto our property, he might appear to be a wolf.

Resident Rodents...

The birdfeed fallen under the feeders represents heaven to the opportunistic rodents. They have snow tunnels to wherever they are living and are actually quite amusing to watch...and they are fast! They normally take "turns" coming out of, and back into, their "own" tunnels. There were two moles I was watching yesterday, while a bold chickadee was giving them a talking to.

Furry little things. They don't stray too far from their little snow holes...would be a nice breakfast for a passing fox, hawk or owl!

This one is coming out of #2 tunnel, the one in the picture above has just gone back into #1 tunnel, above. I'm curious where the snow tunnels go to, or if they overlap, but don't want to dig down and destroy them to find out. Yeah, they are annoying and destructive little rodents, but kind of cute, just the same....

Spruce Grouse returns...

Shortly after we began feeding the birds again, the spruce grouse have returned. There have been a couple here for about a week now, one seems to be a "morning person" and the other a later afternoon visitor. I took this picture through the bedroom window late today. We call them "Trusts' birds" as she looks for them on our walks and likes to "flush" them.