A visit from my parents

It was lovely to have my parents visit me for a few days earlier this month.  My work schedule allowed me to spend most of the time with them rather than worrying about work commitments, and we had some great weather during their visit which allowed for outdoor pursuits.

We visited our favourite local walking spot - the Sackville Waterfowl Park.  The park is lovely at all times of the year.  This time of year, the water levels are a bit low, and the water is often heavy with duckweed and algae.  The ducks don't mind!  We saw some wee mallard ducklings - a late brood of 8 with their mom.  So cute!

My mother took some time to commune with a beautiful mature birch tree.  I am so thankful to her that I learned to love trees, and all of nature, at an early age.  She and my father are most definitely the reason that I, too, hug trees. 

I managed to snap a shot of a cedar waxwing while we were at the park.  They can be a bit difficult to photograph, being a bit flighty and elusive, but this one obliged me.

As always, my parents lent a hand to any task I had that needed doing.  My mother spent time weeding and helping me harvest from the vegetable beds.  She also did her usual (more than) fair share of the cooking.  She was so enthusiastic with weeding that she accidentally "weeded" one of my Rudbeckia "cherry brandy" plants.  Fortunately we were able to locate it in the compost pile and get it re-planted.  It has not suffered from its temporary uprooting!

My father, meanwhile, did a marathon job of sharpening a variety of my garden and kitchen tools.  He was able to do the work out in my screened porch, giving him lots of light and fresh air, but keeping the mosquitoes at bay.  He did an amazing job de-rusting, sharpening and oiling my pruners and snips. 

Some of these had been almost untouched since my move from Iowa 8 years ago, and the rust was dreadful.  I sprayed them with vinegar before their visit, to get the cleaning process started.  My father used sharpening stones to really sharpen the blades and get them into good working order.

He also took care of the sharpening of my loppers.

I have two large pairs of loppers and around here, with all our trees, they are well used.  I am so glad to have them sharpened and in good order.

I am so grateful that my parents are still able to visit me and that they are so willing to help with tasks that I can't always find the time to focus on.  

I've read about storing garden tools through the winter in a bucket of oiled sand.  This prevents rust and keeps the blades sharp.  I might give that a try this winter.

What To Do When You Find a Severed Leg

No, not a human leg!  Thank goodness!

I found this bird leg in my garden a few weeks ago, just laying there by itself.  I saw the orange foot first, and reached down to pick up what I thought was a piece of plastic, and found myself holding a severed bird leg!  Yikes!  I looked all around for the rest of the bird, but I didn't see anything else - not even a pile of feathers.

I had a close look at the foot and realized it was some kind of duck leg, given the webbed foot.  Of course, one of the things I immediately noticed was the leg band.  I had to get out my magnifier glasses (yes, I have reached that stage in life) to read the band.  Interestingly, it had a website on it, as well as a 1-800 number.

I went to the website (www.reportband.gov) and learned that it run by the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Bird Banding Laboratory in Maine.  The Center is part of the United States Geological Survey, and it cooperates with the Canadian Wildlife Service on bird banding projects.  Here's some information from their website:

The Bird Banding Laboratory was established in 1920 to support the collection, archiving, management and dissemination of information from banded and marked birds in North America. This information is used to monitor the status and trends of resident and migratory bird populations. Because birds are good indicators of the health of the environment, the status and trends of bird populations are critical for identifying and understanding many ecological issues and for developing effective science, management and conservation practices.

The laboratory administers the North American Bird Banding Program, which manages more than 77 million archived banding records.  Each year, approximately 1 million bands are shipped from the BBL to banders in the United States and Canada, and nearly 100,000 band encounter reports are entered into the BBL systems.

Using the website (or the phone number) is the way to report any sighting or finding of a bird leg band (which unfortunately often means a dead or injured bird, since most birds don't sit on your lap and wave their leg bands around for your perusal).  I entered the number and the information on how I found the band using the screens on the website.  It was really easy.

I received an emailed certificate of appreciation! 

The scientists who study birds need citizens who are interested and motivated to send in information to help them track and learn more about birds.  My bird leg was the leg of a female mallard duck who was hatched prior to October of 2015.  She was banded near to where I live, so it wasn't surprising to find that band locally.  Here's a mallard in considerably better condition than the banded one - I took this picture at the waterfowl park last year.

I expect that she was preyed upon by either an owl (we have quite a few around here) or possibly a raccoon.  Or perhaps she died some other way and her body was moved by a scavenging animal.  I think her leg ended up in my yard without the rest of the body after having been carried here by a raccoon or something.  It was a little bit weird, but I'm glad I submitted the leg band number.

So now you know, if you ever find a bird leg with a band on it, submit the number!  Some of the bands are metal, like the one I found.  Others are coloured plastic.  Some bands also come with a monetary reward for reporting them! 

Friday's Hunt 3.25 (late!)

I'm late on Friday's Hunt today because I have been busy enjoying a visit from my parents on their way back from a holiday in Prince Edward Island.  However, I'm taking a few minutes to get this written with some pictures I took on our walk in the Sackville Waterfowl Park this morning.  It was such a lovely day for the walk and we saw lots of birds and other wildlife.

Our prompts from Eden Hills this week are:  Starts with Y, Week's Favourite, and Splash.

Starts with Y
Today I have a series of "Y is for yellow" photographs from our waterfowl park walk.  Here is a male mallard - he has a lovely yellow bill.

I also saw this dragonfly - I haven't had time to look up the species yet - but it has an interesting yellow triangle on its back.  I hope that will make it easy to identify.

This beautiful male ring-necked duck has a lovely yellow eye.

Bonus - not from the waterfowl park, but from the pile of sawdust on our driveway yesterday afternoon...this lovely yellow swallowtail butterfly.

Week's Favourite
I think my favourite picture today is this mother duck with her family of little ones.  They're probably considered "adolescents" now - they still have some down but they are quite big and growing fast.

Splash
There were lots of ducks splashing around in the water today but I didn't get any really good pictures of them splashing.  This one is about the best of the bunch - they were far away.  You can still see some water droplets spraying off the duck's wings.

We also saw lots of tiny fish in the water.  Sometimes when the ducks came close, they would be disturbed and would make little splashes on the water's surface.  I didn't get a picture of the splashing, but here are the little fish.

Recent Water Bird Sightings

I've been spending a lot of time at the Sackville Waterfowl Park.  It's a beautiful setting and a great place for me to get some exercise, but it also affords some great opportunities for photographs.  From the name of the park, you can tell that it's popular with water birds.  These are bird species that I don't see in my own yard, so I really enjoy having a place to go and observe them.

The belted kingfisher was an exciting bird for me - not something I see very often.  This is a female, as evidenced by the chestnut-coloured bands on the belly.  She was at quite a distance so the shots aren't great, but they'll do!

I enjoy seeing the mallard ducks, even though they are "ordinary" ducks.  They still make me smile.

I always laugh at their feeding poses, sticking their feathered bottoms up in the air.

Another duck that is prevalent at the park is the American Widgeon.  This is a female.

I often see the great crested cormorant at the park.  They are really large compared to a lot of the other birds.  At this time of year, they are not in their breeding plumage, but I look forward to seeing them in their finery next year.

I've already blogged about the lesser yellowlegs, but here's an extra picture in case you missed that blog.

The grebe is one of my favourite water birds because it dives into the water so quickly and you would never even know it had been there.  Suddenly, it will surface in a completely different spot.  I find them a bit tricky to photograph because they are such busy birds, but this one was more agreeable.  I believe this is the pied-billed grebe, but the bill takes on a less distinct appearance in the non-breeding season.  I like the way the water weeds are adorning the back of this one.

Here it is just about to dive again.  You can see how the point between the neck and body has gone underwater, and the body is tipped forward, in contrast to the picture above.  The grebe can dive for up to 30 seconds at a time, seeking out fish and crustaceans.

On one of my visits, I was lucky enough to see a great blue heron coming in to land.  I wasn't able to get great shots of it, but I was still fairly pleased with the results of my efforts.  The wingspan is quite remarkable.

Here the heron is coming in for the landing.

Such an elegant bird.  I liked this photograph because the purple loosestrife (nasty, invasive weed that it is) really looks lovely framing the grey-blue colour of the heron's plumage.

I'm hoping to see, and photograph, more water birds at the park as time goes on.

Sharing this post with The Bird D'Pot, Camera Critters, and Wild Bird Wednesday.