Winter in Algonquin: Pine Grosbeaks and Pine Martens
January 22nd, 2017
Around the start of our trip, we came across a flock of female and juvenile Pine Grosbeaks on the roadside, and carefully pulled over to watch them.
1680x1050 wallpaper
Like many finches, Pine Grosbeaks need to eat grit to help them digest their food, and roads are a good place to find it--but also a dangerous place. It was a nervewracking moment for us when we heard a car coming fast around the bend, but they all flushed just in time.
Drive carefully in the park!
One male White-Winged Crossbill wasn't so fortunate. Jon found him freshly killed on the road. A beautiful bird even in death, and it would have been my only decent picture of a crossbill on this trip, but I didn't have the heart. Happily we also saw many healthy White-Winged Crossbills in multiple places, crowding into spruce trees and prying open the cones to get at the seeds, their favorite and usually only food.
(Here's a photo of one of the crossbills we saw taken by Laura, aka "The Afternoon Birder." It shows the unique crossed mandibles that they use to twist open conifer cones.)
A morning stop at Mew Lake Campground gave us some photogenic Blue Jays--
--and a thrilling, close-up view of a family group of Pine Martens! This was my one lifer of the trip---a mammalian lifer, not a bird. Pine Martens are mustelids, relatives of weasels and minks among others, that live in northern coniferous woodlands. I found them enchanting. They were far more arboreal than other mustelids I've encountered, scampering and leaping through trees with the agility of monkeys. I tried to get action shots, but they were just too fast for my shutter. The only good pictures were when they paused to have a look at us.
1680x1050 wallpaper
(More to come)
January 22nd, 2017
Around the start of our trip, we came across a flock of female and juvenile Pine Grosbeaks on the roadside, and carefully pulled over to watch them.
1680x1050 wallpaper
Like many finches, Pine Grosbeaks need to eat grit to help them digest their food, and roads are a good place to find it--but also a dangerous place. It was a nervewracking moment for us when we heard a car coming fast around the bend, but they all flushed just in time.
Drive carefully in the park!
One male White-Winged Crossbill wasn't so fortunate. Jon found him freshly killed on the road. A beautiful bird even in death, and it would have been my only decent picture of a crossbill on this trip, but I didn't have the heart. Happily we also saw many healthy White-Winged Crossbills in multiple places, crowding into spruce trees and prying open the cones to get at the seeds, their favorite and usually only food.
(Here's a photo of one of the crossbills we saw taken by Laura, aka "The Afternoon Birder." It shows the unique crossed mandibles that they use to twist open conifer cones.)
A morning stop at Mew Lake Campground gave us some photogenic Blue Jays--
--and a thrilling, close-up view of a family group of Pine Martens! This was my one lifer of the trip---a mammalian lifer, not a bird. Pine Martens are mustelids, relatives of weasels and minks among others, that live in northern coniferous woodlands. I found them enchanting. They were far more arboreal than other mustelids I've encountered, scampering and leaping through trees with the agility of monkeys. I tried to get action shots, but they were just too fast for my shutter. The only good pictures were when they paused to have a look at us.
1680x1050 wallpaper
(More to come)
| ← | → |
Mike
January 23rd, 2017 at 3:40 pm
The martens kind of steal the show for cuteness!
mustangsallie
February 14th, 2017 at 5:51 pm
The martens are very cute, I had never heard of this animal, and the Blue Jay's are beautiful.