Bushtits are irregular visitors to Leaning Oaks, tiny gray balls of fluff with a tail that are almost always travelling in a gang.  Flocks here have been as large as 28 individuals.  To date, we don't have records for May through the third week of July  and we don't have any breeding records from the property yet either.  They are commonest here during the winter months.

These are tiny birds that seem to play an endless game of follow the leader as the move around the neighbourhood occasionally gathering together in a small group.  The often visit our suet feeders, sometimes packing onto the hanging wire cages that hold the fat blocks so tightly that you can't tell where one Bushtit stops and the next begins.  Bushtits are relatively new immigrants to Vancouver Island, first recorded in the 1930's.  

This woodpecker  has a similar colour pattern to the larger Hairy Woodpecker (28) and both species are found here in about equal numbers.  The bill on the Downy( Picoides pubescens)   is proportionately smaller though, less than the length of the head, which gives is a delicate look.  Both species are frequent visitors to our suet feeders.  Not surprisingly, Downy Woodpeckers spend more time foraging on smaller branches and thinner tree trunks than Hairy Woodpeckers do. 

Our first Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) for the year, appeared a couple of days ago on March 24. They regularly return sometime in the third week of March and they are usually around until mid-September. The latest record we have for Leaning Oaks is September 21. The exact date records have been much easier to record since all of the sightings go into eBird. There has been some concern and speculation that the rise of Anna's Hummingbird numbers have led to the decline in Rufous Hummingbirds. That may be true, however there are many other perils that confront the hummingbirds including habitat loss on wintering grounds and changes in flowering phenology with changing climate. 

The first time that a Mallard stopped at the pond that we built we were so excited. Until then there had been fly overs -but no reason for them to stop. It didn't take them long to habituate to us and dogs and activity all around. The rain of seed from the bird feeders may have helped. There have been some major scuffles as various males or females have vied for pond rights and mating rights.

There were at least three years where we found duck eggs that had been eaten by the ravens. The smashed eggs were always in the same spot on the meadow. Two years ago, however, I was away at a regatta when I received a short video clip of a parade of wee yellow fluff balls swimming in the water! They didn't stay long, but it was wonderful to know that they had found a secure place away from the marauding ravens. 

Bald Eagles are very active right now at Leaning Oaks especially with courtship and nest building activities.  We don't have a nest on the property, but there must be one being built nearby as we have been seeing stick gathering again this spring.  Most of the rest of the year we see Bald Eagles soaring overhead.  They largely disappear in September and October, likely to take advantage of early salmon runs further north on the island or on the mainland. 

Leaning Oaks is a welfare state....at least from a bird's point of view.  Subsidized food, shelter, water,  and even nesting material have undoubtedly increased bird numbers (see Leah's entry on Chestnut-backed Chickadee).  One of the species that has benefited  from the constant supply of bird seed is this one, and we have many more on the property than we did before we started feeding birds.  Now its not unusual to see ten adult Spotted Towhees (Pipilo maculatus) on the feeders at the same time.  This is one of those sparrows that show regional differences in song and calls.  On Salt Spring Island, where I grew up, their mewing call note is much harsher, louder and longer than it is on southern Vancouver Island, a very short distance away.  

This is the smallest of the three species of wrens we have here at Leaning Oaks, with a distinctly shorter tail.  Pacific Wrens (Troglodytes pacificus) were separated from Winter Wrens (T. hiemalis) a short period of time ago, and it is one of those "new" names that still don't roll immediately off my tongue when I'm out birding. 

 Here they start singing shortly after Christmas - a wonderfuly, complex burbling song that seems impossibly loud and long coming from such a small bird. Males build mutiple nests, females choose one to their liking.   On cold snaps, like the one we had last week, the number of sightings increase.   Either we have more than we think and they become very active in colder weather, or, more likely, the numbers of Pacific Wrens are augmented by birds from higher elevations or latitudes. 

Purple Finches show up through out the year at Leaning Oaks, but in the winter months usually in only in small numbers and not regularly.  Starting in March they become regular visitors to the feeders and males set up territories in the neighbourhood. As shown here, they also enjoy drinking and bathing in the pond.  The best part of having them around  is their lovely rich warbly song. Listen here to it:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/purple_finch/sounds, although that isn't the only sounds they make. Once call is confusingly similar to the call of the Cassin's Finch and begging young have a call that sounds very similar to the upslurred and oft-repeated "weeep" of the Hutton's Vireo. 
The amount of red that a male Purple Finch sports is based on the availability of carotinoids in their diet and is thought to be indicative of  their vitality as a mate. 

We usually have a few Song Sparrows coming to the feeders and we often have a pair or two that nest on the property.  However from time to time our Song Sparrows disappear and we can go for a month or so without seeing or hearing one at Leaning Oaks.  We suspect house cats are responsible, and the sparrows seem to be particularly vulnerable during the spring months when they nest. This year, despite the number of cats our wildlife camera has documented, we have a few Song Sparrows using the feeders and they have been singing snippets of song off and on for several weeks now.

The Hairy Woodpecker is a year round resident and one of the four woodpeckers that help to decimate the suet feeders. The Hairy always seems the most cocky and attacks the food with as if it were set out for them alone. Larger than the Downy and if you have a moment of uncertainty without a size reference -look at the bill. It is about the same length as the head.  We'd always wondered why this feathered creature was called "Hairy". It turns out that they have highly modified feathers called filoplumes at the base of their upper mandible and on their legs that give the impression of hair. Can't say I ever noticed! 

There are days when I feel a bit like I am living inside a cutesy Christmas card with the dozens of Chestnut-backed Chickadees (Poecile rufescens)  that flit around the trees and swarm the suet year round. Soon it will be time to re-fill the old fat feeder with dog hair and fur that the chickadees will haul off in gobs to line the most luxurious, cozy nests ever! Many of these nests are in one of the several snags that we have created.    

It is very unusual if we go more than a few weeks without having at least one, and more often a pair of Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus) calling on or around the property. At this time of year there are duets  between the higher pitched  and  persistent male and the bigger and lower pitched female. This family used the meadow and surrounding woods as their home a couple of years ago.  They were very distracting! The rabbit population takes a hit when there are owls around, a fabulous form of  biocontrol. On one memorable occasion a dinner party was interrupted by bunny screams as a Great Horned Owl took grabbed her dinner and then disemboweled the prey outside the window.  

Varied Thrushes (Ixoreus naevius) usually arrive at Leaning Oaks in the first week of September, their presence made known by their train whistle song. They are here all winter through April, with a small number of birds lingering until the last week of May. Despite their noisy presence as part of the early spring dawn chorus, we have no breeding records for the property.  Our best Varied Thrush viewing was the year that the winter residents figured out that if they came to the suet feeders when the Northern Flickers were there; the crumbs that rained down were easy pickings! They were totally tuned into the feeding of the flickers and would arrive within minutes to clean up.  

This was my first choice for the BC's official bird when the vote was on in 1987 -so elegant and much of its breeding range fits nicely with in the south and eastern borders of the province. Much better than the squawky Steller's Jay! 

The Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) is the commonest bird here at Leaning Oaks, with thirty or more birds using the feeders during the winter and more than ten pairs nesting on the property during the breeding season. The nests are usually on the ground,  on low stumps or in one or more of our hanging baskets.