Bob Bell 🇨🇦

My track record is mostly the latter.....sigh!

Three ducks in profile view swimming towards the left. The furthest back is a male Mallard, and the closest is a female Mallard. Between them is the hybrid, with a combination of mallard and pintail features.

The hybrid in profile view, preening. The way he's turned to preen really shows off the combination of brown and green on his head.

A male Northern Pintail standing on ice, in profile view looking to the right. He's surrounded by two male and two female Mallards.

This spectacular looking duck is a hybrid, a cross between a Mallard and a Northern Pintail. In the first photo it is swimming with a pair of Mallards, and in the second it is preening. The third is a male Northern Pintail for comparison, surrounded by male and female Mallards. #birds #birding

Same here! Saw it until about 70 percent eclipsed then lost it in the clouds. 😭

Such noble critters!

A coyote looking directly at me from a snowy forest. He or she has snow on its nose.

A coyote in profile view, with its head turned to look directly at me from a snowy forest. He or she has snow on its nose.

A coyote in profile view, with its head turned to look directly at me.

A coyote in profile view, with its head turned to look directly at me from a snowy field.

Last week I had a close encounter with Wile E. Coyote. #notabird #coyote #urbannature

A red-bellied woodpecker on the left side of my double suet feeder, in side profile looking to the right, and a hairy clinging to the right edge, in profile view looking to the left.

When Hairy met Sally......a good size comparison between Red-bellied (left) and Hairy woodpeckers (right), both female. #birds #birding #Bobsbackyard #Ancaster #HamOnt

Back by popular demand next year!

😰Sorry to hear that!

Ah, ok. Good luck!

This is pretty cool! #birds

I find them so fascinating! Hope they stick for you; they are about as nomadic as Bohemian waxwings. Are they all white-winged, or are you getting some reds as well?

Interesting to hear about that aggressive behaviour. Very cool yard bird!

Thank you kindly!

A male White-winged Crossbill perched at the very top of a pine tree, in profile view looking to the right. His head and breast are pink, while his back and wings are black to dark gray, with white wing bars. You can see how his upper and lower mandibles are crossed, enabling him to pry seeds out of cones.

A female White-winged Crossbill perched in a pine tree, in profile view looking to the right. She is a soft grayish yellow with fine darker streaking. You can see how her upper and lower mandibles are crossed, enabling her to pry seeds out of cones.

White-winged Crossbills are one of my favourite "winter finches." They occasionally come south for the winter when the cone crop is poor in their boreal forest homeland. I was thrilled to see these ones last week. #birds #birding #crossbills #finches #winterfinches

Great capture!

Loshi on his window perch, seen through closed red drapes. He's looking to the left, and his ears are prominent in this photo.

It's #Caturday and here's a different sort of photo - Loshi on his window perch, enjoying the sun, with the drapes closed so that he makes a Batman-like silhouette.

A mockingbird perched in tangles of a low shrub, looking to the left and slightly upwards. He or she is floofed right up in the cold, but they chose a perfect spot to soak up the sun.

A Northern Mockingbird at "max floof" on a cold morning last week. #birds #birding #HamOnt

A male golden-crowned kinglet perched in some bare tangled branches, floofed up with his head tilted slightly downwards, showing his yellow crown with a central orange stripe

A golden-crowned kinglet perched in some bare tangled branches, in profile view looking to the right

A male golden-crowned kinglet perched in some bare tangled branches, with snow as a backdrop. His head is tilted slightly downwards, showing his yellow crown with a central orange stripe

A golden-crowned kinglet perched in a spruce tree, in profile view oriented towards the left, looking over its should to the right.

Yesterday I saw my first Golden-crowned Kinglets of the year. They haven't slowed down any, however, I have! It's hard to keep the camera on these perpetual motion machines. #birds #birding #kinglet #Ancaster #HamOnt

A painted bunting is a perfect spark bird!

You're so lucky! Gorgeous birds.

My pleasure!

We've had painted buntings here but are often thought to be escaped cage birds.

I'm no expert but always happy to help!

The bright yellow beak is throwing me off. More suggestive of a female Western Tanager than a Scarlet Tanager, which was my first guess. I once saw a female Western in northern Ontario in the winter so no reason why you couldn't get one. Very nice vagrant! Thanks for sharing.

Cool!

Thanks!

🤣Worth flocking for!

A duck in profile view, swimming towards the left, in calm blue water. White-winged Scoters are fairly large ducks, black, with a funky orange and white bill, a white crescent under their eye, and white wing bar.

White-winged Scoters are very funky looking sea ducks; luckily some choose to spend their winter here. #birds #birding #ducks

An Eastern Towhee standing on a snow bank, in profile view oriented to the left, looking at me with his red eyes. They are large, colourful sparrows with a long tail. Black on the upper parts, white on the lower parts, and a rich cinnamon colour on the flanks.

A couple of days ago I posted a Harris's Sparrow, a vagrant in my area so therefore a geographic rarity. Yesterday I saw this Eastern Towhee, a rarity in time. It seems to have missed the migration memo last fall (or has returned way too early). Either way he seems to be coping just fine. #birds

oops green band on his head