Wild horses, Ruffed Grouse, Blue Jay (20141206) Trying to ducplicate a great run from last year.

Last year about this time Kerri and I had a super day of sighting so Jamie and I thought we would see if we could replicate that success. While the day was somewhat warmer than last year, the wind was coming up, and that is never a good thing for wildlife viewing. Our first encounter of the day was a herd of 5 wild horses. Upon our approach they retreated to this stand of Pine trees.

It is always nice to find a youngster, like in the middle of this trio. Mom is on the right, she is the herd mare and makes the decisions of when to move. Here is a shot of the herd stallion. This wonderful looking stud should produce some interesting looking foals.

With the wind coming up I was suprised to find a grouse on the side of the road, but as we approached it flushed. The really dark colouration indicated to us it was likely a Spruce bird. We did find this Ruffed that held long enough for me to get a shot. I believe this rooster held as it was in a very protected area.

We ran quite a dry spell until we headed home and found this trio of blacks on a side road. The wind allowed us to get pretty close, but they spooked easily.

We also found this very approachable herd of 7 animals, there was a youngster with this group as well. It is on the far left of this shot.

Here is an image of the herd mare. They were all very intent on feeding so we left them to their business, as is our custom.

Things remained pretty quite, we did spot a Rough-legged Hawk and an Eagle on the way home. We also found our first group of the day as well.

Here is the Mare with her foal once again. I find the horse on the left to have quite interesting colouring. We also noted a lot of traffic on the roads of people cutting Christmas trees.

We also did a swing by our favourite Northern Pygmy Owl location, and while the owl wasn't showing itself we did spot a couple of birds around one of the driveways feeding on food. Here is a male Pine Grosbeak that is gleaning seeds.

There were also a couple of Blue Jays. This bird seems to be filling up on food.

We spoted another Rough-legged on the way home, but it was pretty quiet otherewise. Put some wild in your life this week!
Turbo