For 34 years Birds Canada has organized a “FeederWatch” community which has recorded the birds at feeders from November through April throughout Canada.

#4 on last winter’s Ontario list is the Downy Woodpecker:

The Downy Woodpecker is one of the few bird species which is common on winter lists in all regions of Canada. It is #3 on the Atlantic Canada list, #3 on the Quebec list, #2 on the Prairies list and #3 on the British Columbia list.

Other birds:

Species list: mute swan, Canada goose, mallard, American black duck, gadwall, long-tailed duck, bufflehead, common merganser, ring-billed gull, downy woodpecker, black-capped chickadee, American robin, northern cardinal, common redpoll, American goldfinch. (15 species)

Some botany:

Early morning sky:

Today’s group:

NATURE POETRY

The Swan

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air –
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leanedinto the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds –
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life? – Mary Oliver

Miles Hearn