On Saturday, I went out for a walk around the slough across the road from our house. The weather was fairly cold -15 C (5F), but luckily there was no wind so it was quite a pleasant walk. Even thought it’s still the beginning of November, winter has set in on the Canadian prairies; the sloughs are covered with ice, snow has blanketed the ground, and most animals have migrated to warmer places or are hibernating. On my two and a half hour walk, I saw only seven bird species: Downy Woodpecker, Black-billed Magpie, Black-capped Chickadee, Common Raven, Pileated Woodpecker, and Hairy Woodpecker.
This is the first walk I’ve taken where I saw all three species of woodpeckers occuring in our area. I was able to get fairly good photos of the Downy and Hairy, but not the Pileated! It flew away before I could take a photograph. The Pileated Woodpecker could be considered a nemesis bird for me because I’ve never been able to get a photo of one. Hopefully on my next walk I’ll see another one and finally get a photo.
Some photos from my walk:
A view of the slough and woods,

This Downy Woodpecker was tapping away on some cattails,


I found this Meadow Vole hiding in the snow,

A young Whitetail buck jumping over the silt fencing that was put up to keep amphibians away from the pipeline activity in the summer,

Snow covered woods,

A male Hairy Woodpecker flew into the same bunch of trees just as the Pileated flew off,


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