{"id":10610,"date":"2022-03-20T20:47:51","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T00:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/?p=10610"},"modified":"2022-03-20T20:47:51","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T00:47:51","slug":"snowy-owl-eastern-phoebe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/2022\/03\/20\/snowy-owl-eastern-phoebe\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowy Owl &#038; Eastern Phoebe"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_10615\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10615\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/2022\/03\/20\/snowy-owl-eastern-phoebe\/dscn3192-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10615\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10615\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3192-2-1024x454.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3192-2-1024x454.jpeg 1024w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3192-2-300x133.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3192-2-768x340.jpeg 768w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3192-2-1536x680.jpeg 1536w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3192-2-2048x907.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10615\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eastern Phoebe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>North Service Rd. Woods, Burlington ON. March 20 2022. <\/em>\u00a0My birding worked as it\u2019s supposed to today: I (or you could too) go birding, look, pay attention and something unexpected will usually pop up. Two specials today: A <strong>Snowy Owl<\/strong> this morning and an <strong>Eastern Phoebe<\/strong> this afternoon.\u00a0 On this date, both would likely fall into the category of \u2018unexpected-but-certainly-possible,\u2019 so certainly worth dancing a little jig for.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Snowy Owl<\/strong> took me by surprise, I was visiting a nearby marina where I had hoped to see early-returning <strong>Red-necked Grebes<\/strong>, (and did). But as I walked out to the end of the breakwater a dog-walker said, \u201cGood thing you have your camera, there\u2019s a white owl by the lighthouse &#8211; flying around\u201d Right away I knew what he meant and \u2018- flying around\u2019! My heart started to beat a little faster. Not that I keep records very seriously but I hadn\u2019t seen a Snowy Owl all winter and assumed that I probably wouldn\u2019t. Late or not, in flight or not, a Snowy Owl is always a nice sighting and it must be said, a real privilege. Here it is \u2013 it didn\u2019t fly \u2013 not for me anyway.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10612\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10612\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/2022\/03\/20\/snowy-owl-eastern-phoebe\/dscn3174\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10612\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10612\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3174-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3174-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3174-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3174-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3174-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN3174-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10612\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Snowy owl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After lunch, I took advantage of this bright, if blustery, March day to follow up on a couple of possible sites where I nurse hopes that American Kestrels might decide to set up home this spring. The population of American Kestrels is on a steep decline and I really hope to find a breeding pair somewhere in my study area for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/2021\/03\/24\/ontario-breeding-bird-atlas\/\">Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas<\/a>. There were no kestrels at either site but there\u2019s plenty of time, it\u2019s still early.<\/p>\n<p>Despite rather muddy trails I made a loop around a nice old woodland, not expecting much in the way of birds but enjoying the still sleeping forest floor and the reaching twigginess of <strong>Sugar<\/strong> <strong>Maples<\/strong>, <strong>White<\/strong> <strong>Oaks<\/strong>, <strong>Shag<\/strong>&#8211;<strong>bark<\/strong> <strong>Hickories<\/strong> and <strong>Hop<\/strong>&#8211;<strong>hornbeams<\/strong>. And then quite unexpectedly this <strong>Eastern Phoebe<\/strong> did what phoebes do best, fly off and watch me from a safe distance.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10614\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10614\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/2022\/03\/20\/snowy-owl-eastern-phoebe\/eastern-phoebe-6\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10614\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10614 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN2716-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN2716-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN2716-300x225.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN2716-768x576.jpeg 768w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN2716-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DSCN2716-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10614\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eastern Phoebe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The appearance of the first Eastern Phoebe is always notable and always a bit of a surprise. They are a flycatcher and you wouldn\u2019t think there are any flies around to catch. I bless them for their optimism and also because they have a way of sitting still long enough and close enough that I often manage to get a decent photograph.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Snowy Owl<\/strong> and the <strong>Eastern Phoebe<\/strong> were sightings of quite different times and places, but they were equally My Birds of the Day. For similar reasons; one taking winter back north to where it belongs, the other dragging spring along behind it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Service Rd. Woods, Burlington ON. March 20 2022. \u00a0My birding worked as it\u2019s supposed to today: I (or you could too) go birding, look, pay attention and something unexpected will usually pop up. Two specials today: A Snowy Owl this morning and an Eastern Phoebe this afternoon.\u00a0 On this date, both would likely fall &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/2022\/03\/20\/snowy-owl-eastern-phoebe\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Snowy Owl &#038; Eastern Phoebe<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10610"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10610"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10618,"href":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10610\/revisions\/10618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mybirdoftheday.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}