Some members of our family have enjoyed bird watching for quite a few years, but it was only last year that we started keeping track of which birds we have seen. Since then, and since we have had a bird feeder within sight of the windows, we have all enjoyed watching the many birds that have appeared around our house and trying to identify them. It reminds me a little of the work Adam had to do in the garden of Eden – naming the animals.
Genesis 2:19-20 “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; …”
Here are the common names for the birds we have identified and recorded so far this year. The crows, chickadees, blue jays, mourning doves, woodpeckers and nuthatches stay here all year round. The redpolls are the only ones that have gone north for the summer, some time around the beginning of May. The bald eagle, the northern cardinal, the ring-billed gull and the common merganser were the only ones not seen at our house.
| January 1 | American crow | |
| January 1 | Black-capped Chickadee | |
| January 1 | Blue jay | |
| January 1 | Mourning dove | |
| January 5 | Common redpoll | |
| February 16 | Downy woodpecker | |
| February 16 | Sharp-shinned Hawk | |
| February 16 | White-breasted Nuthatch | |
| March 30 | American Robin | |
| April 2 | Common Merganser | |
| April 2 | Ring-billed gull | |
| April 5 | Canada Goose | |
| April 10 | Dark-eyed Junco | |
| April 10 | Mallard | |
| April 11 | American Goldfinch | |
| April 11 | Song sparrow | |
| April 13 | Chipping Sparrow | |
| April 13 | European Starling | |
| April 15 | Rock Pigeon | |
| April 16 | Fox sparrow | |
| April 22 | White-throated sparrow | |
| April 24 | Red-winged blackbird | |
| April 25 | Northern cardinal | |
| April 26 | Purple Finch | |
| April 30 | Bald eagle | |
| May 3 | Northern Flicker | |
| May 5 | Rose-breasted Grosbeak | |
| May 9 | Yellow-bellied flycatcher | |
| May 10 | Ruby-throated hummingbird | |
| May 10 | Savannah Sparrow |
Here are a few pictures of some of the birds our family has seen in southern Quebec.
I also enjoy taking pictures of flowers. They don’t move as fast as birds. I can’t tell you how often I have tried to take bird pictures where the result was just an out-of-focus background. That doesn’t normally happen with flowers.
Here are some flowers we sometimes forget to enjoy – flowers that grow on trees, such as maples or larches.
Genesis 1:20-22 “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply…”