Tony LePrieur took the photos below on March 1, 2014.
Horned Lark, from outside the city.
Gray Partridge, from outside the city.
A very cold Common Goldeneye from Fish Creek Park.
Brown Creeper, Weaselhead.
Pileated Woodpecker female, Weaselhead.
House Finch male, Weaselhead.
Golden-crowned Kinglet, Weaselhead.
Golden-crowned Kinglet, Weaselhead.
Coyote, Weaselhead.
Finally, an ID challenge: At first glance I assumed this bird was a Merlin, but something didn’t quite look right. If not a Merlin, what do you think it is, and why?
Anyway, I came here looking for advice about feeding Robins and others who may have arrived expecting Spring. What do you think?
Robins, Starlings, Bluebirds and some other early arrivals will eat a lot of berries in early spring. If you want you can put out whole cranberries for the robins.
We saw something like this just near 48th Ave & Northmount Dr this afternoon. It seemed too large for a Kestrel but I didn’t get a good look at it. Flight was kind of Kestrel-like. it was being chased by three flickers, two magpies and a crow.
Perhaps a Merlin, which is a falcon like a Kestrel but larger.
Very difficult with the branch shadows & no comparison for size. Could it possibly be an immature Prairie Falcon? Long white eyebrows & feathers over feet. Although it appears bars on tail are not parallel.
Is it a northern goshawk, an immature one? (white eyebrow, fluffy white undertail coverts, fine white lines between bands on the tail)
The bird in the photo does appear to be a juvenile Northern Goshawk. I thought it looked a lot like a Merlin, but the eye colour is wrong. Merlins have dark eyes and these appear to be reddish. Juvenile accipiters have red eyes, and the only one with a white eyebrow line is the Goshawk. The other field marks you mention also fit for Goshawk.