Last year Mark and I took up the challenge from a friend, to take part in the “150 Bird Challenge” to see how many bird species we could identify during Canada’s 150th birthday year. The goal was to try and count at least 150 bird species during the year within Canada. Mark ended up counting 148, while I was able to break the 150 mark with a total of 156. I was able to get out to more locations than Mark got to. We decided that we would try again this year and started the count again on January 1st. Mark is currently leading this year with 51 birds seen, whereas I am only at 29 species. Now that the weather is warming and the birds are beginning to return, my count should increase. Hopefully I can catch up quickly.
A couple of weeks ago during the Easter weekend we both added a few more species to this year’s list, amongst those were the Great Gray Owl and the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, which was a new species that neither of us had seen before. – Leslie
Who is watching who, Great Gary Owl, Olympus EM-1 Mark ll, Olympus 300mm f4 lens, ©Leslie Degner
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch warming itself in the sun, Olympus EM-1 Mark ll, Olympus 300mm f4 lens, ©Leslie Degner