Many times I am asked why some birds stay in Canada during the winter, when they would normally migrate south to a warm place with their fellow members of the species. This is a fairly complicated question to answer, but here goes! Generally, if there is enough food to find, and good shelter, a bird may decide not to face the rigors of migration. Migration, for most, is a positive survival tactic. For many other birds, it can be the most dangerous time of their lives. While migrating, birds do not know where the food supply they need is located, and they must do a delicate balancing act between flying around to find food, and expending too much energy to recover. As well, the predators in the migration path are in their home area, and know how to live there, while the migrating birds are in a strange area, and can be easily taken by the predator. While migrating, birds face other dangers, such as storms that blow them many miles off their course. These storms are often the cause of many birds being seen thousands of miles from their normal areas. As well, there are tall communication towers, power lines, and buildings, often with blinding, confusing lights. The bird that stays behind, and manages to survive will have an advantage in the spring, as it will have first choice in the available breeding territories. Either way, if the individual bird guesses wrong in a particular year, it may die.

Some of our normal residents are starting to show courtship and territorial displays. While we humans fret about the winter yet to come, the Great Horned Owls are busy starting to get their nests ready, and will soon be laying eggs. The Black-capped Chickadees are also getting ready for their soon-to-come nesting season. If you watch them, you can see much more aggression than they showed during the early winter. Their songs, the short two note "dee dee", can be heard now and in the coming weeks. The first note is usually higher in pitch than the second, and some times a third note is added. The usual "chicka-dee-dee" sound is their call, and is used to keep members of the flocks aware of where everybody is.

As promised in last month's column, here are the dates for the Tofield Snow Goose Festival. This year, it all happens on April 24th and 25th. For more information about the town and the festival, check out http://www.tcnap.tofield.ab.ca . To get answers to specific questions, you can email tofield@supernet.ab.ca . If any of you readers know of other birding festivals that you would like to have mentioned in this column, please let me know about the details, and I will give them a plug as well. The more we birders get together and do our thing in public, under the scrutiny of the press, the more great publicity our hobby gets. Our hobby is the fastest growing leisure activity in the world, but publicity never hurts. Many times, we tend to bird in private, or in small groups, and talk to each other. We should be talking to the non-birders, instead of ourselves. That's it for this month, see you all in March!