Gray Partridges in Regina, Saskatchewan

Yes, Gray Partridges in my Regina, Saskatchewan, front yard. This pair showed up mid-morning on a harshly-backlit, white-sky winter day, as part of their local garden tour — in from the country, browsing for food.

Not sure what these red-headed birds found in our snow drifts, though, other than the buried remnants of two frozen Christmas trees. Still, they made me smile. (I love the bouncing effect of the bird, front left, which has both of its feet off the ground.)

Gray Partridges, touring the neighbourhood. © SB

We usually see a Partridge or two on our street at least once every winter. Odd, though... Not in summer. And I've only once caught a glimpse of their chestnut-red or gray-brown feathers out in what I think should be their natural habitat (whatever that means to a bird), north of the city at the Condie Nature Refuge.

What are these? Gray Partridges.
Location: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. 

Photo dates: March 16, 2013. 

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Birds and Basement Windows

Sometimes we don't see what's before us until we move on — or, in my case, don't see the picture until it's on the screen, as if my brain goes on auto-pilot when I focus the camera, and the photographic record become both magical and more real by capturing what I never knew I saw. 

All of which is to say that when I went out to take pictures of the partridges in my neighbour's yard on the weekend, I didn't know I would end up so delighted by the image, below, of my neighbour's basement window. 

I don't know what's reflected in that rippled glass, or what attracted the birds to it — the heat? the exposed grass? — but I liked the result enough to double-mat it.  

Gray Partridges 

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A Covey of Partridges on my Street

Every winter, we see — and startle — Gray (Hungarian) Partridges in our neighbourhood. Yesterday, a covey of partridges was back, perhaps encouraged by the recent snow to fly in from the fields to forage here, at the edge of the city.

Winter visitors to the city:  
Gray Partridges on our neighbour's lawn  © SB

These chicken-like birds are very sensitive to human movement — no surprise, as some people consider the Gray Partridge a game bird, and shoot them.

The dozen or so partridges that appeared on a lawn across the street ignored a bus and several cars that rumbled past, and calmy marched through the snow and up to the exposed grass beside a basement window. Nothing disturbed them — until I decided to tiptoe down our front steps to get a better angle for a picture. That movement — or the long lens of my camera, aimed for that shot — drove them squawking into the air.

What are these?  Gray Partridges, also called Hungarian Partridges. 
Location: Regina, Saskatchewan.
Photo Date: November 12, 2011.

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