Howell Conference and Nature Center

My husband and I got to go on vacation, just the two of us, in July.  One of the places we checked out was the Howell Conference and Nature Center.  What a beautiful facility!  We were thoroughly impressed with the grounds and the care of the animals they had.  Here are some of my favourite pictures from our visit....keep in mind the animals are permanently injured and therefore in enclosures.

The Eagles were very talkative :)

Beautiful!

Barn Owl

Barred Owl

Bobcat

Broad-winged Hawk

Great Horned Owl

Harlan`s Hawk

Harrier

A woodpecker peeking out of a tree...not a captive bird :)

Porcupine

Red-tailed Hawks

Short-eared Owl

Snowy Owl

Snowy Owl...being brought inside to the air conditioning :)

This Week in Birding....

 I managed to get out to Point Pelee twice this week and bird from by dirty windows in between. On Wednesday I went to Point Pelee after picking up my new binoculars at Pelee Wings.  My daughter came with me.  We didn't see much...a Turkey Vulture, a bunch of racoons and some big gull-like birds way out in the lake. We toured the onion fields and didn't turn up a Snowy Owl, but we did see a couple of Northern Harriers cruising over the fields. Then, on Saturday, birding through my dirty bedroom windows (I really need to clean them), I saw a new visitor (and a lifebird) to our backyard!  A Red-bellied Woodpecker!  It was also nice to see a White-throated Sparrow visiting the feeders (only the 3rd time I have seen one in the back yard...here is a post about the first one I saw).   Then I got a message through facebook from Denyse, our bestman's mother, and she asked if I would take her to see the Snowy Owl in Leamington, so we headed out today.  I picked her up at about 8am and headed out to the onion fields.  After a bit of searching, we came across what I think is a Northern Mockingbird, and eventually found the Snowy Owl.  We then headed into PPNP to see what else we could find.  We saw some ducks out in the lake at the tip that we couldn't quite make out for sure, crawled through the sand to get up from the beach, saw some turkey tracks and couldn't find a bird making quite a bit of noise in the woods.  We then went out for lunch at a great place Denyse found out about by "asking the locals".  We had a great day!  Here are some pictures from this week...

The lake on the west side of the Tip on Wednesday.

The lake on the east side of the Tip on Wednesday.  Mackenzie took this :)





Red-bellied Woodpecker as seen through my dirty window.





 

A possible Northern Mockingbird.

Snowy Owl...the white blob in the middle of the field.

Unknown ducks...I really need to learn ducks...a little too far off to ID for sure...

Gull-like birds...all I can make out is the black wings.

Another unknown....to far to ID for sure.

Turkey tracks on the beach.

Snowy Owls!!!

Today Betsy called saying she and Lydia were going out again today to try to spot the Snowys and asked if I wanted to come.  Sure!  We found two....TWO Snowy Owls in the onion fields today!  We were giddy like school girls :)  We then stopped by to see the Great Gray again, but I didn't take any pics of him today.  A three owl day is a great day!  Forgive the blurry photos...they were far away!

Snowy Owl #1...Got to even watch this one fly and eat something!!



Snowy Owl #2!!  Not one picture of this one facing us.  Assuming this is a female as it was quite a bit larger than the first one.


We also saw some ducks that looked like Scaup...unsure though.  We got a good look at a Northern Harrier today as well!  Great afternoon!!