McGeachy Pond

I dropped the girls off at the pool and headed to McGeachy Pond.  I love that place!  Today was perfect.....it was sunny, the lake was still (rare for Lake Erie in my experience) and I could hear more birds than I could possibly track and spot.  There were lots of Yellow Warblers, but they gave me a run for my money...apparently they are camera shy :)

Two fast-flying Yellow Warblers :)

 This Gray Catbird tried not to be photographed as well, but I really like this picture...I think it turned out really good.

Beautiful Gray Catbird

 There were a bunch of Terns flying around and I initially thought this was a Caspian Tern...orange bill, black feet...but the dark wings seem odd for a Caspian Tern...what are your thoughts?  I have photos of other terns from today (not on the blog) that don't have these dark wings...


A Tern of some variety....

 There were also a lot of butterlies...here are a couple varieties I managed to get clear pictures of.

Today was a great birding day for me!  Here is a list of species noted at McGeachy Pond:
Great Blue Heron, Canada Geese, Barn Swallows, Tree Swallows, Yellow Warblers, Gray Catbird, Red-Winged Blackbird, Brown Thrasher (life bird!!), Baltimore Oriole, Grackle, Robin, Gulls (not sure the variety), Terns (one or two species), a Sandpiper of some variety (or something that looks like that), Mute Swans, Killdeer.  I left the pond at the time I was supposed to be at the pool....but the girls didn't even notice :)

More First from Mother's Day at Point Pelee

I have been reluctant to post all my "firsts" from Point Pelee because I fear I won't have any new bird pictures to post for a while.  However, here are some more firsts from Point Pelee, May 8, 2011. 

I am not sure what this is...we were walking along the beach to the Tip and saw about 10-12 of these beauties perched in the tree tops.  As we approached, they left.  If you know what it is, could you let me know?

I am pretty sure this is a Red-Breasted Nuthatch.  We watched as he (I think?) searched for food, however, he went up the tree trunk head first instead of coming down head first.  From my very limited knowledge, that is typical activity of a Creeper, but this bird doesn't look like a Creeper to me.

The best I can tell, this is a Yellow Warbler.  This is the second warbler I have ever seen in my entire life and was thrilled to get pictures of both (see my earlier post).  This is very cropped as I saw him out of the corner of my eye and had just enough time to snap a couple pictures before he flew away.  I am using "he" and "him" generically as way to refer to the birds.  I am still learning to identify the birds I see.  If any of my posts wrongly identify a bird, please let me know :)

If you are counting (not including the hawk-like bird), that is 31 birds!