An Hour of Birding

Now that Daylight Savings Time has begun and the weather is a bit nicer, I am hoping to do more birding in the Blenheim area while my daughter swims.  Yesterday, I had about an hour of birding before the light was too low to really make anything out, so I went to the closest place, the Lagoons.  I am not a person who uses a tri-pod and the whole time I was at the Lagoons, I could hear Les (a man from the photography club I belong to) chastising me about "gluing the tri-pod to the camera".  I had some awesome opportunities to photograph a little songster and the pictures turned out nothing like I was hoping.  Maybe I will follow his advice next time.  Keeping that in mind, please enjoy the spirit in which the pictures are posted, not the actual photography.

I have learned, from previous experience, not to rush up over the berms, but instead to somewhat sneak up to the ponds.  My patience paid off...

Ring-necked Ducks

Although they are not crisp shots, they are clear enough for a positive ID, which is good since they are a lifer for me :) I had a possible ID of these ducks here, but didn't list them because I wasn't sure. Aside from quite a few of these ducks, there were many Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead and either Canvasback or Redheads (or both..can't tell from such a great distance).  Once the ducks spot you, they take off to the area farthest from you!

There were several male Red-winged Blackbirds staking out there territory too...

Red-winged Blackbird

My biggest disappointment today was photographing a little Song Sparrow who was singing up a storm!  I had a seat on a rock as it flitted about the garbage pile at the end of one of the ponds.  I was close enough to get a decent shot with my lens but my lack of steadiness greatly reduced the quality that could have been.

Song Sparrow

This picture has been sharpened, which is better than it was, but nowhere near what I was hoping for.  Lesson learned...let's hope :)

It`s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.....well, almost.

Finally!!  Nice sunny day, mild temps and a day off!  I have been itching to get outside!  I started a second part-time job this January and have had absolutely no time to get outside and see what is happening bird-wise in the area.

I slept in a little later than I had planned, but still managed to get out of the house by 10am.  I decided to head to Lakeview Marina to see if there were any nice ducks hanging around.  When I got there, I was surprised to see a few photographers with their cameras set up on tri-pods, pointed at Peche Island.  There had to be at least 20 Bald Eagles, in various plumage!  Some were on the ice, some flying, some perched in trees on the island.  I was also quite happy to see a Trumpeter Swan (life bird)!  All of these birds were too far off for my camera, so please forgive the grainy-ness of these pictures...

5 Bald Eagles (the ones on the ice) and a Trumpter (far right)

Adult Bald Eagle

As for ducks, the only duck I could make out were Common Mergansers and all attempts to photograph them turned out horrible!  I did manage a couple shots of other birds that were plentiful...

The Gull managed to sneak in the shot at the last minute!

Gulls are fun to photograph :)

After the Marina, I went to Hillman Marsh where I heard my first Red-winged Blackbird of the season...spring really is coming :)  There were lots of Canada Geese, Mallards and even a pair of Northern Pintails (life bird) in the water.  As I approached the water from the trees, the Canada Geese sounded the alarm and this is what I got...

A mass exodus of all the waterfowl :(

Anything that did stick around was quite a ways out in the water and by now, the sun was in the wrong spot to get any decent pictures.

I then decided to head to Point Pelee.  This is the first time I have been this winter, which is unusual...normally I have been 3-4 times since January.  I didn`t see any birds of note but enjoying walking the trails, even if they were really muddy.  All in all, a great day!

Here are the birds I remember seeing today, in no particular order:

1) Bald Eagles

2) Great Blue Heron

3) Common Merganser

4) Canada Geese

5) Ring-billed Gull

6) Trumpeter Swan

7) Mute Swan

8) Red-tailed Hawk

9) Northern Harrier

10) Red-winged Blackbird

11) Northern Cardinal

12) Black-capped Chickadee

13) Downy Woodpecker

14) Wild Turkey

15) Mallards

16) Northern Pintail

My Deer Friend

Today was a gorgeous day so I decided to spend about an hour and half at Ojibway today after work.  I brought my camera and binoculars (of course) and a baggie of bird seed.  I love feeding the Chickadees :)  I checked out the feeders when I first got there and there were the usual suspects....House Sparrows, White-breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers, Cardinals, Chickadees, American Tree Sparrow, Mourning Doves, House Finch and Tufted Titmouse.  There was still a fair amount of food in the feeder, so no one was interested in feeding from my hand.  Here is my favourite bird picture from today.

American Tree Sparrow

I then headed out on one of the paths.  I heard some Chickadees in the branches after about 10 minutes of walking, so I stopped to offer some seed.  I soon had some eager takers flitting in and out of my hand with seed.  After they moved on, I turned around to continue in the direction I was heading and I saw this gorgeous deer in the trees.  I took this picture at 1:23pm according to the data on my card.

First view of the deer.

  It continued to walk toward me, watching me intently, but not scared off.  It paused on the way over toward me at a clearing on the ground looking for food so I took more pictures.

When I saw it still wasn`t spooked, I decided to see if I could get it to come closer....so I threw bird seed on the ground in front of me.  It came right to me!

Check out the squireel in the background...wanting in on the seed but never brave enough ;)

My favourite shot of the day!

Bird seed is good!

Gorgeous!

I took about 150 pictures of this deer!  There could have been a Gyrfalcon perched on the tree beside me and I wouldn`t have noticed....this was such an amazing experience for me!  The deer eventually was distracted by something and began to look around.  It was looking at this...

Another deer!

The above picture was taken at 1:42.  The first deer walked off toward this deer and paused to look back at me.  I decided to continue down the path and at the first step, the second deer bounded into the woods, while my friend stayed put, watching me as I left.  This was the most amazing 19 minutes of my year so far :)  The first deer was within 3 feet of me at one point, but was feeding about 6 feet from me for almost that entire time!  Wow!

As I walked the loop back toward the visitor centre, I couldn`t help but offer praises to God for such an awesome encounter!  I then heard a lot of birds protesting and was hoping to see an owl (that would have been the icing on the cake), but instead I saw a nice Red-tailed Hawk, but there were too many branches between us to get a good shot.  Rounding the corner, I saw these guys all lined up and it made me think of banding at the East Harrow station this past Saturday...

Mourning Doves

I headed back to the feeders and finally was able to coax some of those Chickadees to take some seed.  I headed for home very grateful I stopped by the park today :)

How I spent my Day Off...

I have this entire week off for vacation, so today, I decided to spend the day outside, birding.  With both Dwayne and Karen finding White-winged Crossbills at Holiday Beach Memorial Forest, I thought I would check there since I missed them on Saturday.  While I was there, I thought I would try looking for an owl on my own too.  Well, I didn't see any Crossbills and the closest glimpse I got of an owl (possibly) was flying away from me.  Oh well. 


The Pines
 

From there, I headed to Holiday Beach, hoping some raptors were flying today.  Again, no such luck.
I did manage to get a really good look at a Belted Kingfisher.  I watched it for quite some time hoping I would get to see it fish...wasn't meant to be. I did see a couple flocks of Common Redpolls (life bird!) fly over...thanks to the hawk counter (Jason, I beleive) for pointing them out.  The Wilson's Snipe were still around, so on my way back to my car, I tried to sneak up on them to get a picture, but all I managed to do was flush them.

From there, I drove County Rd. 20, stopping a couple of times (Memorial Forest, Big Creek Site and Pettite Cote) but didn't see anything noteworthy.  I decided I would stop in at Ojibway and at least check the feeders since I didn't have a lot of time left before needing to be home.  I am so glad I did!  I didn't see anything new, but I got some great pictures...


Northern Cardinal, female



Black-capped Chickadee...not in my hand, although I did have a few eating from my hand today :D



American Tree Sparrow



White-breasted Nuthatch...I could have a whole post just from this one bird...so many great shots of this one!



Same bird..with some corn.

I managed to see a lot of birds today...this is what I remember:

Mallard Duck (lot of them!)
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Northern Shoveler
American Coot
Belted Kingfisher
Carolina Wren
Wilson's Snipe
Mute Swan
Common Redpoll (2 flocks!)
Red-tailed Hawk
Fox Sparrow
Black-capped Chickadee
American Tree Sparrow
White-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breased Nuthatch
Northern Cardinal
Tufted Titmouse
Downy Woodpecker
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
House Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco (slate coloured)
Cooper's Hawk

Not a bad day off if you ask me :)

Backyard Fun and Four Life Birds!

DISCLAIMER:  If you are hoping to see some great pictures of birds on this post, you will be sadly mistaken...the pictures included are not the best I have taken, but I felt like sharing them anyway :)

I wasn`t able to get out this week and bird, but I did enjoy watching some birds in my backyard.  I added a few birds to my Backyard List...White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch and Pine Siskin.  That was cool.  I watched a Red-breasted Nuthatch hide seeds all around my patio, including tucking a seed into the liner of a pair of running shoes sitting right outside the door :)

On Wednesday, I was looking out at the back feeder and noticed this guy on the fence...I think it is a Sharpie.  I included a picture of just its tail too...you will see why in a moment...

Don`t look at the ugly fence...it belongs to my neighbour.

The white tip looks quite narrow to me.

After it left, the birds came back and went I back to doing what I was doing around the house.  A couple hours later, I heard Blue Jays making a racket outside and when to go to the spare room window (where I have a better view of the feeder) and upon opening the door, I was eye-to-eye with this bird...

Look at the wider looking white tip

.

The "second" bird on the fence.

I am not sure if this is a Sharpie or a Coop...the tail tip looks much wider in the second bird....could be my imagination and the angle of the picture.  For all I know, it is the same bird that visited earlier.  Either way, it was cool to see them in my backyard and get pictures of them.

On Saturday (today), I went out to Holiday Beach for my last day of banding for the fall.  It was a really slow day (read...1 bird banded, a Winter Wren).  During the time between a couple of net runs, we headed over to the Tower to see what was flying and met up with Paul Pratt's birding group.  While on the tower, I spotted my first Green-winged Teal!  Paul pointed out a Wilson's Snipe and a Northern Shrike to everyone on the tower...how cool are those birds??  When it was time to go back and check the nets (and still had no birds), we started to take down the nets for the season.  During this period, Caroline called Bob and said that the birding group had found five Long-eared owls in the pines across from Holiday Beach.  Bob said he would go check it out, so I tagged along.  After looking for about an hour, Bob spotted one of the Long-eared Owls and I tried my best to get a picture of it while craning my neck to the canopy of the trees while trying to steady my camera...here is what I managed to capture...

Long-eared Owl....so cool!!!

What a thrill to see four life birds today when I had no intention of birding...gotta love when that happens :)

Ojibway Park

I woke up this morning at 5am and couldn`t get back to sleep, so I did the housework that HAD to be done and headed to Ojibway.  I had never walked through the Tallgrass Prairie or the Woodlot on the south side of Matchette, so I went there first.  I almost didn`t walk through the Tallgrass Prairie area because of warning signs for Massassauga Rattlesnakes.  I really don`t like snakes!  A man walking his dogs assured me he has never seen them before.  I decided to walk through the wood instead.  Didn`t see much...Bluejays, Chickadees, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Downy Woodpeckers.  On the way back, I walked through the prairie and thankfully didn`t see any snakes, but I also didn`t see any birds.

I walked back across the street to walk the pond and savannah loop.  I managed to flush a Great Blue Heron before I even knew he was there.  Walking along this trail, I saw more Red-bellied Woodpeckers and some Dark-eyed Juncos (Slate-coloured).

Red-bellied Woodpecker

You can see a bit of the red belly this bird is named for.

Walking through the woods, past the pond, I heard a rustle in the distance and was shocked to see a deer with a large rack!  I fumbled to grab my camera and got this horrible shot before it darted out of sight.

Looks a bit ghost-like, in the centre of the shot.

Once I looped back around, I could see the feeders at the back of the visitor centre and managed to capture a horrible shot of an Eastern Bluebird...in my defence, it was fairly far away and I obeyed the regeneration signs.

The one on the rights is a Bluebird...not sure about the one on the left.

I then went to the feeders by the shed....if I had started there, it would have saved me a lot of time!    There were a lot of birds at the feeders...here are a few pictures of some of what was there...

American Tree Sparrow

Black-capped Chickadee...love this shot!  Not even cropped :)

Fox Sparrow...life bird!!

White-throated Sparrow

Pine Siskin...life bird!!

Snobby Tufted Titmouse

Since it was still early, I decided to walk the Pin Oak Trail...another first for me.  Well, I got lost!  It took me what felt like an eternity to get back to the parking lot!  Just a few minutes shy of the parking lot, I spotted this bird....

Hairy????

I am really hoping this is a Hairy....it was much larger than the Downy Woodpeckers I had seen earlier and the bill looks about the length of its head....please let me know what you think.  Here is another shot at a different angle of the same bird.

What do you think?

Well, aside from these birds, I also saw Mourning Doves, House Sparrows, White-breasted Nuthatch,  and lots of American Goldfinches.  It was a nice morning with a slow start.

Oh...on another note, I have decided to take Nashville Warbler off my life list...I keep going back and looking at those pictures (and others I captured but haven't posted).  This bird has been haunting me!  Those little dark patches on the cheek (visible in one of the shots) just calls the whole ID into question.  My goal in keeping this blog is not a competition or to mislead everyone, so I am taking it off my list.  Maybe now it won't haunt me :s

I almost forgot!  I went to the Blenheim Lagoons last Thursday and got a few shots of birds I have seen before, but better pictures than I had captured before.  Here are a few...

Female Ruddy Duck

Pair of Bufflehead

Northern Shovellers

Sparrow of some sort...but I liked the shot.  I was surprised to see it turned out clear :)

A Slow Day Banding is Still a Great Day!

As pêr my usual (as of late) Saturday routine, I headed out to HBMO to help band songbirds.  Bob usually gets out there while still dark, hoping to capture any Northern Sawhets that may be passing through.  He has been successful the past couple of Sunday`s, so I put on my owl earrings for an extra little bit of "luck" and left extra early hoping to get a Sawhet on a Saturday morning for a change.  I got to the banding station at 6:20am and for our first net run at 6:30, we had a Sawhet!!!  So glad I didn't hit snooze this morning...I would have missed it!

Banded and in Bob`s hand.

Banded and on the ledge...he visited for a few minutes :)

It was a slow day at the Passerine station, so Bob suggested if our 10:00 net run didn`t produce any birds, we would close up and open up the Raptor banding station.  So, at 10:00, we had no birds and by 10:30 we were opening up the Raptor station.  This was my first trip to the Raptor banding station.  Rob (another banding apprentice) and I headed over first with the lure birds (a couple of pigeons) and began to open the nets.  Bob "dressed" the pigeons when he got there and attached them to the lures.  It wasn't long before we had a very, very large bird in the net.  Bob and Claude (who joined us during set up) sprinted for the bird.  I was watching in binoculars and saw that it was a falcon.  At about the time I yelled "It's a falcon!", Bob and Claude where yelling "It's a Gyr!!!  It's a Gyr!!!"  It got itself free from the net, flew right toward me, up and gone!  Claude quickly radioed the Hawk Tower to be on the look out for it, but they didn't see it....it was flying quite low and most likely those on the tower had their necks craned to the sky!  How amazing!  Of course, my point and shoot was in my pocket :(

Shortly after this, we caught a Red-tailed Hawk that managed to get Bob pretty good in the thumb. Here is a picture of it as Bob was removing it from the net...

The hawk was making itself big and scary.

After it was banded, I got to release it...as usual, horrible picture of me, not so bad of the bird.

First time handling a Red-tail....big change from songbirds :D

What a big bird!  The small songbirds we have been banding are generally under 10 grams (a few weigh more) and this bird was 1123 grams!  Its wing chord was something like 225mm and many of the bigger songbirds wing chords are less than 90mm!  Seeing them in the hand really gives some perspective to their sizes.  We caught, banded and released two more Red-tails shortly after this one.  When I left, Bob was still holding out for a Golden Eagle :)  One flew past the tower today but we didn't see it.  I hope Bob gets his eagle this year but will be really ticked to get a report of him getting one today.  It was a slow day for banding but an amazing one for me :)