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 :)

A Quick Update...

Not much bird watching this week....more like walking in birdy places.  On Monday, October 15, I went to HBMO after helping out at Wings Rehab (see picture below of the thrill of my day!)  to see if there were any hawks moving.  It was a slow day, but still saw some Sharpies, a Cooper's, and some Turkey Vultures.  There were also GBH's, Great Egrets and Pied-billed Grebes in the water, along with lots of other ducks I didn't pay much attention to.  While there, however, I asked Todd (the hawk counter on duty) about the swallow-like birds flying around and he informed me they were Chimney Shifts!  How exciting to see a life bird!  I couldn`t get a picture of them though..they are far to fast for my photography skills.

In my glories!  Holding a Sawhet Owl, preparing to return it to its enclosure.

While at the Hawk Tower, I showed Todd (who is also a songbird bander for HBMO) the pics of what I identified as a Nashville Warbler in the last post and he seems to think it is a Nashville as well.  The contrast on the birds back, the distinct eye-ring and yellow-white-yellow underside are markers for the Nashville...this bird has kept my attention for quite a while, trying to be sure I haven't posted an error.

On Tuesday, while in Blenheim, I went for a walk with Jen  to the C.M. Wilson Conservation area...another nice spot!  There were quite a few birds around, but with the crunching of fall leaves and talking to each other, I didn`t get goods looks at any birds but a Hermit Thrush (first time seeing one in the wild...life bird!) and lots of Golden-crowned Kinglets.  Here are a couple pictures from that walk...

Such cuties!

Hermit Thrush

On Thursday, while in Blenheim again, I went for a walk with Cheryl, another swim mom.  She happens to have a pass to enter Rondeau Park due to the fact she is a Monarch tagger.  So, off we headed to Rondeau!  I didn`t realize it was only 13 minutes from the pool!  I love Blenheim :)  Anyway, I hadn`t been there since my kids were really little and I took Cheryl`s suggestion to walk along the marsh.  The first thing we noticed were all the ducks in the water...and a couple odd balls hanging out with the mallards...

Look at the two in the middle...sorry about the reeds in the way...

Add caption

Possible Northern Pintails??

To me, they look like Northern Pintails, but they are missing the long tail feathers that the guide books show...any thoughts?  You can see the white neck and white strip up the back of the head if you zoom in really close.  There were a lot of birds and ducks around but we spent the whole time talking.  It was also fun to point out some birds now familiar to me that weren't to Cheryl :)

Another highlight of this week was spending time at the banding station today (Saturday)...although it was a slow day, I did manage a few successful extractions (complete with letting one go accidently) and banding another Hermit Thrush.  To get used to handling the smaller birds, Bob (the experienced bander I was "helping") gave me a little Ruby-crowned Kinglet to practice handling after he processed it.  Amazingly, I he didn't slip away from me as I went through the motions with him of "banding" him (pulling out his leg), aging and sexing him, and checking how fat he was.  There is nothing more thrilling than handling birds up close and personal.  Here is an awful picture of this experience...

Self taken with my point and shoot...horrible pic, but love the bird face peeking out :)

I have started a page, at the top of the blog, to track my bird banding experiences, if you are interested.  While leaving the banding station, I heard a bird call I didn't recognize and Bob pointed out the Kingfisher flying around the pond.  Only the second time I have seen one, but the first time I have heard them...what a racket!  While driving home, I saw a Bald Eagle flying above the intersection of Howard and #3.  Only the fourth time I have seen one...but second this week...I forgot to mention that I saw one flying overhead near my mother-in-law's, near Jefferson and South National, on Thursday!

Well, not a bad week, if you ask me :)  I am hoping to get out to Rondeau and the Blenheim Lagoons this week, weather permitting, while my daughter swims :)

Point Pelee...again :)

I headed to Point Pelee on the morning of October 1st.  It was a bright, beautiful fall day.  I don`t work Monday`s and I figured the housework could wait :) I had read Dwayne's blog over the weekend and he had found Virginia Rail and Sora at the Marsh Boardwalk, so I thought I would give it try...I haven't seen either of these birds before.  I didn't see them, but I did see the following birds, all of which are life birds!!

Eastern Phoebe

Swamp Sparrow

Rusty Blackbird

 The next three pictures are of the same species, but from different angles.  After a lot of time analysing these photos and thumbing through numerous field guides, I have identified this bird as a Nashville Warbler...please correct me if I am wrong...

Nashville Warbler or Common Yellow-throat?

Nashville Warbler or Common Yellow-throat?

Nashville Warbler or Common Yellow-throat?

Another pic showing yellow under tail.

The next life bird was the only one not found on the Marsh Boardwalk...it was found on the Woodland Nature trail...

Winter Wren

To say this was a great birding day for me is a total understatement!  I was all by myself and enjoyed the quiet time spent in God's creation.  I saw a bunch of other birds too....I will list them for you (and include pics when I was able to capture them):

Great Blue Heron

Red-winged Blackbird
Canada Goose

Wood Duck

Double-crested Cormorant
Blue Jay
Brown Creeper

Turkey Vultures...there are 17 in this picture.  There were about 50 moving over in total!

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Red-tailed Hawk

Downy Woodpecker

Dark-eyed Junco (there were a bunch on the Woodland Nature Trail entrance...I was surprised to see them so early)

Killdeer

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-throated Sparrow

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Well, at least those are the ones I remember seeing...there may have been more.  I wrote down what I remembered as soon as I got home.  Such a great day and very happy I decided to skip the housework!