Friday May 21- Lindsay Area

OK, so I've been twitching badly the past five days without any internet access after discovering that any new laptops do not have built-in modems for dial-up, which is all I have at the cottage. Could you hear my screams??? You know, that 20,000,000 decibel wailing that made the Victoria Day fireworks sound like soft rain on a summer's day? Yup, that was me. Anyhoot, enough about that, I'm baaaaaaaack!!! :-D

On Friday afternoon I went to Ken Reid Conservation Area on the northwest side of Lindsay:

I learned a few things that day:

I do not recall these signs being there last year, but DO recall seeing bear scat last year at Ken Reid, and also tales of a Black Bear wandering on a major highway on the east side of Lindsay the day before, so took these signs seriously.

I also learned that there are consequences to one's actions, remember these kids doing the Wild Thing back on April 13??

Well, almost six weeks later, here are the consequences:

No one's laughing now, in fact the male was gone for most of the time I was there, no wonder she looks so stressed above as she's stuck on the nest. I saw no signs of babies yet, and based on how long he was gone, I doubt there are any yet.

   

My third learning for the day was that visiting Ken Reid CA on a Friday afternoon before a long week-end is NOT wise, as the local high school stoners began to arrive en masse, so I made a quick departure before they totally out-numbered me (running into a bear would have been preferable, in fact).

Totally crestfallen, I headed back to the cottage but decided at the last minute to stop in at the Lindsay Sewage Lagoons, and in keeping with my week of YELLOW birds, I was rewarded with a Lifer, a Yellow-headed Blackbird!!! This was thanks to one of the employees there who said other birders earlier in the day had sighted one, in fact it was the same fellow who feared I had a gun the other day...

The irony was that I had heard of a resident Yellow-headed Blackbird down by the Boundary Bay dykes in B.C., but had dipped on both trips there this month as well as last November, and end up finding this one almost in my own backyard!!

I loved the white wing patches on him, more noticeable whenever he was in flight or found himself in a skirmish with the Red-winged Blackbirds:

I also found my first Black Terns for the year:

As I left the area, this Yellow Warbler bid me adieu...

...as did this Eastern Kingbird, I have yet to see the supposed orange-red crown patch "that lies beneath":

So ends my first week back to Ontario with some very pleasant surprises!