Lindsay/Bobcaygeon Area with Ann- Part Deux- June 4/5, 2010

On Saturday morning first thing, Ann and I went on our Fox stake-out again but had no luck, so we continued towards the swamp, saying "good morning" to Brenda and Jim's Eastern Phoebe chicks:

Jeremiah was awake and ready to face the world with his usual enthusiastic manner:

We left The Point and headed back to the Sewage Lagoons in Lindsay and confirmed with the worker there that we had an hour to roam around the ponds. He admitted to us that he had neglected to tell us the day before to "watch out for the Snappers". NOW he tells us, here's one in camo gear, check out the claws, yikes!

 

We saw more of the same on the bird front from the day before, ie Black Terns, Red-winged Blackbirds, Blue-winged Teal, but also added a Green-winged Teal to our list. Here's a gathering of Wood Ducks, both male and female, along with what appeared to be a Greater Scaup:

From there we made our mandatory Timmie's stop in town (useless trivia for the day: Lindsay has five, count 'em, FIVE Tim Horton's, for a tiny population of 17,000!!!) and then headed for Bobcaygeon, the Osprey Capital of the province (I just made that up). We found our first Osprey nest on CR 24, and continued on to the Birch Point area of Sturgeon Lake, in search of the Grasshopper Sparrow from a few days before, only hearing but not locating him. 

We arrived in Bobcaygeon at the first platform nest I knew of by the local pool, only to find it vacant this year. Maybe it had something to do with the Boy Scouts that had descended upon the area, no chance of any other birds there that day either due to the crowds and raft races.

So that left us the nest next to the locks: both parents were present, but it appeared that the male had an injury on its left leg, perhaps a fish it had caught still had a fishing hook in it that got caught on his leg, there was also fishing line or string attached:

Notice the tear on the inside of his left leg, poor thing:

Here's a view of him from the front, not looking particularly distressed, but is still concerning if he becomes unable to provide food for the family:

We left town, choosing the scenic route of CR 24 again, and decided to visit one last platform nest by the bridge. By now there were serious whitecaps on the lake, and I refer to these next shots as my WIND TUNNEL SHOTS, it was so blustery, it's amazing that anything turned out as our camera lenses were getting blown all over the place. As it happens, these are, IMHO, some of my best flight shots to date, I don't have a clue how that happened!!

Here are both parents on the nest:

Between wind gusts, we noticed a Common Loon body-surfing on the lake, one of Ann's target birds for the week-end:

We were transported back to the car by the high winds and on our way home along CR 24 sought out the Eastern Bluebird we had seen earlier, and as a bonus found an Eastern Meadowlark in the very same area:

Eastern Bluebird; there must be a nest nearby, will investigate it next time I'm there:

My highlight of the week-end, though, was my official, yet unexpected induction to the Pooparazzi Hall of Fame, thanks to this next, and final sequence of shots, no doubt aided by the high winds. I am told that the clarity, composition, and depth-of-field is outstanding, but YOU be the judge:

Holy Whitewash! I'm just thankful that I wasn't standing where this stuff landed!!

Seriously, Ann and I had a blast, accumulating 54 species over the two days. But I am still working on forgiving her for always making me walk ahead of her to be on the look-out for:

1. Bears
2. Snakes
3. Snappers
4. Poison Ivy
5. Bears

Any suggestions on the forgiveness front for me??!!