A Loonie Week at the Cottage

I have to say that this week's highlights here at the cottage were Common Loons, but more on that shortly...

On Sunday I asked a cottage neighbour permission to access their property at the Point for birding and was pleasantly surprised to find another Lifer, an Orange-crowned Warbler a Palm Warbler. Too bad for me, I had a Lifer for a few days but it was taken away just as quickly with third opinion on this first year young one below:

But Labour Day Monday's trip to CKL Road 24 rewarded me with a pair of Common Loons feeding near Birch Point Marina. I remained in my car the whole time as they swam closer and closer to me, it was abfab, here are random shots of the time I spent there with this pair:

And it still sucks to be a crayfish:

Eventually the Loons moved further away, though, so I continued on to find the young ("wingercising") Osprey by Kenstone Beach Road having breakfast, a very good thing as I've not seen the parents in a while now, so at least he's able to feed himself!

After breakfast, he returned back to his nest tree, obviously in search of a brush to fix his lid, yikes:

One of the three young Osprey was on the platform nest where the bridge demolition has been happening. Through the week when the construction noise is bad I have yet to see any of them near the nest, but as it was a holiday with no construction workers around, he had returned to his birthplace!

 

It was quiet on the warbler front, but a juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was an unexpected surprise:

On Tuesday morning, only one of the Common Loons was feeding in the same spot by the marina:

I love the morning leg-stretch:

First year Yellow-rumped Warblers were feeding in the trees by the beach:

I returned back home and walked along the back road towards the swamp to see an Osprey on the wing:

Young Yellow-rumps were rampant too, did I not tell you how jaded I am about them now??

I wrapped up my week today by hitting the swamp again this morning, this Brown Thrasher was the first BOTD for me:

Young Yellow-rumped Warblers were everywhere, as were American Goldfinches, thanks to Garth's niger seed feeders:

Here's one of the several Eastern Phoebes we always have at the swamp:

I've noticed a lot more Canada Geese on the move over the past few days, these ones got into a scuffle with a Great Blue Heron when they landed here.

What does one have to do to get some attention around here?? The one on the left is not budging... 

I headed off for CKL Road 24 (where else??) and spotted some Wild Turkeys in a field on Highway 36:

One of them already knows that Thanksgiving is around the bend:

On the Osprey front, the two "tagged" females are now officially on the move, both of them have "left the building" and are already south of the border in the United States, waaah. Bye, bye Birdies!! The Emily Creek female only just left this week, here's the Bird Studies Canada link that I check on a daily basis:

http://www.bsc-eoc.org/research/speciesatrisk/ospr/index.jsp?targetpg=ospreytracker

And now that the Emily Creek nest is empty, look who the new occupants are, they wasted no time!!

  

A Great Blue Heron flew over while catching flies, or perhaps small birds:

My Trash Birds Yellow-rumped Warblers fed and dealt with itches:

The young Scotch Line Osprey is wondering where his parents are...

...as is the Kenstone Beach one:

After doing some errands in Bobcaygeon, I briefly investigated a new area called Emily Tract:

These tall trees were full of Black-capped Chickadees and assorted warblers, but they were well out of range for my lens:

I was extremely pleased to find the following warning signs though. The other conservation areas that I've frequented could take a page from this place:

And I did not know that poison ivy is an issue even in the wintertime!!


The sign posted on the tree below reads...

My final stop for the day was at the Lindsay Sewage Lagoons, I found no shorebirds whatsoever, but this first year Common Yellowthroat seemed pleased to see me:

On that note I shall wrap up this post that should have been completed three hours ago, but NOOOOOOOOOO, Ma Bell and Novatel, the manufacturer of my turboschtick, decided to torture me with upgrades that in fact have worsened my connectivity. That's all I'll say on the matter. For now.

My next post will be on my Presqu'ile trip with John from Thursday where I added to my Life List with shorebirds, which somehow makes up for the Orange-crowned Warbler that was ripped away from me today- eeerrrr,  make that YESTERDAY!