The Wonderful World of Warblers

How quickly I've changed my tune as I've spent all day sifting through my photos from last Saturday and sending off my "best guess" to Master John, who deserves kudos for his utmost patience with me, thanks John!

I will start my day at the beginning with our resident cottage Merlin at sunrise:

I left for the better part of the day to allow Robert to prep for a dinner party that he we were hosting that night, beginning my journey at CKL Road 24 where an adult Osprey flew overhead with breakfast:

My new favorite spot for warblers was in a group of assorted trees by the bridge, and my first Lifer for the day (although I didn't know it until today!!) was this first year male Bay-breasted Warbler:

My second lifer for the day, in this same spot, was a adult male American Redstart, no awards will be coming my way for this photo but it's for my records only:

I'm going to get out of synch a bit now by including another American Redstart that I found in this same warbler trap on Monday, which John thinks is a young male, isn't it amazing what colour they start off with and end up with orange and black??!! The yellow flash-patch on the wings and tail show beautifully here. They fan the tail to flush out insects to eat, how ingenious is that! 

Now back to Saturday, though: my next stop was at the Lindsay Sewage Lagoons, and yup, I had some obscure shorebirds there, making all kinds of squeals as they played hopscotch across the algae, but this was WARBLER WEEK for me, so too bad for them. I don't have a clue what they were, nor do I particularly care as they're not as pretty as the warblers!

My obligatory Cedar Waxwings shots from the lagoons, an adult and a first year:

The jury is out on this next young warbler, which could be either a Common Yellowthroat or Nashville, so any opinions are welcome:

...only including this one for a better view of the sides and tail:

A first year Yellow-rumped Warbler played coy with me:

This female Yellow Warbler was busy eating an insect...

...then later came back to investigate me:

A young male Common Yellowthroat was not bashful in the least as he presented me with first-ever beard black mask:

My third Lifer for the day was this young male Magnolia Warbler:

So this area by the cottage had turned out to be quite the treasure trove of warblers for me, even though it took me a few days to discover that! 

I continued on to the Pontypool area but it was quiet, other than lots of Blue Jays on the move, but I was thrilled to find a serious patch of poison ivy to avoid at the side of the road, yikes!!

On my return trip through the Little Britain area, I drove north on Opmar Road towards Highway 7 and found this Flycatcher, either a Willow or Alder, we will never know for sure as it didn't offer up any calls:

So not bad for seven hours of birding, three Lifers, despite lots of homework for me to get there- again, many thanks to John for his help with these sweeties!

And as for the dinner party that Robert was supposed to be handling toute seule? He cheated and hired a server to help him out, grrrrrrrrrrr!