Durham Ditties

Spring migration has certainly picked up over the past few weeks, so my "first of the season" photos include a Caspian Tern at Second Marsh:

A Greater Yellowlegs in Oshawa enjoyed a flooded field, thanks to the recent wet weather:

Recent arrivals from South America were also discovered in Oshawa:

Yesterday morning ahead of my TWC shift, a quick and dirty trip to Thickson's Woods resulted in an unexpected Lifer for me, but first I had to battle the clouds of midges in the air, OMG:

But lots of bugs meant lots of food for newly-arrived birds, as a serious influx of migrants had been reported the day before. The chorus of birds singing as I set foot into the woods was almost deafening, I kid you not!

Hermit Thrushes, American Robins, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets were everywhere...

...as were Yellow-rumped Warblers:

I ran into Jim enjoying the early part of the day too, sharing with me that a male Scarlet Tanager was in the woods, so thanks to him I eventually found it later on, another Lifer, whoooohooo!!! Here's my garbage record shot of it, it was very high up in the trees feeding, and all of those black dots are midges. Thanks for the Lifer, Jim, that's number two hundred and eighty!

Northern Flickers were everywhere, calling in mates:

A female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was seen on Thickson Road as I returned to my car. By coincidence, I saw a second one for the day at the Toronto Wildlife Centre: 

The resident Great Horned Owl sunbathed in a pine:

Check out the size of its foot, as well as those incredible talons:

My Year List now stands at 136 species, with lots more to come in the next few weeks, including some Lifers at Pelee, I hope! My photo session with the Scarlet Tanager reminded me to bring ice packs on my Pelee trip, too, for my imminent warbler neck pain, ouch.