Babies, Babies Everywhere!

I was so focused on my Pelee trip report that I've neglected some other miscellaneous days out in the field, going back to early July when by chance I discovered a Red-tailed Hawk nest in the Scugog area, thanks to two very noisy babies (I always drive with both windows down and the air-conditioning totally off so I can hear better):

The younger one of  the two is quite perturbed that its older sibling is already out of the nest:

The older one looks back up at its sibling still in the nest:

I made a few return trips over the next few weeks with no luck as they were both out of the nest and expanding their territory, until this past week-end when the older one was seen in a tree:

If you stay in your car, you'll see more beauties like this, the older one:

The next day I finally found the younger one, its head is still out of proportion to its body:

...enjoying the early morning sunshine over a stream:

I hope to see them again over the next few weeks before they disappear!

Last week found John and I battling poison ivy in the Ganaraska Forest to add an Acadian Flycatcher to our year list, even if we never did get a visual on him. On our way home we stopped off at Sobey's pond, and one of the shorebirds we saw was this young Spotted Sandpiper (ssssh,John. Still hating shorebirds, but not as much as GULLS)...

...and a lifer dragonfly for me, a stunning Calico Pennant:

Another trip to the cottage a few days later confirmed that Fall Warbler Hell has already begun, as this first year male Mourning Warbler presented himself to me (thanks to Doug, Skip, and Master John for their input on this sucker):

On the week-end near the Long Sault Conservation Area, baby sparrows were plentiful as they soaked up the rain, here's a young Chipping Sparrow (I did much better on identifying these all on my own than that warbler and sandpiper, arghhhh)...

...and one of a pair of young Grasshopper Sparrows  that I saw:

The Osprey babies near the cottage are now everywhere too, one of my favorite nests has two babies that have yet to fledge. The two babies can be seen here, sitting lower in the nest:

...still young enough to be fed:

Only a few days later, one of the babies can be seen in the nest while a parent looks on:

While just a few kilometres away, the babies have fledged, one of them was practising flight manoeuvres when I arrived:

Eventually it landed on a hydro wire right next to me, where I spent the next hour just watching it sit and preen and balance itself in the winds off the lake:

So you all know where I'm going to be over the next few weeks, right? Living on any back roads enjoying these babies as they learn how to fly and explore their exciting new world as they venture out of the nest, I wonder what's going through their minds??