Eared Grebe- Cobourg Harbour- Monday June 7, 2010

Hohum, another Lifer today, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

You have no idea how much John and I struggled today to find this handsome fellow that's been hanging out at the harbour for the past several days, he's my new favourite bird. As per the Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario, the Eared Grebe is a western species, and a very rare and recent breeder in Ontario.  

The lighting was absolutely spectacular this morning to accentuate his wispy, golden plumes that at times almost looked bronze in colour. How striking they were next to his vibrant red eyes, neatly positioned over his black neck, I cannot figure out why he's flying solo without a girlfriend, he's so handsome, fastidiously-groomed, polite, and well-mannered- who says all the good ones are taken???!!!

To Les in West Van: in case you couldn't tell, "Grebe is the new Kingbird"- hah!

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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??!!

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

Had a fabulous day and a half session with Ann on my cottage stomping grounds, with the weather gods smiling down upon us, meeting at Ken Reid Conservation Area at noon on Friday. I had a good feeling as I finally was able to locate the Red-eyed Vireo that had been incessantly singing its "here-I-am, can't-find-me" tune for days on end, here's a view from beneath, 'twas the best I could do, and no, you won't be able to see the red eye:

As expected, the highlight at Ken Reid were the Ospreys, as the nesting pair now appears to have young, although we could not see them, but certainly the parents were in feeding mode. There are a few nests in the area, which would explain the numbers we would see on the wing, at one point there was four of them soaring overhead. This one gave the parents on the nest some grief and flew in so close to our viewing platform that we  could almost feel the breeze from it as it swung by us, curiously looking down at us to check out our cameras' gunning noise:

 

Other than the Osprey action, though, it was generally quiet on the bird front. Great Blue Herons were plentiful as they hunted in the marshes:

A Common Moorhen did the Chicken Dance off in the distance from us, flaunting its bold fashion statement of a red bill with green legs:

Ann had been hearing a Pileated Woodpecker in the woods behind us, and eventually it flew straight across the marsh to the forest on the far side, giving us great views of its white underwing coverts, a first for me as I usually only have views of quick, brief flights at the cottage.

Butterflies were everywhere:

As we watched Black Terns (a Lifer for Ann, whoohoo!) skimming the water surface by the bridge...

...a female Belted Kingfisher flew in next to us:

Yet another Eastern Kingbird posed for us (I know, I know, when will I ever stop taking and posting photos of these charmers, does anyone want to start a petition called "MAKE HER STOP"??)

We hiked a mini-marathon through the forest to the "point", somewhat disappointed that the trail didn't hug the shoreline better for unobstructed views out over the water, but were relieved that the insect population didn't devour us as much as we had feared. I also showed Ann the beach area where we discovered another Osprey nest, explaining the numbers we had seen there.



We departed for the Lindsay Sewage Lagoons, and much to my surprise found that we still had access to them for half an hour, so we did a quick jaunt around the north and south cells, and found my Blue-winged Teal families, Wood Ducks, Greater Scaup, Canada Geese, Caspian Terns, Black Terns and Red-winged Blackbirds (am seriously hating these suckers now) by the hundreds, here's a female (okfine, not totally hating them):

We returned to the cottage to collapse for the day, but Ann kept going, and she and Robert discovered two of the fox kits in the neighbourhood, I'm sure Ann will post a few shots of them on her blog!

Over and out for Part Un, I will now bravely face the challenge of down-loading photos from yesterday's outing, stay tuned!

Hi-speed rules! June 1/2 w Photos added- Lindsay/Bobcaygeon Area

Am re-posting this now with photos!

I combined June 1st and 2nd as I spent time at the Dunsford Nature Trail, as well as the Lindsay Sewage Lagoons, and County Road 24 that would lead into Bobcaygeon (were it not for the bridge that's been shut down for at least three years now).

My species tally for both days was 45, making my YTD tally now 186, and My Life List has grown to 245, adding two more (sorry, Ann). 

Let's start at the Dunsford Nature Trail, which is a long, flat trail that runs along the old railway line, with mixed habitat of marsh, hedgerows and forests:

As you can see from the revised sign above, they spared no expense when the JOINT conservation effort fell to pieces, as the township merely painted over the existing sign, too funny (but economical)!

I feared that I had entered the dead zone of birding for the spring/summer, as it was very quiet in general at all places, as our feathered friends have paired up (therefore not as much singing going on, those males are lazy bums, they get what they want, then shaddup) and/or are on the nest tending to their new families.

Somuchso that out of desperation I have started to take photos of butterflies, dragonflies, and fleurs, this is how it starts, I am told by John, and I'm now "getting it" . My flutterby field guide is now on order, in the meantime here are some photos that I'll be able to eventually identify:

I encountered a massive SNAPPING TURTLE, and there were signs of egg-laying in the sand on the sides of the trail, with dug-out holes and broken eggshells, I'm totally ignorant on these things, so am not sure if they've hatched or have been excavated and consumed by those prying claws of racoons...I now suspect the latter, as my Toronto Zoo Identifier sheet states that twenty to forty eggs are laid, no doubt to compensate for any predation.

On the avian front at the Dunsford Nature Trail over both days, Song and Swamp Sparrows were seen and heard, along with Yellow, Yellow-rumped, and Common Yellowthroat Warblers, American Goldfinches, Gray Catbirds, Eastern Kingbirds and Phoebes, Willow Flycatchers, Cedar Waxwings, and one of my target birds for the year, a Goofbird, aka Brown Thrasher. I've missed their amazing repertoire of  numerous songs, if one can call them that, I could stand there and listen to them forever! 

Brown Thrasher:

Swamp Sparrow:

Gray Catbird:

On Tuesday afternoon I visited the Lindsay Lagoons and dipped on the Yellow-headed Blackbird from a few weeks ago, but was rewarded with a young family of Blue-winged Teal:

 Flocks of several hundred Canada Geese were trying to survive the high humidex temperature  in one of the northern cells, along with a few Mallards, Black Terns, and Caspian Terns:

 

As I returned to the car, three birds flew above the cattails for a split second, and I was able to snap a few photos, which, with John's help, were confirmed as American Bitterns, one of my two Lifers for the week, whoohoo! Up until now, I had only ever heard their "oonk-a-lunk's" at Carden Alvar, so was thrilled to see them for the first time ever!

The resident Baltimore Oriole bid me farewell as I left the lagoons, along with Turkey Vultures:

On Wednesday after visiting the east end of the Dunsford Nature Trail, I drove along County Road 24 in search of Bobolinks in the Birch Point area, where I had seen them last year at this time, but it was not to be. I heard but could not see Eastern Meadowlarks, but succeeded in another Lifer, a Grasshopper Sparrow, here's the promised photo, even if its quality is poor as it was thirty football fields away from me:

There was more of the same there, too, on the Warbler front, along with more Brown Thrashers and Cedar Waxwings:

Ospreys were everywhere as there are several platform nests along this route. I also located my first Eastern Bluebird for the area, was very pleased to find him!


I became quite enamoured with this Barn Swallow in the puddle, madly gathering up mud and nesting material:

So ends my post for last week with accompanying photos. When initially composing this last week, I was hearing a pair of Ospreys in a tree outside the cottage hooting and hollering back and forth to each other. They seemed to roost there overnight, and return throughout the day to hang out with their fish McNuggets. Each morning Tessa, Mia and I find their newly-discarded fish carcasses on the ground below the trees where they perch. I'm not sure how long they will continue to stick around here, as I suspect they'll clear out once the cottagers move back in for the summer months of July and August- in the meantime, I'm totally enjoying their company!