Week in Review- Tuesday June 15 thru Sunday June 20

On Tuesday John, Doug and I made our way to a new (for me) birding hotspot 20 km north of Kingston, the Chaffeys Lock/Opinicon Road area. Our target species for the day was the Cerulean Warbler, known to breed in this area. After hearing several singing males in two different spots (opposite Skycroft Campground, and then further along Opinicon Road) we succeeded at last in getting a visual on this charmer of a warbler, mainly blue and white with a black "necklace", but did we ever have to work for this bird! I told Doug and John it was payback for the "easy" Eared Grebe tick on my life List from the prior week. 

Our initial stop in the area was at the Queen's University Biological Station, and these young birds tortured us for quite some time, but John and Doug finally determined that they were young Chipping Sparrows, here's a photo of a pair for my records only, poor quality alert!

Three more Year Birds were added to my list that day: Indigo Bunting, Yellow-throated Vireo (both audio only), and a Red-Shouldered Hawk flying overhead. Numerous Turkey Vultures were seen, singing Ovenbirds mocked us as we drove along the roads, a Common Loon was swimming on the lake, it was a beautiful area that for sure I'll return to another time.

I returned to the cottage on Wednesday and have discovered that things have really slowed down here in the birding world now, much to my dismay, but more Year Birds were added: Chimney Swifts in downtown Lindsay (by the LCBO, sssshhhhh), a Green Heron in the back swamp, and Bobolinks on Heights Road north of Cheese Factory Road, a new spot for me. 

I made my way to the Lindsay Sewage Lagoons on Friday morning and have decided that I am done with the place for the year, as the uncut grass, vegetation, etc, on the paths between the cells are now up to my chin, along with the corresponding insect population. These are the same paths where the Snappers were a few weeks ago, hence my reluctance to lose a foot in the undergrowth, especially when there are no new speices to be found. You know it's a slow day when all I have to show for it is the following:

Red-winged Blackbird:

Blue-winged Teal Family:

Turkey Vulture:

Yup, you were warned, a grim day indeed....

I left the Lagoons and headed off for CR 24 towards Bobcaygeon, and the resident Eastern Bluebirds were in their usual spot...

...as were the local Ospreys, what a delight to be there without the Wind Tunnel effect from a few weeks ago with Ann:

Speaking of which, our Osprey pair ouside the cottage are continuing to add sticks to their ramshackle "nest", but intermittently, probably as the cottage population is increasing each week. The Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas tells me that their eggs are laid from May 22 through June 5, with an incubation period of 38 days, so what this pair is up to outside the cottage is beyond me....

On the cottage homefront, I foolishly caved and refilled my feeders with sunflower seeds for the Black-capped Chickadees, only to attract hordes of Common Grackles, Red Squirrels, Chippies (ok, I love my chippies!), and Blue Jays. I have only seen a handful of Chickadees appear, along with a White-breasted Nuthatch. Interestingly enough, though, is that a pair of Red-eyed Vireos will attack and chase away the Blue Jays, who knew those little suckers had it in them!!! They continue to sing each and every day outside our windows, and allowed me to "capture the moment" as they visit us:

 

The Pileated Woodpecker returned here last evening and again this morning, making its wild jungle call, so with clever stalking techniques I hope to add a photo of him soon to my portfolio, along with that Green Heron in the back swamp, wish me luck!

  

Eya-Eya-Ooooooooooooooh! Monday, June 14, 2010

Met up with Ann late-afternoon in Scarborough again at the Red-tailed Hawk nest for perhaps one of my last glimpses of these beauties as two of the three Eyas have already fledged, here's a sequence of one as it tries to figure out what exactly is to be done with these massive wings attached to its body! I have maintained the crop size in this next sequence of pics to hopefully provide a better idea of the size:

There's a foot peeking through the wing feathers in this next one, if you enlarge it:

The Warm-up's over, now it's time for some action:

I love the pristine "petticoat" feathers:

...going back to the "resting" state:

Some other random shots include Miss Piggy, the eldest, harassing one of her sibs by chewing on its tail, don't you just want to give her an eviction notice??!!

"Look at me!"

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One last "petticoat" shot, this is probably they best they'll ever look:

Mom soared overhead at one point, then spent most of the time on a crane nearby:

This caused a commotion on the nest for the Eyas, who no doubt were expecting another food drop (especially Miss P), but it was not to be....but it provided me with the highlight of today's visit: a chance to see all three Eyas together on a branch, as they kept a watchful eye out for Mom off in the distance. Notice the size difference between the three of them, what a wonderful sight to see them all together like this!

 

Footnote to my last post: I dodged the poison ivy threat, and was unable to locate the Hounds' owner (so far...)

Bobcaygeon Stragglers from Yesterday

Mom and I drove to Bobcaygeon along CR 24 and relocated the Eastern Bluebird pair from last week-end:

At the Osprey nest by the locks in town, all was quiet, but here's mom checking me out. No sign of any babies yet but will keep checking over the next few weeks:

Today's post is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend Peter, an avid nature-lover as well as German Shepherd Dog-lover. These amusing photos were taken of him and his dog Kelly in September 2008, as a bear swam by them in the lake, a first for the Point. Peter was non-plussed as ever, while I ran screaming at him along the shoreline. It was a day I'll never forget, here's to YOU, Peter!

Hounds of the Baskervilles Update

So I'm stalking a Common Loon on the lake late-morning, and while walking by a cottage, I'm called over by the owners, who are life-long friends of the family, just having arrived up from the city. In chatting with Chuck, he asks me: "Oh, by the way, do you know who the white dog out there sleeping under the tree belongs to?" I look out to see not one, but TWO dogs, 'twas the HOUNDS, totally exhausted from their wild night in the woods:

I explained to Chuck what we had all endured overnight with the Hounds of Baskervilles, and these dogs had crashed and burned so much that when he and I went over to look at them, they couldn't even lift their heads....

I called the local Animal Control gang, and in their usual efficient manner arrived five hours later, only after a second phone call from me where I casually made mention of a fox family living nearby, as well as the R word (R= rabies, a dead fox last year tested positive for rabies, but thank goodness it was for the  "good" kind of rabies, whatever the hell that is, rabies is still rabies, right??!!)

,

When these guys arrived,  they feared the dogs had been poisoned as they were so disoriented, but I told them about their Wild Night. One dog was eventually coaxed up and was able to barely walk to the van, whereas the other one had to be carried out on a stretcher, with yours truly holding on to a pole with the wire around its neck. Yeah, right, how effective would I have been to keep the dog under control if it got antsy, me with my flipflops on, puleease.

But we made it, both dogs' collars had owner info on them, and in fact the Animal Control fellows "knew of this guy". Great, didn't that make me feel better, their original plan was to take the Hounds to a vet but now that they knew who the owner was, by law they had to return these poor dogs to him, about six kilometres away from here. So stay tuned on this, I'm about to stalk this fellow in the next few days to see if the dogs have been properly cared for, ssssh.

In the meantime, I await the onset of poison ivy, as apparently the dogs were lying in a patch of it, as was I doing my good deed, in my flipflops. But as Ann can attest to, I'm fairly diligent about this, so after hosing myself down with anti-bacterial soap, I'm hopeful that perhaps I'll be spared???

In the meantime, I'm now looking forward to a quiet night of slumber for a change!

.. 

Red-Eye Special- and Another Treat

Our first night back up at the cottage was spent listening to the Hounds of the Baskervilles, I kid you not, from 10 p.m. until sunrise there were two dogs barking incessantly around the area for most of the night, somuchso that I even went out at 3:30 a.m. armed with a leash and a flashlight looking for them. No luck as they were far back in the woods, but mainly because I spooked myself out so I retreated back to the safety of the cottage. My mother slept through it all, but in speaking with neighbours this morning, Jim saw two white dogs on the back road, probably hunting dogs that were on the loose, doing what they're trained to do, in this case terrorize the nocturnal critter population (maybe that's why I couldn't find the fox kits this morning). Let's hope they find their way back home tonight or I'll kill myself.  

In keeping with my red-eye state of mind this morning, I successfully found the ever-silent (NOT) Red-eyed Vireo, and this time his red eye can be seen: 

(...am still lovin' Bell, this photo took a mere four seconds to down-load!!)

The local Ospreys were present in a tree in front of the cottage, and I must research why they're adding sticks to what appears to be a nest this late in the season, unless it's a trial run for next season???

Here are some flight shots of one bringing in a stick:

There's apparently a Green Heron that hangs out in a neighbouring tree, so I'll have to keep an eye out for him, too!  

Testing One-Two- Turbostick Attempt from the Cottage!

Let's see how quickly this downloads!!

OMG, I love Bell Mobility! Thirty seconds, whooohooo!

Red-tailed Hawk Nest with Ann and Doug- Tuesday June 8, 2010

Doug and I met Ann at her office late-afternoon to see the three Eyas before they fledge, as they're expected to leave the nest by the time I return to town next week. My initial reaction was one of awe as to how much they had grown since my last visit there only ten days ago! 

 

We had hoped for more wing-ercising action from Miss Piggy, but for the most part she remained quite docile as she enjoyed the late-day sunshine perched on a branch:

Now let's talk about this big bulge you see below, known as a CROP.  Most raptors have one, and I guess you could say it's a "holding tank" for food. In Miss Piggy's case, as she's always the agressive one when the food arrives from the parents, she hoovers it down and what she cannot eat at the moment is stored in her crop for later consumption (kinda like the guy you see at the King Eddie Brunch who's pocketing crescent rolls for later on- he wished he could do so with their Eggs Benny but they're far too messy). We speculated yesterday that this was why there wasn't much action from her, look at the size of the crop: 

We did get some scratching action out of her, though, flying feathers and all, please visit Ann's Blog for the entire sequence. I love the look on her face, her eyes closed and beak open, as she tries to get some relief from her bothersome itch :

This was as good as it got for wing-spreading, but no practise jumps were seen, it seemed like we had missed their training sessions for the day as they all need to get ready for their first flight. Look how high she's standing up, too, nice dance moves!

As for the two younger siblings, they stayed in the background for the most part, they're considerably smaller than Miss Piggy. Here they are conspiring for a way to get their Big Sister out of the nest so they can begin to get their fair share of the parental food drops:

Here's one of them solo, notice the difference in size to Miss Piggy:

One final one of Miss Piggy for size, what a porker:

As we watched the Red-tailed Hawk's nest, there were also several Cedar Waxwings feeding in the trees around us, making their beautiful high-pitched whistling sounds. I absolutely adore these gorgeous birds, yet they're becoming my nemesis bird for a good photo, so I'll have to be content (for now, at least) with these shots below:

 

All in all it was an excellent visit to the nest, thanks to Ann and Doug (and the Eyas, of course!). With any luck perhaps the younger ones will still be on the nest next week for me to see again before they depart!

I encourage you to check out Ann's Blog for their full story, here's the link:

http://redtailnest.blogspot.com/