Every day is a good day to photograph birds, but today the weather was nicely dull & subdued, with very soft lighting, so it was perfect. Along with a good friend we headed to Colonel Sam Smith Park in Toronto, where there had been some good bird sighting reports that needed to be checked out.  Right now anywhere along the Lake (Lake Ontario) is generally pretty birdy, and this spot did have a ton of Warblers, but generally high up, and on a continuous move so not too easy to get any shots, but we did have a couple of moments where birds were a tad lower.
What we did find though was a little pocket of Monarch Butterflies (20 or so) feeding on the yellow Ragweed, and was very photogenic.
After lunch I impulsively headed to a spot on my way home, that I hadn't been to in several months, and was pleasantly surprised to find several Swainson's Thrushes and a few other species, including the shot below of the Northern Flicker. These guys can be really tricky to get in the viewfinder, but if you are quick, and lucky, then it's possible to get one in the can.  
​​All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description

​The last few days have been a little "toasty" for nature photography as such, with temperatures, some days, in the low 30's, so I have not been venturing too far (other than a sightseeing trip to Fort Niagara, in NY state yesterday). Today while catching up on, some much needed, gardening I encountered this beauty - a Cicada. I don't see these large bugs too often, so I was pretty excited to find one. He must have been almost 1.5 inches long, so quite a bug. I have been trying to identify the sub species but not too sure at this point, but think it's a Dog-day Cicada ​Neotibicen canicularis

​​ This image is clickable - ie just click on the image and it will go full size.

This was the Canada Day long weekend, and although we suspected the area might be busy and the traffic up might be a bit of a challenge, Jamie and I headed up to an area on the west side of Algonquin to look for and hopefully photograph a few Warblers anyways. The original plan was to spend a couple of days in the area, but after a long and pretty successful day we headed back (The next day was forecasted to be clear & blue sky,  which as I have mentioned in the past, my least favorite weather for photographing birds), and we saved the price of a couple of hotel rooms to boot :)
The early dull part of the day was a bit of a problem which resulted in some higher than preferred ISO levels, but that's the price you pay for shooting out of the sun I suppose. Sightings were pretty steady all day with some good birds seen and photographed. There was a couple of birds we saw but didn't manage a click eg the Blue-headed Vireo, so maybe next time ... maybe. 
One bird we saw and and was saddened to see that it had a tick embedded just above its eye was a Red-eyed Vireo. I found out later that migrating birds are a significant element in the transfer & spreading of these little B's. It also reminded me to check myself for any "hangers on" - I'm glad to say I came up clean. Great trip and thanks again Jamie, for the great company, and the use of your super ears for locating many of the birds.
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With the super long lenses. and high quality full-frame cameras that I've been using for many years, it makes it practical to  follow a situation without intruding too much. Over the last couple of days I have been watching a pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers as they popped back and forward to their nest, which has some little ones.  I should point out that these shots were taken from some distance and are severely cropped to create the images displayed here. The birds, both male & female, popped back and forward to the nest hole in short bursts of activity - often with both birds in the hole at the same time (it must have been pretty crowded in there). One thing I noticed was that they would stash food in a few places around - one being directly on top of the stump, where they would appear to pound the prey into a cavity, then come back a short time later, retrieve it and then feed the babies. Red-headed, unlike most other Woodpeckers, capture their prey, which was a mixture of caterpillars, bugs, beetles & spiders, on the surface or on the wing. Other woodpeckers tend to excavate cavities in search of food.
On further exploration of the immediate area, I noticed that a second pair have a nest in an adjacent dead tree, but because of the general inactivity around that nest, it would seem that this pair is incubating eggs. I will have to keep my eyes on both these nests in the coming weeks, and of course at no time will I be getting too close or disturb the birds in any way.
On a photography note - birds like this with dramatic red feathers are very difficult to the get the exposure just right. I have found that in the sun these red feathers get "blown out" and loose photographic detail I much prefer shooting in a cloudy or even in a rainy environment.  

One thing I would always recommend birders & photographers is that when you head out for the day, have a bit of a plan in mind, and more importantly have a species in mind. I know sometimes we head out with a location in mind, and then hope to see/photograph a selection of different birds that you fly out in to your chosen path, but I prefer the calculated and deliberate path of tracking down a target or targets at different spots.
Today was another of those days where we headed to a known spot, where we were pretty sure that a Prothonotary Warbler would be hanging around, and as suspected we saw our "prey" several times over a period of a couple of hours. The light was a bit drab, but on the plus side the sun stayed nicely behind the clouds. (I am not keen on shooting birds in bright sunshine - always a challenge to deal with the harsh shadows.)
Next stop and a new target was a disused quarry where over many years the grasses had grown over the whole area and allowed a few of the field sparrow species to take up residence, including the Field Sparrow (of course),  Song Sparrow, Clay-coloured Sparrow and the beautiful Grasshopper Sparrow. Strangely I never came across any Savannah Sparrows at this spot. The two main species of interest were the Clay-coloured and the Grasshopper - both of which popped up a few times giving us some great shots.