 Date: Monday March 30th 2015 Weather: Sunny +4C (4:30pm) Location:Whitby, Ontario I had a business call late in the afternoon in Ajax, at a location about 5km from Lynde Shores, so, rather than hit the Toronto rush hour traffic I took the opportunity to do a little birding both at Lynde and at Halls Road. One thing that Lynde has is no shortage of semi tame Wild Turkeys - I must have spotted about 50 in the 2 hours I was there. Other sightings were (not just birds), a Raccoon, about 6 White-tailed Deer, Brown-headed Cowbirds, lots of Red-winged Blackbirds, a couple of Song Sparrows and a distant Red-tailed Hawk, and the usual Chickaddes, Downy's, Cardinals, Grackles, Tree Sparrows, etc 28th March 2015 Date: Saturday March 28th 2015 Weather: Sunny -8C (8:30am) Location: Guelph, Ontario Highlight of my day on the left ... a Northern Shrike, sometimes called the "Butcher bird" because of it's habit of impaling it's prey on thorns so that it can return later for asnack. I had only seen a couple this winter, so pretty happy with the shot, other than I wish I had checked ISO - would have ended up with a clearer shot ... yet another note to self:check all the settings before heading out !!! Did the short circular tour around a few locations in the Guelph area - Guelph Lake Nature Center, Arboretum, Niska Road, then through Cambridge via Mill Pond. Late March tends to be really flat for any decent sightings, so wasn't too disappointed in the results for the day, but I had hoped for better :( 21st March 2015 American Black Duck Date: Saturday March 21st 2015 Weather: Cloudy, with occasional Sunny breaks +3C (9:30am) Location: Dundas, Ontario Spring is gradually making progress .. at last! For the past week or so I've seen increased numbers of Grackles, Robins, Turkey Vultures, Hawks, Red-winged Blackbirds, etc Even Gulls and Crows are a bit more common than they were 2 weeks ago. Today forecast in Kitchener was for rain, but Dundas & Hamilton looked a bit more promising. I hadn't checked out Desjardins Canal, in Dundas for probably 6 or 7 months, so why not. There were a few birds around, but they stayed well out in the open water, but managed a few record shots of Northern Shovelers, Ring-necked Ducks, Redheads, Northern Pintails and Common Mergansers. While in the area I popped down to Princess Point, but nothing of any interest was showing. Most of the shots taken with the 100-400. 15th March 2015 Northern Harrier Date: Sunday March 15th 2015 Weather: Cloudy, turning to some sun later in the day +7C (6:00pm) Location: County Road 10, West of Stoney Creek Weather could have been better on Saturday, but being what it was I didn't get up to birding at all :(. Forecast for Sunday was supposed to be sunny all day, but things didn't work at as planned (ended up cloudy) so waited until late in the day when I headed to Stoney Creek again. Weather was now clear, sunny and relatively mild, but no sign of the documented sighting of Short-eared Owl. I did see a couple of Northern Harriers, and a couple of Peregrine Falcons. Light was poor so images were also poor :( 12th March 2015 8th March 2015 Red-breasted Merganser ... about to dive ! Date: Sunday March 8th 2015 Weather: Dull with Sunny spells -1C (9:00am) Location: Hamilton area The weatherman lied to me (again) ... forecast was to be sunny all day, but it turned out to be a tad dull with the occasional cloud opening and then a welcome splash of sunshine. Picked in the afternoon, but by then I was heading home. Anyways, I had been cruising the local birding forums, as is my normal run up to the weekend, and read with interest that there was a few Red-throated Loons being sighted at the Lift Bridge in Hamilton. I headed there and patrolled the side of the ship canal in the bitterly cold wind, but was unable to spot my designated "prey for today". Nonetheless, I did spot a few other water birds. See below .... Next stop was Windermere Basin and I was quite surprised to see a few Cormorants, who must have had a tough time during almost 100% iceup. Others were Ruddy ducks and a few Scaup. Side note .. when I first saw the Greater Scaup I at first thought they were Ring-necked ducks (sadly not!) 7th March 2015 Black-capped Chickadee Date: Saturday March 7th 2015 Weather: Light Snow -8C (9:30am) Location: Riverside Park In the hope of spotting another Pileated Woodpecker I dropped in at Riverside Park again. With light snow earlier and dull conditions forecast it wasn't the best of days for crisp & clear imagery. No Pileated, and only common species it wasn't a yahoo day by any stretch of the imagination, but any day out experiencing nature is a good day. 1st March 2015 American Tree Sparrow Date: Sunday March 1st 2015 Weather: Light Snow -8C (8:30am) Location: Riverside Park Plump and long-tailed, American Tree Sparrows are busy visitors in winter backyards and weedy, snow-covered fields across southern Canada and the northern United States. This one, and there was a few around, I found posing along the boardwalk ... I must have looked like I had some food as he came in pretty close. |
Pileated Woodpecker The Pileated Woodpecker is one of the biggest, most striking forest birds in North America. It’s nearly the size of a large crow, black with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming-red crest ... a beautiful bird, and one of my favorites. I spotted him (or it could be her, I suppose) high up in an old tree near the start of the boardwalk and along part of the hydro tower corridor. He was hammering away, making quite a racket and attracting the attention of a few dog walkers as the passed below the tree. I was travelling light this morning so only had the 100-400 and that combined with the poor lighting conditions I ended up with a relatively poor quality shot, but in saying that any shot of a PW is a bonus, so pretty happy!!
