APRIL 2019

21st & 22nd April 2019

Location: Halton Region (21st) & around Paris (22nd)

Weather: Sun & Cloud ... nice spring like

The Towhee, Song Sparrow & Pine Warbler were seen on the 21st in Halton Region, and the rest on the 22nd around Paris, Ont.
The Pine Warbler I found at a location that they have frequented for several years, so over the last week I have been walking the trails in that area every couple of days... hoping, and eventually the little beut showed up almost exactly where I had see it in previous years.

April 15th 2019

Location: Back roads around Cambridge

Weather: Cool start, with a flurry or two, then brightened up to +10C

I have been seeing several people posting images of newly arrived Warblers (mostly Pine), so I went out to a few spots this morning that I thought might be good to find an early Warbler for myself. After several hours and a dozen stops .... no luck. Oh well I'll have to try again a day or two. I did however manage to see some other birds - some I managed to photograph and some not.

April 13th 2019

Location: Colonel Samuel Smith Park

Weather: Getting warmer as spring kicks in

The water birds continue to hang around Sam Smith, but they seem to be predominately be either Red-breasted Mergansers and Red-necked Grebes, with a  few Horned Grebes, Buffleheads and Goldeneyes mixed in. On shore I'm seeing lots of Golden-crowned  Kinglets, Brown Creepers, and other odds and ends. Today I had another FOY  ... a Barn Swallow (not exiting, but nice to see anyways).

April 10th 2019

​Location: Col. Samuel Smith Park, Toronto

Weather: Cool start, but pleasantly sunny in the pm

Golden-crowned Kinglet

As spring continues to develop, so I am beginning to see more and more First of Year birds (FOY). An exciting time for birders (especially me) as the long awaited spring/summer birding season kicks into gear. I go out birding most days, but today was one of the better days of the early part of this new season, as I spotted several spring/summer species, including Golden-crowned Kinglets, Eastern Towhee, Fox Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, Blue-winged Teal, for the first time this year (2019). AND ... lots of other birds as well :)
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April 6th 2019

Location: Col Sam Smith Park in Toronto

Weather: The days are getting warmer. Today was pleasant at 10C

Some days you get lucky and end up in the right place at the right time. Today was one of those days. After doing a couple of hours along the shore line at the west side of the park we headed back to the harbour area, with a view to shooting (photographically of course) some of the Red-necked Grebes that were hanging out there. A courting pair drifted in quite close to our position and then out of nowhere a 2nd male appeared and a fight ensued. I've seen tussles in the past, but this one was quite vicious looking and somewhat prolonged. It was difficult to put a time to it, but it must have lasted at least 60 seconds, and likely more. Then almost as quickly as it started the males broke away and the mating pair continued there day, as if nothing had happened. Based on the fierceness of the encounter I have to say there must have been some blood spilled (although I could see no sign of any). Looking back I wish I had had the resourcefulness to switch to video .... 

April 5th 2019

Location: My back deck in Kitchener, ON

Weather: Rainy

With the damp and cloudy weather I setup a tripod in my Dining Room, at home and aimed out at the feeding setup I have on my backyard deck. Passed some time .....

April 3rd 2019

Location: City of London

Weather: Sunny, but really windy

I've been aware for some time that there was at least two pairs of nesting Great-horned Owls in the city of London, so today we elected to shoot down there and see what kind of images we could get. It was very blustery which meant that the first nesting site we went to in Woodlands Cemetery had the owls tucked quite far back in the nesting hole. This combined with the harsh sun that illuminated the face of the nest hole, meant that there was severe contrast between the face of the hole and the hole itself. A challenge indeed! I tried a few variations of camera exposure, but without doing some sort of combo post processing, it resulted in a fairly poor image. However our main target was the sighting of the owls and the owlets, so I shouldn't complain. 
From Woodlands we headed across the city to another site that also had a nesting situation where we were fortunate to also see and photograph the male, who was roosting in a nearby tree. At this location the Owls were tucked down quite far in up/down kind of hole, and quite high up, so not the greatest of photo opportunities. The Owlet only popped his head up for a few seconds, so I had to be pretty quick to get any kind of shot, but I was happy with what I got, under the conditions in which I was shooting.

I met up with a few friends ....  Photographs courtesy of my friend Maureen Harper. (Tks so much Maureen :))

April 1st 2019

Location: Burlington

Weather: For the most part sunny, but cold (-4C)

Well .... I can't say it's not good to be into April, and I'm certainly happy to see the season of Winter behind us. but not too happy to see that some of the cold wintry weather is still with us somewhat, but looking on the brighter side - it will not be for too much longer (I hope).
Today with a couple of friends, we headed to Burlington (yet again) hoping to see a few new arrivals and expecting the tail end of some of the wintering ducks that have been hanging out in around La Salle Marina for the last few weeks. It was a lot quieter in species than it had been, but a few lingering White-winged Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks & Goldeneyes were still there albeit in much reduced numbers, and generally much further out in the Bay. Valley Inn had a around a dozen or so Ring-necked Ducks in the inner pond, but a little too far for decently detailed shots, but always a pleasure to see anyways. With them, were several Buffleheads and a few Trumpeter Swans. A lone and skittish Great Blue Heron was also there in the background.
While in the area we headed up to the Cemetery to check on the often seen Eastern Screech Owl, and although he wasn't around on our first pass he did show up a little later. Bonus for us was that he was sitting on the front edge of the hole so that you could see a talon. The negative was that he sat there for only a minute or two, such that I managed a single shot total .... see above/side.

Eastern Screech Owl