September 28th 2018
Location: Tilt's Bush, Kitchener
Weather: seasonally cooler, but sunny, and quite pleasant
 Purple Finch | After a long day yesterday (I was up at 04:00 to get to Burlington for 05:45 - to shoot the sunrise at Burlington's Brant Street Pier) I found it a bit difficult to get up at a decent birding time this morning. As it was a bit later than I like I headed to one of my favorite local spots - Tilt's Bush. This spot can be mediocre and it can also be quite birdy Today was a bit nearer the mediocre than the birdy, but still pretty very interesting. Highlights were a brief visit by 3 or 4 Hermit Thrushes, which generally never ventured into the open but one sat on a branch above me for several seconds, so at least I manged one decent shot. Other highlights were watching a small flock of mainly White-throated Sparrows, but as is often likely at this time of year I had a Lincoln's Sparrow as well. This year we seem to having quite a lot of early Purple Finches. Over the last week or so I've seen several small flocks of these little beauties. All of the birds except one have been either females or juveniles. All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description |
September 24th 2018
Location: Riverside Park, Cambridge
Weather: Dull and heavy cloud
| It's been a while since I checked out Riverside and although the birds weren't jaw-dropping it was still pretty interesting visit. Highlights were the sighting of a Merlin when I first arrived (thanks to Theresa for pointing it out), and then a drop by, on a couple of occasions, of a Blue-headed Vireo. Other sightings were Northern Parula, Common Grackle, Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Merlin, House Finch, Purple Finch, Red-winged Blackbirds, Red-eyed Vireo, Cedar Waxwing, Red- breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch and a few high flying Hawks. |  House Finch (male) |
September 23rd 2018
Location: Tilt's Bush, Kitchener
Weather: Cool start to the morning, but sunny
Tilt's Bush is a little known boardwalk in Kitchener, that projects for quite a ways into a swampy area. It's very close to where I live, so when I have not too much time I often chose this location for my almost daily, birding ramble. This morning I set myself up at the end of the boardwalk and almost immediately I noticed quite good activity in and around me. I watched a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers drift past me a couple of times, but they didn't sin in the open, so no shot. I watched a drama where a Blue Jay was trying to stay out of the way of a Sharp-shinned Hawk that looked pretty anxious to have a Blue Jay breakfast. Two or three times the Hawk would fly past me screeching - I'm not sure if this was a warning gesture or a sound he made to as he was startled by my presence. A few other Woodpeckers were around - I could hear as many as 3 or 4 at any one time banging away at a tree somewhere close. Downy, Flicker, Red-bellied mainly. The only songbird activity was a brief visit by two Nashville Warblers.
September 22nd 2018
Location: Dundas
Weather: Hazy sun, but significantly cooler than last week
| Although it was a bit blowy here, Northern Ontario got hit with a significant storm last night. Made me think that could be a decent movement of birds overnight, and with that in mind I headed to one of my favorite migration spots in Dundas. Sadly, other than quite a few Thrushes there was little or no songbird activity. I did see an American Redstart briefly, and a Red-eyed Vireo hung around for a few minutes, but other than that the Warbler and Vireo migration seemed to be in recession, at least for the time being anyways. I suspect that the storm, rather than bring in new birds had sent the local birds on their way.. However the birds I saw and photographed this morning were decent, so I was pretty happy considering. |  Hermit Thrush |
September 18th 2018
Location: Currie Tract
Weather: Sun and cloud, and continuing warm
I hadn't been out with a camera for a few days because of some appointments on my calendar, but this morning I had a couple of hours to kill before a meeting in Toronto. I had been promising myself that I should see if Currie Tracts had any warblers migrating through. It was very close to this date last year that I came across and photographed a Golden-winged Warbler (the one in my title above), at this very location, so my anticipation level was quite high, as I hiked in. Unfortunately after an hour or more there was very little action, but I did manged to capture these two (below)
September 13th 2018
Location: Desjardines Canal, Dundas
Weather: Hazy sun, but mostly cloud
I decided this morning to take a break from songbirds, and follow up on some information that I had received yesterday. An acquaintance, that I hadn't seen for a long time, mentioned that there were a few Black-crowned Night Herons hanging out at this location. Sure enough, when we got there I could see two adults and a juvenile perched along the end of the canal. We gradually moved towards these birds, but the juvenile took off almost immediately but the adults stayed put and one especially allowed us to get within 20 feet. The other bird, which was a bit further away but still was in photo distance, also allowed us a few shots. My co-shooter this morning, at one point, stumbled at one point and the near bird took off, so we headed back to the car .. happy with the images. Strangely, the bird that had flown off came back withing a couple of minutes and resumed it's previous perch ... I suppose the fishing must have been good there.
September 12th 2018
Location: Dundas
Weather: Misty start, then mostly cloud
Not as productive as yesterday but still the morning had it's moments of activity. Predominant in the area was Swainson's Thrushes, again. Warbler activity was way down, but still we managed to see and photograph a Magnolia, Redstart and Black-throated Green on the Warbler side of things and Red-eyed, Philadelphia and Warbling for the Vireos.
September 11th 2018
Location: South Flamborough
Weather: Pleasant
| First things first ... Today is September 11th and even that memorable day is several years in the past I don't think there will be too many people who aren't thinking back to that terrible event that rocked the civilized world. My thoughts go to the friends and family. This trail in the southern part of Flamborough just continues to produce. Today I spent approx three hours here and was amazed at the numbers of birds hanging out here.Highlights were a flock of Swainson's Thrushes (more than 10 birds strong) that cruised by a few times. Another surprise was a group of Scarlet Tanagers (5) that passed across the trees above me - unfortunately I didn't get a usable shot but was delighted by the sighting anyways. All of them were in the yellow fall/winter plumage, so could have been males, females or juveniles.. Other birds were Northern Parula, Redstart, Magnolia, Red-eyed Vireo, Philadelphia Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Black=-throated Green Warblers & Gray Catbirds. |  Gray Catbird |
September 9th 2018
Location: Toronto Island
Weather: Dull, threatening rain, poor light
If I was to categorize my birding into either a Bird Photographer or a Bird Watcher it would be a difficult decision for me, and if someone said - you have to make a choice, either lose the camera or lose the binoculars - I think I would elect to keep the binoculars, so saying that I suppose I'm a Bird Watcher, first (I hope I never have to make that decision for real). Today along with a birdwatching friend we headed to Toronto Island to catch part of the songbird migration that passes over the Island. Initially I had planned to go without a camera, but Mutphy's Law would dictate that if I did that I would come across something really good, so compromising I took only a 100-400. However the light was so bad I barely used it. On the birding end of things it was pretty darned good, with dozens of Warblers, Flycatchers & Vireos being seen. I didn't record my sightings, but from memory - Warblers: Black & White, Northern Parula, Bay-breasted, Cape May, Tennessee, Redstarts, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green, Magnolia & Yellow. Vireos: Warbling, Red-eyed & Philadelphia. Flycatchers: Wood Pewee & Phoebe's plus one or two I didn't get a good look at. Of the images I did shoot they were all at massive ISO (12,800) so basically they all hit the delete pile. Good day, & spent with a good friend.
September 8th 2018
Location: South Flamborough
Weather: Cloudy and hazy sun & pleasantly warm
Well if numbers of species was anything to go by I had a good morning. It was as good a few hours as I have had in quite a long time, or at least since spring migration. Highlight without question was a brief visited Tennessee Warbler. A small wave of warblers drifted past my location, consisting mainly of female or juvenile American Redstarts, but amongst them was this Tennessee - made my day for sure. Two other lnice surprises were the Northern Parula and the Black-throated Blue, which appeared to a young male (plumage was less dynamic than what I had seen earlier in the years, but I could be wrong).
All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description
All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description
September 7th 2018
Location: Hamilton
Weather: Another hot one
Started off at Valley Inn then over to Thornapple Loop
September 6th 2018
Location: Sedgewick Forest
Weather: Muggy
First fall photographic visit to this always interesting location. I was here a couple of days ago on a scouting mission, and I have to say it rarely disappoints ast the number of species sighted. In the hour I was there a few days ago I clocked up Cape May, Blackburnian, Wilson's, Bay-breasted, Chestnut-sided, Yellow-rumped, and likely one or two more. Today it was still very birdy, but unlike a few days ago, the birds were generally around the tops of the trees, so not too many shots taken. Still, always nice to see these beauties. Today I saw a few Nothern Parulas, a Wilsn's, Cape May, Chestnut-sided, Redstarts in the Warbler category, and Hermit and Swainson's in the Thrushes.
September 1st 2018
Location: In and around Thornapple
Weather: Misty start and low cloud, bu sun broke through mid morning
 Red-eyed Vireo | I had arranged with a friend to pick me up at home at 6:00am, and as I was waiting in my driveway for him to show up (and he did, and on time too), I noticed a bird fly low past me - at first I thought it was an early rising Mourning Dove, but after a few more low passes I realized it was a Common Nighthawk. A new "yard" bird .... Today, the weather and the time of year seemed pretty good to head back to Thornapple. I have, over the last several days, had quite good luck here although the birds have been sluggish at times. Today it was much the same as the other days - long periods of inactivity then a few birds all at once for a short time them back to being quiet. Still ... the birds we did see and photograph were pretty good so the adrenalin was pumping at times. We had a few distant or very brief "visitors" including a female Towhee (which was a really nice surprise) and a Great-crested Flycatcher. A Gray Catbird and a House Wren hung around for a while, but of the four mentioned we manged to get a shot of, so maybe next time with them. Generally quite a good day, and great to meet up with my friend - we don't get out often enough. |
