Black-capped Chickadee Weather: Sunny, but cool to start (12C) but warmed up to 20C later in the am
Location: Col Sam Smith & Princess Point
Headed up to Colonel Sam Smith Park in Etobicoke to see if there was a fresh influx of migrants. Unfortunately warblers were pretty thin on the ground (and in the trees for that matter <joke>). Alongside the back of the Marina, Steve and I came across a small pocket of Palm Warblers (2 or 3), that briefly came out into the open. We then headed to the other side of the park (east end), but other than very brief views of either Veery's or possibly Hermit Thrushes there wasn't much else to see. What we did spot were two separate sightings of Mink(s) (hadn't seen one in a couple of years then two the same day ??!!). Lots of Mallards, Gulls & Cormorants around, as well as a few Red-necked Grebes in the Marina basin. At 10:15 we cut our losses and headed to Princess Point in Hamilton, where although starting off quiet, ended up being quite a good session - a flock of about 20 Yellow-rumped Warblers foraged along the waters edge giving the opportunity every now and then for a reasonable shot. Not a terrible day. Thanks to Steve for great company as usual. ;)
Location: Col Sam Smith & Princess Point
Headed up to Colonel Sam Smith Park in Etobicoke to see if there was a fresh influx of migrants. Unfortunately warblers were pretty thin on the ground (and in the trees for that matter <joke>). Alongside the back of the Marina, Steve and I came across a small pocket of Palm Warblers (2 or 3), that briefly came out into the open. We then headed to the other side of the park (east end), but other than very brief views of either Veery's or possibly Hermit Thrushes there wasn't much else to see. What we did spot were two separate sightings of Mink(s) (hadn't seen one in a couple of years then two the same day ??!!). Lots of Mallards, Gulls & Cormorants around, as well as a few Red-necked Grebes in the Marina basin. At 10:15 we cut our losses and headed to Princess Point in Hamilton, where although starting off quiet, ended up being quite a good session - a flock of about 20 Yellow-rumped Warblers foraged along the waters edge giving the opportunity every now and then for a reasonable shot. Not a terrible day. Thanks to Steve for great company as usual. ;)
September 20th 2015
Date: September 20th 2015
Weather: Sunny, but a cooler start - around 22C at noon
Location: Second Marsh & Thicksons Woods
Along with a few friends, we headed to Second Marsh in Oshawa with the hope that this might be one of the places that would produce a few good warblers. With an encouraging start at the beginning of the trail where several warblers were busily gorging themselves on the abundance of flying insects which were around, but as we headed around this section of trail they became harder to find, but still not too bad. Sightings were a mixture of Red-eyed Vireos, Magnolia's, Yellow-rumped, Nashville's, Tennessee's and some Bay-breasted Warblers. There was quite a spectacle as hordes of migrating Blue Jays passed overhead in never-ending groups of between 20-50 birds at a time and this went on for a few hours, and likely continued after we left. At around 11:00am we moved over to Thickson's Woods to continue our "quest" for migrating warblers. After a sluggish start, with few sightings, we arrived at a spot that for an hour more we were entertained with a decent flow of misc Warblers & Vireos. Generally the same as 2nd Marsh with the addition of several Northern Parulas, Warbling Vireo, American Redstarts, Black & White, Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green Warblers, as well as a Blue-headed Vireo. Above average day for sure, but were they difficult to get a clean shot - they constantly bounced around in the branches rarely exposing themselves for a split second. I have to thank Sonya for the guidance around these two great locations (I was a first time visitor to these locations, but I will be back!!)
Weather: Sunny, but a cooler start - around 22C at noon
Location: Second Marsh & Thicksons Woods
Along with a few friends, we headed to Second Marsh in Oshawa with the hope that this might be one of the places that would produce a few good warblers. With an encouraging start at the beginning of the trail where several warblers were busily gorging themselves on the abundance of flying insects which were around, but as we headed around this section of trail they became harder to find, but still not too bad. Sightings were a mixture of Red-eyed Vireos, Magnolia's, Yellow-rumped, Nashville's, Tennessee's and some Bay-breasted Warblers. There was quite a spectacle as hordes of migrating Blue Jays passed overhead in never-ending groups of between 20-50 birds at a time and this went on for a few hours, and likely continued after we left. At around 11:00am we moved over to Thickson's Woods to continue our "quest" for migrating warblers. After a sluggish start, with few sightings, we arrived at a spot that for an hour more we were entertained with a decent flow of misc Warblers & Vireos. Generally the same as 2nd Marsh with the addition of several Northern Parulas, Warbling Vireo, American Redstarts, Black & White, Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green Warblers, as well as a Blue-headed Vireo. Above average day for sure, but were they difficult to get a clean shot - they constantly bounced around in the branches rarely exposing themselves for a split second. I have to thank Sonya for the guidance around these two great locations (I was a first time visitor to these locations, but I will be back!!)
September 18th+19th 2015
Northern Parula Date: September 18th-19th 2015
Weather: Fri: Sun and pleasantly warm Sat: Dull, but still warm
Location: Princess Point, Hamilton
FRI: With time on my hands on Friday morning, I headed over to Princess Point - recent reports had this as a bit of a warbler hotspot, and I was pleasantly surprised - In the hour I was there I spotted approx 6 or 7 warbler species
(Tennessee, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Nashville, Blackburnian, Bay-breasted, Black-throated Green & Chestnut-sided Warblers). I found them primarily in small mixed groups foraging along the low willows next to the lake. Not a bad count for the time I had to work with.
SAT: following Fridays success at Princess Point I headed back down hoping for more of the same, but unfortunately they seem have to moved on - I did see a Yellow Rumped and a Blackburnian in Warblers, but lots of other species around - GBH's Black-crowned Night Herons, Waxwings, Blue Jays, Flickers, etc. By around 9:00am it was still pretty quiet, so headed to Thornapple Loop (part of the RBG properties), and things picked up a tad. Spotted Philly and Red-eyed Vireos, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Northern Parula, Nashville Warbler, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Towhee and a few other odds and ends.
Weather: Fri: Sun and pleasantly warm Sat: Dull, but still warm
Location: Princess Point, Hamilton
FRI: With time on my hands on Friday morning, I headed over to Princess Point - recent reports had this as a bit of a warbler hotspot, and I was pleasantly surprised - In the hour I was there I spotted approx 6 or 7 warbler species
(Tennessee, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Nashville, Blackburnian, Bay-breasted, Black-throated Green & Chestnut-sided Warblers). I found them primarily in small mixed groups foraging along the low willows next to the lake. Not a bad count for the time I had to work with.
SAT: following Fridays success at Princess Point I headed back down hoping for more of the same, but unfortunately they seem have to moved on - I did see a Yellow Rumped and a Blackburnian in Warblers, but lots of other species around - GBH's Black-crowned Night Herons, Waxwings, Blue Jays, Flickers, etc. By around 9:00am it was still pretty quiet, so headed to Thornapple Loop (part of the RBG properties), and things picked up a tad. Spotted Philly and Red-eyed Vireos, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Northern Parula, Nashville Warbler, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Towhee and a few other odds and ends.
Friday's images ...
Saturdays images ....
September 12th+13th 2015
Northern Parula Date: September 12th-13th 2015
Weather: Cool, with a bit of rain (13C)
Location: Colonel Samuel Smith Park, Etobicoke (both days) and Shell Park in Oakville late in the afternoon Sunday (more rain)
Saturday, headed over to Sam Smith Park - I'd read in the early morning that there was a significant migration happened through the night, so it seemed appropriate that the lakeshore was a decent place to look for migrating warblers. Unfortunately the rain put a bit of a dampener (no pun intended) on the search. I started out with binos only, but added a camera when the rain died down an 1-1/2 hour later. The 1st gallery group below are the images from Saturday. I posted three of the pics on Facebook "Ontario Birds" group and managed to misidentify two of them <embarrased>. The 2nd image group is from today (Sunday). Sunday I had a similar start to the day with rain for the 1st 90mins then dried up allowing me to start taking pics. The warblers were in pockets along the various pathways through the park especially in the Dogwood, Sumac and Willow. I had a location today, that for a few minutes went crazy with about a dozen birds - a mixture of warblers and at least one Vireo (Warbling) that all descended en-masse in to the bushes/trees in front of me - This was while I was using binoculars only, so no images, but during that minute or two I was frantically trying to lock focus on one bird when another one would catch my eye, so switched to that new "target" so ended up not getting too many of them ID'd. Nevertheless a wonderful moment. I met a couple of birders during my time at the park, and have to say birders have got to be the nicest friendliest people around - does birding do that to you or do those kind of people end up being birders .... mmmmm!
After getting home around noon I took some time to update this blog entry, and after which I checked on line to see what else might be happening locally. The Hamilton area group mentioned a Yellow-throated Warbler was being seen at Shell Park in Oakville, so I couldn't resist checking it out. I drove down and was told the warbler was being seen in a group of trees next to the playground. My fellow birders (there were about 8 of them) pointed out the bird, high in the trees, but with the rain & moisture steaming up my binos I can't say that I got a good view (I did see a something that could have been it), but in all conscience I can't claim the sighting. On the plus side there were a ton of warblers - Bay-breasted, Black & Whites, Nashvilles, Magnolias and Wilsons Warblers. Third group of images are from Shell Park.
Weather: Cool, with a bit of rain (13C)
Location: Colonel Samuel Smith Park, Etobicoke (both days) and Shell Park in Oakville late in the afternoon Sunday (more rain)
Saturday, headed over to Sam Smith Park - I'd read in the early morning that there was a significant migration happened through the night, so it seemed appropriate that the lakeshore was a decent place to look for migrating warblers. Unfortunately the rain put a bit of a dampener (no pun intended) on the search. I started out with binos only, but added a camera when the rain died down an 1-1/2 hour later. The 1st gallery group below are the images from Saturday. I posted three of the pics on Facebook "Ontario Birds" group and managed to misidentify two of them <embarrased>. The 2nd image group is from today (Sunday). Sunday I had a similar start to the day with rain for the 1st 90mins then dried up allowing me to start taking pics. The warblers were in pockets along the various pathways through the park especially in the Dogwood, Sumac and Willow. I had a location today, that for a few minutes went crazy with about a dozen birds - a mixture of warblers and at least one Vireo (Warbling) that all descended en-masse in to the bushes/trees in front of me - This was while I was using binoculars only, so no images, but during that minute or two I was frantically trying to lock focus on one bird when another one would catch my eye, so switched to that new "target" so ended up not getting too many of them ID'd. Nevertheless a wonderful moment. I met a couple of birders during my time at the park, and have to say birders have got to be the nicest friendliest people around - does birding do that to you or do those kind of people end up being birders .... mmmmm!
After getting home around noon I took some time to update this blog entry, and after which I checked on line to see what else might be happening locally. The Hamilton area group mentioned a Yellow-throated Warbler was being seen at Shell Park in Oakville, so I couldn't resist checking it out. I drove down and was told the warbler was being seen in a group of trees next to the playground. My fellow birders (there were about 8 of them) pointed out the bird, high in the trees, but with the rain & moisture steaming up my binos I can't say that I got a good view (I did see a something that could have been it), but in all conscience I can't claim the sighting. On the plus side there were a ton of warblers - Bay-breasted, Black & Whites, Nashvilles, Magnolias and Wilsons Warblers. Third group of images are from Shell Park.
September 6th 2015
Date: September 6th 2015
Weather: Hot (32C)
Location: Canadian Raptor Conservancy, Vittoria
A couple of weeks back I booked a place, for today, at one of the really good Workshops hosted by the Canadian Raptor Conservancy. I hadn't done a formal workshop in a couple of years, and had heard this one, which specialized in Raptors in Flight, might be a terrific chance to get some portfolio images. The day started of quite foggy, but by the time we arrived at the facility at 9:15 am, the mist had burned off and the sun was out with a vengeance, and when we were done at 1:00pm it was at a sweltering 32C. The Falcon Master (James) said that he was going to run a variety of Eagles, Owls & Hawks, starting off with a Bald Eagle (Sam) over the edge of Lake Ontario. He flew him back and forth a number of times, in order for our group, of about 10 participants, to get some shots. The sun was pretty fierce and harsh so it was pretty tricky to get the right balance of highlight and shadow. I needed to get the sun somewhat behind me to avoid glare and blown out images, so I found myself wading out into the lake to make this happen. However, after getting out to just below waist depth I realized that I still had my cell phone & wallet in my pockets, and were now waterlogged ... pretty stupid!! Not sure if the cell will work again :(
After the Bald Eagle we went through a series of birds of prey being flown between perches, starting off with a Harris's Hawk, then Great Horned Owl, American Kestrel and finally a Barn Owl. At the end of the day I found that I had about 825 images to wade through ... which may take a week or two to finally review and edit. In the meantime I have put together a few as entries in today's blog.
Weather: Hot (32C)
Location: Canadian Raptor Conservancy, Vittoria
A couple of weeks back I booked a place, for today, at one of the really good Workshops hosted by the Canadian Raptor Conservancy. I hadn't done a formal workshop in a couple of years, and had heard this one, which specialized in Raptors in Flight, might be a terrific chance to get some portfolio images. The day started of quite foggy, but by the time we arrived at the facility at 9:15 am, the mist had burned off and the sun was out with a vengeance, and when we were done at 1:00pm it was at a sweltering 32C. The Falcon Master (James) said that he was going to run a variety of Eagles, Owls & Hawks, starting off with a Bald Eagle (Sam) over the edge of Lake Ontario. He flew him back and forth a number of times, in order for our group, of about 10 participants, to get some shots. The sun was pretty fierce and harsh so it was pretty tricky to get the right balance of highlight and shadow. I needed to get the sun somewhat behind me to avoid glare and blown out images, so I found myself wading out into the lake to make this happen. However, after getting out to just below waist depth I realized that I still had my cell phone & wallet in my pockets, and were now waterlogged ... pretty stupid!! Not sure if the cell will work again :(
After the Bald Eagle we went through a series of birds of prey being flown between perches, starting off with a Harris's Hawk, then Great Horned Owl, American Kestrel and finally a Barn Owl. At the end of the day I found that I had about 825 images to wade through ... which may take a week or two to finally review and edit. In the meantime I have put together a few as entries in today's blog.
September 4th & 5th 2015
Philadelphia Vireo September 4th 2015
Weather: Sunny, but misty start (22C)
Location: Mountsberg Reservoir
Found myself with an hour or two to spare, so on the way to my meeting in Dundas I dropped by Mountsberg Reservoir and was entertained with a few migrants on their way through. The highlight of the day was a Philadelphia Vireo (one of about 4 actually) that hopped around a Cedar. Others were Warbling & Red-eyed Vireos, Northern Parula, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroats
Weather: Sunny, but misty start (22C)
Location: Mountsberg Reservoir
Found myself with an hour or two to spare, so on the way to my meeting in Dundas I dropped by Mountsberg Reservoir and was entertained with a few migrants on their way through. The highlight of the day was a Philadelphia Vireo (one of about 4 actually) that hopped around a Cedar. Others were Warbling & Red-eyed Vireos, Northern Parula, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroats
House Wren September 5th 2015
Weather: Sunny & clear (25C)
Location: Mountsberg Reservoir & Thornapple Loop
My friend Steve Lindsay and I headed back to Mountsberg & Thornapple - a couple of locations that have produced well over the last two weeks. Today however was a little flat - with almost no warblers (although we did see an American Redstart briefly). There were lots of Red-eyed and Warbling vireos around, especially at Thornapple Loop. A family group of House Wrens showed up at one location - prob around 5 of them.
I purchased a new lens earlier in week and the sunrise is one of my first attempts at using the lens ... seems to do what it's supposed to :) I should mention - the new lens is a 200mm F2.8 mk2 L-series prime lens
Weather: Sunny & clear (25C)
Location: Mountsberg Reservoir & Thornapple Loop
My friend Steve Lindsay and I headed back to Mountsberg & Thornapple - a couple of locations that have produced well over the last two weeks. Today however was a little flat - with almost no warblers (although we did see an American Redstart briefly). There were lots of Red-eyed and Warbling vireos around, especially at Thornapple Loop. A family group of House Wrens showed up at one location - prob around 5 of them.
I purchased a new lens earlier in week and the sunrise is one of my first attempts at using the lens ... seems to do what it's supposed to :) I should mention - the new lens is a 200mm F2.8 mk2 L-series prime lens
