MAY 2018

31st May 2018

Location: Beverley Swamp, Valens Road etc

Weather: Dull & rainy at first, but brightening up later. Humid (25C)

Another month comes to a close and migration through our area has regrettably petered out. It was fun while it lasted, so now I have to think about looking elsewhere for birds to photograph at least when in comes to warblers. Saying that there are still some local warblers and other songbirds in many isolated pockets throughout the area but in most cases a tad more difficult to locate & photograph.

27th May 2018

Location: Flamborough area

Weather: Another sultry hot day. Sunny, but with some cloud

I spent some of the morning, along with a few friends, exploring another trail in the Flamborough area. Word had it that this was a good location for Canada Warblers. Now here is a species that just a few short years ago I would have done almost anything to locate and photograph ... it was my "dream" bird. Over the last 2 or 3 years I haven't had too much problem finding them (photographing them is another story) so what changed? I suspect that as I progress in this wonderful hobby I am recognizing their habitat and therefore with a bit of patience I can often find several throughout the year. I also suspect that their numbers are increasing which has a positive effect on the number of sightings.... I'm sure the experts have a better theory.
Todays sightings ... Great-crested Flycatcher, Ovenbird, Blue-winged Warbler, Black & White Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and of course, Canada Warbler.

May 26th 2018

Location: Flamborough area

Weather: Another scorcher, but light somewhat subdued 

I occasionally get asked how I get such great photographs (their words not mine ;) ). I spend on average 50 hours ++ per week and covering several hundreds of kilometers every week. Knowledge of where the birds might be found, an understanding of their habitat, patience and most of all TONS of luck. Having reasonably high end equipment also makes a bit of a difference. I use full frame cameras and pro lenses, so when I need to do aggressive crops, which is most of the time, I can still get reasonable quality images.
Today was a local jaunt around some known habitats (most of them not too well known) and luck was somewhat on my side as I managed a few decent sightings and shots.

May 23rd & 24th 2018

Location: Bruce Peninsula

Weather: Hot, sunny and very harsh light (bad for photography)

Golden-winged Warbler

Now that spring is well & truly here I will be doing a few extended birding trips throughout Southern Ontario and likely into Quebec. Every year during either spring & summer, I take a 2 or 3 day trip and drive the back roads up between Ferndale Flats & Tobermory in search of interesting birds. This year, along with a friend, I headed up earlier in the year than usual and was rewarded with several good sightings. The stars of the show was, without question, multiple sightings of different Golden-winged Warblers - which BTW was our principle target bird. To say we were delighted is a huge understatement. Over the years, for me, these super gorgeous birds have been very difficult to locate and photograph. I have seen them at Carden Alvar and along a trail near Milton, but this area was new to me.
We also saw, and some cases photographed, Black-throated Green Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers, Wilson's Warblers, Canada Warblers, Chestnut-sided Warblers, Ovenbird, Black & White Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Common Yellowthroat This covers the warblers, which BTW puts my warbler YTD list to 30. Also seen were Phoebe's, Great-crested Flycatcher, Indigo Bunting and a few Sparrow species.

May 21st 2018

Location: Ancaster 

Weather: Bright & sunny

Sometimes you are at the right place at the right time... I had this super gorgeous Mourning Warbler drop down and pose for me along a forest trail. I managed a couple of shots before he disappeared from whence he came. I will certainly walk this trail a few more times this year.

May 20th 2018

Location: Thickson's Woods

Weather: Seasonally slightly cooler than it should be, but sunny

Along with a good birding friend I headed up to Thickson's in Whitby to check out reports of decent warbler activity. My friend is not a photographer so this was more of a birding outing than a photo op, so although I did carry a camera it was generally not used much. However a couple of times good opportunity meant that I did get to snap a few images. Lots of songbirds (and a few others) were around and the days highlights included Philadelphia Vireo, Bay-breasted Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Northern Flicker, Chestnut-sided Warbler and a few others - good day, for sure

​​​​Reminder: All images are click-able to go full size, and hovering over an image will display species or description

May 19th 2018

Location: in and around Kitchener & Cambridge

Weather: Dreary, cloudy and some rain turning brighter later 

With no real plans I decided to run around a few local spots and see what turns up. First on my list was to check out Tilt's Bush in Kitchener. Leaving my camera in the car, I walked down to the end of the boardwalk, and l was immediately surprised to see a couple of Bay-breasted Warblers - a bird I have been hoping to photograph this migration, but had so far eluded me. I trotted (well actually more of a brisk walk) back to the car and returned to the same spot and as you have probably guessed they were no longer hanging out. Yes ... I did say a couple of bad words  <wink>
Next stop Lakeside park in Kitchener .. nothing much around other than a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers and a Warbling Vireo. ... Heading to Grass lake ?
About this time of year I can usually find a Grasshopper Sparrow, amongst several Savannah Sparrows, at Grass Lake but like the rest of my morning luck they were either staying hidden or had yet to arrive, but while I was here I did see several Savannahs, a few Bobolinks and a few Chipping Sparrows ... 

May 18th 2018

Location: Wood lots south of Cambridge

Weather: Seasonally cooler, but sunny

Ovenbird

Every now and then I take the opportunity to explore areas that I had never been to before - you never know what you are going to find.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes all I did was wear out some shoe leather. Today was a mix of both I suppose. My first stop this morning was a woodlot and pond on the south end of Cambridge and just off Drinkwater Drive (near Myers Road) - I spent the next hour exploring the trails and pond edge, but other than a few Yellow Warblers, Robins, Song Sparrows and a Blue Jay I didn't have much to warrant hauling out a camera. Next on my list was Meister Tract ... I'm not sure why I have never come across this property before as I have driven down this road many times, (which is on Sager Road close to Highway 8), but it had great habitat and I was quite hopeful as I started out. The lot had a circular trail, that although I didn't walk it all seemed to loop through and around, and looked "birdy". Anyways I didn't see a lot but as I was beginning to doubt that there were any songbirds here at all, an Ovenbird popped out and gave me a  few great poses over the next minute or so. Sadly this was the only significant encounter, so I left with the thought this might be worth another visit in the next few weeks.

May 17th 2018

Location: Halton Region Tracts - Currie & Robertson for the most part

Weather: Sunny and turning hot. 

Photography at this time of year is always exciting but boy it can be challenging. Over the last few days the weather has been bright and sunny, which gives us great light and that means I can keep the speed up and the ISO down. On the negative side it also means that getting the exposure right is tricky with certain birds. Yellow is one of the colours I have most trouble with - The reflected light on those yellow (or white) feathers tends to blow out the highlights. Turning down the exposure to get the feather detail, can mean that the rest of the bird can be underexposed, and which when corrected in post-processing, can increase the noise a bit. I shoot manual for the most part, so I have to keep an eye on the info panel of my camera and make adjustments constantly - I have found that slightly underexposing is usually best.
Today I went to Halton area looking for songbirds and found a few including Yellow Warblers, Chestnut-sided Warblers, Redstarts, Veery and a very inquisitive and cooperative bird ... a pair of Yellow-throated Vireos.

May 16th 2018

Location: Hamilton & Burlington (Paletta)

Weather: Sunny and warm, but not hot

Over the years I have noticed something that I now use to my advantage. It varies depending on the time of year but if your looking for birds in a certain area concentrate on a willow tree if there is one around. Time & time again the willow tree or an adjacent tree next to the willow will be the area where the birds are likely going to be found. I suspect (and I should probably look this up to confirm) that this type of tree attracts or is home to the type of insect that the birds like to feed or maybe exudes a sticky sap that traps the bugs making them easy prey... just an observation ....
This was certainly true earlier today - I went to Paletta Park in Burlington following a tip that said there was a Tennessee Warbler located here. I trekked around the park with little success until I came to big old willow tree (and an adjacent tree)  and sure enough, not only was the Tennessee here but several other songbirds as well including Northern Parula, American Redstart, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Black & White Warbler, Warbling Vireos and another one or two that I'm having trouble recollecting as I write this. Anyways a good couple of hours, but I wish they were easier to shoot

May 14th 2018

Location: Point Pelee

Weather: Foggy start then thunderstorms and rain most of the morning, with the afternoon sunny  (more like it !!)

Researching a trip is very important - always pays to check out sighting reports from OFO and Ebird, then what I do is look at history from this approximate date over the last few years (one of the main reasons I started this blog - to create a diary of sightings and locations) then crucially - check the weather forecast. Before this outing I looked at the local forecast here in Kitchener and it looked great, BUT Pelee is 3 hours away and the weather can be different, as it was today. At about 9:00am the sky darkened and had most people scurrying back to their cars or to the Visitor Centre and for the next couple of hours we had thunder & lighting - Not Good!! At about 11:00, although it was still raining lightly, I grabbed a camera and a rain jacket and headed out (but stying fairly close to shelter). The plus here was that the rain was driving the bugs low and of course the birds follow the bugs, so  not all was lost. 
One of the few negatives at places like Pelee is that the brush and undergrowth in general is not groomed (nor would we want it) so even though the birds were low they were often quite hard to see, and consequently quite difficult to photograph. Saying that I did "shoot" a few and saw many more. Notable sightings/photographed were Black-throated Blue Warblers, American Redstarts, Magnolia Warbler, Yellow Warblers (hundreds), Chestnut-sided Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Black & White Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Warbling Vireo, Orchard Oriole, Swainson's Thrush, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Barn Swallow, Baltimore Oriole, Gray Catbird and a few misc others. As I said earlier plenty of birds, but few decent images.

May 11th 2018

Location: Halton Region etc

Weather: Unseasonally cooler morning, but warmer up nicely

Brewster's Warbler

Absolutely no question - May is my favorite birding month and again, no question that songbirds, and especially warblers, are my favorite birds. Today was another outing with warblers and other songbirds in mind. There are lots and lots of great places in SW Ontario (without going to Pelee, Rondeau or Long Point) to find these migrating gems. As they make their way north and settle in their traditional breeding spots, and some which pass through and give us views of their spectacular beauty in their breeding finery.   Along with a birding friend, we hiked a few of the local trails and were rewarded with some superb sightings and photographs. I think todays highlight must have been a few sightings and glimpses of one of my favorite warblers - the elusive and quite rare Brewster's Warbler (a hybrid sub-species of the the Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warbler). He didn't pause long a any one spot but a little patience and I managed a couple of half decent images. 
Other nice birds spotted (some photographed and some not) were Blue-winged Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Indigo Bunting Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Eastern Towhee, Field Sparrow, Least Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Gray Catbird and one or two others

May 7th & 8th 2018

Location: Around Kitchener & Halton Currie Tract

Weather: Bright & Sunny (Too bright really)

On Sunday morning, with limited time, I checked out a sometimes excellent location in the early - mid point of the spring migration - Tilts Bush (directions in my Hot Spots page) A scouting visit a couple of days before had found a Pine Warbler & several Hermit Thrushes, but today none of these species showed, but a Veery did, so this one made up for the lack of the others, being that it was a FOY (first of year) for me.
Monday Morning I visited Currie Tract, another location highlighted in my "Locations & Hot Spots" page. At a spot along the trail a ways I sat for couple of hours and had a bumper amount of flybys and short visits to my location. Birds seen (but unfortunately either not photographed or crap photographed) were Gray Catbird, Eastern Towhee, American Redstart, Warbling Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue-winged Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler. I did however get images of Least Flycatcher & Pine Warbler, so all in all a decent day ... but it's early days in spring migration  so "stay tuned" :) BTW my YTD birds is over 150. 

Pine Warbler

May 5th 2018

Location: Colonel Sam Smith Park, Etobicoke

Weather: Nice ... sun and cloud mid 20's

Sometimes you rely on luck and sometimes you rely on someone else's luck and not to mention being in the right place at the right time. Today was a combination of the latter two - It was decided that Sam Smith might be a decent choice for incoming birds and the possibility of maybe shooting some courting Grebes out in the Marina. Unfortunately today was the day some of the boats were being put in the water so birds were keeping their distance. Anyways to cut to the chase ... we were along the central section known for good warbler activity when a passing birder says "Did you see the Yellow-breasted Chat?" After a quick conversation we hightailed over to the location that was described to us and after 15 mins or so ... there it was - a gorgeous Yellow-breasted Chat. One of the birds we had headed to Ohio for last week was the Chat which we missed out on, so the Gods were on our side today and provided our belated target bird. Unfortunately, the shots we did get were poor, but nevertheless I was pretty happy :)
Other birds (songbirds) spotted around the park were Nashville Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Warbling Vireo, Baltimore Oriole, Hermit Thrush and both Kinglets. (I might have missed a couple), so all in all I was pretty "chuffed" by the species seen, but disappointed that not too many good shots resulted. ... maybe tomorrow :)

May 2nd 2018

Location: Milton and Cambridge

Weather: Hot, and above average temp for early May (27C)

Although it wasn't our first plan, we decided to check one or two of the Halton Region Tracts. One of the ones I've always favoured is Robertson Tract, and shortly after arrival and setting out on the trail we found an active pair of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. Strangely, or maybe not so strange, is I have seen Yellow-bellied in almost the same spot for the last 4 years at about this time of year, so maybe being less of a surprise than expected, it was a lot of fun to watch and photograph these incredibly interesting birds. Other sightings were Palm Warbler (2), White-throated Sparrows (6), Song Sparrows (1), Golden-crowned Kinglets (2), Ruby-crowned Kinglets (3), Blue-winged Teal (7) and a single Gadwall. Unfortunately the only images here today were the Sapsuckers and the Teal, but we were very pleased at being able to capture some pretty good images from these two. 
After a quick coffee we headed to Cambridge to hopefully photograph Pileated Woodpeckers. Yesterday when I was here I could see that a male was actively working an old dead tree. Thankfully, a male Woody was back in the same tree excavating a nest hole and after getting into secluded spot some distance away we watched and photographed both the male and female over the next while. It was very educational and entertaining as it appeared that there was a distinct "plan" that the Woodpeckers were following (so-to-speak). They had excavated two interconnecting holes about 18 inches apart and was using the upper hole as a lookout. They would be in the bottom section excavating, then periodically go to the upper hole and poke a head out and scan the area for sometimes 10 minutes, then return to work in the lower section.   

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and as it's name suggests here she is "Sucking Sap"

May 1st 2018

Location: Cambridge & Grass Lake

Weather: Yep, spring is here +27C

With the weather improving it seems to me that we should see some of our long-overdue songbirds arriving and with that in mind I headed out to a few spots around Cambridge, more on a scouting mission than an actual photography outing. I looked in on a few ponds and sections of river, as I often see songbird activity at this time of year along waterways and wetlands, but spots where in previous years I was "guaranteed" to see Pine Warblers and Kinglets by mid to late April were still quiet, and no songbirds.... I'm sure that will change over the next few days, I hope
I had heard that the Savannah Sparrows had arrived in numbers out at Grass Lake, one of the best spots locally to find this cute Sparrow, and sure enough I counted at least 20 individuals within 15 minutes of my arrival. I had hoped for maybe a Grasshopper Sparrow or two but as I seem to remember they come a bit later. What I did see was a bird (two in fact) that I wasn't expecting yet and that was Bobolinks - there was a pair, very briefly, hanging out along the gravel road next to the towers, and were too quick for me, so no images to show here. The Osprey pair seems to have settled in and are currently doing a spring renovation of the nest, and the Bluebirds are zooming back and forward between the hydro lines and the nesting boxes. Other birds around were Song Sparrows, Eastern Meadowlark, RWB's & Cowbirds, but no visible Sandhill Cranes (surprising) .