Missed Pictures

With no camera, I have had no pictures to post and no real reason for a blog post.  With no new pictures to review, I looked through my old shots and found a few I had missed and can share.  Actually, I noticed there was one complete day back in March that I had downloaded at work and forgot to bring home.

I had gone to Valley Inn Road during that unseasonably warm March break week we enjoyed.  Warmer weather than we are having right now in fact, if I remember correctly.  Though I must say, this past weekend were two perfect spring days!

In one location on the trail from Valley Inn towards Hendrie Valley the leaves were being russled by a whole lot of Garter Snakes.  They were all headed down from the hill beside the trail, crossing the broken pavement, and headed down the next bank towards the waters of the Grindstone Creek.

Common Garter Snake

An Eastern Chipmunk was busy filling its cheeks with seeds left for the birds by the many walkers and bird watchers.

Eastern Chipmunk filling its pouches.

On my way back, a Northern Cardinal was singing it's unique tune in it's characteristic location - at the highest point in a tree. I thought I'd try and take a picture from a non-typical view - straight up!

Northern Cardinal - always at the top.

This little Song Sparrow was so lustfully and busily singing, it let me approach quite close.  It is also a life bird - number 76.  I'm just noticing that I didn't include it in list since I hadn't done anything with those pictures.  That brings my life list bird count up to 79.

Song Sparrow

Back at Grass Lake about a month ago, I was heading home, likely later than I intended to be.... why is it that the last 10 minutes before when you know you should be leaving, always end up being about 15 or 20 minutes by the time you look at your watch again?  Anyway, I was rushing home, but saw these Eastern Meadowlarks out in the antenna field across from Grass Lake and had to briefly stop.

Eastern Meadowlark

There was a stiff breeze, and they were hopscotching each other.  The bird in the rear would fly into the wind, then float in the breeze above the other, and then touch down slightly ahead.  This was then repeated by the bird just left behind, and then again.  I couldn't find anything on the net describing this, but wonder if this is a courting ritual of some sort?  Or they were just enjoying the warm day and it was something to do in the wind.

Eastern Meadowlark pair courting?

News on the camera front... Apparently the Tsunami is still having its affects - no parts to repair my camera's stuck shutter. Henry's will either replace with another A33 or replace it with a comparable model.  If the latter is the case, I've been told that they believe that will be an A57.  From what I've read, that would be an excellent "compromise"!!  There are a number of improvements which will be welcome.  I'll not get into them now as I'm trying to keep my hopes up on that possibility.  Henry's system shows one A33 in stock in the warehouse and has been ordered. They were not certain if that would in fact be an accurate number as they aren't a current model any more. We'll find out in a day or so.

So, a few more days of patience, any maybe I can catch a few of the exciting picture opportunities around here still: hatched Bald Eagles in Brantford, the Sandhill Crane family with their colt which I saw on Sunday.  I met my brother Dan along with all our boys, and Peter Scholtens and family also arrived to see the Cranes.  I'm glad Caleb could get some shots - hope to see some of them on his family's blog (Hint, hint!)

It's Been a While

As mentioned in my last post, life has been very busy lately.  I'm struggling to keep my head above water at work with a very large work load.  Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for work, knowing there are many without right now.  If you know someone in the civil engineering field looking for work in land development consulting industry, feel free to send them my way!

I decided I'd take lunch and head off to Hendrie Valley Marsh for a walk with my camera to relax and see what there was to enjoy on a crisp fall day.  On the way, I stopped along York Boulevard just past the high bridge.  Often on my way into, or heading home from work, I see hawks riding the wind which is forced up by the ridge Yord Boulevard follows.  They face into the wind, and float in a stationary location.  I understand the lift keeping them vertical, but I still haven't figured out why they aren't pushed back.  Unless they are slightly tipped forward?....  There was one red-tailed hawk who must have just tired of that spot and headed out over Coote's Paradise after I got only a couple distant shots.

   

Red-tailed Hawk

I stopped at the ponds just off the Old Valley Inn Road and there was one lone

Double-crested Cormorant perched there.  Many have already gone south for the season.

Double-crested Cormorant

It seemed very nervous with how close I was, constantly moving its head back and forth, but didn`t seem to want to either jump into the water, or try and fly away.  I`m not sure if they can make a direct take-off into

A Saturday Morning's "Work"

Continuing my narrative starting with sunrise pictures on VanWagner's Beach....

When Dave arrived, we headed over to VanWagner's Ponds, one of the locations I had thought might be a good birding location.  At least the OntBirds email list had said this was a good location.  We unpacked and set up our cameras to head down the path.  While we were getting set, a starling was chasing a cicada straight towards us, and last minute abandoned the pursuit as it came close.  Although it had been flying, the early morning temperatures must not have allowed the cicada to warm up enough yet, as it was somewhat sluggish still.

Cicada

Well, after scaring out two herons we didn't realize were there, we really saw nothing else. The ponds have higher banks which were mostly filled in with bull rushes, not the greatest for trying photograph through without hipwaders.  We soon decided to head on over to another location I had also seen on OntBirds - Windermere Basin.  However, it was nothing like what the Google satellite view shows, as it is under some very major construction.  Again, we saw a few herons and shore birds, but none within range, and certainly not with an attractive backdrop.  

So, off we went to RBG, hoping the Henrdrie Valley area where we've both been a few times would provide better success.  On the way though, we stopped on Eastport Drive where there is a small strip of land in Hamilton Harbour which is a nationally designated bird sanctuary, mostly for cormorants.  This narrow portion of land has been populated by hundreds, if not thousands of cormorants, their feces completely killing any vegetation along it.  

Cormorant Nesting Tree

Hendrie Valley Marsh, RBG, Burlington, ON - February 19, 2011

I was supposed to meet Dave (the gentlemen I met at Dufferin Islands Park) for a Saturday morning at Hendrie Valley Marsh at Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, but the winds were very high, so he thought better of it.  I ended up still going and glad I did - the valley was rather calm, and I ended up seeing lots of different birds.  My first birding on my own and had a lot of fun.

"The Lady"   Female Cardinal

"Close-up"  Male Cardinal

White Breasted Nuthatch

"Saving for Another Day" - White Breasted Nuthatch

"Just Going Down the Hatch" - White Breasted Nutchatch

"Keepin' Warm on a Cold Day" - Blue Jay

Male Downy Wood Pecker

Woodpeckers are a marvelously designed bird.  In order to survive the brutal onslaught on their brains (roughly 1000 times the force of gravity), a woodpecker has a number of things which protects the pursuit of a bug from killing them:
 - They have a long tongue which actually curls up behind and around their brain, acting partially as a cushion.
- They have spongy bones in their head to help absorb the impact
- They have a sponge-like absorber between their beak and their skull to reduce the impact.
- They have muscles which contract to protect the brain while they are pecking.
 These special characteristics are parts of what is called irreducible complexity - meaning important characteristics of an animal that all need to be present for the creature to survive.
Beautifully designed.

Muskrat

This little muskrat was making lots of noise under the boardwalk cracking through the ice.  Their eyesight is quite poor, so I was able to drop down and get quite close to get this shot.

I was on my way home, and saw this Red-tailed Hawk in a farmer's field.  I thought I'd try and see how close I could get - usually they won't let you get too near, however this time this one let me get in quite a ways, flew a bit, let me approach again, repeat.  My favourite birds are hawks and it's not that often you get this close.

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

I thought I'd try and get some flight shots which I find hard to do, and this was the best one I got.  Not quite in focus as well is I'd have liked, but I like the setting of the picture.  A beautiful creature.

Red-tailed Hawk

All in all, a great 3 hours of freezing my fingers off!