Crowned

On Jan 2nd most people had the day off, but I decided I'd head in to work and get some quiet time in the office to clean up email and get some uninterrupted work time.  At lunch I headed down to Bayfront Park to see if any of the rare warblers were still hanging around.  This time I put my bike in the back of the car instead of spending 20 minutes walking the almost 2km from the parking lot to where the birds were being seen regularly.  I got their quicker, but that didn't help me to see the Black-throated Gray Warbler.  So far I hadn't had any luck seeing this bird, so I thought to try and get a better picture of the Gnatcatcher I had seen  every time I had visited the trail lately.  But I wasn't to see this little bird either.  I did see Stephen, a gentleman I met during the Hamilton Christmas Bird Count on Boxing Day, and it was nice to meet his wife who had also joined him in search of the Black-throated Warbler.  They had just missed seeing it by 10 minutes or so according to others who had found the bird previously.

Orange-crowned Warbler eating berries.

There were reports of other warblers on the Marina side of the park, so I headed out that way and soon found two excited birders/photographers who were following two Orange-crowned Warblers and a Yellow-rumped Warbler around a clump of trees and golden rod.  I saw the latter bird fly around a bit, but never got close enough to actually really see it.  I did get to see one of the Orange-crowned Warblers and got two brief, poorly lit pictures on a cold and overcast day.  The Orange-crowned Warbler is more native to the western part of the continent, so it's neat to see one in our neck of the woods.  The orange crown on these birds is rarely visible, and mostly visible from the back of the bird as the under feathers on the head are where the orange colouring is hidden.

Orange-crowned Warbler

And I promised I'd post some of the pictures from Bayfront Park  after the bird count - mostly because my son Andrew gets to guest appear with some of his bird pictures he took - he's looking forward to this with great anticipation. ;)

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

American Robin Nest

Another nest in the backyard.  This one, a Robin's nest, got very close to coming to its end as it was in our wagelia bush which I was trimming drastically this past Saturday.  Just as close was the female robin that flew out just as the hedge trimmer passed by the nest which ended up being only about 6" in from where I cropped the bush to.  It had stayed there, bravely, till the last minute.

Four "robin's blue" eggs.

Somehow what I didn't notice till editing the pictures this evening, was that one of the eggs already had a small peck hole in it (bottom right egg).  I have still to see a baby bird hatch from beginning to end.  Well, Sunday was a full day and I never ended up going back up to look.  This evening, there were already two little ones hatched, and... one was just crackin' out of its already split egg.  

Last push.

Mom?

Hard hat?

Already looking for food.

Beat!

Robins are a big part of the summer scene here, always hunting across our grassy lawns, tilting their heads and then straining against the worm's desperate grips on the last inch of dirt.  Robins breed their two or three broods of young each summer up in Canada and northern US before heading south again.  We see them often, and usually are falling asleep to the males singing away in the warm, summer evenings, and then having them waking us up at 4am just outside the window left open to let in the cool evening air.  Living in Southern Ontario, you're quite likely to have seen a nest as they will top your outside porch light, arbour, or many other places within easy view.

You can see the eye slits staring to develop to allow this chick to see in about 4 days.

But here are a few facts you may not have know about this common bird:

- Robins aren't listening for the worms while they're out on your lawn.  They're tilting their heads only to carefully see straight on with one eye for the wriggle in the ground as the worm comes up to the surface.  Robin's eyes don't pivot like ours.  They will "pounce" to get into the ground a bit around the worm that might only be slightly protruding to get a good grip.  They may also "stamp" the grass to try and make worms in near vicinity give themselves away and move when they feel the vibration.

- Worms only make up about a fifth of Robins' diet.  They eat lots of other insects and berries as well.

- You can tell if a male Robin is breeding if it has extra-black feathers on its head, darker than the rest of its feathers.

We'll see if the other egg will wait to hatch tomorrow morning and see if I catch it.  Not likely!

Long Point Provincial Park 2

Here is the second part of the Long Point post...

I spent one afternoon walking the campground and a bit of the beach in search of birds who were going to stay close enough to be photographed.  I wasn't terribly successful on that trek.  I did get to see a bird I had never seen before - an Alder Flycatcher landed for a brief moment a little ways away, though still quite far away for a 300mm lens (I cropped the picture significantly.)  It's not the greatest shot, but thought I'd put it in anyways.  I should mention that it's possible that it could be a Willow Flycatcher - according to one of the websites I use to figure out what I've seen, you can only really tell the difference by their songs - which I didn't hear and wouldn't have had a clue which one I was hearing.  Because at Long Point it's full of Poplars and Alder trees, I'm going to assume it was an Alder Flycatcher.

Alder Flycatcher a way out there.

I also saw Cedar Waxwing, Baltimore Oriole, Yellow Warbler on this jaunt, but not close enough to get any great shots.  The ironic thing is, the rest of the pictures I got (except for some Oriole shots at the end of this post), were all right by the comfort station.  One of the Park Rangers noted, as I was standing their taking pictures, that every year they have multiple nests around both the main comfort stations at the park.  Interesting considering all the people and pet traffic around.

The most fun, but hardest to get a good shot of, was a tiny Yellow Warbler nest with four little ones.   No matter which side I tried to take the picture from, angling to get a view where the delivery of the meal would be in view, the bird would choose the other side of the little spruce the nest was at the centre of.  I did manage to get a few shots, but nothing straight on.

Yellow Warbler with plenty of bugs trying to stay just out of sight.

Somehow they know food is coming and jostle for position.

Two of the four young ones. They're about 50cm small at this point.

I did get this shot of a baby getting fed by a Yellow Warbler.  Only thing is, I'm not completely convinced this is a Yellow Warbler fledgling.  It seems bigger than the adult, and later on, I'm wondering if I saw a Baltimore Oriole trying to feed the same chick.  Anyone care to enlighten me who knows?

Yellow Warbler feeding .... ???

At the same location near the comfort station was this male Baltimore Oriole.  Although it was a day later, as I just noted, I believe it was feeding the same chick that I saw in the picture above.  I know that Cuckoos and Brown-headed Cowbirds are known to lay eggs in other bird's nests, leaving the nest owner to raise their young.  I don't think Baltimore Orioles do this though - I couldn't find anything on the internet which made me think so.

Baltimore Oriole with caterpillars.

One of our friends noticed a Baltimore Oriole nest high above in the trees near their site.  I have never seen one before.  Baltimore Orioles weave a hanging nest, the bottom a nice round ball, hollow in side with an opening on one side on top.  It's usually near the end of long branches for added protection.  Baltimore Orioles song sounds somewhat like a cardinal's, both in tone, and sometimes, somewhat in it's melody.

Baltimore Oriole nest.

The nest was quite high up in the tree. Having been treated to getting close at the Yellow Warbler nest, I tried to get closer by standing up on a picnic table - likely looking foolish to the rest of the group.  Oh well.  At least I stopped at only one table, and didn't stack another.  Amazing though how such a little bird has been given the ability to create such a masterpiece with pretty much a completely round nest.  I wonder how they get it started.

Male Baltimore Oriole feeding young - you can
just see the beak of one on the bottom of the nest.

Female Baltimore Oriole

I made one trek into the long grass lands towards the inner bays where there are acres of marshy areas, to see what there was to see.  Pretty dumb of me though.  Long Point is known for its ticks.  Lyme disease is known to be spread by female Deer Ticks which are found there.  Although it's apparently not quite the certainty that some make it out to be that you'll get it easily, get sick, and die; it's quite easily treated if you catch it early....  I went out and thought, as long as I keep moving, surely they won't have much time to climb up my shoes and legs, etc.  Well, as you can see from the two pictures below (no birds, only flowers), I obviously did stop, and though not for that long, it was long enough.  At one point I looked down and found, without exaggerating, at least 10 ticks climbing up my legs.  They all came off rather easily, and I was confident they were all Wood Ticks (or dog ticks) as earlier that day we had found one similar on one of my sons, and the Rangers assured us it was not a Deer Tick but the former.  Deer Ticks are half the size, and easy to distinguish with a reddish body and black near and including it's head.  However, you should still be careful, and even though I was walking on a mown path, obviously they still were getting on quite easily.  Lesson learned.

At the price of 10 Ticks... some shots of flowers which I cannot name.  My dear mother is the wild flower expert in our family. Maybe she will be able to identify these.  The first one looks like almost an orchid they way the flowers are arranged on the stem, and the long leaves in the background of the picture.

Wild Sweet Pea.

(Thanks to Karen for the info on the flowers!)

I'm guessing this is some sort of wild iris?

Wild Iris

Even though we were by the beach, I saw absolutely no shore birds other than the very common Ring-billed Gull.  The beach there has shrunk considerably with what must be higher water levels and possibly some erosion from some storms?  Didn't leave enough room for some good beach volleyball.  

A great weekend - till next year?

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!