Carden Alvar

Yesterday I decided to go and check out the Carden Alvar as I have never seen an Eastern Loggerhead Shrike and there are many other grassland birds to be found in the area. I got there about 7:45am and right off the bat I found some Wilson's Snipes which I have seen many times before but never been able to photograph because they are usually flying over head or well hidden in the vegetation.

Next I continued up the Road to the viewing blind on Wylie road. Here I found some barn swallows and eastern bluebirds that came very close. The Barn Swallows were actually nesting in the blind so they were there all day.

After watching the Bluebirds, Swallows, Grasshopper Sparrows, Peewees and Meadowlarks for some time from the blind I decide to continue up the road. But when I left the blind I found a Loggerhead Shrike almost right behind the blind. It was along way off so I didn't get any good photos but I was happy to have finally seen one. It remained there only briefly and then was gone. So I continued up the road.

The Highlights of Wylie road were 2 Blandings turtles, 2 Clay Coloured Sparrows and Several Golden Winged Warblers, but other than the Blandings Turtles nothing else really posed for photos. After making the treacherous journey back down Wylie road I decided to do a few other trails. Paire smoke and early buttercup were everywhere and I managed to add bobolink to the birds of the day

Catching up

I have been out taking lots of photos lately but I haven't had time to post them here so this post will be devoted to recent photos. I have mainly been out looking for migrating birds lately so I will start with a few shorebirds I have seen:

Least Sandpiper- Newcastle On

Least Sandpiper - Darlington P.P.

Black bellied Plover - Newcastle ON

  Additionally I have been looking for warblers moving through this time of year. Those of you with a calendar from me will be familiar with the blue winged warbler, but here are some other warblers around this month

Blackburnian Warbler - Peterborough ON

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Peterborough ON

Palm Warbler - Peterborough ON

Bay Breasted Warbler - Peterborough ON

Yellow Warbler - Newcastle

 Other Migrants I have come across:

 American Towhee

Warbling Vireo

Blue Winged Teal

Eastern King Bird

And last but not least some courting Red Breasted mergansers:

Happy Mothers Day

Thanks to my Mom for all you do for me! Love you.

Today we had some crazy weather everything from sun to snow, but mostly rain and snow. I went for a short walk and was rewarded with many yellow and yellow-rumped warblers, I even found a common yellow throat.

But the highlight was finding 2 black crowned night herons pretty good for a rainy day! I only managed an ID photo of one of the heron however.

Niagara to Grand Rapids: Day 7

Our last day on our trip I wanted to squeeze in a bit more looking around for birds. So first thing in the morning I got up and headed down to Reeds Lake to see what I could find. There were many birds around but not many within photo range. Several Redhead ducks and a common loon were some of the species of note, there were also 3 yellow warblers in the shrubs along the side of the lake. But this red winged black bird was the only one kind enough to pose.

At Blandford the previous day My Aunt and Uncle had found out about a few trails that they had never heard of before so we decide to go and check one of those out. The one we decided on was Saul Lake Bog Nature Preserve as is often the case with areas called a bog, it turned out to be more of a fen but still a cool ecosystem to find in the south. Right away there were 2 Sandhill cranes out in the open one of which was doing the mating ritual "dance".  There were also several eastern blue birds and tree swallow at nest boxes. It seemed as though they were still trying to work out who was going to get which nest box.  

Eastern Bluebirds have increased in numbers of the past year because of man made nest boxes

For the moment I think they figured it out

After some more looking around we were able to find some warblers 1 yellow warbler and 1 palm warbler

Palm Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Once we had had our fill at Saul Lake it was time to make the long drive and head home. Thanks again to our gracious hosts for giving us a place to sleep and great food, it was great to see all of you again! Birding beats running any day I think :)

Niagara to Grand Rapids: Day6

After arriving late on Friday, Saturday was our first full day in Grand Rapids and we spend the morning looking for birds in near by parks. We started out at Blandford Nature Centre where we found 5 wood ducks, 2 eastern blue birds a northern flicker and some fleeting glimpses of what appeared to be a scarlet tanager.We also found our first turtle of the year here.

We also spent some time exploring Aman Park near by. This Park was not quite as lively a Blandford but we did find some good birds here including 2 Pileated woodpeckers, a Louisiana waterthrush (the first one I have ever seen!), and more tufted titmice. The birds weren't all that co-operative for photos but all in all it was a good day.

The Louisiana Waterthrush looks similar to the Northern Waterthrush but can be readily ID'ed by its song

Niagara to Grand Rapids: Day 5

Thursday we spent the morning in Point Pelee and it was surprising how few birds were around.  There was really nothing there other that the usual residents maybe it would have picked up in the afternoon but we didn't have time to stick around and find out, we had to get to Grand Rapids MI.

From Point Pelee we traveled to Windsor as it was on the way and there were reports of a blue grosbeak in a park there. The Park was very difficult to find at the time due to construction detours and when we got there the blue grosbeak was no where to be found, so it was a bit disappointing. But we did find a Tufted Titmouse which neither of us had seen before. It was good to be able to say that we seen it in Canada still. From there It was on to Grand Rapids!

Niagara to Grand Rapids: Day 3 & 4

Wednesday brought an end to our stay in Niagara Falls and from there we continued south to Point Pelee. We mostly traveled on Wednesday made a few stops but it was pouring rain most of the day, the only bird of note was a yellow rumped warbler in Chatham were we stopped for a hike. The next day we got up bright and early to explore Pelee. We stopped first at the marsh board walk which was filled with ducks, northern shovler, blue winged teal, wood ducks, and Greater Scaup to name a few. We got here a little too early and there wasn't enough light to get many good photos:

 


Next we took the tram down to the point. I was hoping to find some early migrant warblers but they were few and far between. So I settled for a blue-gray gnat catcher and a northern mocking bird and the abundant ruby crowned kinglets.

We continued to explore the park the rest of the day and found some other interesting birds throughout the park. There were a few Pine warblers here and there but none were co-operative.

House Wren

American Towhees were everywhere

Field Sparrow on the beach

Horned Grebe

Finally at the end of the day I found a Nashville warbler as we were leaving the park.