Loon Count

July 20, 2013

All is not well with our loons at Grand lac des Cèdres.  For the last several summers, there has been poor recruitment of young loons.  Every year we hope that the new season will be better, but it's not shaping up well at all.  High water in the early season  prevented them from nesting, and it looks like we are only going to have one successful pair.  But at least they hatched 2 chicks, and so far are doing well.

During our count, we saw a total of 15 adult loons, some seemingly paired off, but without any young.  We also saw a couple of Belted Kingfishers, a cooperative Spotted Sandpiper and a Bald Eagle.

 

Shirley's Bay and Points West with Jane and Sami

(Text is by Jane, photos by Bill)

Thursday was a beautiful day.   A good day to bird with sixty two birds noted fifty nine seen and three heard.

Sami and I saw 13 species just in the parking lot at Shirley's Bay.  Bill Bowman joined us on the dike where we  had some shorebirds -- Lesser Yellowlegs (at least 15), Solitary Sandpiper (1), Killdeer (4) and Spotted Sandpiper (at least 2 maybe 4).  Lots of Great Egrets, we did not count them.  Four Belted Kingfishers and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird were also seen.

We headed to the area on Thomas Dolan where we had seen Eastern Towhee in previous years, no luck, but we did see Field Sparrow and White-throated Sparrow.  We saw two Green Heron in a tree.  Off to 5th Line, where we saw one the Eastern Bluebird and the Eastern Meadowlark (2).

Birds Noted.

1.  Yellow Warbler
2.  American Redstart
3.  Red-eyed Vireo
4.  Warbling Vireo
5.  Gray Catbird
6.  Mallard
7.  Cedar Waxwing
8.  Hairy Woodpecker
9.  Great Blue Heron
10. American Crow
11. Canada Goose
12. Blue Jay
13. American Robin

Going to dike
14. Song Sparrow
15. White-breasted Nuthatch
16. Eastern Wood Pewee (h)
17. Wood Thrush (h) later seen coming back

On the dike
18. Lesser Yellowlegs
19. Green-wing Teal
20. Solitary Sandpiper
21. Marsh Wren (h)
22. Red-wing Blackbird
23. Black Duck
24. Common Gallinule (with babies)
25. Killdeer
26. Common Merganser
27. Great Egret
28. Blue-wing Teal
29. Hooded Merganser
30. Tree Swallow
31. European Starling
32. Barn Swallow
33. Common Tern
34. Mourning Dove
35. Belter Kingfisher
36. Wood Duck
37. Osprey
38. Spotted Sandpiper
39. Double-crested Cormorant
40. Common Grackle
41. Ruby-throated Hummingbird

On the way to the parking lot
42. Ovenbird (h)
43. Black-capped Chickadee
44. Pileated Woodpecker

On the way to Thomas Dolan
45. Northern Cardinal
46. House Sparrow
47. Turkey Vulture

Thomas Dolan
48. Green Heron
49. Savannah Sparrow
50. Eastern Kingbird
51. American Goldfish
52. Field Sparrow
53. White-throated Sparrow
54. Swamp Sparrow

5th Line
55. Eastern Bluebird
56. Eastern Meadowlark

Baby Birds - Home and Cottage

July 14, 2013

The newly fledged Black-capped Chickadees in our yard are enjoying the birdbath during the current heat wave.

 

At the cottage on Lac des Cèdres, we saw baby Common Terns, Common Loons and a family group of Common Mergansers.   A couple of Great Blue Herons were also seen fishing on the lake.

Dunrobin and Environs

July 6, 2013

Craig and I went for a couple of hours birding before lunch. 

We began at Kerwin Trail.  It was quiet at first, but we eventually heard an Ovenbird.  We called it and it came with a couple of buddies.  On the return trip to the car, we had a couple of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers and also two Northern Flickers.

Our next stop was Berry Side Road, where we saw a Brown Thrasher, a Yellow Warbler and several Common Yellowthroats.  The Osprey platform was empty.

From there went turned down Fifth Line Road, and saw a Bluebird on a wire and also a Kingbird.

We went on to Constance Creek where the Osprey platform was also empty.  There were many Swamp Sparrows calling and a few seen.

We made our way home via Riddell Road, where there were three Ospreys on the nest, one of them a juvenile.

We stopped in at the Nepean Sailing Club to see the Purple Martins.  The banding was just over, we were told; fifty-nine banded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cycloparc PP&J north from Campbell's Bay

July 1, 2013

After watching our daughter-in-law and grandsons run in the Canada Day races (5K & 1K), we drove to Campbell's Bay to finish another section of the PP&J bike trail. 

The trail is incredibly birdy and we would recommend it to anyone.  Warblers and thrashers are common.  There are a few marshes, where Virginia Rails seem to abound.  We got really excited while photographing one, when we got a glimpse a smaller black rail.  I was thinking Black Rail, until I looked up downy young Virginia Rails and found them to be all black.  We got our first decent photographs of Sora too.

We also had several raptors, including Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel and a juvenile hawk.  In one photo, it look like a Northern Goshawk, but in others, it looks like a Northern Harrier.  Well, it did fly our of sight for a while, so perhaps it was two different birds.  It was being harassed be four or five Red-winged Blackbirds.

The flycatcher did not sing, but it responded to a Willow Flycatcher song and ignored the Alder.  There were also several light brown birds that jumped across the trail and disappeared.  I have to assume they were thrushes.

Bird List

1. American Kestrel
2. Turkey Vulture
3. Red-tailed Hawk
4. Northern Flicker
5. American Robin
6. Red-winged Blackbird
7. Yellow-Warbler
8. American Crow
9. Eastern Kingbird
10. Ring-billed Gull
11. Brown Thrasher
12. Common Grackle
13. Great Blue Heron
14. Virginia Rail
15. Common Yellowthroat
16. Savannah Sparrow
17. Song Sparrow
18. Gray Catbird
19. American Redstart
20. Eastern Meadowlark
21. Willow Flycatcher
22. American Bittern
23. American Goldfinch
24. House Wren
25. Cedar Waxwing
26. Rock Pigeon
27. Bobolink
28. Northern Harrier
29. Mallard
30. Sora
31. House Finch
32. European Starling