Feeeelings

(Palm Warbler)

Oh birds flying out over water... How much fun you are... Standing at the tip of Fish Point, Team Burrell and us (Dad, Jenn) were enjoying a reverse migration when the ever exciting Merlin arrived on the scene and began terrorizing the waterbound birds:

The bird moved so darn fast, I couldn't get shots in focus, but it gives you an idea of the events that unfolded this day:

How could you not be excited by this? We all watched on excitedly as the Merlin missed a few captures, and eventually took some sort of Warbler to the promise land...

>>>>>>>>>> FAST FORWARD >>>>>>>>>>

Suddenly it's 10 days later at Point Pelee, it rained overnight, and it's very cold. Birds are soaked and crawling around on the ground, many near death. We can't help but feel bad for the little buggers. 

You're a freezing Yellow-billed Cuckoo, right at the tip of Pelee. Fly south to the promise land? Must have seemed like a good idea at the time:

(note, I BLEW these photos, this is the best I have though) :

Flying out over the water, the cold cuckoo looked odd enough to attract the attention of the gulls. From there on out, it's textbook:

There's one difference however... Instead of being excited for the Merlin, we're watching in horror... If I had "Green-Lantern" style powers, I'd probably make up some sort of weapon and blast all of those damn gulls out of the air 

Wait, what the heck am I talking about? It's hard to really explain, but for some reason, my Dad and I were excited to watch the Merlin try and pick off a gull... But now that birds were dying around us, we felt TERRIBLE watching this Yellow-billed Cuckoo get harassed out over the water by dozens of gulls. And I mean TERRIBLE. And I have no explanation as to why there was such a difference in our feelings

Maybe it's because the gulls didn't really look like they knew what they were doing

Or maybe it's because the gulls didnt "need" to eat this starving bird, unlike the Merlin who makes a living at it. 

No matter what feelings we had (and if we could explain them or not), the Cuckoo continued to fly out to sea,  seemingly abandoning all hope of survival

And eventually became a meal for some overly excitable young gull.  

Just another day (or two) of spring birding in Ontario!