Apr 7th - blistering SW winds and warm temps greeted me for 45-ish mins prior to leaving for the OBRC meeting.... Birds were pouring along the shore (blackbirds, robins etc) - then a juv male Peregrine Falcon arrived on the scene and made 12 (TWELVE!!) high-speed stoops on unsuspecting migrants over the next ~40 mins - and was still going when I had to leave.... Having the ability to watch the action as he rode the updrafts and made attacks at break-neck speeds darn-near brought a tear to my eye.... Pic below:
Apr 8th - After hearing reports of some Red Crossbills in my patch - I walked out my front door (after some morning surveys) and walked to the far west end of my patch where I had unbelieveable looks at a male and female RECR... Fantastic!
I also scored some new condo/patch birds in: Northern Flicker (some flying by my window @200ft up), Eastern Meadowlark (5 past my window @200ft), Northern Rough-winged Swallow, YB Sapsucker, E Phoebe and Hermit Thrush!
Apr 11th: after a stretch away from home - I got back around dusk where I had the chance to glimpse the lake with 50kmh NE winds before it was dark. Big numbers of gulls and Caspian Terns on the move.
Apr 12th - the lift bridge recorded a 70+kmh NE gust just prior to dawn. I was home all day, and watched on/off for several hours as the winds went light... Not a lot of highlights in the really windy period but I did get a Glaucous Gull, the first condo Green-winged Teal - and finally my first condo (overdue) Lesser Black-backed Gull in a 2nd basic bird! Sa-weeet!
DC Corms on an angry lake...
Find the out of focus Glaucous Gull...
--- In the late afternoon the winds had totally died - then switched SW and started increasing as the low passed by... A BIG Accipiter right out my window passed by too quickly for and ID... I nailed my first condo Barn Swallows and Osprey in a surprising late-day migration of various bird species. More awesomeness! Also had a Merlin that looked BLACK... tried to take record pics but they stink...
Pretty awesome overall... Cormorants are really back now... It's also great to see Common Loons on the go... Hopefully over the next 2ish days I'll get back out and around the patch for some woodland birds!
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