Condo Birding UP date - June 1st to 8th

Condo birds! - and flying fish? Ahhh!!!!!

June 1st - my ladyfriend and I had one brief evening to enjoy on my balcony. Watching the sunset, I was pretty darn excited to see a COMMON NIGHTHAWK migrate west along the lakeshore. 2nd record for the condo! (first was last year in late May)


June 5th - another dusk watch late. 1 Black-crowned Night-Heron. Lots of Chimney Swifts around.

From the balcony on the 5th

June 6th - 4-5 Bank Swallows and 4-5 Cedar Waxwings may have been migrants (?). 1 Common Loon on the water. A ratty flyby MERLIN was/is maybe summering(?)... 45-ish Scoters waay out on the lake were either Surf or White-wings... 10 Red-breasted Mergansers were chillin at dusk.

Odd lookin N Rough-wing, no?

June 7th - I heard a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher from my balcony early. They seem to be nesting nearby at Edgelake (very close), but it's probably my first for the condo proper.

- Cedar Waxwings still seem to be moving in very low numbers. 1 Cliff Swallow is a species I hadn't seen much of recently. Are they migrating? Wandering? Lost?

- 1 Common Loon offshore

- 1 Black-crowned Night-Heron flew by (out over the lake) mid-morning.. Odd!

- 40ish White-winged Scoters offshore are probably the scoter sp's from yesterday!

- for the past two days, there have been some decent feeding groups of cormorants/gulls... Nothing of note though. It's June...

- what's with the hawks? 1 American Kestrel and 1 Cooper's Hawk make sense - but where did the OSPREY come from? Is it a migrant? Local? Non-breeder?

The Os! - Just booked it west along the lakeshore... 

1 MONARCH at dusk (up high, flying north) - may have been the highlight of the day... I thought I had this thing all signed and sealed (writing about the day, before it is over, never works) - when a SWAMP DARNER arrived and was feeding on midges around my balcony:

(Well after sundown)

Then things couldn't have been better when this adult PEREGRINE Falcon flew past, heading west (fast!)... Is this a local bird? Or?

My favourite!

A fine day indeed (especially for June 7th!)...


June 8th - I was up early, and it stunk! Around 10:30am I started to see waterbirds on the NE wind (flybys):

3 Loon Sp (flyby in a group, probably Commons?)
6  Red-breasted Mergansers
1 - 2nd alternate LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL
7 different Great Black-backed Gulls
1 White-winged Scoter
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk (once again, where are these raptors coming from?)
4 Black-crowned Night-Herons
1 Common/Arctic Tern (see photo below)

Well, what is it? Flying along the lakeshore, 200ft in the air with an adult Common Tern. I thought this bird was going to lay chase to the Common (due to its faster flaps) but it was not the case - it just had a faster flap. I took ~20 photos, the best of which are put into the composite above. Seems to have very little black on the primaries. Better match for Arctic (first summer)! But is it? What do you think?