White-faced Ibis in Carp

..




Just kidding




Over the past few days, work took me near some shorebird spots. Unfortunately we haven't even hit mid July yet, and the results showed:


Amherst KFN property:

Long-tailed Duck
Tundra Swan
various Puddle Ducks
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Common Goldeneye
Greater Yellowlegs  (my personal first for the fall)
Lesser Yellowlegs - ~8
Least Sandpiper ~20
Wilson's Phalarope - 2


Presqu'ile Beaches:

Least Sandpiper ~40
Semipalmated Sandpiper - 1 (my personal first for the fall)
Lesser Yellowlegs - 6

Townsend Sewage Lagoons:

Least Sandpiper: ~75
Semipalmated Sandpiper ~5
Lesser Yellowlegs ~7
Solitary Sandpiper - 2
Pied-billed Grebe - 1
(+ a number of expected ducks)

Rock Point PP :

Least Sandpiper - 5
Lesser Yellowlegs - 2
(started to think I shouldn't have made the trip)

Mosaic Ponds:

Lesser Yellowlegs - 1
(yep)


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So the above birding reports, over two days, seem pretty dull... But here's the catch. I have a new camera to toy around with, and it is the ultimate in documentation needs. Check this out: (rapid fire mode):

Tundra Swan on Amherst

Crazy Crazy storm on Amherst that just about wiped me off the map. Wasn't on radar when I started walking out?!?!

actually looking better than a week ago

cuteness alert!!! baby C mergies

badger badger badger, mushroom mushroom... Snaaaaakeeeee

Code Yellow on cute-alert

Least Sands - going south before you knew it was summer

ooh! Halloween pennant!

ahhhh.. lots of halloween pennants......

Flash butterfly attack... one of my fav's - Acadian Hairstreak

I call it - crazy trees

Killdeer on sod farm - too soon?

Townsend with habitat is a beautiful thing... even if it is just 1 corner

Cute alert gon crazy!

The only thing I photo'd at Rock Point - silver spotted skipper

So anyways, that's less than 1/3rd of the things I snapped "record shots" of while goofing around..  Should be fun to keep it up!  But don't worry,  this random crazy photo style blog post is a 1 time deal... or is it.......

Dragon dragonflies

Jennifer and I spent 4 spectacular days camping at Silent Lake Provincial Park this past Saturday-Tuesday. Hiking, Swimming, Canoeing, Cooking over the fire. Everything you'd expect! And it was an exceptional amount of fun. We got in at a walk-in campsite (a huge 20 second walk from the parking lot) and after day 1 had the entire area to ourselves. It couldn't have worked out any better!


However! I will do my best to stick to the natural history part of the trip (this is a natural history/photography blog after all).........

My "Natural History" highlight of the adventure was my 118th odonata species for the province, Horned Clubtail:

Having the chance to poke around after some dragonflies was a great change of pace from the constant bird-work  I have been doing in the summer months the past 3+ years... Most of my dragonfly experience came from my time working in Algonquin Park (last years of highschool), and pretty much most of what I knew came from the opportunity to follow Mike Burrell around while I was there (among a few others).  But that was quite a while ago!

The new camera was fun to try documenting pretty much everything I saw/captured. The other dragonfly highlight was 4 different Cyrano Darners (1 photographed in the hand below):

This large and spectacular dragon is a must-see for anyone interested in odes. The ones I've seen seem to be patrolling just offshore (this one was caught from a canoe) on outer edge of any marshy parts to large lakes in this area. You can see a bit of the habitat to the far right of the picture.


My photography highlight (wildlife highlight that is) was a pair of cooperative Mink Frogs while Jennifer and I canoed around the lake:

Looks like I'm gonna have to make a Mink Frog Page sometime.....

Jennifer, if you read this, it was a great adventure! And I can't wait to go there again with you. 

B-side Gulls from Newfoundland

(filler for 1 more day, then some news)
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The finishing touches on the newfoundland adventure. None of these photos are terribly ground-breaking, but I wanted to get them online (in case anyone wants to buy them in the future!.. Gotta make money somehow)

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Fun story:

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/storm_watch_stories3&stormfile=jellyfish_could_shut_down_is_050711?ref=ccbox_weather_category2

And a fun video:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/qubsoutreach/5910008758/in/photostream

B-side ducks from Newfoundland

(Went away for a few days. For now, I give you some filler!)



Some of my last Newfoundland photos, these images were ones I pulled out when I finally finished sorting the 20,000 photos I took on the trip!

(I really like this one)

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!