Yep

Before & After

Before...

After...

I'm off the grid

Leaving within 24 hours and will be without any sort of contact until August. I'm terribly behind on emails and keeping in touch with people in general (I also lost my cell phone several days ago, and have yet to get it replaced).

I've got a lot of pre-written bologna ready for the next 2-3 weeks, so if you're stuck in an office, hopefully it will provide some entertainment...

Enjoy your summer! July is the month for rare shorebirds (mega rare) - but it's also painfully boring to look for them. Unless you're up on James Bay!

Some bird photos that I've taken in August in the past below. See you then!

More random things, seen in the field

Garbage Birding in NW Ontario

From mid-late June...

Kenora downtown - 3 American White Pelicans flew over my hotel room at dusk. Stunning against a pink sky...

Kenora Landfill - not much at all, but a spot that would have potential in "gull season"...


Dryden Area - DANG this area looks cool. Had Black-billed Magpies in at least 5-6 different areas - and I had no time to search around. I seriously wonder what might arrive here as a "vagrant" - perhaps in a year with serious drought in the central USA... It may have more of a "concentration effect" than the Rainy River area, but is quite a bit farther away from the prime land... Anyways, it was cool, and I had no time to look around!


Thunder Bay Landfill - thousands of gulls (99% Herring) but nothing notable AT ALL - a bit of a let down... This place has insane rarity potential - and I would die and go to heaven if I had access to a place like this in Southern Ontario...

Two views from inside T-Bay Landfill

Turns out, they don't really want birders going there anymore though (due to some poor birder behaviour)... Pretty sad to hear this, but I talked to one guy who was OK with me staying for my short visit (as an out-of-town'er) 

Nipigon - 3 American White Pelicans on Helen Lake (along with RB Mergansers, other ducks etc) 

Terrace Bay - I stopped at the "Eurasian Tree Sparrow feeders" from this past May for 10 minutes and didn't see anything. No idea if anyone had even looked since they were first found. I did have a Savannah Sparrow and an Eastern Bluebird here though (really odd habitat for the time of year) - showing that crazy rarities probably turn up in these superior towns all the freakin time (no one is looking and so few even care) 

Geraldton - American White Pelicans on 2 different days on a lake just SE of town... 7-8 birds total. Beauties!

I stopped at a few other small locations along the way, but really didn't have time to bird (and it was a bad time of year anyways). I had a good number of the true-boreal birds, but not all. Connecticut Warblers too!

Landfills... Gull (and bear) heaven... 

New images of Caribou Island

I've been on a few planes recently...

From the past:

http://www.blog.peregrineprints.com/2012/01/looking-into-future-caribou-island.html

Computer Background Offer

It has been a while since i've done one of these as well! An image taken while working a few weeks ago. I had it as my background and rather enjoyed it. Should be a decent size for a background!

Random things seen in the field

It has been a long time since I've put one of these online... Random photos with little to no explanation! All from the past week.

October in June? 

Oddly deep pink... 

First tropical storm of the 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season!

The cone!

Arthur is here... A July tropical storm, which should be poised to hit category 1 status (Hurricane!) before too long... This may be a beautiful setup for some birds in Nova Scotia and/or Newfoundland if it properly brushes the outer banks of North Carolina and brings some birds northwards. 

The National Hurricane Centre in the USA has all your hurricane needs: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

There is also a Canadian Hurricane Centre! http://weather.gc.ca/hurricane/index_e.html

Not quite the same thing though? 

One of my favourite websites for learning about these hurricanes: http://www.tropicaltidbits.com/ (great videos) 

I'm "off the grid" for most of the next month... I'm already staring at a pile of emails in my inbox, so I'll have to apologise and get to them when I return (August?)

Coming to an Atlantic Province near you? Or not? 

Happy Canada Day!