Weekend of birder's discontent...

Today's weather blows/blew (literally and figuratively). 3-5 degrees celcius and 40Km/h winds with gusts of 50-60km. It wasn't fun to be outside. But I went out anyway!!!

Hillman Marsh had many Bonapartes Gulls, Terns and Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead and Green winged Teal. Double Crested Cormorants were everywhere! Some shorebirds were out there but I saw them more in flight and was unable to identify them.

 

Louisiana Waterthrush (lifer #235) on Point Pelee's Woodland Nature Trail. Terrible photo. I know. I had about three fleeting seconds to see this bird and 2.75 of those seconds were with me fumbling with my camera. Thanks to Blake for finding it on Friday.

 

Blue Winged Teal were in the North Dyke ditch. (behind Phragmites)

 I also saw a Northern Flicker clinging to a telephone pole in the onion fields as well. I think it was tired of trying to fly in 60 KM/H winds.

This was about all I saw in the Redbud Footpath today.

Ojibway Park (from earlier in the week)

I took this photo of the moon while searching for american woodcock this week. It may be the only good photo in this particular posting!

I made a few more (final) attempts to see an American Woodcock this week but left each evening disappointed. I figured I might photograph the moon as its pretty easy to photograph. It is well lit and not moving and simple to maintain focus on.

The Ojibway Prairie has the same birds as I've been blogging about all week, but during my last walk, I saw two separate Garter Snakes. One had a red stripe on it, but I did not get a photo of it.

I followed up on a recent Ojibway Park posting about an Eagles Nests at the foot of Laurier Drive and found it. The two photos below give some context of the nest from mainland.

Ring Billed Gulls are a "blog" lifer (I've never posted or tagged this species). There are several species I have not photographed or tagged because of their common-ness.  American Crows for example are a bird that I see all the time, but have not bothered to photograph or tag.

Well, next weekend promises to be better. It can't possibly be worse than this weekend.  I will even go to Kopegaron woods and see the spring flowers from this ecological gem of a forest. It's one of the few areas in SW Ontario that did not get logged. Another location I plan on visiting will be Colasanti's... I keep forgetting to pick up some of their cinnamon doughnuts.

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava