Monday, September 26, 2011

A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush

This last week has been lackluster with respect to birding. Even with several trips to local hotspots, not much was seen. Fall birding is often like this. It is a 'slower burn' than the spring migration and this means some walks that are less birdy than others.

Saturday morning, my wife and son visited Holiday Beach and had a chance to see some birds up close as some recently banded birds were shown to the crowds. Oddly enough, the three birds shown between 11-12am were a RT Hummingbird, Grey cheeked Thrush, and a Yellow bellied Flycatcher... Three birds featured in my last posting. These birds were in hand, last weeks birds were in the bush.


Its funny how different birds look in hand than in a tree. Last weeks GCT looks bigger somehow.

For $10, I adopted this bird and was able to release it back to the wild. Very cool!




Bad photo... Remind me not to wear black shirts when holding birds.(Note: the black shirt made the camera overexpose the light coloured bird (Yellow Bellied Flycatcher))
 Ojibway Park's Tallgrass Prarie has been the best spot for wablers this last week. Some birds seen there were resident Tufted Titmouse and Northern Flickers as well as Black-and-white, Nashville and Redstart warblers along with Red-eyed and Philadelphia Vireos. Ruby crowned Kinglets have been seen at Ojibway and Holiday Beach this week, along with a few empid flycatchers.

I even visited Tilbury last week (mid-week) but was unable to really get good looks at the few shorebirds that were there. I think a scope would be needed to confidently identify the peeps that were out there. White rumped Sandpipers would be tempting to lifer, but I can't confidently make that call with the looks I had of them (see photo below).

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

4 comments:

  1. Oh yeah, that GC Thrush looks TINY in a human hand. That's very savvy of them to get donations by allowing people to release the birds.

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  2. I may be exposing my ignorance, but what happened to the bird overcome by your black shirt? Nice shots Dwayne.

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  3. Brian,
    The demonstrator had me hold the bird at its femurs just under its belly between my index and middle finger. He then suggested that I cup him and flip him on his back. The bird just seemed really relaxed. Moments later I slowly tipped him and he flew into a nearby tree. Very cool!

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  4. Dwayne,

    Probably were some White-rumped at Tilbury. Two there on Saturday.
    Been lack-lustre for birds the last few days (at least for some!). I've had no luck lately with all the mileage I put on my car. 3600 km in 19 days is too much!

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