Friday, October 21, 2016

Mid October Birding - Golden Eagle, Cattle Egret & Hudsonian Godwit

Common Buckeye (with blue in wings)

(Note: This posting was from Saturday Oct 15th, 2016)

I visited Holiday Beach this morning with my four-year old son Michael. After spending a good part of an hour on the tower, my son and I walked around the beach to do some birding and butterfly watching. Eastern Comma and Common Buckeyes were well seen. This Common Buckeye above had a blueish tinge on its wing --- pretty cool!

As I was walking along the beach, my phone vibrated - an ontbirds post that a Golden Eagle was in Harrow. Just a few minutes later, I had a Golden Eagle flying towards me just 25' off the ground! At first, I assumed it was a turkey vulture - but the white windows under its wings hinted that I was dealing with a finer species of bird! Sadly, I had just switched my autofocus to manual a few minutes before so I only was able to photograph this Eagle as it flew past me to the west. From the beach, I shouted northward to the tower "Hey ---Golden Eagle at the beach!!!" ... but the three people on the tower never heard me or saw the Eagle.






Golden Eagle


I had photographed a Golden Eagle a few years ago at Holiday Beach, and that photo is now featured on All About Birds. org  - https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Golden_Eagle/id







I was about to head home when an Ontbirds posting mentioned Cattle Egret & Hudsonian Godwit at Hillman, so I couldn't resist. Also, a Cloudless Sulphur butterfly was seen at the Blue Heron area at Point Pelee - so I figured I would try for that as well.


Cattle Egret



Cattle Egret & Hudsonian Godwit

Eastern Fox Snake


A baby Eastern Fox snake at Hillman ended off my nice afternoon of nature viewing. Paul Pratt had found it and had it in hand - and allowed me to hold it- the first snake I've ever held! It was pretty amazing.

Good Birding, Herping & Lepping!


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