Bluebirds & Butterflies

 

This week, I've made an attempt to take a quick walk at Ojibway or visit the bridge to view the four fledglings after work. Its been pretty good. The this falcon above is called General Brock (note the red band). All four fledglings are doing well and flying around!

Ojibay Park (the tallgrass prairie in particular) has been great. I find that if you walk slow, really slow, you can see some amazing things. I was grumbling lately about not seeing Eastern Bluebirds, but during my last walk, I was pleasantly surprised to see a pair. It was very subtle, but I saw a female quickly fly into a group of Oak trees. Perch for a moment and disappear into the middle of a tree. At first I was disappointed that I was unable to get a nice shot of them, but I realized I was seeing something very special. Ten or so minutes later, I saw a male fly into the same group of trees, perch for a moment, then fly to the same dead tree stump, hidden from view by oak leaves. The male as you can see has a mouthful of bugs, possibly for its babies. The Bluebird flew to a perch, seemed to look around for a minute, then quickly feed its fledglings.  I can't help but wonder about this behavior. I was thinking that there are so many predators, so many dangers in the wild that these Bluebird parents are cautious not to make it obvious where their nest is. They don't really hang out, possibly so not to give the location of their nest to predators. Blue Jays as beautiful as they are, can be very mean to nesting birds and eat their eggs. Brown Headed Cowbirds would love to lay an egg in the bluebird nest and let the bluebirds neglect their own offspring while feeding this parasitic cowbird fledgling. Snakes and even Chipmunks have been known to attack bird nests and steal/eat eggs!

At Ojibway, there are breeding bluebirds, but no bluebird boxes. They nest in natural cavities in snags and dead branches. These are created usually by woodpeckers.

Just recently, there was an Ontbirds Posting about Chipmunk Nest Predation. The birder noted a Black Capped Chickadee Nest near his cottage that had Male and Female parents with nesting material to a cavity in a snag near his cottage. He noted that a chipmunk climbed up the snag, with much protest from the parent BCCs, went into the nest and left with an egg. He later went back and assumingly took the two or so remaining eggs, possibly stored in its cheeks as it escaped. The nest sadly failed and the female was not seen after this ordeal.

Us birders, nature lovers and photographers must be mindful of these struggles for survival that the birds we love to look at must go through. During breeding season in particular, we should be very cautious about playing bird calls because there are so many other things the parents of a nest should be doing besides perching on a branch for a great photo. I had no idea that cute chipmunks do such things, but as I stated before, we have very little understanding of all the dangers and struggles for survival these birds in the wild must endure.

Red bellied Woodpecker inspecting a cavity-ridden snag. Heavily cropped photo.

Some Ojibway Butterflies

Silvery Checkerspot on the left, Baltimore Checkerspot on the right.

A nice look at a Silvery Cherspot. I would have discounted it as a Pearl Crescent without Blakes recent mention of this butterfly. The Silvery Checkerspot is much larger than the Pearl Crescent. According to CBIF, "The submarginal row of black spots on the hindwings always has white centres to some of the spots, unlike similar species that have solid black spots."(CBIF)

Female Little Glassywing. The males have rectangular windows, females have square.

I would like to go to see the Dickcissels that Blake and Josh have been reporting recently. I had amazing views of them last year near Wheatley. I'm also on the lookout for Olive Hairstreaks, Checkered Skippers and Five-lined Skinks.

Good Birding!
Dwaynejava

CBIF, "Silvery Checkerspot", Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility , 2010-05-31, WEB, June 12, 2012, http://www.cbif.gc.ca/spp_pages/butterflies/species/SilveryCheckerspot_e.php

Owls of Ojibway

Just a short posting. I'm happy to say that my birding hiatus ends tomorrow at 7pm. I have not birded too much lately, but still have been able to take the occasional walk at Ojibway Park in Windsor.  A friendly birder (yes, they exist!) graciously shared the location of these two gorgeous owls with me, under the condition that I not disclose the location to others. The owl fledgling below is only about 5-6 days old!

The baby owl looked distraught so we left immediately. We stayed back at least 100m, so this photo is heavily cropped and taken with a 500mm lens on a cropped sensor. Please use the highest standard of birding ethics when viewing owls.

Related News:
Four Peregrine Falcon Eggs at the bridge site!
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2012/04/10/four-eggs-for-peregrine-falcons/

Point Pelee Birding Report for 2011 
http://www.ojibway.ca/pointpeleebirds2011.pdf

I'm selling my kayak (maybe)
http://windsor.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-sporting-goods-exercise-water-sports-Kayak-Wilderness-systems-tsunami-165-Updated-with-Photos-W0QQAdIdZ370102176

New Scope?
I'm in the market for a new scope. Some considerations are the Bushnell Elite Scopes, Vortex Razor 85mm, Kowa 88mm...Any suggestions?

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Hillman Marsh & Point Pelee in Late September

 Wing-tagged Egret 10E at Hillman

Even though my birding travails as of late have been basically fruitless, I couldn't help but stop by Hillman Marsh this morning. When I arrived, I walked over to the bridge over Hillman Creek,  and I quickly noticed a wing-tagged Egret! I was going to add a caption.. "don't label me" (to the photo above)... but when I add captions lately, it prevents the reader from seeing the larger version of the photo. Some Yellowlegs and some peeps were around Hillman this morning, but nothing overly exciting.

 I might be wrong on the ID here, but this shorebird was quite larger than those around it and has a slightly upturned bill. The Sibley field guide to Eastern N American birds statest that the bill length of a Greater Yellowlegs is about 1.5x the length of its head (Lesser has a bill length equal to the length of its head). Having seen many Solitary Sandpipers lately, I'm actually amazed at how similar they look to the Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs!

I then proceeded to Point Pelee and headed straight to the visitor center. I had read on the Point Pelee Twitter page that there were many Kinglets and Vireos lately. I was hoping the sightings book would hint at where to find them. But the sightings book listed exclusive raptors over the last few days.  I figured I would go to the tip of the park. There seemed to be very birds on my last two PPNP trips. Are the raptors scaring them away or am I just missing them???


The tip of Point Pelee was very sparse this morning when I went,  and I saw very little with the exception of one small pocket of passerines along the east beach about 20m south of the 42 parallel path.

  Yellow Rumped in great light and razor sharp focus... Click for larger view...

In a fleeting 2 minutes I saw:
Red Breasted Nuthatch
Flycatcher
Yellow Rumped Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Nashville Warbler
American Redstart
Blue Jays

Above them were
Red Tailed Hawks
Turkey Vultures
Sharp Shinned Hawks
Merlin/Peregrin Falcon

 I ran into Rick from Leamington as I was leaving the park and we quickly checked out Delaurier for some Golden Crowned Kinglets that he had seen earlier. Rick has taken some incredible photos and video footage since I've seen him last. I would like to publish some of his video or at least link to them if he puts them online.

Merlin or Peregrine Falcon? My field guide isn't helping on this one.

Overall, I find that the passerine migration has really slowed down, at least from my meager observations. I wish I would have seen a Lincoln's Sparrow or some Vireos, but I guess some Raptors and a tiny group of warblers will do.

Good Birding!
Dwayne

Bonus: Last night after work, I saw this Solitary Sandpiper at Ojibway Park. ... But not much else!

Hooded Warbler at Ojibway ...

Today I had a tonne of work to catch up on, but I took a quick walk around Ojibway just to see what was happening. Long story short, I was blown away at how many House Wrens there were... There must have been one every 50 sq meters! Also, I thought I saw at one point a Yellow Warbler... but it turned out to be be a female Hooded Warbler! Lifer!!!

Yesterday, I photographed three birds that I couldn't ID. Could the first one be a Swainson's Warbler? I use allaboutbirds.org to ID most of my birds... And Swainsons is the only greyish bird... Vireos... I'm not sure what this could match in that category... Any thoughts?

 I'm not sure what this is... A female Blue-winged Warbler? Or Immature? Any ideas?

Happy Birding!

Eastern Bluebird on Jan 7th??? ... Lifer!

Wow, after reading the latest Ojibway bird sightings page... I read that the Christmas bird count had 3 Eastern Bluebirds at Ojibway (http://www.ojibway.ca/latest.htm). I was shocked because I haven't seen a E. Bluebird ever... and I go to Ojibway at least weekly.

I have been humbled here... There are so many habitats, behaviors and diets of birds... Thrushes don't really hang out around the feeders... They were out in the grassy prairie reserve on the East side of the park...

This photo below is of poor quality, the light sucked outside, it was snowing and this bird was far from me... This is cropped and has the saturation boosted to reveal the blue... but I will post it because hey... its a lifer! :-)

Birding Life List for 2009...

I've photographed about 78 different birds over the spring/summer/fall of 2009. One of my favorite photos is of the Tufted Titmouse, which I took at Ojibway Park in West Windsor.

Loons Grebes Cormorants
1 Pied-billed Grebe
2 Double-crested Cormorant

Ibises Herons, Cranes and Bitterns
3 Great Egret
4 Great Blue Heron
5 Green-backed Heron* ~
6 Black-crowned Night Heron

Swans, Geese and Ducks
7 Mute Swan*
8 Canada Goose*
9 Mallard* -
10 American Black Duck
11 Wood Duck*
12 Lesser Scaup
13 Bufflehead
14 Hooded Merganser


Vultures,Hawks and Eagles Falcons
15 Turkey Vulture `
16 Osprey
17 Bald Eagle `
18 Northern Harrier*
19 Sharp-shinned Hawk
20 Cooper's Hawk
21 Red-tailed Hawk
22 American Kestrel
23 Peregrine Falcon

Plovers and Sandpipers

24 Semipalmated Plover
25 Killdeer*
26 Least Sandpiper
27 Ruddy Turnstone
Solitary Sandpiper (not sure)

Gulls and Terns
28 Caspian Tern
29 Common Tern (I'll be honest, I'm still working on gulls and tern id's)
30 Ring-billed

Doves and Pigeons
31 Rock Dove
32 Mourning Dove*

Owls
33 Eastern Screech Owl*

Swifts, and Hummingbirds Kingfishers
34 Ruby-throated Hummingbird
35 Belted Kingfisher*


Woodpeckers
36 Red-bellied woodpecker
37 Yellow-bellied sapsucker
38 Downy Woodpecker*
39 Hairy Woodpecker
40 Northern Flicker*

Flycatchers
41 Eastern Phoebe

Larks, and Swallows
42 Cliff Swallow
43 Barn Swallow*
44 Tree Swallow*

Jays, and Crows
45 Blue Jay
46 American Crow

Titmice, Nuthatches And Creepers
47 Black-capped Chickadee `
48 White-breasted Nuthatch
49 Brown Creeper
50 Tufted Titmouse

Wrens Kinglets, and Gnatcatchers
51 Golden-crowned Kinglet
52 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
53 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
54 House Wren


Thrushes
55 Veery
56 American Robin*
57 Wood Thrush

Waxwings
58 Cedar Waxwing*


Vireos Warblers

59 Blue-headed Vireo
60 Yellow Warbler*
61 Blackburnian Warbler
62 Black-and-white Warbler
63 American Redstart
64 Northern Waterthrush
65 Yellow-rumped Warbler
66 Black-throated Green Warbler

Grosbeaks, Finches Sparrows and Buntings
67 Northern Cardinal
68 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
69 Indigo Bunting
70 American Goldfinch
71 Dark-eyed Junco
72 House Finch*
73 American Tree Sparrow
74 Swamp Sparrow*
75 White-Throated Sparrow
76 White-crowned Sparrow
77 Lapland Longspur

Blackbirds, and Orioles Tanagers
78 Baltimore Oriole
79 Common Grackle*
80 Brown-headed Cowbird
81 Red-winged Blackbird*


In 2010, I plan on doing weekly trips to habitat hotspots to grow my life list.
Two major areas I can build on are Warblers & Shorebirds (bitterns etc...). I plan on seeing a pileated and red-headed woodpecker this summer as well (Rondeau?) .