Tuesday, June 21, 2016

My Birdathon (part one)

So finally I went through the pictures and edited them, so here comes a post.

If you would like to donate to my Birdathon go HERE. Thanks to everyone who has already donated!

I woke up at 6:30, and Christian Artuso came at 8:00. Christian came along and he was a tremendous help. We started out by going around our yard. We found some baby Long-eared Owls in the nest (by the way the owlets are branching now). We got about 30 just in our the area around our property.
Long-eared Owlets
 We then hopped in the vehicle and headed to Birds Hill Park, a provincial park near us. First we stopped at the Red River Floodway to check if there were any birds. There was this beauty right along the edge of the water, a Caspian Tern. I've biked to the floodway often but have never seen terns there, so it was quite a treat.

We saw quite a few common birds as we drove along to the park.
We stopped as we got in the park and took a listen. We got some nice views of a female redstart as it flitted about it's nest by the side of the road.

female American Redstart
 Some highlights from the park were Indigo Bunting, Alder Flycatcher, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

The plan was to head out east to the boreal forests to find some warblers that breed there. So we hit the road and headed to the boreal forest
Red-tailed Hawk
 One of the target birds was Golden-winged Warbler. With frequent stopping of the vehicle and listening we were finally successful as we saw one flitting about.
This is a very special and beautiful bird. Thanks to Christian who helped us find it.
Golden-winged Warbler

It flew back and forth across the road and with persistence we got some nice photos, and this bird does deserve some photos.
Golden-winged Warbler

Golden-winged Warbler

Golden-winged Warbler
We also saw this Chestnut sided Warbler.
Chestnut-sided Warbler
It was a bit strange to see a hummingbird on a wire, such a cute tiny thing.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
We got a nice view of an old, collapsed barn and I thought it made for a nice photo.

View of the road. We were seeing a lot of this. :)

Stay tuned for the next post!

No comments:

Post a Comment