Flying Bird Weekend - Ducks, Swans, Owls, Hawks, and Swallows

Had an exciting weekend of walks and sightings, amongst a family get together and a makeover too :-)

On top of seeing the wild turkeys (previous post), we were thrilled witnesses to many flying birds of all kinds and sizes. It began with swans flying right over our heads, like huge white 747s. Then, we realized the Tree swallows are back and flying and swooping close to our heads in many cases. I cannot believe I aimed and got one semi-decent  shot of one of these speeding birds. Then, there appears a Red Tailed Hawk, gliding hunting pretty much right above us as well, though high above. On top of this, last weekend, we had walked at another location before heading home to make din din and don't we get to see the Great Horned Owl, the boy, leave one tree to go sit in another. I waited till he got into an open sky space and I took one shot, managing to catch a far away but semi half decent pic of him. We were so amazed to actually get to see one of these owls fly.

Not quite flight, but we were also witness to a goose and swan fight on these very same ventures out. Crazy birds lol! All getting territorial and preparing to nest.

Red Tailed Hawk Surprise

Last weekend, we decided to go to a different location, a park down in the east south end of Scarborough, for a change of scenery. We ended up parking and basically turning around as we reached the top of the steep park entrance path - I'm just Not keen on people's large dogs running off leash :-( I had had a feeling we would encounter that there too, similar to the whole of Greenwood, because it isn't signed as a sensitive wild life area. I am just too scared of strange large loose running dogs and it is a terrifying anxiety filled venture then, unfortunately. So, we headed back to Whitby, and the Lynde Shores/Halls Rd. areas again as we'd spent a lot of the time driving already.

Lucky we did because we ended up seeing some pretty cool and exciting things.

As we stood on the bridge over the water at Lynde Shores, John spotted a red-tailed hawk fly across from one side to the other, landing in trees on either side of the narrow marsh. We waited to see if it was going to attempt to grab one of the many mallards below. Walking into the path, John spotted it fly over the forest path and swoop at a Canada Goose. It then went into the forest area and hung around on some low lying fallen brush and tree branches. A possum was looking through the debris on the ground, the hawk seeming to not be concerned with it at all. It then flew into a tree just above where I was standing. I got a couple images of it before it again took off. We thought it may still have been a juvenile one, from its behaviour and the head markings and yellow still present at the beak.

At the marsh, 4 of the Trumpeters were up on the roadway, hunting for food. Probably the babies from last summer we think. There were also 2 adult pairs in the water, mutes and trumpeters. The ducks were crazy as usual and we saw a weirdly marked male mallard, maybe a mix of some sort. We also saw hybrid female mallard/american black duck mixes.

There were also rabbits, squirrels, American Tree Sparrows, chickadees - as usual. One funny sight was a sparrow bathing in a small amount of icy and dirty water on the ground.

What began as a sort of disappointing outing ended up being a fun one back in our usual haunts.