Woohoo a Chipmunk - First Sign of Spring 2013!

Last weekend, we went out for a walk in one of our favoured areas. There was still quite a lot of signs that winter was still here, namely the stark and frozen marsh and cold, monochromatic landscape.

In the midst though, with the mild temperatures, there were signs of Spring - always exciting to see! One was some buds on a bush/tree, the 2nd were male blackbirds, both themselves and their loud unmistakeable chatter. The 3rd, and unexpected, was the sudden appearance of a chipmunk near the path. Just as I commented that in a couple weeks or so, as we did last year, we'll soon see the chippies out again. Not 2 seconds had passed after my comment when there ran a chippie out of the brush, stopping to check out the snow still left on the ground. We tossed it a peanut but it paid no mind of it, and ran back into the brush. So cool to see what I always think of as a sure sign or Spring!

Lots of other cool things to see too, both alive and inanimate. We also came upon Mergansers, the closest I've ever managed to view them, as we drove over the marsh on our way home. Boy did they take off fast though!

Cute, Smart and Funny Animals and Birds

On our many walks, we see lots of creatures, both furred and feathered and even scaled, bumpy and slimy too. I look forward to Spring when again we will see the frogs and toads and fish jumping out of the lake at dusk after bugs. I look so forward to seeing the baby animals and birds again this coming season!

Last weekend, I tried to balance some drawing time with walks and photography time though. Still, however, it was probably 10 - 90 lol! But, it felt awesome to get in some drawing from life, of my partner, in the afternoon on the holiday Monday. Still, we did get out for one long walk and a couple short jaunts.

Lately, we've seen tons of attitude on the animals and birds. Must be the cold weather and the competition for food. We've seen some amazing sights, one just this weekend. There is a pair of ravens that hangs at one of the spots we hike in. They are often heard before they are seen by us. This past weekend, just as we were  reaching the entrance to one of the paths, don't we look up at a large black bird which at first glance appeared to have a white head. What in hell could that be I'm thinking as I whip the camera up and take 2 shots of it as it passes overhead. I see then in my lens that it is a raven carrying in it's mouth an object - a snowball?! But why? When we got home and looked at the 2 images I caught, one clearer than the 2nd, we saw things sticking out of this ball of snow that the raven held in its beak. My boyfriend had read back a bit, when we saw the Kestrels a few times, that Kestrels will save and hide extra mice or voles, freezing them, to later thaw them out by I guess sitting on them, when food seems like it may be getting scarce or harder to catch. It dawned on us that maybe the Ravens had found one of the Kestrel's, who are also in that vicinity, frozen future meals. It is the only conclusion we can think of, unless it is a frozen discarded fries or burger from the nearby McDonald's or Harvey's lol!

Short Walk on my Short Work Day

I had some lieu time to take, about 3 hrs, so I got to leave work at noonish Friday. I was excited as I'd be home long before dark time and we could do a walk on a weekday, which is always enjoyable.

Well, it certainly was Not +12 like Wednesday, in fact, with the wind chill it was -18 lol! We did go, kind of halfway hoping we'd see a Sawhet owl that 3 different people we've run into have mentioned they'd spotted. Typically, I am not one for going out specifically to look for something as I enjoy the walks for the walks first, then love the surprise of seeing something cool or interesting or exciting. Otherwise, there is that chance of being disappointed because one didn't see what they hoped to see - it's like that for me anyway.

Well, we got there and a guy had his shepherd running loose in the area where my boyfriend mentioned the owl is seen usually. So, no way was I going to walk around there. We figured we'd look a bit on the way back to our car. Venturing into another area, we startled a deer in the small tree and bush area, which scared the crap out of me at first. What a beautiful and large animal it was. It ran and we saw that down below in the valley, it joined a group of about 4 or 5 other deer and they headed away. I'd never seen deer there and was surprised by coming upon one.

In a different area, we happened to spot the Great Horned owl (not me though, my eyesight tends to suck). It was nice to see that it seemed fine and was still present as we'd not seen it for a while. It was dozy, turning its head slowly in the direction of some far off sound. They are always so high up that getting a photo of them is very difficult with my lens. Seeing it here, you'd think we were very close but at the height they usually are, I can barely see them with my naked eye. Nice to have a couple shots though, to recall in the future how lucky we were to have seen them.

We never looked for the Sawhet even though the guy and his dog were gone because we were freezing so we booted it back to the car and went home to make dinner and watch a movie.

The Magnificent Great Black Backed Gull

Sometimes, when we go out for a walk, just to get out and to see what may be seen, they start out being almost boring. I've learned from experience that they tend to never remain that way. This Sunday's walk proved to fall into that pattern too.

I had taken my daughter out shopping for some small gift items she wanted to get for friends and their family As we left the stores, it was sunny and real nice out. I was looking forward to a planned walk in the late afternoon. The weather changed a lot, quickly, and became overcast , windy and bitter compared to earlier, but we went out anyway. We decided just to go down to Halls Rd., our favourite place for a quick "get out for a bit" place.

There were barely any people there this time around. We walked down to the lookout over Cranberry Marsh - nothing. It was bitter enough that I was ready to just go home and get into a movie. The horizon looked interesting though, pinkish under the darks. So we thought we'd take a quick look at the shore and over the lake. As soon as I stepped out of the path onto the shore, there flew a large gull with dark backs of its wings. It was a great black backed gull. When you see them, you notice how much more magnificent and amazing they are, so much different than the regular gulls everyone is used to seeing like the common ring billed gull. We've only seen one once before and I had no camera with me and it was raining pretty hard. They are also huge gulls and seeing them swimming among the Canada Geese, gives a good idea of their size. We were lucky enough to see them in flight, an adult and a juvenile one. There was one ring billed gull with them as well. After watching them for about 15 mins, they decided that was it and off they flew.

On our way back up the path, we stopped to look at a bird that we spotted but do not know the name of. We thought maybe female Western Tanager but are not sure. It also looks like a large female Goldfinch, but I do not think it is. The large group of Cedar Waxwings were a surprise to see. They hung for a bit then flew off in their group. It was cute because one loner got left behind and flew off after about 30 secs after the large group, protesting about being left behind lol!

As we watched the waxwings, a family with 2 little girls came along. John had a few seeds left so as the group stopped near us and remarked about the birds, he asked if they had any seeds with them. They said no, that they had just stopped here on an impulse while on their way somewhere. We gave them the seeds and the 2 girls got to experience the chickadees land on their hands to take them. It was a nice feeling to see the family happy that they stopped because the girls enjoyed getting to feed the birds. It soon was so cold that they left and we all said Merry Christmas and headed back.

Lately, every time we drive back and forth past Lynde Shores area, we spot this small what looks like some sort of tiny bird of prey. I had thought when we headed out this day, that if I spotted it again I was going to stop this time and try to see if I could get a shot of it and see what it is finally. We did see it, but earlier in the drive and we saw 2 people out of their car on the side of the road, taking photos of it. I passed it and said if we see it on the way home, I'll stop. We got passed the spot we had seen the bird on the wire and the people stopped, so I figured it was gone. Then suddenly, there it was, partially in silhouette now though. We parked on the side of the road, opposite the side it was on, and walked down a bit. We then realized it had a mouse hung over the wire and was eating. Though the light wasn't the greatest, I managed to get some shots and realize it was a Kestrel. What a cool sighting! So this was what I was seeing all the time on our drives back and forth along that route lately. It was worth standing out freezing in the cold wind for :-)

What started out as a seemingly boring and  eventless outing, turned into yet again, a fun and exciting experience.

Opportunity for Humour

Sometimes, not too often, but on occasion, a bird has been in a perfect spot for a humorous quip opportunity. This was just such an opportunity with this mourning dove we spotted on our walk to Whitby Harbour last night. The swan babies were quite funny in their own right as well.

Birds and Bees

Sometimes, on our walks, we see some pretty funny sights. This morning, we headed along the waterfront path from the park in Whitby that is down the bottom of Brock St., over to Thickson Woods.....a good 3 hours by the time we got back. Not only were the swallows almost hitting us, but it seems spring having sprung is not quite complete yet.

Osprey Near Our Apartment

We had been hearing really close cries of some bird, that definitely is a bird of prey of some sort. Now, last year, it was foxes that we had to figure out what the screeching originated from. This year, apparently, it is Osprey :-) How cool! We had seen them at the pier in Whitby Harbour, flying over head and I managed to get one (mediocre) shot lol! Then, low and behold, my boyfriend goes out in the morn and he texts me, "there's Osprey out here". Wow, they were circling right above the parking lot. So, we figure, There is the source of the sounds! Needless to say, an exciting quick walk the previous evening, netting 2 firsts as sighting goes for us....an Osprey and  House Finch.

Lucky Kingbird Nest Sighting!

This past Friday morn, I wanted to get up early so we could go on an early walk, hopefully to benefit from the more abundant sighting luck we tend to have in the AMs. Sunrise is now 5:30 as opposed to 7am so we do miss the rising of the sun this time of year, but still get out early enough to have more luck spotting bird and animal life.

We started out at Halls Rd. in Whitby, walked tot he lookout (not much life this visit) and continued on the path that leads to the shore of Lake Ontario. Then, it's a about a 1/2 hr saunter east along the stones and sand shoreline, with a few grappling over or under fallen or growing trees outcrops, to the path that leads up to Lynde Shores Conservation Area. This leads around the marsh. Well, that morn, gawd knows What occurred weather wise to bring all kinds of rotting driftwood pieces and loads of small dead fish. The terrain appeared odd and the the odour was difficult to handle in areas. Not usual that is for sure. We could not think of any large enough wind and rain storms that would have brought all that debris onto the shore, and quite a distance in from the water edge too.

We decided we would venture onto the paths that lead to Lynde Shores. We spotted a deer in the brush near the tall wooden look out tower, saw a cat bird, tons of warblers and Vesper Sparrows, an Alder Flycatcher, Blue Jays, and Orioles. We hoped to see a mink again, having seen one run across the path a few days earlier in the evening. We ran into an older couple, 38 year residents of the area south of Lynde Shores, who talked about the history of the area and also shared some of their sightings over the years. They had seen a mom possum with babies on her back, and a hawk eating a warbler, and other interesting things.  Off the wood pier/dock at Lynde Shores, we laughed at all the splashing by the paired carp probably spawning in the shallow water.

Since I did not want to walk back along the lake shore path, we decided we'd walk out through the Lynde Shores entrance, onto Highway 2, and back over to Halls Rd. then down to where the car was. Luckily we did this, what ended up adding up to an over 3 hr trek that morning, because if not we would never have run across the guys parked and out with their cameras and binoculars. At first, spotting at a distance, 2 or 3 guys parked on a side road, or some lone car stopped for no apparent reason, etc., I always am a bit wary as to Why and What. Then, once I spot the cameras or binocs, relief sets in lol! Ok, they are just birders or photogs and obviously see something interesting. These particular guys were watching a Kingbird nest. One bird was on the nest and the other was perched farther off, on a tall grass. The nest was close, just above my head by 2ft or so, and I was able to grab a shot of the bird on it.