So What’s Been Going On Since Last Time

or perhaps

Does it still count as a Blog if I only post every few months???

I have to get a better handle on this thing (he says to himself knowing full well nothing will happen).

In June last year we had a few nasty storms come through the area. My Lady and I were sitting in the parking lot of the town Visitor Centre and watched as the clouds worked their way across the river from the west. My Lady suggested I take a photo, so I happily obliged. The phone panorama worked quite well.

Also in June My Lady and I went to Niagara Falls to see the new Tunnel attraction. We did the evening tour that included an interactive light display that we found informative and entertaining. Then we took the elevator down to the Tunnel, and made our way out to the viewing area beside the Horseshoe Falls. Spent a little time here and had to protect the camera occasionally so it didn’t get too wet. This attraction might be really cool to see at night when the Falls freeze up and the lights are shining on it.

In September our town has a little event called The Uncommon Festival. It’s a great time for fans of Steampunk and Wizardry to dress up in their favourite cosplay outfits and hang out with like-minded friends. We have been a couple of times and some of the costumes are really fantastic. I went in the evening this year and watched as a bunch of “Pirates” and “Soldiers” entertained the crowd by firing cannons as well as muskets and blunderbuss toward the river. Got a couple of interesting photos.

In the fall we went out towards the Bracebridge area hoping to see the autumn colours, unfortunately we were a little bit early so we checked out some waterfalls instead. However we did get to see the partial Lunar Eclipse.

A few weeks after that we headed north along Lake Huron to visit Goderich and Bayfield. Pretty little towns and a couple of our favourite day trips.

Would you believe that Birding has still been going on? Yup, even after our amazing journey to Texas, we still get out to look for birds whenever we can. If you have been reading my past posts you would likely have seen most of the regulars that come by, however we did have a few new ones that deserve a mention.

Then of course along comes the time to spend on the Holiday Beach Hawk Tower, helping to count whatever happens to be flying by.
This year we had an amazing young gentleman who was able to pick up the calls of birds flying by, and was so fast with his camera it was like watching an old western gunslinger shoot a coin out of the sky. He was able to get some awesome photos of birds that I couldn’t even see.

Remember the Pelicans that came by in the early spring last year? Well it looked like they had a great time in the breeding grounds, and they made their way back to our little marsh, and took up residence for a month or so. Often there were over 1000 Pelicans on the marsh at a time.

So 2024 was an amazing year for people who enjoy looking at the sky. The sun has been very “dirty” with sunspots throughout the year, and I have really enjoyed getting some shots of it. Then of course we had the major event of the spring (perhaps a lifetime) with the Total Eclipse in April.
In May we had the Aurora that sadly we stayed in bed for, followed up with the August aurora that we fortunately had a chance to see.
Did you know that in October we had another aurora? This one I am calling a MAJOR EVENT, perhaps even going so far as calling it an AURORAGASM (surely better than sex?). I have never seen anything like it before, and one young lady in our group was in such awe that she said “It’s so beautiful I feel like crying!”
I’ve been asked if the actual views were as good as the photos, and all I can say is that once our eyes were adjusted to the dark, all the colours were easily visible. So even while the camera was taking 8 second long exposures, I was still able to observe and enjoy. At one point the sky was Red all the way over our heads.
Wait until you see the photos below.
And just a week after that we were able to see Comet A3 with our naked eyes (it was difficult, but once you knew where to look it became easier). The photos look better as I took a number of photos a few seconds long each, then stacked them to really show what the tail looked like.
And we can’t forget the previously mentioned Partial Lunar Eclipse

Winter came in with a vengeance this year. It was cold all across North America, and we had our few days of it as well. Not only that, but we actually got some snow! Nothing like in the traditional snow belts, or what was going on in Toronto, but more than we have seen since coming down here. And with the cold weather, the snow stayed longer. The marshes froze over and people were out skating and playing hockey on them, the Detroit River was on and off frozen and Lake Erie had large ice shelves reaching far out from the shore.

But winter did bring in some of the winter birds, like Horned Larks, Snow Buntings, Lapland Longspurs and Dark Eyed Juncos, while others tough it out throughout the year, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Nuthatch, Blackbirds and Starlings and a good number of ducks.

We also have a few Raptors that are comfortable with the winter weather. Red Tail Hawks, Coopers Hawks, Northern Harriers, and of course Bald Eagles. I submitted the photo below of the Adult Bald Eagle to our local CTV news channel, and it appeared as the Photo Of The Day on the following day. Unfortunately we missed seeing it, but one of our friends sent me a text letting me know that they saw it.

Slowly the months turn over and March makes itself known by bringing in the warmer weather, and the promise of a new birding season.

My Lady and I went to a nearby Provincial Park in early March and as we were walking along the road a dark streak flew in front of us and landed in a tree. I got my binoculars on it and we were thrilled to see a Pileated Woodpecker! We hadn’t seen one since before we left Toronto, and although we hear of one visiting the area once in a while, we were never in the right place at the right time.

All winter we had an impossible time finding any owls, and after lamenting our woes to one of our friends, he advised us of a place that we should be able to see some. Fortunately he was right, and we had a couple of wonderful days observing a number of Short Eared Owls hunting.

A couple of weeks later another friend pointed out a Screech Owl sitting in a box.

It took a little while longer this year for the Pelicans to return to Holiday Beach, but it’s nice to be able to say that they are making their way through with a bit of a stopover here. Sadly the marsh is at its lowest water since before we moved down, and all of the birds are having a harder time finding food. This includes the Pelicans. There have been a few days where they weren’t seen at all after their earlier arrival.

So how many of you got to see the Blood Moon in March? I actually stayed up all night and had my camera taking photos every 20 seconds from pretty well start to finish. I have this little compilation here, instead of putting in too many photos.

Well, after March comes what I like to call “Birding Season”. April and May are some of the best months for the inbound migration and Holiday Beach and Point Pelee are going to see a lot of us again this year. Of course this means I will likely have a couple of thousand photos to go through before I can put together another posting. Hopefully you will all be patient.

Does that get us all caught up? Maybe, but I am sure I am missing a lot. Maybe I will remember it in time for my next posting (whenever that turns out to be).

Thanks again for reading, hope you are still enjoying what you see.

Till next time.

It’s Better Than …

It’s amazing the stuff you can re-learn when you have a bit of time on your hands, and the ability to understand what your teachers were trying to explain when you were younger.

As a child I was interested in space, after all it was the time of the Apollo missions and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

In school we learned about the sun and the 9 planets (yes Pluto was still a planet back then), and we learned about eclipses, the planets orbiting around the sun, the moon phases, and a little bit about the Northern Lights.

As mentioned in my last post I finally had the opportunity to see Totality during a Solar Eclipse, but this posting is more about Auroras than eclipses.

In the big city there is so little opportunity to see the Aurora, but there have been a couple times that I can remember.

Once in my early 20’s I was out late at night walking in the Warden and Finch area of Scarborough, when I happened to notice an odd green wash to the sky in the north. As I watched it seemed to move and change. At first my mind went to HG Wells and the War of the Worlds, but then my brain worked it through until I realized that I was seeing the Aurora, otherwise known as The Northern Lights. I was filled with excitement and so very happy to have seen this, from such a busy place.

Sadly there were no cell phones at that time (oooh, that must have been such a long time ago Grandpa!), and I didn’t have a camera either, so all I have is a memory.

The next time I saw the Aurora was with My Lady when we visited Alaska and the Yukon. We were in Dawson City in late August of 2005, doing laundry while on a tour, and I stepped out of the laundromat, looked up at the sky, and observed a green glow forming overhead in the late twilight sky.

We were tired after a very full day of touring, and after finishing the laundry my poor Lady wanted to go to sleep. I pleaded with her to come with me to the river (where it was darker), but she really was tired. Eventually I was able to persuade her to come with me, and as I led her while she sleep walked, she let me know that she was not pleased.

That changed when we got to the river.

As I set up my camera (yes, I had one this time – it was even a digital too!), My Lady lay down on a picnic table and looked up at the sky. Green waves, Pink ribbons and Purple streaks greeted our eyes. She was entranced and immediately wide awake.

At one point the sky right above us went into a corkscrew and turned a full revolution, before my camera was ready, and then disappeared as quickly as it started.

We stayed and watched the sky for a couple of hours until the show faded away. As we headed back to the hotel, My Lady mentioned that it was even better than sex.

The next time I saw that green glow was when I was driving up the 427 to the 401 while heading to work. There it was low on the horizon, greeting me like an old friend. Again this time, only the memory.

And a few years ago, My Lady and our Son and Daughter In Law were watching the Perseids meteors in Lion’s Head Dark Sky area, and were thrilled to see some of the familiar colours vaguely showing in the north. This time I had a camera, and even knew a bit more about how to use it. Surprisingly I was able to help a couple other people capture the beauty on their own cameras as well.

Which brings us to May of 2024.

We belong to a group of birders and we send messages when a bird of note is being seen. Sometimes a message comes in later in the night, or the summary email from EBird comes in and we get the message ding after 10, when us old birds are trying to go to sleep.

One night in May we were just falling asleep and had the “ding” come in. Neither of us bothered because we figured it was the EBird summary.

In the morning when we woke, we checked the message and were very sad to see that someone had sent a message telling everyone to get outside, the Aurora is fantastic right now. And we slept through it.

Since then we have been keeping a closer eye on the weather and the Aurora Alert sites online.

Now, swinging back to the sun. Right now we are in a high point of the 11 year cycle that the sun goes through, and we are seeing an immense amount of Sunspots. These Sunspots coincide with the increase in Aurora / Northern Lights, and the greater the Sunspot, the greater the chance to see the Aurora.

Over time I have purchased Solar Filters from Thousand Oaks and Celestron, and have been trying to photograph the sun when it is especially spotty. These filters go on the front end of the lens and block all light, except that from the sun. DO NOT TRY TO PHOTOGRAPH, OR LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY, WITHOUT A PROPER FILTER. YOU CAN DAMAGE YOUR EYES.

A few nights ago everything seemed to align, and we felt that there was an opportunity to (hopefully) see the Aurora. The sky was going to be clear enough, and the Alerts showed that the Aurora was dipping further south into our area.

Knowing that the best viewing would be to the north, My Lady and I jumped into our vehicle and headed to the north end of the county, along the shore of Lake St. Clair, and waited as darkness fell and our eyes adjusted.

Eventually I was able to see some colour showing up in my camera with a 10 second exposure, and we began taking a few more photos.

Soon after we moved to a different area where it was darker, but unfortunately had a bright red light flashing off to the right side. We stayed here because it was the best place we could find. We were joined by a lovely couple, and shortly after another lady arrived, who all stayed with us for an hour or so as we watched the sky to the north ripple in greens and tower in purples. Eventually this too faded away, and it was time for us to make our way home, once again feeling elated at being able to observe something so magnificent.

My Lady still believes it’s better than sex.

Ah well, I’ll just have to keep trying.

Maybe next time I can get a good photo of the Milky Way… not the chocolate bar.

Thanks for reading.

Till next time

Sometimes it’s about being in the right place at the right time.

In February we were out with some friends and it was mentioned that they had seen some white Squirrels in a park at the north end of the county. Well that sounded different enough for us to go have a look at, so off we go to Belle River and pull into the park wondering where they might be. Didn’t have to wonder too long, because as soon as we parked we saw 3 of them running around the tree right in front of us. Too easy. Then when I was getting my camera out of the car, I noticed 2 more hanging out in another tree, so we had 5 in total. They didn’t seem to mind the human with a camera being in their area and they just played tag with the black Squirrels, or hung out in the sunshine trying to get a tan.
These were not Albinos, but from what I understand, they have a gene variant from the Grey Squirrels.

I was walking along the boardwalk at Holiday Beach near the end of February, and happened to see something interesting flying over the marsh. I took a quick photo and zoomed in to see that it was a Pelican. I thought it was odd to see one so early so I sent a message to one of our friends who felt it was of interest. I posted it to our group and went over to one of the blinds for a better look. Another birder was there and he pointed out that there were about 50 Pelicans just offshore. This was exciting so I made sure to post that new info, and that started a month of daily posts from our group about the growing number of Pelicans throughout Holiday Beach and the Big Creek area. One day there was a count of 300 spread all across the marsh. And then all too soon, they were gone. A small number have been seen throughout Essex County since then, on and off, but I am hoping they show up in those numbers again during the outbound migration.

It’s not every day that you see a randy couple getting down and dirty out in Mother Nature, but it just so happened that I chanced upon a lovely pair getting ready to “have some fun”. I’ve had some time to get to know some of the moves that Swans make before they, well, you know, nudge nudge wink wink …

First comes the head in the water and out again move from the male, then they both start dipping either together or one after the other, then suddenly he mounts her and eventually pushes her head under the water, then when he finishes they do a “chest bump” and lovingly form a heart with their necks. All very sweet.

Anyhow, that’s another quick update of the first 3 months of this year. Now that I have the photos from our trip to Texas all sorted out I hope to have a big blog ready within the next week or so.

Keep an eye out, but I suggest putting some time aside to read it when it comes in.

Thanks much for staying with us.

Till next time

2023 Summer and Fall Update (don’t worry, it’s a short one)

Believe it or not, I actually had a majority of the blog written up to cover what happened in 2023, but by the time I was going to finish it up 2024 was already in full swing. So I think it’s about time to do a little catching up with 2023, before we get side-tracked by Summer, and then the Fall on the Tower, and just think, Christmas is just over 6 months away.

We had a majority of the usual suspects running through town over 2023, but then we also had a few rarities that had us chasing through Essex County for a chance to see them.

In June we learned that there was a very special migrant that was spending time down towards Point Pelee, so we hopped in the car and headed out that way. Once we saw all the cars parked at the side of the road, and our friends wandering over, we knew we were in the right place. This poor Cassin’s Kingbird is usually found in the far south US and Mexico, but it may have been blown up in some of the storms around that time.

In July My Lady and I took a trip up to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan via the Mackinac Bridge before going for a visit to Mackinac Island. This place is really pretty but also really pretty touristy. It is a car free island and the only way to get around is by foot, by bike, or by horse and carriage.

Getting off the ferry from the mainland you are almost immediately hit with the tourist shops of fudge, t-shirts, popcorn and candy, restaurants and so on. After walking around for a little bit, and waiting over 20 minutes at Starbucks, we hopped onto one of the Horse Drawn Carriage tours and enjoyed a slow paced trek around the hotspots and made a stop to see the butterfly conservatory, where a couple of butterflies took a real liking to My Lady.

After returning to the mainland we drove further north to Tahquamenon Falls. The upper falls is one of the largest east of the Mississippi River (nowhere near as tall as Niagara though), and further downriver is another set of cascading falls that make this a very worthwhile drive.

One evening we had an alert stating that there was an immature Little Blue Heron hanging out with a number of Great Egrets at the Egret Roost just down the road from our house. Zoom, out we go and meet up with our friends to see this rarity, and then we find that there were 2 of them. Fortunately they stayed for a few days giving us some nice opportunities to get photos.

A few days after that we had a Swallowtail Kite giving a real show in Lasalle, just a half hour up the road, and although we couldn’t make it the first day, we finally had a chance to go see it, and boy are we happy that we did. It gave everyone there a fantastic show as it went back and forth across the fields and over the road, just looking for some grasshoppers to eat. Many times it simply flew nice and low over all the photographers as if telling us to get the best pictures that you can. It even made it on the local TV news. After a few days it disappeared and was briefly seen at Point Pelee, before heading out to who knows where.

In 2023 My Lady and I had a chance to be on the Holiday Beach Hawk Tower a lot more than ever before and we truly enjoyed every moment.

We were entertained by feeding Ospreys and stealing Eagles, Hummingbirds, Sapsuckers, Deer and Sandhills. We even had Peregrine Falcons strafe the tower before inviting a Blue Jay out for lunch. Then there were the Broad Wing Hawks. OMG the middle of September is the best time to observe the Broad Wing migration where THOUSANDS of these raptors were on the move through the area in massive flocks that enthrall everyone who looks up.

Young Osprey happy about catching a fish

October, the smell of autumn permeates the air. The outbound migration makes a change and now different birds are going by. The last of the warblers slowly peter out and the Broad Wings get replaced by Turkey Vultures. Shorebirds visit the marsh looking for mudflats to feed on and Pelicans swarm in to rest and feed on the numerous fish that inhabit the marsh. Starlings murmur as they harass the raptors that are just trying to pass by. Waterfowl start to congregate in larger and larger numbers only to be stirred up whenever the Eagles swoop in.

Finally we arrive at November, the time of the Golden Eagles. As far as I am concerned 2023 was the best one for seeing Golden Eagles since we have been helping out on the tower. One day we had a couple of Goldens fly by and I was pointing them out to some visitors, when I looked back to the East and saw 5 more flying in towards us. I freaked out a bit and got everyone excited as we saw 4 of them fly in and pass over the marsh. Shortly after that a couple of the gentlemen who do the raptor banding pulled up to the tower and brought out the 5^th Golden, who apparently was tempted by the bait bird and got trapped in the netting. They did all the scientific measuring and banding, and brought it over for everyone to get a close up of it, before releasing it to carry on with its migration.

Finally in December we had a couple of new birds hit our area. A Limpkin spent a short time at Wheatly Provincial Park, and allowed quite a few people a chance to see it, and a Townsend’s Solitaire visited Point Pelee for an extended stay, often being stubbornly difficult to find, but other times just showing up and sitting in a tree for everyone to see. The Limpkin is usually found anywhere from Florida south to much of South America, and the Townsend’s is a Western North American bird.

The end of December hit all of a sudden and then BAM, 2024 came along. Is it just me, or is time moving a little quicker these days?

How about a few more photos for now

Maybe I can get our trip to Texas up before I get side tracked again for the rest of this year???

Thanks for staying with me, and if you like what you see, tell your friends about the site. Trust me, I certainly don’t think I’ll be spamming anyone’s inbox at the rate I am putting these posts up.

Till next time.

Let’s see how much of October I can actually remember. Thank goodness for photos.

March 18, 2023 (okay it’s not that bad. Well, maybe)

Well I know that I spent a heck of a lot of time at Holiday Beach on the Hawk Tower, as was to be expected.

The birds did their gradual change from the Broadwing Hawks and Blue Jays of September, to the Turkey Vultures, Sharp Shinned, Red Shouldered and Red Tailed Hawks, along with the Kestrels, Merlins, Coopers Hawks, and later in the month if we are lucky, we can see the Goshawks, Rough Legged Hawks and Golden Eagles.

Thankfully the winds this year were quite favourable, and the weather stayed fairly dry and comfortable. It made for some very pleasant days on the tower.

Of course with clearer days it sometimes made the observing a little harder to do. Usually it’s better to have a few clouds in the sky so that we are able to tell everyone else where to look when we have a point of reference. Sure, I might be able to say “Incoming North-East corner, 30 degrees up, far out” but to be honest I don’t carry a protractor with me, so I am only estimating 30 degrees, as is everyone else, but by the time others have eyes on it, the bird could be at 50 or 60 degrees up, and more to the North, South, or even passed us to the West. BUT if we had a cloud, we could say it is just under/over, left/right, entering/exiting and so on. That is as long as it’s not too many clouds, then we are all just trying to figure out which cloud we are looking towards. And it gets even harder when there is more than 1 bird coming in at the same time. But we all have fun as the day goes along.

The banding station continued to bring up raptors for people to adopt, and we had close visits from a few Sandhill Cranes.

The Starlings begin to gather by the time October rolled through. It’s amazing to watch their murmurations as they jostle for position in the flock, trying to evade being eaten by the various raptors that would enjoy a quick lunch along the way.

Starling Murmuration. The large bird at the bottom is looking for a Starling take-out meal

Another rare bird that visited the tower this year was a Virginia Rail. This little waterbird usually hid in the tall grasses around the other pond by the tower, but once in a while popped out to search for some food. We had to stay pretty quiet in order for us to watch it, as any sudden noise or movement would have it skittering back into the underbrush to disappear for a few hours.

Virginia Rail with what looks like a Snail

This year the marsh became quite dry and we were pleased to see some of the shorebirds come in for a few days. Groups of Yellow Legs would feast in the mud and then do a fly-by of the tower, Killdeer would gather and buzz us while they called out their name, and other Sandpipers would be seen in the mud flats, or walking along on the edges of the dying lily pads.

There had been an old Beaver lodge at the Trout Pond in Holiday Beach for a long time, but nobody had seen a beaver there for years. That changed in October when one day on the tower I noticed a wake in the pond and checked to see what duck it was. Nope, not a duck. I quickly called out BEAVER! Everyone turned and looked in astonishment at the new visitor to the pond. It was calmly swimming around as if checking out the place, and seemed to be interested in the lodge.

We also had a new addition to the Turtle group in October. Along with the Painted and Blanding Turtles we have a few Map Turtles in the Trout Pond.

One afternoon we were on the tower and had a show of a lifetime as this Fox calmly made it’s way along the edge of the pond.

My Lady and I spent a few days across the border and had our phones in airplane mode so we missed a bit of excitement until we were coming back home. As we were crossing back into Canada my Lady set her phone back and immediately started to receive messages about an Ultra Rare Tropical Kingbird being found in a small park just minutes away from where we were at that time. We immediately made the decision to go check it out. We met a couple of our birding friends there and we were all searching for it. Right after one of them showed me a photo of what it should look like, I saw a flash of yellow fly into a tree nearby. Of course we couldn’t find it again so we drove home to drop our stuff off, pick up the proper camera and binoculars and head back to the park.

Rare Tropical Kingbird. Notice it is missing a tail feather

After a bit of searching we all happily found the little guy flying from tree to tree and resting nicely for us. We were able to get some wonderful photos that day, and it hung around for about a month afterwards until it was no longer seen. We hope that it returned back to Central America, but it’s impossible to tell unless it survived the winter here.

October was also a strange month for other things in the sky. In early October I photographed a large number of sunspots on the sun, while later in the month we had some really interesting things going on with rainbows, sunbows, fogbows and sundogs. What’s interesting about the sunbows is that they appear to be flattened, not creating a proper circle that we would usually expect. Really cool stuff to see.

So that wraps up October. Who knows, perhaps November will come sooner rather than later? In the meantime, here are a few more photos from October.

Thanks for reading, and if you are interested in more about Holiday Beach, check out www.hbmo.ca.

Till next time.

September; a hard month to swallow

As the summer holidays end and the kids go back to school, we begin to see the birds making their way south to warmer climates.

This also is the time that we begin the annual Hawk Observation as they zip past the Holiday Beach Hawk Tower. This year my Lady and I actually had an opportunity to spend some time on the tower helping out observing and counting, and whenever possible, taking photos.

However, September was a bit shorter on the tower than we had hoped. Due to various things in life getting moved ahead in the priority list, birding took what could be considered a major bump down. Not that there was anything wrong. For the first couple of weeks we were looking after our Grandpup, and it is really difficult to look for birds and take photos when you have a pretty strong dog on the end of the leash. Then after we dropped Grandpup back home we spent a few days in Tobermory where we had a very interesting experience.

While we were driving, My Lady called her brother to say hello, and while they were talking he mentioned that He and our Sister in Law were in Tobermory for a couple of days. We were quite surprised by this coincidence and decided to meet up with them as we were on our way there ourselves. When we pulled into the Motel that we were staying at, My Lady mentioned that one of the cars in the parking lot looked like her brother’s. When we went into town we met up and as we were chatting it was confirmed that it indeed was their car as they were staying at the same Motel.

We walked around town and after we checked in and got our key I remembered the room number that they were in and as it turns out, our room was DIRECTLY BELOW THEM! This was just way too bizarre. We spent the evening having supper on our balcony, talking and laughing until it was time for us all to head to bed.

We have to consider that due to Covid we had only seen her brother briefly a couple of times, and had not seen our Sister in Law for literally years. These coincidences led us to believe that our meeting was meant to be, for whatever reason. We may never know exactly why, but we are truly happy that it all happened the way it did.

After our return home it was finally time to get up onto the tower for the Hawk Watch.

You may have noticed that I rarely use people’s names in the blog, but this time I really feel that I have to give a proper shout out to the people who dedicate so much time to counting the birds that make their way past not only the tower, but as far as the eye can see all around. Thanks to Nicole, Hugh and Liz who spend up to 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, from the beginning of September to the last day of November in almost every kind of weather. Anything from brilliant sunshine and hot end of summer days, to below freezing temperatures and winds so strong you can feel the tower sway beneath your feet as the days shorten into the end of November.

We see many things while standing on the tower. One day I happened to notice a Blue Heron who had caught a fish in the marsh. We have seen this before where the fish gets caught, the bird adjusts it in its beak and quickly swallows it. Fresh Sashimi to go.

Oh Boy this is going to be a really good breakfast

However, this time the fish was either putting up a heck of a fight or it was just too big to swallow.

Although it is a Hawk Watch or Raptor Count, there is also another group of people who capture the hawks and take various measurements, before sending them on their way with a new piece of jewellery. This is all for science and the banders are trained and certified. Once in a while they will bring a bird or two on the tower and people can adopt them. No, you can’t take it home with you, but you will get your picture taken with the bird, as well as a certificate with the banding information emailed to you, and any time that the bird gets “recaptured” you will be notified by email as to where it was found.

Sharp Shinned Hawk. Welcome to the Band.

The biggest movement of raptors in September is usually the Broad-wing Hawks. This year we had amazing movements with 33,000 Broad-wings and 92,000 Blue Jays on September 23 alone.

Very small portion of a Broad-wing flyover

You never know how hard or how easy it will be to spot the birds. Some days when the sky is clear they might start off the day flying lower and within sight, but as the day warms up they start to ride the thermals and it could take them so high that the only way to spot them is through binoculars. We have often had people lying on the floor of the tower with binos stuck to their eyes as they count tiny specks flying overhead.

Other days the clouds will cover the sky which will force the birds lower, which gives great opportunities for us to get really close views as they almost buzz us on the tower.

And some days they will be able to fly through the blue sky and disappear behind the cloud only to pop out again somewhere else along their flight path.

Families of Bald Eagles take up temporary residence in the marsh, staying months while the fishing is good.

Ducks begin to hang out for a while, fattening up for their next leg.

Monarch Butterflies pay us a visit to the tower as well during September, before starting the long trek to their wintering place in Mexico.

Monarch stocking up before a long flight to Mexico

And as for the Blue Heron with the fish mentioned earlier… We watched it for over 10 minutes as it fought with that fish. Eventually we saw it walking in the water, without the fish but likely still hungry.

Thanks for reading.

And if you are interested in more information on Holiday Beach and what the Hawk Count is all about, as well as seeing some of the numbers and an extra little article that I wrote up specifically for the site, please visit www.HBMO.CA. Feel free to make a donation if you are so moved to do so.

Till next time.

Hey look at this, I’m finally getting August out!

December 08, 2022

You know, I can apologize till the cows come home, but it won’t change the fact that I am once again extremely tardy in getting my blog out to you. That being said, I am sorry.

At least we know that August was a lot warmer than we are getting now, and the wildlife was out enjoying themselves as much as we were.

Most of the time we hung around Holiday Beach and made full use of our annual pass. So what did we end up seeing?

Hiding out in the greenery was what appears to be a Lake Erie Water Snake. We’ve seen them before, but it’s always nice to see a snake in the wild.

Lake Erie Water Snake. You can just barely see its face to the left of center

Turtles really enjoy getting out and sunning themselves on the warm summer days and August saw them out in full force. I originally thought that we only had Painted Turtles, Snapping Turtles and Blanding’s Turtles, but I have since found out that we also have Map Turtles at Holiday Beach as well. Not bad for a small portion of Southwestern Ontario.

August brought out the Butterflies in droves. Sadly I don’t know Butterflies well, but so many of them are very pretty and will occasionally sit still once in a while to allow us to take photos.

The birds are quite hungry and they are fattening up for the outbound migration. We were very entertained by a Flycatcher who played with what looks like a hornet, before eventually finishing it off.

Did you know that the birds change their looks as the Summer wears on? In the Spring when they arrive they are often sporting their beautiful breeding plumage, but after they get to their breeding grounds and have their babies they begin going through molting where they lose the pretty colours and put on the more drab outfits that makes it a bit more difficult to identify as they head back out of the area.

Female or Immature Male Chestnut Sided Warbler

At one point we kept our eyes on a few ducks that we originally misidentified, and later learned that they were molting Wood Ducks. They still looked very nice, but not their striking colouring that we love.

This is also the time that we get more of the different Herons taking up residence. Most of the time we see Blue Herons and Great Egrets, but it’s always a welcome site to find the Black Crowned Night Herons and Green Herons enjoying all the goodies that the wetlands provide.

Black Crowned Night Heron hunting for breakfast

We had a special Gull stop by in Essex County for a few days and many of our birding friends went to see it, so we decided to try to find it as well. The first day we saw all kinds of Gulls, Terns and Cormorants, but not the bird we were looking for. Then it rained and we scooted out of the area.

I went back the next morning and fortunately was able to find the Franklin’s Gull relatively easily as it was right out along the edge of the sand spit across from the park where we were the day before. It was interesting to see all the other Gulls giving it a wide berth as it wandered around the area.

What’s the chance of seeing 2 types of Cuckoos in the same month? Probably not very good. However that is exactly what happened to us in August. Early in the month we had a quick sighting of the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo, and then near the end we were thrilled to watch a Black-Billed Cuckoo at Point Pelee for well over 10 minutes. Took far too many photos that all seemed to look similar in hindsight, but was exciting at the time.

One evening My Lady and I took a river cruise along the Detroit River from Windsor up as far as Peche Island and back down underneath the Ambassador Bridge. It was a very pleasant evening and a lovely date night for the old married couple. Afterwards we drove half hour to get home and promptly fell asleep.

The following morning we got up and jumped in the car and drove out to St. Thomas for a day. Went to see the Train Museum and take a walk along the Elevated Park trail. It was such a nice day that we carried on to Pinafore Park for a walk.

So guess what, that wraps up August, but a bit of good news, I have a bit more time now and can expect to get September’s blog out soon. Not tomorrow, but… soon.

Ok, how about these Eagle photos. Very rare to have it take off and fly towards you.

Thanks for sticking around and we hope that you are still enjoying our stories.

Till next time.

Well this is going to be interesting.

Sorry if I am making your head explode. Who could have thought that I would be able to put out 3 blogs in such a short time?

Welcome to July. My work contract ended at the end of June and I am re-retired, which has actually freed up a bit of time.

Considering that the birds are; A) not in the area right now, B) trying to not move around too much in this summer heat, C) hiding in the trees and keeping quiet, or D) any other reason, we haven’t been seeing too many things.

Sure we could try to figure out moths and butterflies, but that particular “bug” hasn’t really hit us yet.

So as it is, if something gets put out on our birding group that we want to see, we’ll go, but in the meantime it’s pretty slim pickings.

One bird that did show up on our radar and was being seen just around the corner from us, was a Neotropic Cormorant. We went out to try to find it and hope that I got a picture of it. The problem is trying to identify special markings on a black bird, from a good distance away. Binoculars couldn’t figure it out, but a heavy crop on a long lens does show what we hope is the differentiator. In the photo you can barely see a white line on its cheek, and the yellow patch under the eye stops there. In the Double Crested Cormorant which is the most common seen around here, they don’t have the white line that goes up the same way, and the yellow on the face goes further back.

There is a small airport on one of the US islands just west of here and we often get different planes flying by. We were lucky to hear this one as it flew overhead and straight towards the moon. Then one day I was sitting by the river and saw the Goodyear Blimp making its way downriver and watched as it went below the treeline for a landing.

In the middle of the month My Lady and I went to Point Pelee, and as soon as we started walking on the trail I heard a distinctive call of a Cuckoo. Unfortunately it stopped before My Lady could recognize it. As we continued on the trail I heard it again, but again it stopped before she heard it. She thought I was hearing things and complained that I can hear a bird but I can’t always hear her. Sorry, I must be a typical male. As we finished the trail and was about to get back in the car, I saw a bird fly into a nearby tree. Of course I had to check it, and wouldn’t you know, it was a Yellow Billed Cuckoo. Fortunately My Lady was eventually able to see it and we watched it as it hunted for butterflies before moving deeper into the shadows. It poked out for the briefest of moments into the sunshine so I was able to get a picture. Let it be known that My Lady apologized for doubting me.

Yellow Billed Cuckoo on the DeLaurier Trail at Point Pelee

We finally made it over to Pelee Island for a day. We got down to the most Southern point of populated Canada (Middle Island is the furthest island, but is not populated). Wandered down to Fish Point and got as close to the tip as we dared without disturbing the wildlife there. Fish Point tip is similar to Point Pelee tip and is constantly changing with the waves and the sand. As it turned out there were a couple other small sand points beyond, but we couldn’t get there. The furthest one was well populated with Gulls, Cormorants and a very large number of Pelicans.

There are times when the Detroit River is very busy with freighters, and we happened to be at the Navy Yard one evening when 3 freighters made their way up, one after another. Then a few days later I watched as a Tall Ship worked its way up river.

Wildlife is often very close by our little town. We have a local Beaver spending time just on the south edge of town, and has been seen as far up as the Navy Yard. We got to see a little Mink swim in the river and run onto the rocks right in front of us. Deer and Coyote have been hanging around just a few fields away from our house, while Rabbits, Raccoons and Possum often give up their life on the main road just beyond our little subdivision.

As we are entering the Dog Days of Summer, we expect the birding to be a bit slow until September so we will continue to find things to go out and see, and if possible, to photograph.

One thing that I have been trying out lately is photographing the Sun. I figure it doesn’t move as quickly as birds, and you can see it almost every day.

ALERT ALERT ALERT – Do NOT just take a camera, point it at the sun and look through the viewfinder. You can cause blindness. There are special filters that you can put on your lens that will block a ton of the light and radiation that will not only burn out portions of your camera sensor, but can also burn out portions of your optical sensor (aka your eyes).

The sun is currently coming into a high sunspot period over the next couple of years, and I am trying to learn how to get the best photos before the next big eclipse in 2024. Maybe I can eventually even learn how to get some of the coronal ejections on camera.

Other than that we’ll keep our fingers crossed for anything new through August.

Thanks for hanging on through all these starts and stops. With any luck I can be a bit more consistent.

Keep cool, stay safe and we will talk again soon.

Till next time.

June was a little different this year

Sometime life has plans that suddenly change things up. I ended up spending a few days in the hospital due to a reaction to the fumes from the stain we were using on our deck. All is good, but they wanted to keep me under observation for a little bit. Now I am not allowed to do anything that involves painting or staining. Some would consider that a good thing, but I hate to think that My Lady will end up having to do all that in the future.

So as it goes, we ended up missing out on a few days of birding and we pretty well spent our time at the Amherstburg Navy Yard, or Holiday Beach, with a couple of trips to Hillman Marsh and Point Pelee.

We actually started off by going to Hillman Marsh when we heard of a rare Ruff stirring up the birders in the area. Of course it turned out that it wanted to stay well out of good viewing range and made it difficult to get proper photos. Without knowing where to look, we would have missed it and thought that it was another sandpiper. Sadly it wasn’t a breeding male which would have been gorgeous, but a less flamboyant female. Thanks to our friends we were able to at least see it. This is another bird that comes from Europe and somehow made it to our little piece of heaven.

Female Ruff just left of center. Not much to look at but not something you see every day, or even year.

I was wandering around Holiday Beach early June and found the Blue Grey Gnatcatchers nest was populated with hungry little mouths, and surprisingly nearby was a Yellow Warbler nest also showing little ones requiring feeding.

While I was enjoying this I happened to look over and saw 6 Pelicans flying toward the marsh nearby. They were beautiful to watch as they took up formation and circled the trout pond, perhaps looking for food. I kept telling them it was alright to land there, but they circled off and wandered further over the marsh.

One evening we were enjoying a picnic dinner at the Navy Yard looking out over the Detroit River, and I observed what I originally thought was a flock of Swans a little up river. I usually have my binoculars so I checked out the flock and was very happy to see that it was actually another flock of Pelicans! I only had my smaller lens with me so I started firing off photos and got a few shots. We let a few people know what we were looking at and surprised them with the information. Many people had not seen them here before.

Pelicans flying over the Detroit River near Amherstburg Navy Yard

Through the month we wandered out when we could and finally found a Meadowlark singing in the trees, Dickcissels calling out their territory, and out on the marsh at Point Pelee we watched the Black Terns looking after their babies.

Then it was time to take our Son and Daughter In Law out to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for our holidays. The trip was fun and we were able to do some of the stuff that we had wanted, but the weather didn’t always work with us.

A couple of hard day’s drive and we arrived in Moncton, with a short stop at the Hartland Wooden Bridge along the way. Moncton served as a base to visit areas around, such as seeing the Tidal Bore, head to Magnetic Hill, and scooting down to Hopewell Rocks.

Unfortunately, the Tidal Bore was just that, but interesting to understand what is going on. Just think of it this way, a river is flowing into the ocean, but as the tide is coming in the ocean water wants to take over the river so a steady wave of ocean water begins flowing into the river and creates a small wave as it moves further upstream.

Tidal Bore from the Viewing Stand. The Bore is the wave at the top, flowing towards us.

Now add to the excitement of the Bore, we visited the Magnetic Hill. Our son remembers it from when we visited as a child and the water beside the road was going uphill. This time, the trees and bushes have filled in the gully and for some reason the whole illusion gets lost. Pull ahead to the White Post, put the car in neutral and let the car run uphill. Although it works physically, the visuals are not what they used to be. But at least they have a Zoo, Amusement Park and Winery built up around an optical illusion.

From Moncton our next stop was Halifax, where we checked out Peggy’s Cove and down to Lunenburg for a trip out into the ocean.

You should be able to click on the photos for the full view

Sadly the whales that we were hoping to see had not arrived in the area yet, so we had to settle for Seals, Black Backed Gulls, Razorbills, Kittiwake and the best bird of the trip… The PUFFINS! The weather was grey, the waves were unpleasant, the lighting sucked, but I was able to squeeze out a few photos of these lovely little birds with big bills.

One afternoon when we were walking along the Halifax shoreline, we saw a cruise ship docked at the wharf. I noticed the colours and felt that it could have been a Holland America ship so I mentioned to the others that it would be funny if it was the same ship that My Lady and I took in Alaska where we renewed our vows for our 20^th wedding anniversary. The ship we were on was the Zaandam. Imagine the feeling we had when I got home and was able to crop in and sharpen the photo and found out…

This actually is the Zaandam, the same ship we were on.

We ended up leaving the Maritimes a day early when we heard that we would be smacked with a major storm and a ton of rain during our intended drive back. As we were getting into Quebec the sky certainly had a very sinister look to it.

That pretty well wraps up June. Don’t worry, the July Blog is probably going to be about this short and will be out very very soon.

As always, thanks for following along and if you know of anyone interested in anything you read here, send them a link, you never know where it might lead them.

Till next time.

Is That A Peacock???

Well May came and is now Long Gone.

As I said last time the birds were on their way in and the trees filled with life. I ended up taking a large number of photos, and it has taken months to go through and find the ones that we have here.

We started the month with a rarity visiting us at Holiday Beach. A Harris’s Sparrow was hanging out with a flock of White Throated Sparrows. It took us a good number of tries before we finally got to see it. We were with a few of our birding friends and we were all looking into the bushes, when suddenly I saw something hop up onto a log a short distance into the brush. A quick look through the binoculars confirmed it was the Harris’s and I called for everyone to get a look at it. It stayed in the area but made it difficult for us to get good photos, but at least I got a couple.

Another special rarity, a Marsh Sandpiper, didn’t get into our area but was a couple hour’s drive north in the town of Thedford Ontario, hanging out in a sewage lagoon. Not only was the bird that far away, but when we arrived we found that it was staying way out on the other side of the lagoon, and we were restricted from getting too close for fear of spooking it and having it fly off.

Very Rare Marsh Sandpiper on the left of the photo

So, why would we drive a couple hours north to see a bird? Normally we wouldn’t, but strangely this Marsh Sandpiper somehow made it from its normal range of Northern Africa through Europe and Asia, all the way to the middle of Southwestern Ontario… without being recorded by anyone else, until James Holdsworth noticed something different about the bird in the sewage lagoon. We learned about how special this was and took the time to go see it. When we finally arrived, we met a gentleman who flew in from BC that morning and was just leaving to fly back home that afternoon. That’s how important this bird was to birders in North America.

Surprisingly, My Lady and I didn’t get to Point Pelee for the Festival of Birds this year. We were concerned that with the borders open, and people itching to visit after not coming for the past couple of years, the place would be a bit crazy. So we spent most of our time at our local Holiday Beach Conservation Area, and still enjoyed seeing a good number of birds.

Among them various warblers such as the Yellow Rump, Black and White, Nashville, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded, Black Throated Green, a beautiful Blackburnian, Cape May, Bay Breasted, brief glimpses of a Blue Wing and a solitary Canada Warbler. Of course we even have our beloved Prothonotary Warbler.

Beyond the warblers, we found a Blue Headed Vireo and an uncommon White Eyed Vireo. We were entertained by bathing male and female Redstarts and a male Baltimore Oriole. We found a couple of Blue Grey Gnatcatcher nests. Indigo Buntings were appearing in rich blues, Kingbirds, Kinglets and Flycatchers were feasting on the bugs, Hummingbirds were showing off their Ruby Throats, Snakes were gathering in the warming sunlight, and Osprey were hunting over the marsh. Robins had set up their nesting areas and were already gathering food for the young. We finally got to see a Blackpoll Warbler, something we have been trying to photograph since learning about it.

The baby Horned Owls were growing quickly and finally fledged into the trees.

I would like to make note here that the photos of the Wood Thrush and Blue Grey Gnatcatcher on the nest, as well as the Horned Owl babies were taken from a respectful distance using a long lens and doing aggressive cropping on these photos. If you are out in nature and happen upon a nesting bird, please give them distance so as not to get them overly stressed.

Herons and Egrets have returned to the marshes and wetlands, and Raccoons have claimed their space for sleeping in the trees.

At home we were feeding the Orioles, Hummingbirds and House Finches. We soon learned that oranges and Grape Jelly were enjoyed not only by the Baltimore Orioles, but the House Finches as well.

Very expensive Baltimore Oriole demanding fresh oranges and Grape Jelly

Early in March My Lady and I were driving down the road and she suddenly tells me to stop the car, there was a Big Green Bird in the field. I slowed down and when it was safe I turned around and went back. We found the bird and asked each other – “Is That A Peacock?” Sure enough it was, and since it was just outside a barn we figured it belonged there. Just hadn’t seen it there before.

Then a couple days later, we were on our way down a different road and saw a couple large birds in the middle of the road. I came to a stop and grabbed the camera as they moved into the bushes and we had to laugh at the sight of a few Guinea Fowl wandering around. They too are likely residents in the area, but we haven’t seen them since.

One rainy evening we were contacted by our friends who informed us of about 50 Whimbrel in a field very close to home. We hopped into the car and met them and enjoyed the ability to see this many of a bird that we had been trying for a while to see one of at Hillman Marsh. Not the best photos due to rain and how far they stayed away, but cool looking birds none the less.

So that was May, and it eventually turned into June. That blog should be released soon and you will likely wonder what the heck happened.

To be honest, I have a bunch of photos already selected for June and just need to put the story together.

Thanks for continuing to read and I hope we are keeping you entertained.

Till next time.