August 20, 2005
Belle Island birding
I spent a few days recovering from the hectic conference in Kingston, ON, where earlier in the year I had seen my first (and second and third...) Great Gray Owl. Aside from a short but productive trip to Lemoine Point for my lifer Bobolinks, the majority of my birding comprised early morning visits to tiny Belle Island. I got some reasonable portraits of some of the local breeders including baby Gray Catbird...
... and American Robin.
This Rose-breasted Grosbeak landed in the same tree as the Robin, almost too close to photograph!
Also around were vocal family parties of Baltimore Orioles...
... the local race of Song Sparrow...
and Yellow-shafted Flickers.
Flycatchers of all sizes from Great-crested...
.. to Least were well-represented.
Here's an Eastern Kingbird vocalising...
... and one of many Eastern Wood-Pewees singing its name.
This attractive orb-weaver appeared to have caught a wasp.
As in Montreal, the migration was very visible and obvious (maybe this is an east coast phenomenon), with 17 species of warbler* seen, including 2 beauties for lifers (Bay-breasted and Golden-winged). A weedy clearing attracted foragers such as Nashville, Tennessee and Magnolia Warblers.
A puddle in the road proved to be a migrant magnet, attracting this Red-eyed Vireo (seemed unusually yellow, but I couldn't turn it into a Philadelphia!)...
... plus Yellow, Black-and-White and Canada Warblers.
* For my own memory as much as anything else, the warbler species seen were Northern Parula, Tennessee, Golden-winged, Nashville, Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Blackburnian, Myrtle, Pine (at Lemoine Point), Bay-breasted, Black-and-White, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Yellowthroat, Canada.