And now, we interrupt your scheduled programming...(for another owl!) (#242)

I know I promised another Hawaii post, but there are lots of exciting things on the local bird scene as the mercury slowly creeps up (and back down again, and back up, every few days it seems). Spring is in the air, and so is the song of bird courtship. The signs are all there...those birdies are getting ready to make babies!

Several weeks ago, I caught wind that there was a great-horned owl in the area. With no real specific leads, I went with a hunch and managed to find it with some sleuthing and keen observation. Nadia was in town so she was brought along on this adventure too. She was a great sport.

matching earmuffs and bird seed at the ready

The owl was snoozing and had its head tucked in and behind a bunch of branches. It didn't seem to be moving anytime soon, so we left to walk for a bit. On the way back, we passed by again, and it was being mobbed by 5 or 6 rowdy crows. The crows left as soon as we did, so hopefully it got a few minutes of peace. We left again, since we still couldn't get a very good look--only the bottom half.

After we dropped Nadia off at her destination, we decided we'd try another shot. This time Matt asked his principal if she wanted to join us, as he's apparently been recounting our birding adventures to his teaching colleagues to much awe and wonder (maybe I'm exaggerating a little...). I guess she must have been curious what it's like to go on a birding adventure. It seems everyone thinks "Big Year" (a la Owen Wilson/Jack Black/Steve Martin) when they find out we are birders---and it's something like that, to an extent I guess. She brought along her two kiddos, who learned what it's all about...the great outdoors, and sometimes, a ton of patience. It's nice to see kids out there learning about this stuff and being outside...I think I'm going to grow a little army of mini birders...yes?

This is the 5th species of owl we've seen this year alone (actually 6th...there was one in Hawaii but it was too far to tell what kind it was). When I started birding, I dreamed of seeing owls, but I could never spot them. They are so hard to see; in the day, they don't move much or make sounds, and those are the main ways we spot birds. There are really two ways to spot owls, I have determined:

1. getting a tip from someone in the know.
2. extreme luck. 

This leaves me with only a few owl species left to spot, in these parts anyway--a barn owl is my next target!

#242: Great-Horned Owl; Ottawa, Ontario. March 2013

oh, hey there. well aren't you handsome?

I'm getting older so it took me awhile to catch onto this YOLO thing. But I thought this is pretty cute. And true. 

Violet and Donovan stop to feed the chickadees.

via Etsy http://www.etsy.com/listing/66662663/upcycled-dictionary-page-upcycled-book

On they way home, we headed to Hilda. Found this cute little one along the road.

The redpolls were still there in huge numbers. It was the end of the day and I didn't feel like revisiting the differences between the subspecies so we just snapped a few pics and went our merry way.

When I went home for Easter, I was disappointed that dad told me I had missed the huge rafts of migrating ducks at the island (why doesn't he just call me and tell me??). I always seem to miss them by a week or two. We still saw lots of duckies on the way though, and my fave ones at that.

hooded mergies...one of my faves

Looks like somebody forgot to account for the wire when casting their line 

found another little buddy!

Too bad the focus was on the male when this happened.

lots of river friends today!

beautiful wood ducks...love these too!

Spring is definitely on its way...can't wait for the warblers to start showing up! Ok, next post will be Hawaii, Part II--that's a promise! Come back soon!

reset (#219)

This weekend while out doing a little geocaching, I was inconspicuously sticking my nose in a pine tree when Matt chirps out, “hey, there’s a ruby-crowned kinglet!” It’s kind of neat when you’re just minding your own business and a lifer shows up. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was always that easy? We enjoyed fantastic looks at this little cutie, who turned out to be pretty curious about us too—it even flew right up to me a few times and then zoomed back to the tree. Since we weren’t in birding mode, all I had was a little point and shoot. Needless to say I am hugely disappointed with the pics.

#219: Ruby-crowned kinglet;  Red Pine Park, Ottawa; April 28, 2012

showing off the crown--no mistaking it!

With migration starting up and the weather half decent, I really wanted to get out there on Sunday, especially because I got a little excited after the Saturday sighting. We headed down Eagleson and stopped at one of the little ponds near a townhouse development, where we found a blue-crowned night heron in its usual spot. The next thing we saw further down Eagleson and out of the suburbs were two turkey vultures camped out just off the road—with some interesting prey (a raccoon)! They got spooked after a minute or two and flew off, but they were a memorable sight nonetheless. 

Further down Eagleson Matt spotted a huge dark clump in a tree along the edge of a farmer’s field. There were lots of branches blocking a good view and I sort of wondered if it was a porcupine just hanging out. Then we both thought it looked like it was too vertical to be a porcupine. Something seemed off so we decided that further investigation would be necessary. As we approached, the dark mass lifted from its perch, and holy crap---it was a golden eagle!! Ok wait…I’m 90% sure it was a golden eagle. I fumbled with the camera and managed and super blurry shot. Unbelievable—that’s a lifer..and there’s no question, that thing was HUGE! I won’t be surprised if we try to go find it again—I’m not sure what the chances are that it will stick around the same area.

Next stop was the Richmond Conservation Area, which I became aware of—get this—while geocaching. I have NO IDEA how I missed this little hotspot!! There are other ponds nearby but you can’t get nearly as close. Interesting how a new hobby brought me back to an old one.

I spent the first little bit fiddling around with the settings on my camera in the car because I couldn’t figure out why the focus point wouldn’t move. Normally I shoot with autofocus, but I control which point to use, since I find the camera is always more accurate than my eyes are..and faster than my fingers. I was getting pretty frustrated and sad that it seemed to be broken. I decided to bite the bullet and hit factory reset to see if that would fix it, but I couldn’t even find that option in the menus! I thought I had figured out the incredible amount of menus and options on my camera but the obvious eluded me.

While there was not a HUGE number of ducks, there was still a lot of diversity.  This area is an interesting location in that you can walk along the partitions that divide the ponds and get really close to the water, and also in that it is bordered by a marshy area on one side and woodland on another—so you hit 3 different habitats in one shot.

I could swear a saw a shrike there, and some shorebirds that I couldn’t quite identify. I became instantly aware that I still need to get myself a scope (Santa, do you read my blog??)—funny how you forget about these things until you are looking at a duck that is 100+ metres away. There were some ducks on the far side that I could tell looked different, but I couldn’t jog my memory as to which ones have brown on their flanks, so it was nice to get home and pull this up one the screen and realize there were quite a few northern shovellers. 

Being at the ponds really got the juices flowing for a bunch of posts that I want to write, and I felt that driving, creative, inquisitive force coming back. I also got to thinking about how I sort of got away from birding a bit..somewhere along the line I got a little distracted. One of my aunts asked me a while ago about the birds I saw on the Mexico trip, and I mentioned that they were all posted on my blog. She looked surprised that I still kept it going. She mentioned that she found most blogs start out strong and seem to fizzle out. I suppose that happened here to an extent—I’m certainly not as prolific as when I started. It’s important to find some kind of balance, and it’s hard to keep up that kind of intensity when you really fall in head first.

It was strange to think of what I was up to two years ago, and how different things were. It was hard not to compare that to where I was in that moment, and all the things that have changed. I felt a bit like I had let other priorities distract me without my even realizing it. What seemed to be a really huge part of my life at one point had sort of faded into the background. Not that there aren't other worthwhile pursuits I busied myself with, but I thought about my priorities; I thought about where the right balance might be...but I wasn't too sure of my answer. I felt like I needed to hit my own factory reset button, but I couldn’t remember the settings. The reality is that there are no factory resets, no system restore for people—every day and every thing and every experience changes us, and there is no going back from there. Every day we have to choose what is going to make us happy, what is important to us, how to move forward, what is going to make us proud of ourselves when we look back on our past. What do we want to accomplish and what will we have to show for it? If we don't choose consciously--then that is still a decision, and in the end we still have to face it.

 

The last stop of the day was Mud Lake, one of Ottawa’s great birding spots. It’s still pretty early and we hit at a quieter. One of the highlights was 4 pairs of totally stunning wood ducks.  

my first time (the bird whisperer) #144

The bird gods smiled down on me on Sunday and stopped the rain for the whole day! I was surprised there weren't more cars at Mud Lake. On the drive there, there was a song on the radio and about halfway in I realized, "hey! this song is about birds!" So I took note of the title and artist and feel free to listen to it while you read (Canadian guy, from Alexisonfire. He's got a nice sound..."Sleeping sickness" and "Coming home" are also good). But warning: it's a total downer about the oil spill. Luckily this post is going to be a little more upbeat than that, so probably not an appropriate soundtrack.

Actually, he's got another song called Fragile Bird, which has nothing to do with birds, but has "bird" in the title. Ok, I'm getting WAY off track now, but here it is anyway!

Well, there's something I want to talk about. We've all been first-timers at some point. Maybe some of us have never done it. It's something I've been shy and maybe even a little embarrassed about. I've looked up how to do it on the internet, but it's just not the same as the real thing, right? I mean, someone can explain it, but you never really know what it's going to be like when you do it, and how do you know if you are doing it right, or if you're going to be good at it? Should you do it with any of them? Can you do it too much? Nobody seems to talk about it, but I think a lot of people do it. Well, yesterday, I saw someone doing it right out in the open like it was nothing, and not holding back at all. We're talking "pishing" here.

Yep, pishing, which to me has been a particularly mysterious aspect of birding. For those who don't know, "pishing" is a silly word for the noises birders make to attract birds. Often, it sounds like "pssshp" (obviously), but it can really be any sort of noise you make to attract birds. For the first time, I saw a bunch of people do it at Mud Lake on Saturday, and it's not what I had in mind at all. The few times I had tried, I was super quiet...I had no idea what kind of volume was appropriate...I was practically whispering. But some of these people were quite loud, practically spitting everywhere! Then I asked someone, and she said, well, they do have to be able to hear you...

So today, I thought I might try it to see if it worked. My first attempt was on this little guy...

and he turned around and looked right at me!

Hey, I don't think I've even counted a least flycatcher before!

#144: Least flycatcher; Mud Lake, Ottawa; May 15, 2011

I used to only post new birds, but you've probably noticed that I'm adding a lot more pictures, of the things I see in general...plants, and animals, as well as birds I've already seen. If I restricted myself to only lifers I wouldn't have too many pictures, and there is just so much great stuff out there.

Stare-down contest. He won. I'm sure he's not as mean as he looks...just a hard exterior, but a softy inside?

Lots of yellow warbling going on. I think I can safely say I know their song!

Does this not look like a really skinny yellow warbler to you? And look at the teeny tiny band!

No need to pish for a catbird...you can hear them a mile away. Don't the twigs remind you of the LOTR logo? I tried to take a video, but just ended up fumbling with the settings because I wanted it in HD. So instead of a low-rez video, I got no video.

The nice thing about Sunday is that I got some really great looks at a few birds that I had seen before but from pretty far away, and when they were in fall feathers, and that my previous pics were not so great off. Namely the magnolia, the chest-nut sided and the northern parula.

So once I was into the woods, I make a serious effort to try this pishing thing again. At first, I was convinced that it wasn't doing anything; well, it wasn't driving them in, but at least it wasn't driving them away.

I took a moment to shoot the Jack-in-the-pulpit (aka. Bog onion, Brown dragon, Indian turnip, Wake robin or Wild turnip) that we had seen on the OFNC outing. Such a cool plant...it's nice to be able to put some names to things now. And it's nice to take photos of things once in a while that STAY STILL!

I was on a trail and caught sight of this lovely fellow. So I do a little check around to make sure nobody was around, and let out a PISH. So the bird checked me out and I told him how handsome he was. And then I see this guy to my left looking at me, and I am terribly embarrassed, because I'm pretty sure he just witnessed me both sputtering out loud and talking to a bird. Well, if you are looking for a crazy woman, deep in the woods talking to the wildlife is where to go.

Nashville Warbler

Then I found this little grove and something about it just seemed right. I caught sight of one little bird, and gave a pish! He really did come to check me out! Then I realized, it's a magnolia. Heck, there are like 3 of them right in front of me!

Magnolia warbler. Huge improvements on my first shots of magnolias.

So if that wasn't awesome enough, they just kept parading in, one at a time--magnolia, then black and white, then white-breasted nuthatch, chestnut-sided warbler--as I merrily pished. And I was quite confident at this point, because it really seemed to be working. Now, without a care about who was around me, PISH! PISH! PISH! I was so high on...birds. In the meanwhile, a particularly curious chickadee came right in, and was hovering around my head...I thought it was going to land on me!

Not a new blog bird, but the first time I've seen a chestnut-sided in spring feathers. What a difference. It sure seems like a different bird! I'm pretty sure he's looking at me trying to figure out what I'm doing. Photographic note: I also love the background on this one.



Wish I could have got a clearer shot of this robin collecting for her nest.

Well, I'll admit I might have gone a little overboard on the pishing and should probably pull it back a bit. In my excitement I was just pishing all over the place, pishing out of control. I imagine if everyone was doing it all the time, they would just get used to it and it wouldn't be effective anymore... So I guess my adventures in pishing will have to be made at a minimum.

I went down to the pine stand to see if I could pish out some pine warblers, which would have been a lifer for me. I've heard them but still never seen them. They're giving me a real hard time, those pine warblers! I did see this fine wood duck and his mate though...

Whose bum? At first I thought this was a very strange black bird with very unfamiliar white stripes. Oh, it's just glossy!

Heading back toward the ridge, I caught sight of my second Northern Parula of the day. This bird is so stunning, it seems it should be tropical!

After a little more wandering around off the main path, I realized I had lost yet another camera accessory. I'm notorious for losing lens caps, but this is my first time losing a lens hood. I had a good idea of where it went down...I had had a bit of a bout with a stand of sumacs....so I headed back and luckily found it.

Ok, at this point I had been there a few hours, and I kept saying, "Jenna, you need to go home now." But it was always the same, "Just one more trip up to the ridge." And I can't say no to myself...no matter how sore/hungry/thirsty I'm getting. So that's what I did.

However, I am going to take a little break now...come back tomorrow for the rest of the afternoon!

in search of wood ducks...success! #35

I had no time to birdwatch over the weekend since I went to Kingston on Friday night/Saturday morning and to MTL on Saturday night for my friend's engagement party.
So this week I am duck hunting. I heard these guys were in the area...and turns out they weren't hard to find! There were at least 8 at Strathcona Park and more at Billings Bridge. OK, definitely my favourite duck. They are GORGEOUS. Oh yeah, and they squeal! It's too cute!
Was kind of funny to be back at Strathcona now that I don't live in Sandy Hill anymore. But it's still a sweet spot, and great for birding! (Also saw lots of geese, gulls, a cormorant, goldeneyes, red-winged blackbirds, pigeons, mallards....and this classic shot)

#35: Wood Duck; April 12, 2010; Stratchcona Park, Ottawa