Summer!

It is now summer and time for a new look! With the bright sun and blooming flowers, as well as nesting birds, it is time for a brighter and warmer look! By the way, the colours will change according to the season.

Feathers on Friday

Here is my FoF post: Last week, we had a rather large participant at our feeder, eating the bugs out of the tall unmown grass around. It is a Common Raven, one of many in our area, that are regularly seen in swales or ditches.

Other F.o.F. posts:
Birds in Your Backyard
Bird Boy
The Cats and the Birds
Prairie Birder

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

Here is (finally) my Weekly What Bird post, from several weeks ago, it was actually a purple martin! Here is this week's:

Other W.W.B.W. posts*:
Birds In Your Backyard
Bird Boy
The Cats and the Birds

*Posts may not be up yet.

Prairie Birding Part 1 (Where to look)

Here is my first series post. I hope to do a few of these on different habitats or families of birds. I thought appropriate to start with my own home habitat. I live in an open prairie surrounded by grazing and agricultural fields. Nearby we have cow, horse, and bison farms. In these grazing pastures have I seen Pipit, Horned Lark, and I hope to find Bobolink. Anyway, where do you look for these birds? The prairie is very open so to spot perching birds is easy, but many of these species are clad in brown, and blend right in with the grasses. Where to look? What will you find? All these and more hope to answer in these posts.

Protruding Bars are good perches for this Western Meadowlark and House Sparrow

Scan telephone poles or wires

Again, a playhouse makes a good lookout point and shell cracking refuge.

A rooftop it suitable as well. American Robin

Tall poles attract birds who are seeking attention, like singing males.

Anywhere with perches and food, like one of my homemade feeders of scrap wood.

Even a low stake will suffice for this Eastern Kingbird

Open sky, shelter, grass and perches is the perfect habitat for grassland birds.

Feathers on Friday

Sorry for the late post, lately we have had some fun visitors at our feeders including, Ameriacn Goldfinches, European Starlings, and American Robins! What makes these so interesting you might say, well, I live on almost strict prairie, so I am used to Horned Larks, Meadowlarks, Lark Sparrows, and lately, a Sprague's Pipit! Last night I also witnessed a Common Nighthawk chasing down some airborne insects! Here, is my favourite, though, a Lark Sparrow! I love their melodious jumble of phrases and their bright maroon heads!

Other F.o.F. posts:
Birds in Your Backyard
Bird Boy
The Cats and the Birds
Prairie Birder

Rushing Wind Fishing Resort 2015

 As most of you may know from a previous post, I went to Rushing Wind Fishing Resort for a fly-in fishing trip. Rushing Wind is located on Populous Lake near Kenora. Anyway, we got up at 5:30am on Friday, May the 22nd, and started the 3+ hour drive to Nestor Falls. On the way was the first highlight that got me going: a Sandhill Crane, in a ditch near some marshy wooded field, next to a lake. Over the trip I saw many different species of birds. On the lake in the evening, the loons would call, and the hermit and swainson's thrushes would sing. It was haunting and beautiful. We fished almost all day, everyday, except for a few work projects that involved portaging and hiking (of course fishing and birding in there as well.) Anyway here are a few of the best pictures.

Fun Fact: Over the trip I took a total of 753 photos! Don't worry, I still fished... a lot! :-)

Sorry that I missed so many FoFs and W.W.B.W.s.

Sunrise Monday Morning

Common Raven

The plane we flew on.

Least Flycatcher

Chestnut-Sided Warbler

Eastern Wood-Pewee

An interesting bird that flew by and dropped off some pontoons!

Puffed up Loon

Common Loon

Red-Eye

Turkey Vulture

First Bald Eagle

Flying together

A group of lazy vultures.

Waiting for food to come. (They have a rock on which they place fish that are too small to fillet, the cultures and eagles wait for the scraps. After every meal, right on time, the sky slowly fills up)

The multiple terns at 'tern rock'

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Bald Eagle

Alder Flycatcher

Caspian Tern

Bald Eagle

As I said, the sky fills up with turkey vultures.

Common Loon

I love loons, they are a highlight of the trip.

Common Mergansers

Common Loon

Common Loon

Checking for Fish

What an amazing wingspan!

Red-Winged Blackbird

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Having a drink.

Western Painted Turtle (Someone caught a Snapping Turtle off the dock where we moor the boats.)

Gray Jay

Eye out for fish, I watched and eventually he/she dived and caught a Pike!

The scrap rock.

Incoming!

Eating the scraps. (The Eagle kicked out the other vultures, there was about nine before. Only the brave get to stay.)

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Blurry photo of Caspian and Common Terns. (It is blurry for the lack of light makes the shutter take longer to close as it needs enough light, resulting in a blurry photo.)

What massive wings!

Sitting high.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Blue Jay

American Robin

The Male and Female

Chipmunk at the old mine.

The old Gold mine nearby.

The abandoned shafts.

Picturesque lake

Herring Gull

Loon pair

Beautiful scenery

Beautiful sunset over the glassy lake

Silhouette of trees at sunset

Flying low

View from the plane on the way back, water and trees.

An interesting shot of a COLO, almost makes it look like a YBLO!

Me co-piloting the aircraft to the lake.