Summer's 'hummers'

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BarrytheBirder

American Robin bathes two or three times a day

 Photos by Barry Wallace

It seems as though the whole summer has been above 30 degrees Celsius, with one day getting as high as 37C!   Just about every species of bird in the backyard is now jumping into one of the three birdbaths every day, many more than once a day.   

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BarrytheBirder

Backyard 'hummer'

Photo by BarrytheBirder

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BarrytheBirder

Hybrid Mallard in local pond

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

This hybrid Mallard Duck (a male presumably) was spotted mixed in with local male and female Mallards, at nearby Lake Wilcox in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

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BarrytheBirder

A bad hair day ... make that a bad feather day

                                      Photo by Marcin Bieleck/EPA in The Guardian

White-tailed Eagle rescued and released

In this recent photo, by Marcin Bieleck, a White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) is released into the wild in Swinoujscie, in north-western Poland, after being rescued from the mud in the Szczecin Lagoon, near The Polish-German border and the Baltic Sea. The White-tailed Eagle is one of the largest eagles in the world and has the widest wingspan of any eagle in the world. A huge decline in the population of this species occurred in the 19th and 20 centuries, but it is now making a strong comeback mainly due to conservation efforts.   Poland, Germany and Iceland have the most abundant numbers of this spectacular bird.
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BarrytheBirder 

Big birds at Dufferin Marsh

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Dufferin Marsh, in Schomberg, Ontario, may not be very big

but it does have some big birds.   Today I spotted a Great Blue Heron, a Green Heron and and a tagged Trumpeter Swan (#K05).   There were also ducks and the usual swallows present.

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BarrytheBirder

Finally, rain fills the birdbaths

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

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Barry Wallace

Turkey Vultures

 Photos by Barry Wallace

UGLY...YET ELEGANT

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BarrytheBirder

Gate-crashing Cormorant

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

I am used to seeing as many as 300 Ring-billed Gulls around a small pond, at a horse farm near my home.   I am at a loss however to understand or believe that there any fish left here for the gulls to catch and eat from the tiny pond.   Now, a black-feathered Double-crested Cormorant has suddenly appeared among the white-feathered gulls.   He stands out quite noticeably and in each of these photos seems to be having lots to say.   They are not common though in this horse-farm area of King Township, well north of Lake Ontario. God only knows what they're all eating. 

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Dave Kemp photos from B.C.

Here are two photos from my long-distance birding acquaintance  Dave Kemp, in southern British Columbia.   Above is a male Rufous Hummingbird perched on a solar butterfly in Dave's garden.   What a lovely image.   Below is Dave's striking photo capture of a Barred Owl, with those big, dark brown, see-all eyes.   

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BarrytheBirder

'Hummers' harassed by hornets

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Bald-faced Hornets have returned

August has arrived and so have the Bald-faced Hornets, to once again drive the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds away from their feeders.   It's the same every summer and very frustrating for those of us who invest so much time and effort in attracting the hummers each year.   But it is nature's way.   The hummers do stay around and make the best of it, thankfully.   This hornet is actually a wasp and is also known as the Bull Wasp.

   

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BarrytheBirder

Some of my favourite bird photos

    All photos by BarrytheBirder

After the bath

Gathering nesting materials

Curious crow

Keeping the nest dry

Great Blue Heron

Female Mallard preening

Squabbling Snow Buntings

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BarrytheBirder

Bird carvings

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

The photo above shows three of the birds in my small collection of wood carvings. The Blue Jay, Chickadee and Red-winged blackbird are the work of the Rev. Gordon Elliott, of Schomberg, Ontario, back in the mid-1960s.   The Cardinal, below, was carved by D. Phillips, of Green River, Ontario, in our centennial year, 1967.

The carving above of a Western Grebe was the creation of Liza Chiu of Toronto, Ontario, in 1987, while immediately below, is a charming Ruddy Duck, by Jim Harkness, of Stayner, Ontario, created in 1982.

Above is a sleek, stylized Common Loon by Ron Sadler, carved in 1983.   Below is a beautifully painted carving by F. Smith.   At the bottom is one more carving by Rev. Gordon Elliott of a Red-breasted Nuthatch.  

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BarrytheBirder

New feeder is the best yet

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

No more squirrels to chase away

This brand new bird feeder is the best we have ever had in terms of thwarting squirrels.   They tried to get at seeds for several days but finally gave up, leaving the seeds to the birds.   Yeah!   Friends of mine, Babs and John, of Schomberg, Ontario, recommended this feeder.   It is called the Squirrel Buster and while not cheap, it is saving us a bunch in seed costs.   It can be adjusted to accommodate small and large birds and there are other different-sized models.   It is made by Brome Bird Care in Knowlton, Quebec.   Go to www.bromebirdcare.com for further info.

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BarrytheBirder

A wonderful success story

                                                                                                                             Photo by BarrytheBirder

Trumpeter Swan

Cygnus buccinator

Trumpeter Swans all but disappeared from the province of Ontario, in Canada, in the 1880s, but a hundred years later, efforts to restore the big birds here has met with strong and continuing success.   Reintroduction programs used captive and tagged birds to foster Trumpeter Swan cygnets to restore the species.   Both tagged birds and many generations of untagged birds are now regularly seen during migrations in the many ponds and lakes in this township.   We are all the better for it.   Amen.

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BarrytheBirder

Gray Birch Tree produces avian images

Photo by Barry Wallace

Gray Birch trees are fairly common in north-eastern North American and their bark has a characteristic which shows a dark triangle where branches meet the trunk.   As the tree matures, many lower branches break or die off and just the black triangle remains on the whitish-gray bark.   To me, these marks greatly resemble the outlines of Great Gray Owls or Northern Hawk Owls in face-on flight (see photo above).

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BarrytheBirder

Ring-billed Gulls ~ Ipperwash Beach

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Once more into the fray...

Well, after exactly one year, when I stated I was giving up this blog forever (for the 2nd or 3rd time), I have decided, once again, to take photos of birds and write about them.   I love doing it.   This time however I will publish only my own photos, or photos for which I have express permission to use, or photos I know to be in the public realm.   I stopped the BarrytheBirder blogging a year ago because of some complaints from a couple of photographers that I did not have their permission to use their photos.   They were correct of course, but I did give credit to the photographers, where possible, and provided photographer contact info when available.   But let's move on and hope I don't step on anybody's nest.   The photos here were taken this week at Ipperwash Beach on south-eastern Lake Huron, north of Sarnia, Ontario.   My wife and I enjoyed a vacation here for four days.   I decided this would be a nice way to get back into the swing of things.   As for the frequency of this blogsite, I can't say just yet, but it may at some point become a daily offering as it was previously.   Hope you enjoy.  

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BarrytheBirder