Common Cormorant

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles.

It might be the only sunshine he or she sees all day.

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BarrytheBirder

Chilly morning...

Red-winged Blackbird ~ cold breath

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BarrytheBirder

Double-crested Cormorant

 

Photo by BarrytheBirder

It's nice to be important

but it's more important to be nice.

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BarrytheBirder

Harlequin Ducks ~ Photos by Dave Kemp

Harlequin Ducks ~ Vancouver Island

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BarrytheBirder

Richmond Hill Millpond

 

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Sunning Cormorants

Millpond

Fisherman

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BarrytheBirder

Dave Kemp photos from Singing Sands on Vancouver Island...

                                                                                                                              Photos by Dave Kemp

Harlequin Ducks

                                             (Histrionicus histrionicus)

Western Grebe

(Aechmophorus occidentalis)

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BarrytheBirder

Sexual dimorphism...

Photos by Barry Wallace

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Pheucticus ludovicianus)

(female above ~ male below)

I came across a photo of a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak recently (at top) which I had taken several years ago and barely recognized it.   I am much more familiar with photos of male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (above) that I have taken.  Many, many bird species show this remarkable difference in plumage between males and females.   It is a phenomenon known as sexual dimorphism.   Females are almost always more subdued in their colours and patterns and are harder to spot and be recognized.   Predation of these females by other creatures is greatly reduced by their protective colouring and patterning.   The differences in appearance of the two birds pictured above are striking, but not exceptional. Many other species show similar contrasts. 

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BarrytheBirder  

Sunrise and seabirds over Vancouver Island by Dave Kemp

Photos by Dave Kemp

                         Sunrise over Comox

Juvenile Red-necked Grebe

Harlequin Duck

Common Loon

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BarrytheBirder

Yellow-rumped Warblers heading south...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Yellow-rumped Warbler

(Dendroica coronata)

Common in coniferous and mixed woodlands, also widespread in thickets during fall migration.   The eastern form, commonly called the "Myrtle Warbler" is the most widespread winter warbler in the East.   It is replaced in most of the west by "Audubon's" Warbler   They will be heading south along southern coasts as far as Mexico.

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BarrytheBirder

Lake Wilcox Park ~ Richmond Hill

Photos by Barry Wallace

Natura genertrix  (Nature is our mother)

Trumpeter Swan ~ Aurora Arboretum Pond

Photos by BarrytheBirder

 

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BarrytheBirder

Canada west coast seashore photo captures by Dave Kemp...

Photos by Dave Kemp

Bonaparte Gulls above and below squabble over catch

Murrelet

Rhinoceros Auklet

Grebe wears its catch

Great Blue Heron

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BarrytheBirder

Aurora Arboretum ~ large pond ~ keeping the white white

 

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Trumpeter Swan

The preening never ends

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BarrytheBirder

Richmond Hill Millpond...nearing October's end

Photos by BarrytheBirder

   Settle on the mill pond bank.....

.....but keep a wary eye open

 

Cormorants continue to hang about

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BarrytheBirder

Wild Turkeys on Keele Street in Vaughan...

    Photos by BarrytheBirder

Two weeks 

to Thanksgiving

Time to go into 

hiding?

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BarrytheBirder

A distinctive huge size...

 

Photo by Nathan Rupert/Flickr/CGS

California Condor makes a comeback

The California Condor (Gypmngyps californianus )  length 47" (119 cm) and wingspan 108" (274 cm) was down to just 27 birds in the wild by the mid 1980s.  According to Mathew L. Miller, editor of the Cool Green Society blog, the Condor Recovery Program, in 1987, removed the remaining condors and placed them in a captive breeding program; not a popular scheme with either anti-environmentalists or conservationists.  The first condors were released back into the wild in 1992.  In 2019 the 1,000th chick had hatched in the recovery program.  More than 275 California Condors now live in the wild.  

Photo by Adam Eliott/CGS

Photo by Wendy Miller/Flickr/CGS

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BarrytheBirder

Graceful gliding...

 

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Turkey Vulture

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BarrytheBirder

Cormorant populations grown greatly over past 30 years...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Double-crested

Cormorant

(Phalacrocorax auritis)

at Aurora

Arboretum

This double-crested

Cormorant was sunning

itself and feeding at the larger Aurora Arboretum pond last Tuesday afternoon.   It is a sizeable

bird at 32" (81 cm) in length with a 52" (132 cm) wingspan.

Please comment 

if you wish.

BarrytheBirder