Recent wanderings

Haven't been doing much intense birding recently. I've mostly been day dreaming about my upcoming plans and I've started studying pelagic birds in hopes of finding some decent birds in Newfoundland during my week there in August. August is a good time to find some rarities like Common Ringed Plover, Fea's Petrel and maybe add a new bird to North America such as Zino's Petrel! I think I'm just going crazy.

Last weekend I was in Waterloo where I heard more birds than I saw and found more butterflies and dragonflies than birds. It's that time of year to switch gears, it gives me a good opportunity to learn bird songs and learn about the other things in life. In fact I've finally learned my first few dragonfly and damselfly (D&D) species! They became exciting all of a sudden when I realized there were over 150 D&D species in Ontario.

Common Whitetail (imm. male):

Unidentified damselfly as of yet (Aurora Damsel?)

And my favourite (despite it being insanely common and this being a terrible photo) the Ebony Jewelwing:

We also found this young Eastern Red-backed Salamander:

Laurel Lake is looking very different from when I last saw it in December. It was a perfect shorebird habitat for a while in the autumn but now it's full of water again attracting a few waterfowl including 3 Ruddy Ducks plus the other usuals.