Sunday 19 May 2013

Still birding

Despite the lack of posts, I've been birding pretty much 80% or more of my waking hours this month.

After a week at Long Point, I made my way to Pelee where I lead some hikes for a few days, and then stayed on Pelee Island for another week. Lots of stories to tell, but not really enough time (or memory) to write about them all. So I'll just write about this weekend!

I came back to Waterloo on Friday, where I've been sleeping... a lot!
The big news is that I bit the bullet and purchased one of those superzoom cameras. I've been thinking about it for a while, have been increasingly disappointed with digiscoping (it's overrated in my opinion), and wanted something that can reliably document the things I see...

Some cool features of the camera:
It can do 13 fps on burst mode (only 10 frames total)!
Super macro focusing = good for insects and flowers :)

Most birds are back on territory throughout Waterloo county, so this morning I went to southern Cambridge and gave the camera a test run.


This E. Meadowlark was singing near Grass Lake:

The usual Grasshopper Sparrows were around:

Bobolinks are also back in good numbers:

At the Sudden Tract forest I tallied a surprising 17 species of warbler, including 2 Blue-winged Warblers (on territory), and a Canada Warbler (maybe on territory??)!

I actually only saw maybe 5 of those species and heard the rest.... too many leaves!

Butterfly numbers are increasing nowadays.

I think this is a Juvenal's Duskywing (let me know if I'm wrong!):


Tomorrow I'm headed on a road trip with the Burrell brothers. I doubt I'll have Internet access which gives me a legitimate excuse not to post for a while! But Mira may or may not make an appearance as a guest blogger!