Monthly Archives: April 2020

April goulash

  This is a collection of images from April, each of which lacked a posting of its own. If a robin is swallowing worms, it must be spring. This is a female. The Varied Thrush is a close relative of … Continue reading

Posted in birds, bugs, fish, herptiles | 10 Comments

Mountain Bluebird and grub

  The Mountain Bluebird is an insectivore that particularly favours eating caterpillars. Yet, in the many pictures I have taken of this bird foraging, it is only rarely that I have captured an image of its successful insect capture. The … Continue reading

Posted in birds, bugs | 5 Comments

Bee or fly?

  It is spring and buzzing abounds as pollinators visit flowers.  If one follows the news media, it is tempting to assume that those pollinators are bees, and in particular, honeybees. Actually, in many cases, they are either bumblebees or … Continue reading

Posted in bugs | 4 Comments

Hawk & snake

  Sometimes one doesn’t know what one has until well after the observation. As I took the picture, I noticed nothing other than a perched Red-tailed Hawk. When I looked at it on the camera, I noticed that the hawk … Continue reading

Posted in birds, herptiles | 3 Comments

Melanopygus

  As I watched a Bombus melanopygus in my yard, it struck me that this springtime bumblebee bore a relationship to a bird in a posting of three days earlier. In that posting, Ruby flashes, I showed a Ruby-crowned Kinglet … Continue reading

Posted in bugs | 6 Comments

Vulture feeds

  In the last decade, local observations of Turkey Vultures have roughly doubled. Is this a result of changing observer attentiveness, global warming, or just vulture behaviour? Who knows? For the first half of the decade, the only views I … Continue reading

Posted in birds, mammals | 1 Comment

Ruby flashes

  The Ruby-crowned kinglet is a rather small, undistinguished insectivore that can be seen for perhaps a month, two times a year, as it passes through our region. Further, in its search for insects to eat, it forages deep in … Continue reading

Posted in birds | 5 Comments

Loon returns

  Following the last posting, Osprey returns, now comes the Loon. As with my osprey observation, there have been a handful of others who have seen or heard loons in the past little while. But, this was my first sighting. … Continue reading

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Osprey returns

  For a couple of days there have been reports around the Lake of the return of Ospreys. I saw my first one (indeed, three of them) this morning. A newly arrived female Osprey lands on a branch.  

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Shrike while hot

  I have posted a handful of shots of the Northern Shrike in the last month (see, this, in particular). So, why more? This is a case of shrike while the iron is hot. This peculiar bird is hunting around … Continue reading

Posted in birds | 5 Comments