2012/09/30

Birding in Presqu'ile Provincial Park

Sorry for the delay, but here are the photos from last Sunday when I was birding at Presqu'ile Provincial Park with Trent's ornithology class.

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Waking up early and waiting for the school bus just after 6am.

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Lake Ontario

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Missed the opportunity of photographing a Pileated Woodpecker eating wild grapes.  This was the only shot I got.

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Can you find a Yellow Warbler in this photo?

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Male Goldfinch.

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Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) butterfly.

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Cedar Waxwing on treetop.

White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

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Nuthatch picking insects off the bark of the tree.

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American Pipit (Anthus rubescens) wagging its tail as it walks.

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Killdeers
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Canada Geese landing

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Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) among all the Ring-billed Gulls.  Apparently, L. marinus is the largest member of the gull family.
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Kite-surfing on the muddy-looking lake waves.

Now, this next series of photos is quite interesting.  As we were heading back to a spot for lunch, we saw a Merlin swooping and perching on a dead snag.  It had something between its talons, but it was a bit too far to see for certain.  I clicked away with my camera while the Merlin dissembled the prey and chowed it down, and when I reviewed the photos, it was a Mourning Cloak butterfly!
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Merlin eating a Mourning Cloak butterfly

Merlin eating a Mourning Cloak butterfly

Merlin eating a Mourning Cloak butterfly
Eating the butterfly.

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You can see a part of the antennae from the butterfly.

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Unknown flowers.
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Fringed Gentians!  I haven't seen them in more than two years!

Eastern Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis)
We saw a baby Eastern Gartersnake.  Despite looking big in this photo, it was probably only 20-cm long.

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Mute Swans flying across the lake.

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There was a spit where we could walk on for at least a kilometer.  There were quite a few things that you will frequently encounter:

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Huge dead Carps,

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lots of woolly bearers,

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dead birds, such as this cormorant and gulls.  Apparently most of them died from botulism.  Yikes.

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Nice weather - windy but nice.

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Painted Lady on a thistle.

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White Baneberry (Actaea pachypoda) - very poisonous!

Autumn Meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum)
Autumn Meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum)

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Some waterfowls in the marsh area - Mallards, Green-winged Teals, and some Wood Ducks.

I spent most of this weekend grading lab assignments from the stats class.  Lots of work.

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2 comments:

  1. Hugh Griffith30 September 2012 at 18:52

    That's a nice assortment of pictures. The Merlin shots are really cool.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PSYL1 October 2012 at 14:21

    Thanks Hugh. It would cool to see your hawk catching the flicker too.

    ReplyDelete