BIRDQUEST2004

Last night I had a great evening of birding at Mud Lake.  For those of you who are familiar with the area, the trail along the houses on Britannia Rd, south of the sumac field was alive with warblers.  Their were Palm, Yellow, Nashville, Bay-breasted, Black-throated Green and Blue, Parula, Pine, Black and White and hundred of Yellow-rumped.  I spent about 2 hours in the area and wasn’t ever disappointed.

I kept hearing a call that I’d heard before but just couldn’t see the bird or remember what bird went with that call.

Most people were away at Point Pelee so I was unsure who I could call and tell.  I called Tony Beck and told him about the mini warbler fallout.  He told me someone had just reported that a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at Mud Lake.  That had to be it…..

Thanks, Tony for the heads up….

Next morning at Mud Lake on the short trail to the observation platform high up in the canopy we found a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.  Bird #239 on my Ottawa list.

Amazing how small they are, while I didn’t get an usable photo, we had some good views with binoculars.  I am still amazed how small they are beside a warbler.

Thanks to Kathleen, Carl And Mark Gawn was a great morning birding at Mud Lake.

Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are fairly common south of us but below is a better photo  of what your looking for.

A few days later at Thickson’s Woods we came across a rather vocal Gnatcatcher…..

Ciao for now

This morning I went out for a game of golf, walked 18 holes. Came home, Sam and I went and picked up a aerator and used it on our lawns, including 3 of my neighbors.

Needless to say, by the time I finished it was close to 4pm and I was ready for a beer and the couch. Last thing on my mind was looking for a Warbler in the rain.
Checking my emails someone had seen the bird in the morning but no reports since then, so I figured it had left.

My good friend Bill (on his way home from Toronto) came by and wanted to go try and see the Hooded Warbler. Now Bill has been trying to see another Hooded Warbler, last one we’d seen was at Thickson’s Woods near Oshawa, many years ago. It figures that while he’s in Toronto a Hooded Warbler shows up in Ottawa.

Off We went, I just grabbed my binoculars and figured it would be a longshot and left my camera at home (stupid mistake). Off we went to Steeple Hill Crescent, Terry Carisse Park along the Jock River. We searched for 30 minutes without any luck, lots of kinglets, they seemed to be everywhere.

It started to rain and we turned around and were heading for the car, when this yellow streak came out of the evergreen trees and landed no more than 10 feet away…

Ottawa bird #238 was in the books, only thing was my camera was at home. Drove home grabbed my camera and back we went. Luckily this bird was not going anywhere, we found it again within 10 feet of where we left it. Snapped a few photos in the rain and left it to its feeding.

I am sure Bill got a few great images, you can check his blog @ http://bilyreid.com He has some lovely images on that blog of his, may take a day or to to see the Hooded Warbler images.

These are a few of the better images.

This image is from a few years ago at Point Pelee, date is when I saw my first Hooded Warbler

Ciao for now….