for the birds

A few of my recent urban hikes were for the birds!  It's prime time for seeing all the migrators and their new babies.  Twice while "out & about, instead of capturing photos, I focused on identifying the birds by their song.  I can pick out the usual suspects but that's about it.  This app records their tunes as you can see at the top then lists out the species singing those songs.  The yellow highlighted ones are the current songs and those shift as the birds sing and I move along the trail.  It can be overwhelming when everybody is singing at the same time!  

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This was the first morning that the amount of poplar fluff was to the level I had never seen before.  It's even making the news which has never happened as far as I can remember.  The fluff fuelled the fires that popped up in the local city parks.  Warnings are in place to be extra vigilant and careful and also to expect fires to pop up on a daily basis.  The fluff lines the trail near Carburn.  On this day it draped the brush in the meadows along with covering my sneakers and bottoms of my pants, 

Even though I was swishing through fluff and waving it away from my face, it was a great day for bird spotting.  These are a few of my sightings: Cedar Waxwing, House Wren, Grey Catbird, Mallard Duckling, American Goldfinch, Yellow Warbler, Brown-Headed Cowbird, Downy Woodpecker.

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These days, I don't take blue sky for granted!  It comes and goes and on this day I got out early to hike along Nose Creek to savour the blue sky while bird spotting.  It was also to get out early to beat the heat that was forecasted to hit as the day went on.  We are currently under a heat warning again.  So much of the news lately is all about the weather.  It makes me wonder what the summer will be like!

The bird activity was almost off the charts so I spent more time stopped and watching than covering kilometres.  These are a few of the birds that captured my attention:  Swainson's Hawk, Northern Rough-Winged Swallow (top right), Eastern Kingbird (middle),  Cedar Waxwing, Clay-Colored Sparrow, Brown-Headed Cowbird (female with a snack).

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It was a morning of sneezing and wiping watery eyes & running nose as I made my way through the popular fluff at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. The fluff created an unusual reflection in the lagoon.  While the whole lagoon was covered in it, it appears it is only where the trees reflect.  I don't know much about this fluff, I wonder how long it will be around!

While the birds were buzzing, the lighting conditions were not the best for capturing photos with my camera.  These are a few of the photos that turned out O.K.:  Great Blue Heron, Canada Geese and goslings, Northern Flicker, Lincoln's Sparrow, Gosling (swimming its way through fluff).

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No smoke, no poplar fluff, no wind, no heat!  Days like this are a rarity!  There was much to enjoy on this day bird spotting at Confluence Park, the Birth Forest and Nose Creek.  While we are in desperate need of moisture, the grounds here still show off pretty shades of green.  I did notice there is a watering system in place throughout the Birth Forest.   

These are a few of the sights that added color to this day:  Barn Swallow, American Goldfinch, Brown-Headed Cowbird,  House Finch, Cedar Waxwing, Yellow Warbler, Vesper Sparrow (with a snack).