Rondeau Ric

  March 27, 2025, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Song sparrows have been regular visitors to the yard for the last 2-3 weeks. This one took the opportunity to have a bath. Melospiza melodia t It perches on a low shrub, leans back, and sings a stuttering, clattering song.

From the archives , February 17, 2017. Short-eared owl near Blenheim Ontario, Canada. Asio flammeus As suggested by their wide global distribution, Short-eared Owls can travel long distances over vast expanses of ocean. Witnesses have reported seeing these owls descending on ships hundreds of miles from land.

Ducks waddle, Grackles strut their stuff, Woodcocks walk like an Egyptian,  But Turkey vultures rock. 

Not many ants around, so this flicker was rooting around in the grass for what ever was edible. Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, March 21, 2025. Colaptes auratus Although it can climb up the trunks of trees and hammer on wood like other woodpeckers, the Northern Flicker prefers to find food on the ground. Ants are its main food, and the flicker digs in the dirt to find them. It uses its long barbed tongue to lap up the ants.

Red-winged blackbird, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, March 13, 2025. One go the feeder raiders that cleans our feeders out first thing in the morning . Agelaius phoeniceus  Winter flocks can be congregations of several million birds, including other blackbird species and starlings. Each morning the roosts spread out, traveling as far as 50 miles to feed, then re-forming at night.

  First of year, March 16, 2025, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Taken through the wonderful wildlife window. Say the first on the 15th finally got a shot the next day. Also had a northern flicker but didn't get an image. Pipilo erythrophthalmus Eastern Towhees tend to be pretty solitary, and they use a number of threat displays to tell other towhees they’re not welcome. You may see contentious males lift, spread, or droop one or both wings, fan their tails, or flick their tails to show off the white spots at the corners. Studies have shown that male towhees tend to defend territories many times larger than needed simply to provide food.

First decent image of a chickadee this year. Also had a male towhee and a make flicker in the yard on the 15th, no photos, maybe tomorrow.   March 13, 2025, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Poecile atricapillus Chickadee calls are complex and language-like, communicating information on identity and recognition of other flocks as well as predator alarms and contact calls. The more  dee   notes in a   chickadee-dee-dee  call, the higher the threat level.

 In our yard, March 13, 2023, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Still not much of a variety of species, it should pick up in about a month. Melospiza melodia. The Song Sparrow is found throughout most of North America, but the birds of different areas can look surprisingly different. Song Sparrows of the Desert Southwest are pale, while those in the Pacific Northwest are dark and heavily streaked. Song Sparrows of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands chain are even darker, and they’re huge: one-third longer than the eastern birds, and weighing twice as much.

  A fast mover, just above the water in the yard. Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, October 21, 2018. Not much selection on bird species just now. Corthylio calendula Ruby-crowned Kinglets seem nervous as they flit through the foliage, flicking their wings nearly constantly. Keeping an eye out for this habit can be a useful aid to identifying kinglets.

     I taught Mickey to fetch my slippers. Well, actually, one slipper. He delivers it. After playing with it for 10 minutes. Sometimes he hides it instead.  Okay, he always hides it. Not sure if I'm teaching him to fetch or if he's teaching me to play hide and seek.

  April 8, 2021, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Spice bush trail. As a food, spicebush was used for beverages and the fruit was eaten. It was used to flavor foods such as possum or groundhog. Medicinally, any part is diaphoretic. It was used. to treat colds, coughs, phthisis, croup, female obstructions, and white swellings.    The berries taste like. a blend of orange, all spice and clove: they can be eaten raw or, to extend the season as the restaurant does, dried for use in small amounts to enhance fall games dishes.

  May 23, 2021, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Taken in our yard. It took about 3 days for the local robins and barn swallows to strip every bit off moss.  from the stream edges for nest building. Hirundo rustica Swallows often cruise low, flying just a few inches above the ground or water. True to their name, they build their cup-shaped mud nests almost exclusively on human-made structures.

 June 2, 2021, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Seen from our pontoon boat at the marshes edge. Doing the splits. Cistothorus palustris Marsh Wrens are boisterous songsters that sing not only at dawn and dusk, but sometimes throughout the night.

 Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, May 21, 2015. The lines on the log are from the emerald ash borer that eventually kills the ash tree. Thamnophis saurita septentrionalis , The emerald ash borer is an invasive insect that was first discovered in Ontario in June 2002. The beetle likely crossed into Ontario at Windsor after establishing in the Detroit area, where it probably arrived in wood packaging or pallets.

 Thanks to some fellow birders and a very nice home owner we were able to see this long eared owl. The home owner was great, helping us see the birds in one of his cedar trees. He saw 9 in the tree in the morning but we "just" saw two. A real treat. Southern Ontario, Canada, February 25. 2025.. Asio otus The hoot of the male Long-eared Owl can sometimes be heard up to 1 kilometer (0.7 mi) away.

  Suns trying to come out on this blustery, grey late winter day and I need some colour. Common yellowthroat warbler, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, May 10, 2017. Geothlypis trichas Adult Common Yellowthroats sometimes fall prey to carnivorous birds such as Merlins and Loggerhead Shrikes. Occasionally they have more unexpected predators: one migrating yellowthroat was eaten by a Chuck-will's-widow, while another was found in the stomach of a largemouth bass.

  Now that's an ice-cycle! Anne broke it of the corner of a gutter.

 Sharp-shinned hawk with a tree sparrow meal.  Couldn't have grabbed one of those pesky house sparrows. Taken through the wonderful wildlife window. Our yard, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, February 20, 2025. Accipiter striatus The size difference between the sexes in Sharp-shinned Hawks influences the size of prey they can catch. Nestlings feed first on small prey caught mainly by their father, switching as they grow to the larger prey that their mother can bring. Before delivering prey to their mates or young, male Sharp-shinned Hawks typically remove and eat the head.

It is really sad to watch an old, friendly neighbour slide into dementia while the family doesn't' do anything because they are in denial. It's time to care for Uncle Sam America.

  Another from the archives, so ready for spring. Yellow-rumped warbler. October 7, 2023, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, in our yard. Setophaga coronata Yellow-rumped Warblers winter across much of central and southeastern U.S., and they sometimes come to backyards if food is offered. To attract them, try putting out sunflower seed, raisins, suet, and peanut butter.