Rondeau Ric

Dressed for Halloween Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur This red winged black bird dressed up as a Rose breasted Gross beak for Halloween. He wanted me to check his make up. Pretty good job ,eh?

Some days you have a good selection of birds, other times they are awesome. The day started with a beautiful sunrise over Lake Erie while I was having my coffee. There was a report on he internet of a white faced ibis near Point Pelee on the weekend. As we live about 45 miles away and it was a geougeousl fall day we decide to head off and see what we could find. Driving along the road that hugs the north coast of Lake Erie , Anne spotted what she thought was a bald eagle. After pulling over and taking a look we realized it was a golden eagle, this was only the second time we had seen one. It stayed fairly low so we had excellent looks at the bird. A bald eagle appeared and started harassing the golden; they were flipping on their backs and presenting their talons. This is something we had only seen on TV before. After a few minutes a second bald eagle showed up. At one point we had 2 bald and a golden in the same field of view. We continued down to Hillma...

TRAP SHOOTING HALL OF FAME Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur I understand that Dick Cheney was a charter member. I didn't know his hunting friends name was Trap

The wind was up an the wind surfers and para surfers were out in big numbers at Rondeau Provincial Park. The were flying across the bay at incredible speeds and doing high jumps. This is Oct 21st people, isn't it a bit chilly?

My wife, Anne had an email from a local birder that a north wheatear had been seen near the dock at Shrewsbury , Ontario . That is about 20 minutes from our place, just across Rondeau Bay . She called me and arranged to meet me there after work. I got to the dock around 4:30 pm and saw group of birders, the binoculars and spotting scopes were a give away, looking across the road. When I got out and went over the bird was sitting on a concrete block, in the sun light, basically posing. I watched it and took photos for about 20 minutes before it flew to a more inaccessible area. The wheatear is a very rare bird in our area. It is occasionally seen on the Labrador coast and Baffin island .

You said the water was warm Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur A puddle formed on the sidewalk while we were power washing the siding. We had a large number of sparrows, juncos and red breasted nuthatches coming in for a splash. Their look made me think of the old line " Come on innn , the wwwattttters fffine." Photo by Anne McArthur

At 3.39 a.m. there was a crashing noise from the dining area, closely followed by a second rattling crash. To paraphrase The Night Before Christmas – “there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.” The screen had been knocked out of the dining rooms’ window frame and a knick-knack was lying on the floor. As I reached the window a small masked face was staring at me. A young raccoon was clinging to the window sill, intent on getting in. I yelled at the little home invader and closed the window. We have had trouble with this one before, knocking down and breaking feeders and trying to get into the garbage can that holds the seeds and peanuts. It got to the point that we now keep the metal cans in the house, which probably displeased our night time visitor and caused the attempted break in. I returned to bed only to hear a new assault. He was clawing at the patio screen door. I turned on the outside light, opened the door and yelled at him. ...

Hey buddy, can you spare a finger Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur AT a banding demonstration at Hawk Cliff in Ontario. This Harris Hawk is used for falconry and education programs. Looked like he could remove a finger rather easily.

A couple Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Another sculpture from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario. Not quite life sized but close.

Not enough for a baseball team Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Migrating blue jays found this puddle and were enjoying a bath. Some of the jays looked embarrassed over the enthusiasm showed by the bathers