Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Bird Watchers

There are lots of other woodpeckers I see in Muskoka every summer I visit, but the one at Ian and Amie's was the first pileated one I'd seen. Ian said he'd never seen one before and he grew up there. Purely anecdotal, of course, so I guess I should consult Roger Tory Peterson's Birds of North America to check out the range.

We get Scarlet and Summer Tanager nesting around the house. As for Owls, we have Great Horned, Screech and Barred. The Barred Owls often get into a "conversation" during the Spring & Summer. It is one of the few "Bird Things" that my wife enjoys.

One of the more spectacular sights was the Great Blue Heron. I might see them once or twice during the summer months flying away from our pond. I can never see them in the pond since the area around is o'natural and very much overgrown. It's a beautiful thing watching them fly.

Doc, there is a heronry next to Heart Lake in Brampton. Lots of herons around here, but I think they may have abandoned the heronry once the 410 extention was built.

These are badass!

There are some small hawks which frequent the side of the highway (407 for the locals) that runs beside our office. I guess they're hunting for rodents in the grassy areas beside the highway. Small, spindly trees were planted in the grassy area and have never really grown much, presumably due to the road salt.

The hawks come in and land on tree branches which are far too thin to support their weight, so the branch bends down several feet with the birds wobbling and flapping to maintain balance...

Finally, bird watching becomes an action sport.

One of our, me and the wifes, favorite birds are the bluebird. We have had bluebird houses out for a few years now and just last year finally got a house occupied. They had 4 chicks and we were able to observe them for around ten days. After that there is a risk of them trying to take to flight to early.

Hopefully we can have a repeat this year.

I caught these pictures of blue jays feeding on peanuts from the feeder on my parents deck railing.

I was on the deck, about 3 feet away from the jay in the first picture, and I was about 6 feet away, inside the patio door, when I took the rest.

Those are some awesome pictures you captured wheelz! Such a beautiful bird! Thank you for sharing.

I was down at the point at Oak Island last year. There is a sandbar that is submerged at high tide but otherwise occuppied by Pelicans, Skimmers, waders etc. I was watching through binocs and had just turned away to go get my scope when all hell broke loose. I thought that maybe some kids had gotten over to the bar.... I looked back and every bird had taken flight - maybe 400 birds. All except one. When I looked back at the lone shape I could see still on the bar it was a Peregrine that had just nailed a Laughing Gull. I ran and grabbed the scope and watched the dinner show. Took 20 minutes and he/she ate everything except the head, spine and feet. Awesome.