Owls are tiring!

I've survived two days of birding on Amherst Island. I got 4 of the 5 species that were seen in the island while we were there...Northern Saw-whet, Barred, Short-earred and Snowy. What a weekend! The weather was unbelievable: although the breeze was nippy, the sun was lovely and warm. We also saw white winged-crossbill, purple finch, red poll, dark-eyed junco, downy woodpecker, killer chickadees, black-bellied plover, scaup, scaup and more scaup, dunlin, tundra swan, red-breasted merganser, snow goose, Canada goose, bonaparte gull, and much, much more. Here are some more shots.

~Savannah Sparrow~

Nikon D80, 70-300 mm f4.5-5.6G

Manual Mode, Handheld

~Downy Woodpecker in The Owl Woods~

Nikon D80, 70-300 mm f4.5-5.6G

Manual Mode, Handheld

~Dark-eyed Junco in The Owl Woods~

Nikon D80, 70-300 mm f4.5-5.6G

Manual Mode, Handheld

~Barred Owl in the Jack Pine Stand in The Owl Woods~

Nikon D80, 70-300 mm f4.5-5.6G

Manual Mode, Handheld

Time for bed for me. Good birding!

~Frances

Owls, owls and more owls

Hello from Kingston. Today we left bright and early from Ottawa and headed straight to Amherst Island in Lake Ontario. First stop was the Owl Woods, where I saw my first Northern Saw-Whet Owl. The day continued with a Barred Owl, various water birds, shore birds, sparrows, finches, etc. and ended with a flock of 26 (yes, TWENTY-SIX!) Short-Eared Owls (also a first for me). The only owls I managed to capture today were two of the three Northern Saw-Whets we found in the Owl Woods. Here are some samples...

~Northern Saw-Whet Owl~

Nikon D80, 70-300 mm f4.5-5.6G

Manual Mode, Handheld

~Northern Saw-Whet Owl~

Nikon D80, 70-300 mm f4.5-5.6G

Manual Mode, Handheld

~Northern Saw-Whet Owl~

Nikon D80, 70-300 mm f4.5-5.6G

Manual Mode, Handheld

More to come from our return visit tomorrow, if we don't freeze to death first. There were apparently both a snowy and a long-eared on the island that we didn't see...hopefully tomorrow.

~Frances