Olive-sided Flycatcher

What a great weekend weather wise. I spent the weekend at Attawandaron Scout Camp near The Pinery with our Beaver Troop. We have an excellent leader group in our troop and year end camps are no exception. The kids had hikes, scavenger hunts, games, crafts, canoeing, campfires and skits. Even a turkey dinner organized by our camp cooks on Saturday night. The theme this year was birds so all the activities had a bird theme to them and prizes were bird books and bins.

While canoeing the kids had an excellent view of a mature Bald Eagle on a branch only about twenty feet off the water. All the snapping and painted turtles, a Great Blue Heron and a Northern Water Snake made for a great adventure.

I stopped at Thedford Lagoons Friday afternoon on the way to camp to observe the White-rumped Sandpipers and was glad I did as on my return visit Sunday afternoon they were gone.

While at the camp I always enjoy birding very early in the mornings, with a 5am start, before everyone else rises. This year was the first year I failed to hear Eastern Whip-poor-wills but did manage a Great Horned Owl, Yellow-billed Cuckoos and Wood Thrush calling.

After camp ended on Sunday I birded The Pinery and was happy to hear and get distant looks at an Olive-sided Flycatcher along the Riverside trail. There seems to be one here every year.

Not a great image as it’s from a distance and highly cropped, but you get the idea.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

 

Yellow-rumped Warblers are impressive in the sheer numbers with which they flood the continent each fall. Shrubs and trees fill with the streaky brown-and-yellow birds and their distinctive, sharp chips.

Though the color palette is subdued all winter, it’s pretty impressive during spring migration. Spring molt brings a transformation, leaving them a dazzling mix of bright yellow, charcoal gray and black, and bold white.

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is the only warbler able to digest the waxes found in bayberries and wax myrtles. Its ability to use these fruits allows it to winter farther north than other warblers. Cornell All About Birds

Prothonotary Warbler

 

The brilliant Prothonotary Warbler bounces along branches like a golden flashlight in the dim understory of swampy woodlands. This golden ray of light is unique among warblers with its beady black eye and blue-gray wings.

It is also one of two warblers that build their nests in holes in standing dead trees.

Often called a "swamp warbler" in the southeast, it also occurs surprisingly far to the north along rivers. Its population is declining, due to loss of forested wetlands in the U.S. and mangroves on its wintering grounds.

Most warblers nest either on the ground, in shrubs, or in trees, but the Prothonotary Warbler and the Lucy's Warbler build their nests in holes in standing dead trees. They may also use nest boxes when available.

The Prothonotary Warbler got its name from the bright yellow robes worn by papal clerks, known as prothonotaries, in the Roman Catholic church.

The Prothonotary Warbler had its day in court during the Cold War. In 1948 Alger Hiss an American government official was accused of being a soviet spy. Part of the trial hinged on whether Hiss knew Whittaker Chambers, a former member of the U.S. Communist Party. Chambers claimed that he talked to Hiss about watching birds and reported Hiss's excitement about seeing a Prothonotary Warbler on the Potomac River. This bird sighting linked the two people and eventually led to Hiss's sentence and to the rise of Richard Nixon to political power. Cornell All About Birds

Yellow-throated Warbler

 

The Yellow-throated Warbler has a bright yellow throat and lives in the canopy of forests in the southeastern United States. It hops up branches, working its way high into the canopy probing for insects in crevices and clumps of pine needles.

The Yellow-throated Warbler is one of the few warblers that can be found during the winter in the U.S.. We observe them fairly regularly on the Florida Panhandle in March.

Many warblers migrate from South America to Canada each year, but Yellow-throated Warblers are almost homebodies by comparison. They nest farther south than most warblers, winter farther north, and are even year-round residents in parts of the southern U.S. Cornell All About Birds

Blackburnian Warbler

 

The breeding male Blackburnian Warbler has an intricate black-and-white plumage set off by flame-orange face and throat.

These forest-canopy specialists are seldom seen at eye level except during migration, when they may be found among dozens of other warbler species at sites that concentrate migrants in spring and fall. They spend winters in South America in open forests including shade-coffee plantations.

Although the Blackburnian Warbler does not associate with other birds while it is nesting, it may bring its fledged young to forage in flocks of chickadees, kinglets, and nuthatches. The begging of the warbler chicks can even attract chickadees.

No other North American warbler has an orange throat.

In springtime, rival male Blackburnian Warblers perform remarkable territorial conflicts that recall an aerial ballet. They chase one another through and around the treetops, flying in loops, plummeting downward through the branches in a whirling pattern, gliding with tail raised and spread, or slowly flapping in exaggerated “moth flight,” as researchers call it. Once territories are established, the aerobatics die down. Cornell All About Birds

American Redstart

 

The American Redstart is a lively warbler that hops among tree branches in search of insects. The male American Redstart is coal-black with vivid orange patches on the sides, wings, and tail.

The redstart seems to startle its prey out of the foliage by flashing its strikingly patterned tail and wing feathers. Females and immature males have more subdued yellow “flash patterns” on a gray background.

These sweet-singing warblers nest in open woodlands across much of North America.

Cool Fact - The male American Redstart sometimes has two mates at the same time. While many other polygamous bird species involve two females nesting in the same territory, the redstart holds two separate territories that can be separated by a quarter-mile. The male begins attracting a second female after the first has completed her clutch and is incubating the eggs. Cornell All About Birds

Northern Parula

 

Adult male Northern Parulas are bluish gray overall with a yellow-green patch on the back and 2 white wingbars. A chestnut band separates the male's bright yellow throat and chest.

Males and females have distinctive white eye crescents. Immature birds are paler than adults and lack the chestnut breast band.

In the southern part of their range Northern Parulas are more common in deciduous forests, but in the northern part they also use evergreen forests. But no matter what part of their range, the key to their presence is moss; Spanish moss in the South and beard moss farther north.

On the wintering grounds, they forage in fields, pastures, plantations, scrub, and forests. Cornell All About Birds

Nashville Warbler

 

The Nashville Warbler is a boisterous yellow songster with a striking, big-eyed look thanks to a white eyering that contrasts sharply with its gray hood.

Look for them in shrubby tangles and regrowing forests—a habitat preference that has helped this species remain fairly common even as other songbirds have declined in number.

Nashville Warblers don't breed anywhere near Nashville, Tennessee, although they do migrate through. The species got its name because Nashville was where Alexander Wilson first saw it, in 1811, and went on to name it. Cornell All About Birds

Black-throated Green Warbler

 

A delicate, lemon-faced canopy dweller, Black-throated Green Warblers are standouts in a family that does not lack for spectacle.

It’s a common breeder from northern boreal forests to hardwoods of the southeastern U.S., and even cypress swamps.

Cool Fact - one male Black-throated Green Warbler was observed singing 466 songs in one hour. Cornell All About Birds

Orange-crowned Warbler

 

Most Orange-crowned Warblers nest on the ground, possibly to avoid nest-robbing birds.

Orange-crowned Warblers begin their spring migration earlier, stay later on the breeding grounds, and winter farther north than most other warblers. Food rather than day length seems to drive their migratory calendar, as they begin to leave the breeding grounds when cold or drought limit supplies of insect prey. Cornell All About Birds

Mourning Warbler

 

Clad in olive, gray, and yellow, with a jewel-like black chest patch in breeding males, Mourning Warblers are bright but hard-to-see birds of brushy areas.

Among the most renowned skulkers of the warbler family, they are common but seldom seen, particularly during migration and winter, when they are quiet.

Mourning Warblers breed in dense thickets of northern North America, often in areas created by fires, storms, or logging operations. Cornell All About Birds

Wilson's Warbler

 

Although I observe a Wilson’s Warbler every year it has always been a warbler that I don’t seem to obtain a decent image of.

Wilson’s Warblers dance around willow and alder thickets, often near water, to the rapid beat of their chattering song. This bright yellow warbler with a black cap is one of the smallest warblers in the U.S. and among the most recognizable.

They rarely slow down, dashing between shrubs, grabbing insects from one leaf after another, and popping up on low perches to sing. Wilson's Warblers breed in mountains and northern forests, but pass through every state in the lower 48 during migration. Cornell All About Birds

Black-throated Blue Warbler

 

The Black-throated Blue Warbler is a fairly common warbler to observe in our area during migration.

A uniquely colored, midnight-blue bird of tangled understories, the male Black-throated Blue Warbler sings a relaxed, buzzy I-am-so-la-zee on warm summer days in Eastern hardwood forests.

The male is aptly named, with a midnight blue back, sharp white belly, and black throat. This warbler breeds in the East and spends the winter in the Caribbean. Cornell All About Birds

Magnolia Warbler

Magnolia Warblers are one of my favourite warblers to photograph. In the right light they can be quite stunning.

We've been fortunate to observe a fair number of them this spring.

Though it has very specific habitat preferences in the breeding season, the Magnolia Warbler occupies a very broad range of habitats in winter: from sea level to 5,000 feet in cacao plantations, orchards, forests, and thickets. Cornell All About Birds

Swainson's Thrush

Swainson’s Thrush pluck berries, glean bugs from leaves, or perch on branches and stumps. They also bound across the forest floor to catch insect prey.

Gray-cheeked Thrush

 

Gray-cheeked Thrushes forage by consuming fruit in trees (or on the ground) and taking invertebrate prey on the ground with a quick peck.

They breed in willow-alder thickets and dense undergrowth in stands of spruce, balsam fir, other conifers, or cottonwood trees.

Migrants and wintering birds occupy many habitat types, but tend toward well-developed understories and berry bushes.

Summer Tanager

Recently had the opportunity to observe and photograph a Summer Tanager.

It had been a couple of years since I had seen a Summer Tanager in Lambton County.

Cuban Martin

The Cuban Martin is a graceful aerial feeder found over a wide variety of open habitats, especially near water, including marshes and towns.

Often chooses exposed perches including power and telephone lines in villages.

Commonly found in flocks of up to twenty birds, sometimes mixing with other swallows and martins.

American Kestrel ( white morph )

 

Cuba also has two morphs of the American Kestrel. The normal version we see here in Lambton County and a white morph.

Green Heron

 

Green Herons are also very plentiful around Cuba. Certainly not skittish at all.

Reddish Egret ( White Morph )

 

Although we see Reddish Egrets fairly common when on our Florida birding trips and have a separate blog featuring them, Cuba has a white morph Reddish Egret.

A fairly large, powerfully built but elegant heron. Reddish Egrets have long, sturdy legs, long necks, and thick, daggerlike bills

Dark morph adults are rich grayish blue bodies with vivid pinkish-cinnamon head and neck. White morph adults are snow white overall. Both morphs have two-toned bills: pink at the base and black at the tip. Legs are cobalt blue.

Brown Pelican

I spent most afternoons while in Cuba out sailing the Hobiecats. However, after sailing I would spend time watching the Brown Pelicans fish and thought I’d post a couple of my favourite dive images.

The Brown Pelican is a comically elegant bird with an oversized bill, sinuous neck, and big, dark body. Squadrons glide above the surf along southern and western coasts, rising and falling in a graceful echo of the waves.

They feed by plunge-diving from high up, using the force of impact to stun small fish before scooping them up. They are fairly common today—an excellent example of a species’ recovery from pesticide pollution that once placed them at the brink of extinction. Cornell All About Birds

West Indian Whistling Duck

The West Indian Whistling Duck is a distinctive large waterbird between the size of a large duck and a goose. Nocturnal; roosts during day in mangroves, wooded ponds and marshes and feeds primarily at night.

    

Generally scarce and typically somewhat secretive, particularly where hunting of this species is allowed. I would hear them early every morning when I started birding and find them foraging in the lagoon near the resort.

Smooth-billed Ani

 

The Smooth-billed Ani is a glossy black cuckoo with an oversized bill. Almost always seen in groups, these birds traipse through tangled, shrubby habitats in the tropics of South America and the Caribbean; there's also a small and declining population in Florida.

They eat insects and lizards as well as fruit, especially during the dry season. Groups do almost everything together, with females laying all their eggs in a single communal nest tended by all group members. Every time we seen Ani they were in groups of six or seven.

Western Spindalis

 

The Western Spindalis is found in thickets, forest edge, gardens, and fruiting trees and bushes. Usually in pairs or small flocks, and often quite inconspicuous. 

The handsome male is unmistakable, with bold head pattern, golden-yellow and dark reddish body plumage, and bold white wing pattern. Female is notably drab, grayish olive overall with a small white mark on the wing, and a ghosting of the male wing pattern. Cornell All About Birds

Cuban Bullfinch

 

The Cuban Bullfinch is a small flocking species of brushy and wooded habitats. Note the large, stout bill and the white slash along the front of the folded wing. 

Color ranges from black to gray, depending on location and sex. Cornell All About Birds

West Indian Woodpecker

The West Indian Woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker of drier forests.

Its strongly barred back eliminates all other species in it range except for Northern and Fernandina’s Flickers, but both flickers lack the West Indian Woodpecker’s extensively red nape and hind-crown. Cornell All About Birds

We found West Indian Woodpeckers to be a fairly common sight in Cuba.

And were lucky enough to have a nest mere metres from our lodging.