Locks this morning

Headed down to the locks for an hour before school. It was pretty active when I was there, but Ken was there just after me and said it was mostly dead. I had 42 species in the hour I was there, including 3 new species for my Locks list (Fox Sparrow, Eastern Phoebe, Osprey), and 5 year birds (Belted Kingfisher, Rusty Blackbird, White-throated Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush). The Osprey caught a fish (good sized one too) while I was there, and the sunrise was pretty nice...would have been better without all the buildings in front of it though. No pics as of yet, as the uploader is giving me error messages. Anyway, songbirds are picking up, other warblers should be here soon!

As I said in an earlier post, the Locks are probably the best place here in town for birds, and to prove it, my Locks list is up to about 165 after today. Considering that my total SSM area list is at 255, that's a pretty decent percentage from such a small place...well...relatively small anyway.

Afternoon birding and some recent photos

Biked down along the waterfront for an hour this afternoon, saw the Great Blue Herons on the rookery, and some Double-crested Cormorants in the river. Also re-found the female Lesser Scaup that's been hanging around the OMNR building. In my backyard, the birds were fairly active, with 5 Robins, some singing Goldfinches (haven't been any around this winter! first singing ones), a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers being very vocal, a flock of Grackles, and a lone White-breasted Nuthatch. With the thermometer reading a blistering 13ºC, and over 3 inches of snow melting today alone, spring is most definitely here!

Since I haven't been keeping the photos up-to-date with the posts, here are some from the past little while, from oldest to newest.

Northern Shovelers at OMNR - March 31

Canvasbacks at OMNR - April 1
"Wild" Turkey at Pumpkin Point - April 3
Sunset over Lake George Rd. - April 3
Killdeer at Bellevue Park - April 4