STAYCATION ~ PART 2

My first of the year Eastern Bluebird sighting wasn't until May 24th.

 Our other big day trip was on Friday, May 24th, when we visited The Carden Alvar area, near Kirkfield. Had some great sightings, including Eastern Meadowlarks and Bobolinks. 

I heard lots of Snipe, but only Rob saw this guy.  

Pair of Eastern Bluebirds, love the Prairie Smoke in the background.

I became quite enamored with these Steers for a while. 

Trying to make friends.

They followed me up the road til the fence ended after this. 

Spot the Eastern Bluebird!

Love the gorgeous blue on the Eastern Bluebirds!

And there goes an Eastern Meadowlark! We had many great looks at them and the Bobolinks.

Female Eastern Bluebird.

Savannah Sparrow.

New yard ornament being investigated by a backyard regular.

We stopped at the Kirkfield Restaurant on our way home for a late lunch. I fell in love with this little Buddha statue they were selling there, as it reminded me of the Buddha statue in the Flamingo Hotel's Wildlife Habitat in Las Vegas, where we visited often on our trip to watch the huumingbirds.

 

A WALK IN THE FUTURE

Rob walking with Sy.

Our last stop before heading home from our birding road trip last week was Rondeau Provincial Park. We planned on spending the morning there and heading back to Toronto around lunch time.

The last trail we did before leaving the park was Spice Bush Trail. We hadn't been on that trail more then five minutes when a bird excitedly caught my attention. An Eastern Bluebird!!! WOW!! My first sighting of one of the year, and in the last place I expected to see one, a forested area.

Eastern Bluebird on the Spice Bush Trail.

We weren't the only ones who got excited by the bluebirds sighting. An older gentleman we had passed when we first started the trail had returned. He had been looking for a piece off his binoculars he lost. He seemed quite excited about the sighting too.  We continued down the trail, with the Eastern Bluebirds, there were at least 3, 2 males and 1 female, if not more.

I soon realized that the elderly man meant to walk with us. At first I was annoyed, and hung back. This was the last trail we were going to do of our trip, I wanted to spend the time with Rob alone. But then as I looked at them walking, I was suddenly struck with a glimpse of the future. One day, that would be Rob or I walking alone.

I stayed back just long enough to snap the top picture of them walking together before I hurried to catch up. "Sy", we found out his name at the end of the walk, was happy to have the company. He chatted away about his birding past. He was a widower, and referred to his wife as the spotter when they use to go for nature walks together. I silently wondered if Rob would share that same tale one day, as he calls me "eagle eye" when we bird. Sy told us of spending hours on his belly with friends snapping photos of plants and flowers. He told these stories happily, but you could sense the sadness just below of the surface. It was more of a talking walk then a birding walk, but every once and a while we did stop to look at a bird or flower.

Male Redstart

Red Trillium

It was easy to tell that Sy was really enjoying his walk with us, and he asked a couple times if we minded him joining us, we both said "no", that we enjoyed the company. It made me sad to think that one day Rob and I would be Sy. That one day, one of us, wouldn't have the other to enjoy these walks with.

Female Eastern Bluebird

At one point during the walk, we had stopped to watch the Eastern Bluebirds again, who we had seemed to catch up with, and Sy looked down on the path, and right there in the spot we happened to stop at, was his lost binocular piece. He was thrilled.

At the end of our walk, Sy thanked us heartily and said that he was going to return to his trailer with a big smile on his face, and it all started with an Eastern Bluebird sighting. I hope we see Sy next year.

The bird that started it all.

It took a little longer to do the trail that day, and we didn't see many birds, but we couldn't have ended our trip any better.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

EASTERN BLUEBIRDS ~ UP CLOSE & PERSONAL

A pair of Eastern Bluebirds.

Last Sunday, Rob and I joined the president of the Ontario Eastern Bluebird Society, Bill Read, and a few others on a field trip. We had joined the organization last year after learning about it, and had been looking forward to the trip for months.

We went to a private orchard that had many, many, Eastern Bluebird nest boxes set up. Eighteen pairs of Eastern Bluebirds had successfully taken a box as a home to raise a family. You can learn all about Eastern Bluebirds through the organizations website. 

Bill aging an adult male Eastern Bluebird.

The day was very informative and interesting. Bill banded some adults and chicks. It was really amazing to learn and see things about these birds that we never would of on our own.

A nest full of Eastern Bluebird eggs.

Bill told us that some females lay white eggs, and if they do, they will always lay white eggs. I was happy we got to see these pretty blue ones.

A nest full of healthy and hungry Eastern Bluebird chicks.  (Photo-Betty Brechun)

When you are near a nest with chicks in it, the parents are always close by and keeping an eye on things .

The day took a very up-close and personal turn with the discovery of a parent abandoned nest box with 5 cold and hungry chicks inside. Bill monitors these boxes and knew that something had happened to the male, but the female had been around the day before, but not today. Sometimes when the "pair bond" gets broken the other deserts the nest/chicks to find a new mate. Nature can be cruel sometimes.

Our first job was to get these chicks warm, and the warmth of our hands was perfect. So, for the next little while we walked around cupping a five day old chick in our hands. It wasn't hard to tell when they were warm, because when they were they started peeping and begging for food. Next up, the bug hunt! This wasn't an easy task with all the dry weather, but a couple of girls in the group were great at it and got the little guys fed.

Once Bill was satisfied that the birds were warm and well fed he put them in a nest box in his car, where they would be warm and safe. After the field trip he was hoping to relocate them to another nest box in the orchard with parents.

A five day old Eastern Bluebird chick, a little bald beauty.  (Photo-Betty Brechun)

Our "bluebird" group holding the orphaned chicks.  ( Photo-Anne McLagan)

 
That's one of the things I love about birding and doing trips like this one, you never know what's going to happen on an outing.