Good times at Ontario's Rondeau Provincial Park - a while ago

As some might remember from one of my recent excursions into self-pity, I am somewhat busy birding at the moment and have difficulties keeping the blogging up to date. I had thought about posting this next week and start with "Once upon a time" to show some good humour but eventually decided that this was not all that funny anyway and got down to writing today.

This post is about a visit to the always beautiful Rondeau Provincial Park in southern Ontario, a park that marked the end of a 2 hour drive my wife and I undertook last Sunday in very fine weather, albeit a bit windy as a birder has always a reason to complain about the weather.
I like Rondeau very much and so does my wife, and even though last Sunday was only a short visit of around 4 or 5 hours, we are considering future visits. Furthermore, Charlie of the famousbirdblog here and I had the idea of writing about certain birding hot spots, comparable to the fun Waterthrush article we both wrote. So if I sum these things all up, the result is that this will not really be an extensive post about Rondeau, with all sorts of background information and useful links to everywhere that's connected with the park as you're used to encounter on this blog (sure thing). Nope, that will have to wait for later while this is only about our short trip. Sorry to disappoint and also apologies for this and that, but a link to the other might be a bit of a compensation...
Okay, on we go to Rondeau:

If I was to characterize Rondeau in one sentence, it would be:
Like Pelee but not so busy: less people, less rarity sightings.

Rondeau therefore seems to be the ideal place for someone who has seen it all and just enjoys watching whatever comes their way in the (often) solitude of some nice woodlands or marshes, but the park is not so ideal for the keen lister who likes the chase.
What makes this place so attractive, apart from the calm, quiet and less stressful birding, is that two true avian gems are very dependable there from mid-May onwards: Prothonotary Warbler and Red-headed Woodpecker.
So when we got there on a late Sunday morning just about at the beginning of the middle of May, we had certain hopes of spotting the super nova of the forest, the gaudy Prothonotary.
Well, our inquiry at the information office somewhat lowered these hopes ("There are rumours of the first bird having been seen today around the Pony Barn...") but that only meant we were up to the challenge of finding the first one on its breeding grounds along the TrippleT. Oh wait, no, that's not another action movie of the Tripple X series, no worries, that's the Tulip Tree Trail, and you try saying that three times in a row real fast.
See?
That's why it's TrippleT.

TrippleT is a double-loop of boardwalks through a magnificent flooded forest right next to the information center and is really beautiful, as could be seen below if I'd finally work out how to take decent landscape pictures with the camera that aren't too white and harsh in their contrast...


Quite soon, my wife spotted a spec of bright yellow amongst the twigs low over the water! Excitement may one day take its toll on my heart, but a spot of yellow onTrippleT is worth the risk of skipping a few beats or increasing your pulse. Was it the one bird that pushes your retina to the limit? The one and only?
But then, fate played its nastiest card and revealed the bird to be quite yellow indeed but not quite as yellow as we had wanted it to be:

A Yellow Warbler along the Tulip Tree Trail, the only place on this planet where it is not really welcome - at all!!

And you see, the Yellow Warbler knew why it was placed there by fate and what its mission was, it knew it had us fooled and took further advantage of our weakness by always keeping a stick right in front of its face whenever it pretended to "pose" for a photo.
You say that stick on one shot is a coincidence and not a sign of bad character?
Well, think again as this below is another shot of the very same bird!

A bad example of a Yellow Warbler, when you're into photographing them

I am right, this is a mean member of its species!

Surprisingly, or rather not all that surprisingly due to the strong wind, there was not much action birdwise along TrippleT and we finally headed through the vegetated dune area seen below ...


...to the lovely and wild beach, seen below.


On our way back to the car, we were finally rewarded with what was surely a sign of sympathy or even - may I dare - good will from the Yellow Warbler species as another bird performed some lovely and extensive posing in front of my camera and rewarded us with views of its beauty like this one:

A Yellow Warbler away from the Tulip Tree Trail where it is always a great pleasure to see

But then of course, North American birding in May isn't entirely about warblers (only around 95%), and this male Eastern Towhee was also highly priced by our party and fully deserved its fair share of our attention.

Eastern Towhee, Rondeau Provincial Park, appreciated where ever it may roam, unlike certain Yellow Warblers I know...

The most bird action however, and this may come as no surprise for experienced bird bloggers, was around the information centre's feeders.
Well, I am not particularly fond of feeder photos as you can mostly see they were taken at a feeder ("ah, that was easy, I could have taken that shot, seen it before" etc.) and are not very unique.
But if a Chipping Sparrow chooses such a great perch right besides you and you know that nobody will know that the background is the fence to the feeder area unless you tell them so, ...

Do I only feel or am I stupid?

Well, here are the pics:

Chipping Sparrow, out in the wild and far, far away from any feeder, seriously

What I do like about Chippies is that they are a) birds b) sparrows c) easily watched and d) just fun.
But their head pattern when seen head-on is really neat, as are 10 mega pixels on your camera that allow for heavy cropping:

"Don't call me Chippy!"

And something else about feeder pics:
You might have seen a picture of a White-breasted Nuthatch like this before, maybe even better than this:

A good old feeder pic of a White-breasted Nuthatch

But did you know what it looks like when you can see into a Nuthatch's bill when it is just about to swallow a bit of a peanut (or whatever it is)?
I bet not, but here it is, as Belltower Birding always thrives to increase your perspective on your hobby and the way you see birds:

A not-so-good but also not-so-old picture of a Swallowing White-breasted Nuthatch, new to science and exclusively on Belltower Birding

And finally something for the cute files at the feeder, a Chipmunk:

"There must be sunflower seeds around here somewhere..."

Apart from being a good place to be birding, Rondeau is also a very dependable place for viewing Raccoons during the day.

"What do you mean, a chipmunk is cuter?"

The Raccoon is called "Waschbär" in German, which translates to "Washing Bear", and who knew: these animals do know their bit of German! Cheers, mate, or is it "Danke schön"?

A Raccoon demonstrating language skills

And so ended another great day at this perfect destination, more to follow!

Stressful? Sure enough...

Oh dear, spring migration can be hard at times. Especially in May. Remember what I wrote yesterday, about the birding race?
Well, I just wanted to go for a short walk through the Arb between 4 and 6 pm yesterday to take a few pictures of whatever would come my way (Bachman's Warbler and Ivory-billed Woodpecker being the main objectives as always).
It was a good day, with low nmbers of migrants but a good variety, e.g. 10 species of warblers, Scarlet Tanagers and Indigo Buntings all putting up quite a show.
And while I was casually strolling along the fence of the Arb at the former Black-throated Gray Warbler site I saw this small brown bird:
It was hopping low through the bushes, not higher up than a foot or so, was clearly not a thrush, definitely no sparrow and the way it moved was very warbler-like. Of course it was so skulking, secretive, inconspicious and wary (great post there, Charlie!) that this alone pointed directly to its identity, but I never managed to glimpse a single field character.
Of course I wasn't taking my impression of the bird very seriously and walked on along the path.
But then, I had barely walked 20 metres, there came a bird song from precisely that area of the trail, and the song was not only pretty definitive, it absolutely matched the identification guess I had made about the little brown job and it was even (independently) recorded by a fellow birder Jacob Job and can be listened to here.
I give you three words:

Worm-

eating

Warbler

Now, around the Great Lakes that's quite a species to come across and this was the second time I heard it but I have not managed a definite visual encounter yet!
Unfortunately I had to get back home in a hurry and it only sang once.

But of course, Jochen, you returned the next day?

Ha, I would have in April, but this is May, folks! No kidding.

Today I must urgently get some work done and it is raining anyway and tomorrow I'll be off to Crane Creek again and I had actually planned to write a post about last Sunday's trip to Rondeau Provincial Park today with a few cool photos of nice birds.

Too much, too much.

Here are a few of yesterday's pictures. I am doing my best, seriously, but May birding is not for the faint at heart and to be stressed out seems to be the experience of the relaxed days...

This Red-tailed Hawk was chased off its perch by Blue Jays. I like Blue Jays but frankly would also have liked a sharp pic of a perched Red-tail...

Nice male American Robin

Scarlet Tanager, the only bird that's even hot in the shade and cool to look at on heavily cropped images like the one above. You might have seen red before, but you've not experienced it until you've seen a Scarlet Tanager.

Birding May -hem

Birding is all about priorities.

It may (ah, again, the word) have been different a few years ago, but with the onset of digital photography and blogging, things changed, including the May ... whoops ... way we bird.

Back then it was all about grabbing your binoculars and walking the wild to see what you could find. Today, there are basically three distinct ways of birding, because it is not only about that which we go out to seek and see anymore but also about how we document and communicate about it.

These are today's three Mayn ... no ... main birding categories:

a) Go out to look for birds

b) Go out to take pictures of birds (missing out on the opportunity of seeing more birds because you hang around the once you've found already)

c) Stay indoors to bird virtually and blog about birding (missing out on the opportunity of actually seeing any birds)


Some readers might not quite realize where I am residing at the moment, those that complain about a recent drop in blogging since last Friday for example, or possibly even a slight lack of intellectuality that's been first noticed in my posts on November 30, 2006.

Well, sorry to tell you folks but this is the Great Lakes, this is where spring migration happens!! It happens in May, and - let me check my calendar - yepp, it's just about that time: MAY !!

And this - May - is precisely where the priorities thing kicks in:

No birding brakes around the Great Lakes

I will try and keep up the blogging pace with the birding race but it looks grim because the birding looks fantastic at the moment and - yes, shame - my birding priorities currently hover somewhere between the above mentioned points a) and b) .

You don't believe me when I May ... oh ... say that the birding is too Maymazing to stay indoors and blog?

Okay fine, you asked for it so here you have it, a few examples (not the best shots, just a few teasers) of the past four days when my wife and I rented a car and went to Dolph Park in Ann Arbor (Friday and Saturday), Rondeau Provincial Park in Ontario (Sunday) and I went to Crane Creek and Metzger Marsh, Ohio (Monday). All of these birding excursions will definitely - hopefully - maybe - soon be small posts of their own but now I first have to scan through roughly 1.000 images taken over the last few days, so give me some time while I give you these:

Gray Catbird - Dolph Park, Ann Arbor (Michigan)

Blue Jay, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario

Black-throated Blue Warbler, Crane Creek State Park, Ohio

Separating Louisiana and Northern Waterthrushes

Well, we had planned to start with gulls, had made several announcements and then kept the world waiting (in case the world had noticed) but now finally we have a lift-off: the first post in what will surely become a series of blog cooperation projects between Charlie Moores and yours truly, Belltower Birder. Within this cooperation we plan to combine whatever our respective strengths are to see if we can't come up with a good piece of bird blogging that each of us would not have been able to achieve himself. This time, it is the identification of the two waterthrushes and we hope it will prove helpful during this - and the next few - migration periods.
You can find the very same post on Charlie's blog here, by the way, as that's how the cooperation works.

It's spring, migrants are everywhere, and you catch a glimpse of what looks like a small warbler walking in a damp, shaded area. As you move closer you get better views- it's a brownish bird, streaked below, possibly a waterthrush, but - crucially - it's not calling. Your prize may fly off at any moment, so just what features do you need to concentrate on to make a positive ID...?

The two species of Waterthrush, Louisiana Waterthrush Seiurus motacilla and Northern Waterthrush Seiurus noveboracensis, are very similar to each other but are themselves easily distinguished from other species within the North American wood warblers. They basically form their own genus Seiurus, with the only other member being the strikingly different Ovenbird Seiurus aurocapilla. The Ovenbird though is so different from the two waterthrush species (in multiple aspects) that many authorities consider a review necessary that would then place the waterthrushes in a genus of their own. All three species, Ovenbird, Louisiana and Northern Waterthrush, share the following field characters that can be used to separate them from other North American wood warblers:

• They are brown above and pale (buffy or white) below with bold brown streaks.
• They are largely ground-dwelling and only seldom seen on branches.

The Ovenbird is easily distinguished from the waterthrushes by its lack of a pale supercilium (the “eyebrow”), its whitish ring around the eye, warm reddish-brown crown and - frankly - by its completely different appearance.


Ovenbird Seiurus aurocapilla

So basically, unless a vagrant Redwing Turdus iliacus from Eurasia is taken into account, a ground-dwelling small song bird that is brown above, pale below with brown stripes and shows a pale supercilium is bound to be a waterthrush.

So far so good, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how much you enjoy a good challenge) this is where easy ends and not-so-easy begins: the identification and separation of the two species of waterthrush... When confronted with a waterthrush, these are the field characters which we have found can be used to distinguish one from the other (field-guides do mention other characters ie Louisiana's buffy supralorals and buffy rear-flanks but in our experience these are difficult to see under normal viewing conditions):

The movement of the tail and rear body
Both species constantly bob their tail and rear body, but there is a slight yet distinct difference between the two.
Northern Waterthrush: a plain up-and-down bobbing of the tail and rear body.
Louisiana Waterthrush: a more "sinewy" bobbing that includes also moving the tail/rear body to the sides.

The shape and colour of the eyebrow
Northern Waterthrush: narrowing at the rear and very often yellowish or buffy white.
Louisiana Waterthrush: broad, bold and white, and not narrowing.

The shape and length of the bill
Northern Waterthrush: rather short and thin, the lower mandible being thin and straight as well.
Louisiana Waterthrush: long and strong, the lower mandible often appears strong and bent upwards, (very remotely similar to a Yellow-billed Loon Gavia adamsii!).

This Northern Waterthrush shows the typical, rather thin supercilium and a long and thin bill.

The supercilium is more bold and bright on Louisiana and the bill appears a bit longer and especially stronger than on Northern

Patterning of the chin/throat
Northern Waterthrush: most birds have a finely striped chin, but some can show a white chin comparable to Louisiana.
Louisiana Waterthrush: always without fine stripes, pure white.

A striped chin therefore is diagnostic for Northern Waterthrush, but an unstriped chin cannot be used to definitely identify a bird as Louisiana Waterthrush!

The chin of most Northern Waterthrushes shows very fine streaks

Louisiana Waterthrushes always show a plain white chin without streaks

Colour of the breast and belly
Northern Waterthrush: varies between whitish and yellowish, but never shows a contrast between the tone of the breast and the flanks.
Louisiana Waterthrush: always whitish with buffy rear flanks.

Pattern of stripes below
Northern Waterthrush: often relatively dense, usually more heavily striped than Louisiana.
Louisiana Waterthrush: often relatively few.

An additional difference that we came to notice but still needs to be tested in the field is the patterning of the stripes on the rear flanks: Louisiana Waterthrushes tend to show two parallel and straight lines along the rear flanks, very nicely patterned as the small individual stripes are completely in line. In Northern Waterthrushes, these lines on the rear flanks still show the individual stripes but they are not parallel but in a pattern reminiscent of a spruce twig, pointing in different directions. There is a considerable amount of individual variation however and this field character will not work on all birds.

A Northern Waterthrush showing the "spruce twig pattern on the rear flanks

A Louisiana Waterthrush showing two nice parallel lines on the rear flanks

Leg colouration
Northern Waterthrush: dull, darker pink.
Louisiana Waterthrush: bright pink, almost reddish.

The typically dark, dull pink legs of a Northern Waterthrush are often difficult to see against the usually dark and muddy background of its preferred habitat

The legs of a Louisiana Waterthrush are usually very bright pink and in strong contrast to the same dark background

In general, the Northern Waterthrush appears more as a "dull and dirty" bird, with its darker legs, tainted supercilium and often yellowish tinge below. The Louisiana Waterthrush in contrast always gives the impression of a neat, clean and stylish bird, based on its clean white supercilium, bright legs and white colouration of the breast and belly. This difference might not work in all birds, but describes the general appearance quite well as can be seen on the two images below.

A typical "dull and dirty" Northern Waterthrush

A typical "nice, neat and clean" Louisiana Waterthrush

All these field characters are well established and should allow the identification of (almost) all the waterthrushes one encounters. However, most of these field marks are of a relative character and therefore require a certain amount of experience with at least one of the species, most likely to be the more common Northern Waterthrush. How else is one to determine if the bill of a bird is long or longer, if the stripes on the breast and belly of a bird are numerous or less numerous and if a whitish supercilium is bright or obviously bright? Furthermore, some of the field marks mentioned above are subject to individual or geographical variation and not entirely foolproof as rarely single individuals of one species will show a character more typical of the other species.

We would therefore like to introduce here one more field character that might be useful in identifying all individuals, regardless of geographic origin or individual variation as the field mark we present here was shown in other species to be rather stable and reliable. However, this field character cannot be regarded as established because we have only been able to test it on a limited amount of individuals in the field and on photographs of both species we were able to study.

From these limited examinations it appears that the Louisiana Waterthrush shows a primary projection that is significantly longer than that of the Northern Waterthrush. Primary projection is the extent to which the primaries project beyond the tertials on the folded wing of a bird.

The primary projection can be measured by comparing the primary projection with the length of the visible tertials and estimating the relative difference in %, as shown in the following image. (This may sound complicated but it’s actually a rather easy process once you become familiar with which feathers are tertials and which are primaries.)

The primary projection [A] of the Northern Waterthrush depicted above is roughly 50-75% the length of the visible tertials [B] whereas it is closer to 100% in the Louisiana Waterthrush seen below.

Summary
The identification of both species of waterthrush appears quite difficult at first but is a rather straight-forward affair in most birds once the following key features are checked:

• the movement of the tail and rear body (up-and-down only, or up-and-down and also sideways)
• the patterning of the chin (white or with stripes)
• the supercilium (small and often yellowish or bold and white)
• the colouration of breast and belly (yellowish/buffy or pure white)
• the leg colouration (dull or bright pink)
• the structure of the bill (slender or strong)

Due to individual and geographic variation, not all birds show the field characters normally typical for the species and the identification should thus always rest on as many of the field marks mentioned above as possible.

Based on our limited experience with both species, we present one further field character that might be less prone to vary and might facilitate the identification of even the more tricky individuals:

• the primary projection (length of the primaries projecting beyond the tertials on the folded wing) of the Louisiana Waterthrush is close to 100% of the visible length of the tertials whereas this value is closer to 50-75% in Northern Waterthrushes.

We hope this apparently new but still largely unconfirmed field character inspires birdwatchers in North America to specifically take a deeper interest in the identification of the two species and test our suggestion in the field. We welcome any feed back and opinion on the subject.

Jochen Roeder and Charlie Moores, May 2007

Text by Jochen Roeder (www.belltowerbirding.blogspot.com), photos by Charlie Moores (www.charliesbirdblog.com).
Photographs taken in Central Park, New York, April 2007, except Ovenbird taken at Garrett Mountain, NY May 2006

How to avoid selling your soul for a Bird Species

During Laurent's and my trip to Crane Creek on May 1st (see full report here), something very remarkable happened. So remarkable indeed that it completely changed my way of seeing the world, like turning from looking at something to seeing something, which is quite different.

Let me start where one always aught to... No, not at the Bar, at the beginning:

We all have our Nemesis bird, the one that always gets away because it is so busy showing itself to all the other birdwatchers in the world, and in my case, this is Owls (and rails, too).

I had however discovered a very effective strategy of getting a few owl sightings here in Michigan which was to
a) chase an Owl others have found and posted on the Internet
b) take Laurent with me.

This had led to nice observations of Snowy and Barred Owls but I somehow felt I should at least try and find one species all by myself to see if the curse of the Nemesis bird was still upon me or had finally been lifted. This one special owl species - I had decided - was going to be the Eastern Screech Owl.

There are some questions that would take a whole life of contemplating to answer and some questions we take to our graves, still unanswered, like this one:

Who did I think I was fooling?

Of course I soon realized there was no way I was ever going to find an owl species by myself.
Never.
But there was one question to which I finally found the answer:
Why was I not finding an Eastern Screech Owl?

In the deep and moulding vaults of the secret society called the "Owluminati" I discovered and studied a rare volume about the Eastern Screech Owl and the rituals necessary to conjure a sighting: To view an Eastern Screech Owl, a desperate Birdwatcher was to present the heart of a dearly loved one on the stairs of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan to Quetzalcoatl.

I do like owls. And I do enjoy a sacrifice or two to see a bird. But really, and even though this might disappoint many of my fellow birdwatchers, I was not willing to follow this ritual but had opted for a life without an Eastern Screech Owl instead.

Then came May 1st, and our trip to Crane Creek.
Well, Laurent was with me, so I should have guessed something like this was going to happen, but it was still a complete surprise.

We had birded the whole board walk and were in a bit of a hurry to get to Metzger's Marsh nearby for some shorebirds and waders. While passing two birders, I mentioned that there had been a Northern Waterthrush earlier at this very spot and they thanked us by pointing out that there was a Whip-poor-will perched close to the board walk a bit further on.
That's what I like about birders: knowing when it is time to shut up and enjoy a bird and when to chat and gossip with fellow birders.
So when we reached the next group of birders, we inquired about the Whip-poor-will.
A very friendly lady first tried to explain to us where it was but soon realized that a perched Whip-poor-will was unlikely to be found following a description, so she actually went back a few metres with us and pointed it out.
Now, don't ask me how I managed to mess up the focus on a perched bird, but here is the scene and the bird:




After we had marvelled a good few minutes, the very same lady casually mentioned, and this is a citation of her very words: "And while I am at it: anyone wants to see the Eastern Screech Owl?"

Needless to say, my answer was something along the lines of: "Well, yes, frankly, and if it is not causing you inconveniences, I might find myself inclined to welcome your help in receiving a glimpse of that very species you have just mentioned by closely following your guidance, but please let me assure you that this favour of yours shall only be asked for in case your time schedule will allow further delaying of your other certainly far more important issues."

It could also have been more like "What ... yes ... where ... please?!?", I can't quite remember.

And this is what we were shown a few metres further down the boardwalk, a tree right besides the path that we had walked by two times:

An Eastern Sigh Owl

So this was the trick: have someone else sacrifice the life of a loved one to see an Eastern Screech Owl and then just memorize the location where they found it, pass the information on to others and so on.
I am very grateful to the lady for showing us the bird but am not so sure what to think of the guy who first found the owl... Would I want to go owling with him at night alone?
Well whatever, one thing's for sure:

Life's great when you're a birder!

"I and the Bird" No. 48

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy not too far away but so long ago that it was in my youth, picking a shampoo at a super market was easy. Of course it was easy because I was far too young to go to a super market myself and it was my mom who'd buy the shampoo, but it was mostly easy because there was only a limited variety.
Standing in front of a shampoo shelf was a rather straight forward thing, you quickly scanned through the two to three different brands and just had to decide if your hair was more on the dry side or less on the dry side of the scale. On you went as a decent mom to the candy section to get your son whatever he asked for (I wished).

Nowadays, with globalization and all that fancy stuff, getting a shampoo is nothing short of a nightmare. First of all, finding your shampoo section can be a real problem because it is rather easy to mistake the conditioner or body wash section for the shampoo shelf. And when you've asked a few people for directions, got guided (in tears) through the maze that used to be a super market and are standing in front of the shampoos, you're not really closer to your aim of obtaining the right one. The masses of different products are just unbelievable. And as if having to choose from / cope with all these different brands wasn't already hard enough, you now have to decide or - gasp - know what hair type you are, and the classification system of hair types nowadays is more complex than that of South American hummingbirds!
Complete, overwhelming chaos.

And this, my dear and inclined reader, is what bird blogging and buying a shampoo have in common: an overwhelming and -honestly- unmanageable supply of possibilities. How can you be sure you're reading the right bird blogs (easy: link to Belltower Birding), how can you know you're not missing out on posts everybody else is reading and talking about, how can you stay up-to-date with your bird blogging?

You say it's difficult?
Think it is impossible??

Ha !!

Not anymore, thanks to "I and the Bird", the bird blogging institution that facilitates life and brings you and your bird blogging up to scratch.

The latest edition of "I and the Bird" is hosted by Greg Laden on his incomparable blog here and is the ultimate "Field Guide to the Bird Posts".

This is what others have to say about Greg's Field Guide:

"A new classic." - Scientific American
"A treasure of valuable information." - Time
"Superb ... Unequaled." - The New York Times
"Undoubtedly the finest guide to Global Bird Posts." - Birding

Well, maybe these are the comments Sibley received for his field guide, but Greg's Field Guide, as the natural supplement to Sibley's Work, can certainly be included in these reviews.

A new classic is born!

My Camera and I : Becoming Friends - Good Friends

On May 1st, Laurent took me and my new camera to Crane Creek, one of the migration hot spots of the Great Lakes region and frankly the whole of North America. We only had a few hours there but a few hours at Crane Creek are always better than a few hours not at Crane Creek (so I was told), especially when it is your first visit to the area.
After my camera and I had started to get to know each other a little bit at the Arb, this was meant to be the first real test of the strength of our newly established relationship, so I was almost as anxious to see how my camera would behave as to see how the birds would perform.

What can I say?
Only the best as my camera proved to be very well behaved in public and the company of birds and the birds themselves were performing very well as well.
This, therefore, is the first post on Belltower Birding that will not be so much about the words than about the pictures, a little celebration of my new camera, the beauty of birds and the wonder of spring migration around the Great Lakes.

Hope you enjoy it...

The board walk at Crane Creek where all the song bird action takes place

Capturing a Snowy Egret in flight proved still a little difficult ...

...but this Great Blue Heron managed to calm down my slightly disappointed camera, ...

...and this Great White Egret finally fully restored the camera's self esteem.

This female Bald Eagle had challenged the camera by hiding amongst thick branches and twigs but had no chance of escaping, no chance at all.

Thrushes were still dominated by Hermit Thrushes, which I didn't mind too much ....

...as they proved to be exceedingly cooperative.


A Wood Thrush was a bit elusive but still a marvellous sight ...

...and American Robins are nice as well.

A Common Grackle posed as a multi-task - or rather multi-straw - builder...

...while a snobby male Rose-breasted Grosbeak apparently couldn't be bothered to attend the photo shoot

A newly described Wintergolden-Summerruby-Crowned Kinglet in its summer plumage

We encountered a total of 10 wood warbler species, Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Waterthrush, Nashville Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, Cape May Warbler (nice!) and Black-throated Green Warler (this time I got the spelling of the colour right).
The warblers sure were difficult and the following images don't do their beauty justice, but I think my camera braved this extreme quite well and we learn from our mistakes (like not using the flash when photographing a warbler against the background of a bright blue sky, which from now on I shall do).

Mr. Handsome himself: the Yellow-rumped Warbler

Same bird, different angle, still looking good

Western Palm Warbler, slightly out of focus but I don't care.

Black-throated Green Warbler

A frustrated Cape May Warbler:"Use your flash, stupid!"

Nice of him to still pose for the camera

Black-and-white Warbler, head-on view

Black-and-white Warbler upside down, making it the first documented White-and-black Warbler ever

And from behind, the first documented Relbraw etihw-dna-kcalb for Crane Creek

Apart from being a good bird watching day, the afternoon at Crane Creek was also excellent regarding Birdering, as we managed a fine encounter with Kenn Kaufman. Well, we didn't get in direct contact and I only managed a photo documentation (not a great shot) of this very special birder record, but as you won't believe me without proof, here's the pic: