8 May 2015
Spring has truly descended on Ontario and the woods are filled with the sounds of migrants arriving back from the areas to the south where they spend most of the year. It is sometimes easy to slip into the fallacy of thinking of these birds as "our birds" but in fact they pass the greater part of their lives elsewhere.
Baltimore Orioles Icterus galbula are suddenly everywhere and this morning we observed this female building her familiar long, pendant nest.
The male seemed to be content to perch, preen, sing and watch!
Yellow Warblers Setophaga perechia seemed to be everywhere and we were rarely out of earshot of a singing male.
Killdeers Charadrius vociferus were seen on rocky outcrops along the river and this picture shows the effectiveness of its camouflaging plumage.
Imagine how difficult it would be for a hawk flying over to detect this bird from the air. In order for us to first detect them we had to wait for movement.
In addition to the avian migrants the woodlands and meadows are bursting with new growth, and here are just a few of the species of wildflowers we observed.
|Large-flowered Trillium Trillium grandiflorum|
|Coltsfoot Tussilago farfara|
|Trout Lily Erythronium americanum|
|Mayapple Podophyllum peltatum|
|Marsh Marigold Caltha palustris|