Using All Available Habitat

As birds migrate through our area, it always amazes me how small an area they are willing to use for stop-overs to refuel. I bike along Windsor's riverfront each day, and in this narrow strip of trees and green area between the river and city, I consistently see an incredible number of species that are migrating through.

Yesterday, in about an hour total of birding along the river, I saw Northern Rough-winged Swallows (who will become resident and breed along the river), Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, Chimney Swifts, a Downy Woodpecker, lots of American Robins, and then a large flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets!

The narrow strip of green space of Riverside Park

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Yellow-rumped Warbler foraging

Downy Woodpecker (he was following the warblers)

Yellow-rumped

This morning, a Yellow Warbler had joined the flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers!

Yellow Warbler (from last year, singing in Point Pelee NP)

A Heron Hunt

Some sad and some good news with the office birds... Last week a mob of House Sparrows found and attacked the House Finch nest. I haven't seen much sign of them still nesting, so they may have given up or moved.

In good news, there is a pair of robins building a nest! Photos to come, but they were working hard on Friday.

Migration continues to pick up, so here are a few birds from this past weekend:

Savannah Sparrow, Point Pelee

Horned Grebe, Point Pelee

Tree Swallow, Point Pelee

Pine Warbler, Point Pelee

Green Heron and Painted Turtles, Malden Park

Carefully step over the turtles...

Caught a fish!

Try for a second fish! (the turtle doesn't seem to mind)

Audubon's Warbler!

Some exciting spring arrivals turned up this weekend! The weekend's beautiful weather brought Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Golden-crowned Kinglets by the 1000s into Point Pelee National Park. Among the many expected spring arrivals, I got to see an Audubon's Warbler yesterday. Audubon's are the western subspecies of Yellow-rumped Warbler's, so sightings here in Ontario are rare and exciting. And they are beautiful birds! Enjoy a few photos of this weekends finds below:

Audubon's Warbler

Marsh Wren

Comma butterfly

Brown Creeper (these guys are hard to get a photo of...)

Barn Swallow

Spring is Here

I always love spring as flowers appear, the sun gets warm, and most excitingly, North America's migratory bird species return to our forests, fields and water bodies!

Last spring I enjoyed blogging about the birds breeding near my office at GLIER here in Windsor, Ontario in my blog A Tale of Two Species. Throughout the spring, I followed the breeding of two pairs of American Robins, a pair of House Finches, and a pair of Northern Cardinals. All of these birds successfully hatched chicks and made for a fun spring of office bird watching.

Spring is here again, and already a pair of house finches have built a nest outside my office window. I will continue the tradition (with another Charles Dickens-inspired blog title) of following the breeding of the birds outside the Love Lab office windows. Follow along also with photos of the migratory and resident birds I find as I explore this spring and summer.

Phillip (Pip), the male house finch preparing to breed by our windows

Estella, the female house finch

Fox Sparrow at Ojibway Park

Eastern Meadowlark at Point Pelee National Park