Very Exciting Birding

When we arrived at Lynde Conservation Area we saw many different types of waterfowl including the Canada Goose.
Half way threw Lynde Conservation Area there was an adult male Downy Woodpecker. It almost landed on Jesse's hand but Jesse quickly pulled his hand away.

This morning we went to Thickson Wildlife Reserve, it had many species of birds including the RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET!!! I was very amazed when I saw it, my mom couldn't take any pictures of it because it was moving very quickly. Then we went to a grassland at that reserve. There I saw Tree Swallows hawking insects. Which was very exciting also. After that we went to the marsh, it had Red-winged Blackbirds, Northern Cardinals and American Robins. Of course the cardinals and robins were beside the marsh not in it. As we headed back to the grassland I heard a mysterious peeping sound, it was coming from in the grass. I didn't see the bird or the nest so I didn't walk in that area. Then the Tree Swallows came again, and I new bird. A flycatcher. I think it was a Great-crested Flycatcher but I wasn't sure. Although it looked a little bit like a robin. Then I heard a Hairy Woodpecker but didn't see it. We then walked further into the woods beside the grassland and my mom heard a cardinal. After that we went to a mini lake in the reserve. I saw some Golden-crowned Kinglets there. And a Great Blue Heron hunting. It was very camouflage. In fact, it was so camouflaged that the busy courting Canada Geese didn't see it. Then a Mallard or Mallard Duck flew very close to us. Soon we had to start heading back. On our way back we went to Thickson Point. It had a HUGE lake by it and it had a bird that looked to be a Shearwater, or a very unusual duck. But then we had to get in the van to go to Lynde Conservation Area. On the way there I studied my bird book.

When we finally got there it started raining. But not to worry because it's the best time to go birding. We saw many waterfowl including the Canada Goose. Then we went to feed the chickadees and we also saw White-throated Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds and Blue Jays. Then we saw a Downy Woodpecker trying to land on Jesse's hand because he had cereal on his hand.

I just figured something out its a code thing; I will repeat what I said in code: I just figured something ouut its a code.A

Anyway, I have go now so bye.

Backyard Birding

Northern Cardinal singing.

American Robin and Common Grackle fighting.
White-throated Sparrow eating by my birdfeeder.

This evening after school I had no homework, so, I got to birdwatch. I saw many birds including a new one in my backyard. The White-throated Sparrow! It was very tame or at least it seemed to be. I took lots of pictures of it but I only show my best ones on my blog.

Here is a story I made up, and I sent it to my cousin Ruth this morning. I think it will make you laugh. This story is writen about my second picture on this post.

American Robin says: Hey, Mr. Fluffy Pants, get out of here! Common Grackle says: No, Mr. Grumpy Gibbles! American Robin says: Take that and that and that!!! Common Grackle says: Alright, alright can I at least get one of your eggs. PLEASE! American Robin says: NO! Common Grackle says: Just one tiny egg. American Robin says: No! AND BE OFF WITH YOU!

Anyone think that was funny? Tell me if you thought so.

Now back to my biring today>>>>>>>>>>> I saw the goldfinches and heard the cardinals today. My mom took the picture of the cardinal singing I took the rest. I was going to put the picture of a goldfinch on my blog but for some reason it didn't work. Anyway, the bird of today is the Northern Cardinal. And there's a very pretty picture on my calendar today. Of course, its the cardinal.

That reminds me of another pretty bird or a bird that people only think is pretty. THE BLUE JAY. I was researching about birds this morning before school. And I found this website about Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Blue Jays. It said that Blue Jays appear to be blue but the sun makes them look blue. They are actually gray.

Anyway, I have to go for supper so bye until tomorrow.

American Robin

American Robin singing
American Robin perched

American Robins have always fascinated me. About how they sing their lovely song or how they catch worms. We even have robins nest in our yard. The pictures above were hard to take because they were males. Males are usually more timid then the females. So, that makes the pictures so hard to take. In fact, I think robins are our most common bird, so why do we ignore them so much? Because they are so common? I don't think we should. We need to stop putting poison on our lawns. When we put poison in our yards the worms eat the poison and the robins eat the worms. The robin then dies and a whole generation of birds is lost. Even when we put fertilizer in our lawns it can make the robins sick. Which a bird lover would not want. Why should you do this? Because, robins control our pest problems, because robins bring children into nature, because robins help our lawns!

Now that I have you interested in robins I will tell you how to provide food, water, shelter and a place to breed. Which is all a robin needs. ***note: when you help robins you help bluebirds too***

First make your lawn a little bigger if you can and provide a birdbath with a drip system. Then provide shelter like trees and shrubs. And your done, that's all you have to do! Isn't that easy. Why then don't a lot of us do that when its so easy!!! If its because we don't know how to do this its a different story, but if we do know then why don't we ? Trust me if you do this you are guaranteed to have robins in a month or so.

Now that we're aware of this why don't we get to know our robins. If you wish, read along.

American Robin

turdus migratorous

Identification; adult: orange belly dark back with yellow beak, juvenile: heavily streaked on belly.

Feeding: robins run on lawns to catch worms and hawk insects in the air.

Nesting: makes messy or clean nest out of mud, sticks and similar things. Makes nest on tree or building.

Song: tut, tut, tut or pup, pup, pup. Chirping. Loud plurrii, kiwii.

I hope you will enjoy robins even more after reading this post.

Toronto Zoo

Ostrich running

Stork's nest



Jesse, my mom and me sitting on a model hippo.

Yesterday, we went to the Toronto Zoo. When we arrived there, the parking lot was full, so we had to go to the next parking lot and it was almost full. (Maybe it had something to do with it being very hot out) We parked there and we had to go for a 15 minute walk to get the zoo. When we got to the zoo, IT WAS THE BIGGEST CROWD!! My dad thought it was funny, how could it be funny? To make the trip seem even harder Jesse, my little brother was walking way ahead of us. When we got him back we were in the middle of the crowd. I decided to go to the African Savanna. There the crowd got smaller. All of a sudden, people started yelling CONNOR! We figured that couldn't be good. Somebody was lost in a crowd. He was only three years old! We asked how we could help.

Wait a minute I thought this was about nature not search and rescue. Oh well, it is.

Anyway, they replied he was wearing blue and white stripes with buzz light-year on his shirt. My dad looked in the washroom and we looked around the zoo. Connor's mom found the staff and asked them to help. Soon, three year old Connor was found. He was smiling. His mom was so happy to have him back.

On our way from the crowd we saw a Stork's nest, Zebras, an Ostrich, baboons and lots of Canada Geese. The stork's nest was built on high rocks and out of thick branches. I thought the Stork nests were supposed to be either on the ground or high in trees.

The Zebras were running around. They were called Grevery's Zebras. There mane was long and thick. (Unlike Mountain Zebras).

The Ostrich did not want to get its picture taken. So it was running very fast away from the flashing cameras. Then a kid yelled look at the big bird! I thought well it is the biggest bird in the world. Eleven meters tall to be exact.

The baboons were climbing the wall and ignoring all the birds in their cage. Including Canada Geese and Savanna Sparrows.

After that we went to the Hyena cage. They were very fierce looking and running in circles in their cage. I think they were thinking about food... NO WAY I"M GOING IN THAT CAGE!!!

After that we went over to the giraffe cage. A baby giraffe was chasing a Canada Goose. The goose started flying and the giraffe almost fell over. No, I'm not kidding. It chased it a bit more and the giraffe can run surprisingly fast. Like 12miles per hour.

Anyway we had to start heading back. On the way back we saw everything we saw before so I'm not going to say it all over again.

We had a great day and after we went to the zoo we went for super.

Saturday Clean-up

Today, my family is cleaning up our yard. As we were working, I saw a dove and I felt like I was talking to it. First a Adult male Mourning Dove went ho ho how ho. I replied ho ho how ho. Then it replied ho hood ho. We did this over and over until that dove flew to my neighbours house. Then I noticed a robin siting on its nest ( last time I looked there were 2 eggs, but there could be more now). It FREAKED out when I came in the backyard. When we took a small break from cleaning up my dad noticed holes in the ground. He said that Song Sparrows problably did it. Then I told him that the holes in the trees were from the Brown Creeper that visited us earlier. After that very short break I played hockey with my brother and mom. While my dad raked the lawn. Our neighbours wanted to play hockey after they came back home but the couldn't. Boo who! I don't think they cried though.

Hopefully, tomorrow after church my family and I are going to the Toronto Zoo. Maybe even some of our friends could come with us. I'm probably going to bring my TriPod there. Last time we went there I saw some owls. They seemed to be tame but I know they aren't!! There is a yappy dog at our neighbours and its distracting me from writing so I have to go now... YAPP, YAPP, YAPP!

Church

Today, at church I was learning about the book of Judges in the Bible. We had several quizzes and I got most of them wrong! Boo-whoo. At Sunday school Josiah was very funny but it was distracting also. Anyway, despite the distracting I had a good time and I got some pictures to color. But I left them at church. At the end me and my friends played Star Wars 4 or something like that. They killed me in a fake way.... with a fake sword.

-Birds-

I didn't see too many birds but I wasn't really birdwatching.

My dad is setting up the trampoline. Or WAS. Now he had to stop because it's raining so he is setting up the net now. (road hockey net). We will play road hockey when it stops raining or if it does. The bird of today is the Black-browned Albatross. The chick looks hilarious, or at least the one I see on my calendar.

-Owls-

My mom is starting to get very curious and interested in owls. Although, they are a little scary to my mom. I think she only means the Barn Owl and Great Horned Owl. But she finds the Australian Barred Owl more scary. Not to me!

-Field guides-

If any of you are just beginning birdwatching or want to, I recommend you buying the stokes field guides. If you are a intermediate birdwatcher I recommend you buying the Sibley guide to birds. If you are a advanced birdwatcher I recommend you buying Kenn Kaufman's advanced birding book.

I am glad that mon@rch is reading my blog because his blog is amazing or at least to me.

Now the rain has ended for now so I'm going to play road hockey.

Lynde's Conservation Area #2 (pictures)

Me holding a chickadee
Two chickadees eating
out of my hand Red-winged Blackbird
wet Mute Swan

Lynde's Conservation Area

Today I got up early in the morning and woke my dad up. Unfortunately, my little brother woke up also and my mom was not very happy about that. So, my dad got Jesse back to sleep and we got ready to go to Lynde's Conservation Area. As we got ready I smelt a skunk! And I disliked it. It was almost as bad as the smell of rice chips. And I really DON"T LIKE THE SMELL OF RICE CHIPS!!! Guess what... MY MOM JUST BROUGHT RICE CHIPS INTO THE ROOM and I"M not KIDDING.

Anyway, when we finally got there it was much better than smelling skunks and RICE CHIPS. Yes, I said that to you mom. OK but the birds there were amazing. For example the Bufflehead and the Mute Swan. Well, the Mute Swan is colorful but extremely aggressive. That reminded me of the time a Mute Swan almost wrecked my shoe. But, surprisingly the Mute Swan I saw there was not so aggressive at all.

Once we walked into the forest part of the conservation area the chickadees were begging us for the cereal I was carrying. So, once again I fed them and they followed me everywhere, even into the Blue Jay territory (chickadees are often scared of Blue Jays). After the chickadees left us alone we went to the marsh nearby. There, we saw many Red-winged Blackbirds, Mallards, Buffleheads, Mute Swans and Canada Geese. Oh, we also saw some Common Grackles in the forest.

We saw many other birds but if I listed them all it would take forever.

Thanks dad for taking me there, it was fun!
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For some reason I can't get my pictures on this post, but I will post something right after this one called Lynde's Conservation Area #2 ( pictures)
Hopefully it will work>

Lower Population?

After school there was a surprisingly low amounts of birds. It had just rained so why was there not a lot of birds??? Anyway, the few birds that I did see were pairs of America Robins and my mom saw a variant adult male Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco. Anybody know why a scientists named that bird such a long name? Well, back to the low amount of birds. Even this morning, when it was raining I didn't see a lot of birds. Do you think it was because of the wind?

The bird of today is the Guira Cuckoo or the Guira Guira. Of course when I type it in italics its the scientific name. Put your hand up or just tell me if you've seen that bird. Problably not, because they only live on the OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD!

I'm hoping tomorrow that my dad will take me to Lindoln's Conservation Area. I am hoping that because the last time we went there we saw many waterfowl, marshbirds and forest birds. For example the Mallard, Red-winged Blackbird and Blue Jay.

Today was a good day at school but I have a lot of homework. I will have to do that tomorrow because tonight is family night. (Family night is usually on a Friday night and its a time we do something special). This family night is on a Friday, and we are watching Happy Feet and eating pizza. And now a joke!
Nock nock
Whoes there?
Orange
Orange who?
Orange you glad I'm not always talking about birds
ha ha ha ha

Second Marsh Wildlife Area

Very early this morning, before I went to school my dad and I went to Second Marsh Willife Area. At first we saw a Brown Creeper creeping up some trees the old Brown Creeper fashioned way. They do this by flying to the base of one tree and creeping circularly up it and repeating this over and over. Then I started hearing Wood Ducks flying, all of a sudden some Canada Geese flew over and then the Black-capped Chickadees were interested with the cereal I was carrying. So I feed them it and...THEY LOVED IT!!! Infact they loved it so much that they followed me to the van!

Then it happend, we saw beautiful Wood Ducks courting. My dad told me that they were courting. There was chasing and flaping and all this excitment. There was so much noise that it scared the Red-winged Blackbirds into the trees. The chickadees were still there. But soon it would be time for school so we started heading back. On the way back my dad and I saw the Brown Creeper again and a few VERY NOISY Common Grackles. I think they were males. Of course, the Black-capped Chickadees were still begging for food and my dad was getting anxious to get me to school, but we found out we still had some time. And then...

THE CHICKADEE HURT ME wa! wa! wa! no I didn't cry but it HURT!

My dad and I had a good time there and I wasn't late for school...... And now a joke!


Between you and me (not Leah Holmes) she loves the smell of SKUNKS!!!

Put your hand up if you think thats weird. My hand is up and... I hope Leah Holmes does'nt see this blog post :-) :-

Cardinals and Blue Jays

On Easter Sunday I got a new tripod for my digital camera! I took many pictures with it of Northern Cardinals and similar birds.

I am seeing lots of Song Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos which are in the sparrow family. Sometimes the Song Sparrows sound like chickadees (fee-bee-ye). So I get ready to take a picture of a chickadee when, a Song Sparrow(s) comes. Then I end up taking a picture of a Song Sparrows.

We drove my grandma and papa to the airport yesterday afternoon. They are on their way to Phoenix, Arizona. After dropping them off we saw, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks. They were perched by the road (not beside each other).

This morning I took some pictures of Blue Jays which are so good at mimicking. I know people say they are expert mimics, but now I truly believe them because I heard the Blue Jays.

I will try to put some pictures on the blog sometime soon.

Tomorrow I am going back to school.

Oshawa Creek

Today, my dad and I got up early and went to Oshawa Creek. It was quite cold this morning (-3 degrees celcius). Inspite of the freezing weather we were still able to see many species of wildlife. So here are some of the things we saw; Yellow-beiled Sapsucker, Hairy Woodpecker, Cape May Warbler, Franklin's Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Common Raven, American Crow, White-breasted Nuthatch and more!

I also saw other animals courting. We saw a brown Mink which obviously had just come out of the water because it had a small fish in its mouth. I at first thought it was an otter but after we realized it was a Mink.

Lots and lots of people were fishing for Rainbow Trout but, not many of them caught any fish. Maybe we will bring our fishing rods next time?

Today is also my aunt Ruth, not cousin's, birthday. SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT RUTH!

Yesterday I watched The Living Lord's Supper at church. But, I didn't see The Ten Commandments yet, maybe I will watch it later. Tonight I'm going to my aunt Lori's house for Easter dinner.

Everyone, have a good Easter weekend!

In My Backyard

Yesterday, I saw two Northern Cardinals. I watched them mate. I also saw a plump Mourning Dove roosting. I have two bird feeders but they only visit the hopper feeder, not the platform feeder. Those Northern Cardinals are very pretty.

Two days ago I saw a flock of tame Black-capped Chickadees.

I want body, soul and spirit and mon@rch to see this blog the most. I have started e-mailing body, soul and and soon I'm going to get in contact with mon@rch.

One time when my dad and I went for a walk we saw Black-capped Chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers.