Spring has Sprung! (Part 1)

Now that Spring is finally here, we have been seeing more birds! We started to see juncos a week or two ago at the feeders. We had seen a couple Red-tailed Hawks and a kestrel also. Just in the last week the birds have really started to show up. On the 6th, we went for an afternoon drive to Oak Hammock Marsh. That kind of marked the start of Spring birds for me. Since then we have started to see more and more birds. I haven't had to put too many new birds on my year list though, because when we went through U.S. to Ontario we saw most of the early Spring birds already.

We have also been continuing to see the Pileated Woodpecker

Female Pileated Woodpecker

 We saw some Snow Buntings on the way to Oak Hammock Marsh. Geese walked around at Oak Hammock Marsh, being very good photo subjects.

Canada Goose

 The ground squirrels were already out of hibernation and I managed to get some pictures.

Richardson's Ground Squirrel

 There was an odd goose with a white patch on the front of it's head, almost like a "W".

Canada Goose with strange white patch

 The geese were fighting a bit which gave me the chance to get some pictures of their wings spread out.

Canada Goose spreading wings

 Here's a picture of them taking off.

Canada Geese

 On the way out from Oak-hammock Marsh, we saw a Harrier, but it was too far away for any good pictures.
We were near Lockport, and I glanced out the window of the van. "There's a big nest." I said. My eyes widened and I called for my dad to stop the vehicle as a Red-tailed Hawk landed in the nest. I got some pretty good pictures. Then a immature Bald Eagle flew over too.

Red-tailed Hawk in nest

Immature Bald Eagle

 Wow! What excitement, I was not expecting that. The Red-tailed Hawk landed in a nearby tree in plain view, but I never managed to get a picture because I was trying to get through some bushes. I got a picture of it screeching and flying away, but it wasn't very good. Too bad I didn't get very good pictures of it sitting. We came to Lockport and stopped at the river for a minute, I got a picture of a gull flying over.

Ring-billed Gull

 Outside of Lockport my dad spotted something on top of a street light. A Red-tailed Hawk!

Red-tailed Hawk

 It flew away and I got some excellent pictures of it flying.

Red-tailed Hawk diving

Stay tuned for more posts on the Spring birds here!