Bird Banding at Oak Hammock Marsh

This August and September I've been very fortunate to volunteer at the Delta Marsh Bird Observatory which is stationed at Oak Hammock Marsh.

 It has been a very interesting and exciting season of banding, with all sorts of neat birds being caught.

Earlier on in the season there were always tonnes of Barn Swallows flying around the area, and therefore quite a few of them ended up in our nets.

Barn Swallow

Marsh Wren

American Redstart

 We only caught a few Bank Swallows, which are really adorable and have tiny legs.

Bank Swallow

A vicious chickadee. Chickadee aren't very common at the marsh

Bobolink

Nashville Warbler

One day a Solitary Sandpiper managed to find its way into the nets, a station first!

Solitary Sandpiper

Many birds after a busy net check

House Wren, uncommon at the marsh

 Sparrows are big at Oak Hammock.

Le Conte's Sparrow

Harris' Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow (juvenile)

So that is a few of the highlights from the banding at Oak Hammock Marsh, I am still going two times a week until the end of September, so I'm sure we'll still catch some great birds.

Great Canadian Birdathon 2017 (Part 2)

Hi again! This is the second part of a series of posts documenting my birdathon experience. This post will have plenty of photos and little writing as I'm throwing these posts together the day before we depart to Europe.

If you would like to support bird conservation you can donate to my page HERE and make the important part and purpose of the birdathon a success.
Thank you for your generosity, any donations are very appreciated!

Once we finished driving around the loop of Birds Hill Park, we headed to Oak Hammock Marsh. We stopped at the Lockport dam and added a few more species to the ever growing list, such as these pelicans.

American White Pelican

American White Pelican (photo by Matthew)

American White Pelican (photo by Matthew)

Ring-billed Gull

At Oak Hammock we quickly saw numerous species of waterfowl. The pond close to the entrance of the interpretive center was full of bird life. Blue-winged Teal, Lesser Scaup, Northern Shoveler, Canvasback, American Avecot, Killdeer, Lesser Yellowlegs, Least sandpiper, Marbled Godwit, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Song Sparrow are some that we saw there.

Marbled Godwit

Blue-winged Teal

American Avecot

American Avecot  (photo by Matthew)

Yellow-headed Blackbird (photo by Matthew)

Lesser Yellowlegs (photo by Matthew)

More species we added around Oak hammock were Brewer’s Blackbird, Western Grebe, Marsh Sparrow, American coot, Gadwall, Palm Warbler...

At Oak Hammock

Palm Warbler (photo by Matthew)

Northern Shoveler (photo by Matthew)

Tree Sparrow (photo by Matthew)

Canada Goose (photo by Matthew)

Richardson's Groundsquirrel (okay, okay. Not a bird, but they make great photo subjects) (photo by Matthew)

Red-winged Blackbird (photo by Matthew)

American Coot (photo by Matthew)

Listening for birds near Oak Hammock

Birding near Oak Hammock

A successful stop at Oak Hammock Marsh. Let’s head out to Shoal Lake… Oh, whoopsie. Almost forgot the spotting scope.

This has been the second part of my birdathon. The third post will come out soon, covering the Shoal Lakes and the rest of the day!

Some More Spring Photos

Although the ground is covered with snow now, here are some more photos from a few days ago when it wasn't.

Last Thursday we went to Oak Hammock Marsh again (third day in a row). We didn't see anything particularly exciting or different from the previous days, besides some skunks.

Canada Goose

Canada Goose

 This muskrat on the trail looked like it had a piece of it's fur ripped off.

Muskrat

Two of my brothers and a friend walking the trails of Oak Hammock

The splendid evening sunset made for beautiful lighting for photos.

Canvasbacks

Mourning Dove

Killdeer

American Robin

We saw a number of hares running through the fields, much larger than the ordinary bunny rabbit

We walked right by a skunk when we we walking on the trails, it was peering warily at us from the reeds. We encountered another one on the side of the road when we were driving. It swam through a ditch, and my brother William got some photos of it as it ran off into the sunset.

Last Saturday my brother Matthew, a friend and I biked 60km to Patricia Beach on Lake Winnipeg. Although we didn't see as many birds as I was hoping (in fact we saw very few birds), I did see my first of the year Turkey Vulture and Tree Swallow and was able to get some pictures of a Bald Eagle as it sat in a tree beside the beach.

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Today is snowy and chilly. I went for a short walk before it really started snowing and the most notable birds I saw were Eastern Phoebe and Golden-crowned Kinglets, both common around here.

Eastern Phoebe

At the feeders are many juncos, a few Fox Sparrows, a decent amount of Purple Finches, and I saw my first of the year Chipping Sparrow beneath the feeders today.

Fox Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

That's all for now, happy birding!