We were really scouting the fields for a snowy owl, but with all the melting snow we were tricked often enough by white plastic bags and white plastic bottles. Litterbugs!
As we left Haliburton, we saw 10-12 wild turkeys in a field next to the A&P. They were foraging around out there.
Along the highway, I had Dave pull over so we could look at a hawk. It was a red-tailed, so we started to move along. Then I looked over at the field and thought I saw a snowy owl. We stopped the car (again) and took a closer look. We were pretty far away and then I saw a second bird next to the first, but one was white/grey and the other brownish. Then I wondered if they were just two cats sitting there, but then the whitish bird took off. We got out the binoculars (all this stuff happens so fast, it's hard to get the cameras out quickly when you don't want to miss the sighting itself). The bird flew almost directly over our car and then the second brownish bird took off too. We are pretty sure they were a male and female Northern Harrier. What was especially cool about that is that these birds are usually solitary, but since it's getting to mating season, we were able to see one of each. We have seen one before (in our trip out East), but it was still pretty exciting to see them together (no pics though- too far, too fast). I took this pic from mayo.personcounty.net/.../
We also managed to see one Pileated Woodpecker before it took off into a woodlot. It was moving pretty quickly. It's barely in the frame of the picture I took. Can you see it?
I think we saw about a million crows on the drive home- or else the same pair was following us everywhere.
And our hawk count for the drive home was approximately nine.
Good times!
We're going for a hike around the Royal Botannical Gardens tomorrow. Dave wants to get some winter ducks added to our lists.
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