Love is in the air!

The males are out there workin' it!! We witnessed many male birds singing their hearts out, displaying to females, working on nesting cavities, and battling it out with each other.

We also saw many new species- some for the first time this year, and some making their first appearance in the yard ever. Considering we weren't able to spend much time observing, we had a very successful count.

On Saturday, we drove to Bowmanville to visit family and saw a Savannah Sparrow (first of season) on a fence post on Lower Base Line, singing away. Such a beautiful song!






Here's the Savannah's description from whatbird.com:
Small sparrow, dark-streaked, gray-brown upperparts, white underparts, heavy streaks on breast and sides. Head has a brown crown with pale central stripe and pale yellow or white eyebrows. Brown wings have two pale bars. Tail is short and notched. Pink legs and feet.


Then we continued driving and stopped near a farmhouse on 5th Line. There is a small pond and we saw two female Hooded Mergansers paddling around. No males were in sight.


And then as we almost reached our destination, I spotted something in an empty field. We pulled over to get a closer look and it was Northern Harrier! This was the longest and best look we've had at this bird. It was a male and he was busy eating something. He would eat a bit, then fly very low to the ground and then he grabbed something else and continued eating. He was interesting to watch. This was also the first Nothern Harrier we've seen this season.





And here's the ID description from Whatbird.com:
Large hawk with gray upperparts, distinct white rump, and white underparts with spotted breast. Hooked bill is dark, yellow at base. Eyes are yellow. Wings are long, gray above, and white below with black tips. Legs, feet are yellow. Alternates several deep wing beats with glides.


Sunday continued to be busy. We had our first ever Yellow-bellied Sapsucker working the trees in the front yard.





There was a brief sighting of an Eastern Meadowlark. Unfortunately it flew off before we could get a picture of it. It was very beautiful in the morning sun.

We witnessed a male and female Downy taking turns working on making a nesting cavity in a dead tree in the back of the yard. You can see their work in progress in the pic below.



Robins were fighting with each other, as well as picking up small sticks and making a nest in a tree.

We saw two Northern Flickers across the street, high up in a tree. They were calling to each other and then bowing to each other as well. A third Flicker started to call and then the first two flew off towards the third to chase it away.




And finally the Tree Swallows have returned as well!