Ovenbirds

I haven't tried to decipher whether there are two different birds in these photos, all I know is that when I was taking these shots there were two birds competing for the same nesting location. I watched for over an hour as they chased each other round and round in a small area not more than twenty yards on a side. They only paused for a few moments to belt out their song, repeating the same ritual every minute or so. This went on for at least a couple of hours after I gave up taking images. Eventually I guess one bird won out since there has only been one male bird in the area since and I assume he found a mate. May 19, 2019.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - female

One of the first hummingbirds for the year, May 17, East Jordan NS. They seemed to arrive a little late this year, no doubt affected by the cold, wet Spring we had. At times there have been at least 4 birds attending the feeder in the weeks since, two males and two females. The males always seem to disappear once nesting starts, I haven't seen one in a week or more.  The last time one was doing his courtship ritual in the yard, flying pendulum style back and forth while being watched by the resident females or so I surmised.

Black Duck

I thought this bird was going to swim past but it had other ideas. I was lucky the camera focus nailed the head in the flight shot. I only noticed later in processing the photo that this was a banded bird.

Double-crested Cormorants

A few photos from the last couple of months beginning with a shot at sunrise shortly after these birds began arriving back in early April.

Cormorant at Sunrise.

Landing gear deployed.

Catching a snack.

Fish down the hatch.

Ready for takeoff. 

Green-winged Teal pair

Green-winged Teal are the most common of our two regular Teal species. They generally nest in the area where I do a lot of my birding, that being the Hemeon Head, Matthew's Lake region. These two birds paired off in late April and were frequently in the same pond from that time forward. I haven't checked on them lately, these images are from May 5.

Canada Goose

Seems like there are more breeding pairs of Canada Geese in the area in recent years. This was one of a pair that may or may not be nesting near one of the local ponds. These images were taken on the last day of April.

Blue Grosbeak

Picture taken on the same day and roughly the same area as the previous Snowy Egret images. Both birds were a surprise.