Whats been going on lately

So lately, and for majority of this summer, I haven't been doing as much birding as I should/could have, unfortunately. But I have been trying to get into dragons and butter flys when I can, which again isn't a lot. But I have realized, I don't even know where my dragonfly book is! It's hard to ID them without a book! So, I have some pictures of some for people to help me out with at the end of this post. Until then, I will write a little on what birding I have been doing lately.

In the past few weeks, I have hit 3 different lagoons, sometimes better then others. First I will talk about my least visited lagoon, Bright's Grove lagoon. Before this year, I had only been to this lagoon once, and so far I've gone twice this year, both times the sprikler cell was running! Anyways, first time I went, the only vaguely interesting bird I found was a single Solitary Sandpiper in the sprinkler cell. Second time I went there was a little more, 2 Solitary, and 2 Least Sandpipers, as well as the most interesting, 2 Blue-winged Teal.

Second lagoon I will talk about is Forest Sewage Lagoons. This along with the 3rd lagoon is my most visited lagoon, and I've had a decent number of fairly good birds there in the past; White-rumped Sandpiper, Baird's Sandpiper, multiple Stilt Sandpiper's. Though the last few times I've been haven't had much to see, first time I had 42 Semipalmated, 3 Least, and 1 Pectoral Sandpiper, plus about 1000 swallows total. Second time wasn't as good though, only 1 Least Sandpiper of minor note. Though in the spring I did get my first Short-billed Dowitcher of the year there.

Lastly, my other most visited lagoon, Watford Lagoons. I have only been there once lately, but it was a fairly good one. I actually biked there from my house (13km) with my scope and everything with me. And on the bike ride I found a nesting colony of Purple Martin just a km away from my house, no wonder I've been hearing them flying around alla time! And also a Vesper Sparrow on the bike as well. At the lagoons I found a total of 45sp. of bird. Of note; 1 Pide-billed Grebe, 1 Sora, 7! Semipalmated Plover, 17 Spotted, 2 Solitary Sandpipers, 3 Greater Yellowlegs, 16 Semipalmated, 19 Least, 1 Baird's (#241), and 9 Pectoral Sandpipers. Another year bird! Baird's Sandpiper! Also of note was my first Tufted Titmouse for a lagoon!
And I forgot to mention the birds I have seen there in past years; Am. Golden-Plover, Hudsonian Godwit (stayed for about a week in October2011), Ruddy Turnstone?, Red Knot (same time as godwit), Sanderling?, White-rumped Sandpiper, Baird's Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, many Wilson's Phalarope, and a surprising Red Phalarope one Sept! The lagoons also have Sora nesting, some years Virginia Rail, and often Hooded Mergansers nest as well. In total I have seen 134sp of bird at these lagoons to date.


Also recently I've been to Dow Wetlands, Canatara, and Wawanosh Wetlands. Of note at Dow was the local Upland Sandpiper, and 2 Orchard Orioles, at Canatara of note there was Blue-winged Teal, Great Egret, Semipalmated Plover, Sanderling (#239), American Redstart, and Blackburnian Warbler (#240...Finally!!). Got to Wawanosh just before dusk, and of note was 9 Great-blue Herons, 1 Great Egret, 5 Black-crowned Night-Herons, and a Clay-coloured Sparrow.


Now some pictures:

Dragon#1

Dragon#2

Dragon#3

Dragon#4 (sorry for crappy pic)

Skipper sp. (I'm not that good with Skippers)

I'm not 100% sure on this, but my best guess is Mustard White, unless I'm completely off which I easily could be.

Until next time, good birding!!