So far, they have successfully raised two broods of little ones in the nest box we put up in the field right behind our mailbox!   Every morning I am home, I go check out their activity on my morning walks.  Below is a photo of one of the young of the first brood.   The juvenile bluebirds have brown/grey streaking on their breasts.

At this point the second brood of little ones has fledged and they are flying around far and wide.   Though my goal this summer has been to get a photo of the parents actually feeding the young outside of the box, I have not achieved that yet!  Regardless, I have witnessed all the different delicious foods the parents are catching and taking inside the box to feed their babies, and have seen the first set of little ones hunting for their own food.   So that’s pretty good.   See if you can figure out what’s on the menu in the photos below.

Raising young is busy work!

But totally worth it- look at these babies!

In the next little while I will be keeping my eye out for the second batch of babies- they just fledged yesterday.  Wish me luck!

The post Life is Better in Blue appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

Great Egret

Early in May I headed out for my birding marathon- a highlight for me every spring!   I spend from early morning until evening trying to find as many species of birds as I can in one day.   I spent the morning around my house and the rest of the day down in Brighton, mostly at Presqu’ile Park.    There are a lot of Great Egrets nesting on the lake this year, so it was lovely to see them.

Red winged Blackbird

I saw more Red Winged Blackbirds than any other bird- they are very obvious and loud in the spring!   By the end of the day I had found 96 species of birds- which is very close to the total I get most years.   Very fun!

Barred Owl and Owlet

A few trips to the woods behind the gravel pit near my house yielded a very vocal pair of Barred Owls, and eventually, a baby!   I waited in the woods for hours one buggy May morning and was rewarded with seeing the mother owl hunt a chipmunk and then feed it to her baby.   I love how the baby is snuggled up to the mom in this photo.

Ellie

I took a late May trip out to BC to see my son and his wife, and spent lots of time exploring beautiful BC with my grand puppy Ellie.

Oh my

We even found Sasquatch!

Spring fling

When I got home, life in my neighbourhood was running at full speed!  The highlight is the pair of Eastern Bluebirds who have decided to raise their family in one of the nest boxes we put up in the field across the street.

Mama building a home

One morning I got to watch the female Bluebird carrying nest material to the box.   The male sat up on the telephone wire singing to her the whole time, and catching up to her and mating when he could.

She only took an hour or so to build the nest like she liked it.

Baby bluebirds

This morning I tried to sit still as long as I could, and finally captured the shy baby bluebirds as they surveyed the field near their nest box. The mom and dad are already working on another brood, and don’t seem to pay much attention to them anymore, but they seem just fine and are hunting bugs on their own, especially in the early morning.

I am really looking forward to getting to know these little birds more this summer!

Take care and thanks for visiting!

Leslie

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These photos were all taken on my property, or just across the street in the field.

You may have noticed a lot of birds passing through lately.   Believe it or not, birds are already beginning their southward movement.    That takes a lot of energy, which means eating as much as they can right now!

We share our blueberries with the robins.

There are also a lot of baby birds around- birds that have grown up in our area and are now fattening up for their first journey south.     Let me introduce you to some of the visitors to our garden.

Unbelievably cute baby Eastern Bluebird

Although the bluebird boxes on our property did not end up housing any little families of bluebirds, our neighbour’s boxes did, and now the little bluebirds visit our yard for a snack, flitting down from the branches to catch insects, then back up again.

Great Crested Flycatcher

We welcome the families of flycatchers as well, who nested in a hole in a tree near our house.

Blue winged warbler

Local birders know that if they want a guaranteed sighting of a Blue Winged Warbler, they need only visit my neighbourhood in the summer.   Right now, the families are stocking up on food for their journey south.

Cedar Waxwing

Our blueberry patch is definitely a hit.  Especially with the Cedar Waxwings  Luckily once our elderberries fruit, the waxwings much prefer those berries.

Feed me! Baby Catbird

The young catbirds flap their wings and literally “meow” for their food.

Baby Eastern Phoebe (I think)

I’m pretty sure this is one of the baby phoebes who grew up under the awning on our neighbour’s porch.   It likes to sit in the dogwood bushes in my garden and fly down to catch flying insects.

Juvenile Robin

I think the robins under our back deck must have raised 3 families this summer!

Young red Bellied Woodpecker

I’ve learned a lot too.  For example, I had no idea that woodpeckers ate berries until this year- photo evidence!

Everyone loves the blueberries.

I also never knew that chipmunks do this.   It waits on the ground for the birds to drop the berries, even though I know it is perfectly capable of climbing up into the bush.

If you want to go out and take a look to see what you will find in your neighbourhood, most bird and critter activity is early in the morning, say around 7 – 9 am.   Not too too early these days, as the mornings are darker, and chilly.

Stay tuned for my next couple of blogs- “Pollinators” will be next, and then I will have to do something with the hundreds of praying mantis pictures I have taken of my baby mantises growing up in my garden.

Thanks for visiting!

The post Baby Birds, Berries, and Bug Buffet appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

As I arrived on the beach, stylishly outfitted with ice cleats and 2 pairs of pants, wrapped up from head to toe, I was immediately rewarded with spectacular sunrise light on the ice formations that are starting to form at the shore.

Two mute swans quietly fed in the shallow water.   Swans live just off the ice edge each winter, and I wonder how they can manage such a harsh existence and still look so calm and graceful.

At this point the ice volcanoes that Presqu’ile are famous for are just beginning to form.   It will take successive days of wind and waves to gradually build them up to the spectacular heights they have achieved in previous years.

Looking south from Owen Point, Gull Island lies across an area of rough ice, frozen absolutely solid and pretty easy to cross with the ice cleats.   Often this time of year one can see thick lake effect clouds hanging to the south as well even though it remains sunny in Brighton.

Here’s what some of the ice formations looked like on my crossing to Gull Island.

Same rock, different light.   There was steam coming off the water as it was still much warmer than the air.

Small flocks of waterfowl feed in the shallow waters around the island and fly away instantly when I approach.  Lots of waterfowl means good eating for Snowy Owls.   And of course you know that is why I was really walking out there in the first place.

As I rounded the bend on the island there was the unmistakeable form of a snowy owl, sitting up on a wooden frame of an old duck blind.   This is the first Snowy Owl I have seen this winter.   This year has not been a big year for snowies coming south from the arctic, but some usually do.  I just had to wait a little bit longer than usual this winter.

What a beauty!  This is a young one, based on all the dark barring.   This photo is cropped heavily, as I gave the owl lots of space as not to disturb it.   When I am photographing owls I usually sit down on the ground a distance away from them and stay as still as possible.   Then I get to watch them behave naturally.   This owl barely even looked my way, even when the log I was sitting on started to slip down the little hill I was sitting on, causing me to tumble towards the shore.

Eventually the owl preened its feet a bit, pooped, and then flew off to spend some time on the ice.   Once the lake freezes over more it will be increasingly hard to spot the owls.

Can you believe it, just sitting out on the ice like that?   Well that is where I left this beauty, and I was back in my car by 9:00 AM.   Great start to the morning.

Happy winter!

Thanks for visiting.

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