Fourth of July Surprise - 07/22/2010

July is fast coming to an end. My little trek up to St Ignace is next week and I am hoping that the weather is a little more forgiving than it has been. I only have a couple of highlights for this month. The Fourth of July weekend was a stay at home weekend for me. This was the first time in 12 years of going up north that we didn't. But on the 4th I decided to go over to Pte Mouillee and see if there was anyting interesting out there. As I traveled down Campau Road I watched a couple of Yellow Warblers flying through the trees. One stayed on one side of the road the other flew to the other side. After taking the photos mom and baby reunited and I was off down the road.

I sat outside the gate of Pte Moo HQ on Campau Rd because in the past there's always so much activity going on in the foilage out there. With the slight breeze that brushes the tops of the bushes there is the occasional jerking in the bushes. Robins working their way from the ground up. Cardinals playing catch me if you can. An occasional outburst from the Gray Catbirds that are in there - they just don't want you to see them.

As the temperatures started to rise and the sun beating in on the right side of the vehicle movement in the bottom of the thicket caught my attention. Not really being able to see what it was (not even through the lens of my camera) I decided to just focus in on whatever I could grab and snap a couple of shots. Must say when I got home to view my shots of the day I was a little surprised at what I had photographed. A baby Great Horned Owl (seemed to have wakened from a nap). Although I didn't see mom or dad around I'm sure they were keeping a watchful eye on this one.

My next outing was this past Sunday - I went out to Campau Road again but after an hour and a half nothing was happening so I moved my way down to Roberts Rd. Roberts Rd has been good to me - it seems to be the place where I can usually grab my first shot of something. Today I got my first decent photo of an Indigo Bunting. This little guy seemd to be everywhere I traveled down that road (unless he had a lot of friends). As you travel the road there is a trumpet bush that that day seem to attract a Red Admiral, a Red-spotted Purple, a Monarch, a Common Sulfur, a few different Dragonflies (of which I have no idea of their names), and an Oriole hid amongst the orange. If a Hummingbird would have appeared it would have made my day - but no such luck. With the road coming to an end I decided to head on home. Til my next post.

June Highlights - 2010

Things at work got a little strenuous when the girl who takes care of Exports and Imports of samples went out on medical. Her duties were divided between me and another when we were asked to fill in til she got back. This left me exhausted and I found no time and unfortunately no desire to go birding. While visiting a friends house on Grosse Ille a Red-headed Woodpecker landed on the feeder, sadly I did not have my camera on this visit. Another trip out there again that weekend (with camera) was good timing - the woodpecker landed on the feeder again. I took a picture of the bird through the window just in case it disappeared before I got around to the back of the house. Another visit gave me two. This was it for June. Til my next post.