sfreeman7's Favourites

‼️ Fish stolen by a Bald Eagle 🦅; interaction captured in photos 5-10. ‼️

Photos 1-2: Osprey catches large fish and flies over my head. Life is good.

Photos 3-4: Ruh-roh! Suddenly, a Bald Eagle emerges from a wooded area and advances. The Osprey spots it and begins to change direction.

The Osprey completes a 180 turn and flies back over my head as both birds vocalize loudly.

Photos 5-7: The Bald Eagle is hot on its tail, with eyes on the prize.

Photo 8: Better safe than sorry, the Osprey surrenders, intentionally dropping the fish. As the fish falls mid-air, the eagle raises its talons.

Photo 9: The eagle recovers the relinquished fish.

Photo 10: The osprey pulls up; well ain’t that some %*!

This was a group of about 30. More could be heard in the distance. These individuals seemed to be attracted to a deep ditch with running water. Excited to have a relatively close encounter.(from the road).

A little story here about behaviour; thus all the photos (please bear with me)
i was standing on the dock and was watching the swallows swooping across the pond. Then I noticed some hovering/swarming-like activity in the light standard above me. The glass of the big light was broken and there was a bird inside. If you follow my photos, you will notice that there is a different bird inside the light at some point. l believe the mystery bird is a Purple Martin (please see secondary posting for this bird and help me to confirm: thanks).
This swarming/hovering activity occurred repeatedly for some time with intermittent returns to the pond. It was very intriguing to witness.
I will inform park officials of the broken light in case of injury to birds due to broken glass or potential high heat from the light.

This adorable handsome fella just wanted to pose in so many ways! He picked a fabulous backdrop too! I was surprised how long he stayed out in the open, as compared to my previous experiences with this species.

Incredible battle over a prairie dog. When I spotted, Ferruginous (separate observation) was standing to the right. Mostly these two redtails fought while I watched but another 2+ redtails circled, made low passes, and landed. Also what I believe is a harlan's hawk (separate observation) stopped by. Of course magpies too.

Lifer!!! For the four behind the Canada goose. Note the steep forehead, short stubby bill and small size. If you need I do have another photo that shows better size comparison between the Canada and Cackling geese.

This is probably the same bird that has visited for the 3rd consecutive day now: my new friend. My cat was sitting quietly staring as well near the window. This series of photos tells a story. I feel that it is important to highlight it once again to show the recurrence of its visits and behaviour.
When I first looked out the window, it was on the railing of the deck in the Eunonymus bush that has tiny red berries. I think it spotted me slowly getting my camera and flew up to the nearby bush just a little further down the deck. I was rewarded with many poses again. This time it did a few wing uplifts as demonstrated in photo 5. It then flew back down to the Eunonymus where it retreived some berries but would look up occasionally to make sure it was safe. It then flew back to the taller shrub and curiously was seen to be spitting out some debris several times. Unfortunately, the branches were in the way so could not get a clear photo of this event. What a fascinating bird! Hoping it hangs around and serenades me with its potential hundreds of borrowed songs.

I was delighted to see this handsome creature visit me in my yard: two consecutive days at that. This is only my 3rd sighting of this handsome bird, and I feel very privileged that it dropped in. Yesterday I only got blurry photos as it flitted so quickly around collecting bugs on the intruding branches of the trees. Today I was able to catch it in open areas of sunlight. I was able to get pretty close this time as it descended and even landed on my fence. In pic #2 I got "mooned" by the Warbler. I love the "attitude" displayed in pic #5. On my very first sighting I likened it to a "zebra nuthatch". Love this wee creature!

Posted this fellow in a birding group and found out this individual has been seen irregularly since 2009 (13 years!) along the Toronto coast.

Some other sightings can be seen on eBird: https://ebird.org/media/catalog?taxonCode=x00611&mediaType=p&sort=rating_rank_desc&region=Toronto,%20Ontario,%20Canada%20(CA)&regionCode=CA-ON-TO

He also appears on iNaturalist if you search Mallard x Wigeon for Toronto sightings.

Mobbing an Osprey.
Disney’s Pop Century Resort; Orange County, Florida

• Partly sunny, with a high near 89. Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 2pm.
• Sunrise 6:30 am; Sunset 8:27 pm
• Daylight Hours: 13 hours, 56 minutes (-17s)