May 18, 2018
London, ON

Mes Amis,

It’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood and I’m in London-town visiting my favourite little doggy on her 9th birthday. How time flies! We went for a big walk in the woods today, which was a wonderful present for both of us as we saw lots of birds! I’ve been a very diligent birder this year, all through the cold of the winter until the glory of spring migration paid off in spades. Today’s new find: a beautiful eastern bluebird family singing and circling around us, bringing snacks back to the nest for their growing fledglings. They were nice enough to pose for some pretty photos.

My love of birds and my love of photography seem to be a naturally good combination and lately I’ve been seen sporting binoculars on one shoulder and my DSLR on the other. Although I don’t yet have one of those big, sexy camo zoom lenses (perhaps sexy is relative?) I seem to be doing pretty ok with my little 55-250mm for now. I know that many birders don’t even consider it a proper sighting if they don’t get a good “capture” but I’m going that far yet. My dedicated birding companion and I keep three lists, birds we see each on our own and birds we see together. And as nerdy as we may feel at certain moments, the thrill is real when we look up and get our first glimpse of a brand new warbler! Warblers seen by us so far this migration inlcude: hooded warbler, blackburnian, magnolia, chestnut-sided, bay breasted, black throated blue, yellow rumped, cape may, palm, black and white, American redstart and the good ol’ yellow warbler. Plus not only did I see my first scarlet tanger… we saw a whole tree full! They were just hanging out next to a tree full of indigo buntings on Toronto Island by the airport fence. Ahh the bounty of Spring!

Happy birding,

xox
Kristin

Eastern bluebird, May 2018

Scarlet tanager, May 2018

Indigo bunting, May 2018