Stuck in a rut

Last post to 26-6-7

In typical late June fashion the ticks have dried up and the breeders are busy so harder to find. I’ve been out a few times trying to plug the obvious gaps in the year list but to no avail, I’m rather hopeful that I’ll be adding Connecticut Warbler shortly but I never count my chickens (or warblers) before they have hatched.

We did try for a Northern Mockingbird with only the 10km road as the location and a photo of it sitting on a fence that should have been identifiable, it wasn’t! It was a nice place to visit though and my butterfly pages, if I’ve done them yet, will show European (Small) skippers in phenomenal numbers. It is no exaggeration to say that, in 100m of road, I saw more Small Skippers than the cumulative total that I have seen before in my life.

Also true to form for this period of the year, my attention has switched to insects, namely dragonflies and butterflies. Many people here have little interest in them but, generally, they are the same ones who can’t identify gulls or peeps so its no good trying to engage their inquisitive nature where none exists. With that in mind I’ve deferred from decorating the pages of this blog with images of the aforementioned insects although I have slipped a Snowshoe Hare in which we saw at Tremblant last time up there and I forgot to include in the last posting.
Anyway, the garden is full of young birds with the Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers fighting both species of nuthatch (that is Red-breasted and white-breasted for you Europeans) for feeder space and the ubiquitous Common Grackles often join in the fun.



















Upland Sandpiper, one of my regulars which is not quite in Quebec but certainly could see it from God's own province.

















Eastern Bluebird, a bit distant but the get the idea.



















Bobolink objecting to me using the road. They seem very common this year.


















Brown Thrasher. Chop its bill in half, shorten the tail and give it an olive wash and it would be a Song Thrush, how close many of these birds are to each other, well, with a little imagination they are.



















Indigo Bunting, another common bird this year.




















One of the immature Hairy Woodpeckers from the garden.































Red-breasted Nuthatch, giving the garden constant noise.
















One of the local Spotted Sandpipers pretending to be an extension of a rock.



















Big Foot the Snowshoe Hare, just look at those tootsies!