Slurping up the fish!

Slurping up the fish!

In just a few minutes, this Heron slurped up 7 fish, have a look at the photos, one after another, down the hatch they went … the last victim was drinking at the waters edge had a narrow escape Fish 1 Fish 2 Fish 3 Fish 4 Fish 5 Fish 6 This was almost the 7th victim, a narrow...
Rough-legged Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk

So hard to see in the fall leaves. I missed this one and only saw it when it moved to another perch a little further from me. If it didn’t move, I would have passed right by it.  The name refers to it’s feathered legs right to it’s toes, the only others that also have feathered legs are the Golden Eagle and Ferruginous...
Flocking Sandhill Cranes

Flocking Sandhill Cranes

The Sandhills are plentiful these days, this flock in the Stayner area is well over 1000 birds.  Daily, smaller flocks are passing over our farm in the Beaver Valley, we can usually hear them before we see them as they are very noisy when flying … they sound like a litter of young racoons at war.  I literally look around for racoons, then noticed the sound is coming from the...
Rusty Blackbird #176

Rusty Blackbird #176

These birds have declined 85%-98% in the past 40 years and are listed as a “species of concern” or “vulnerable”. Their song has been compared to the grating of a rusty hinge. They have been documented feeding on sparrows, robins, and Snipe … interesting since I found this one watching a flock of Sparrows and Juncos in a hedge...
Chinook Salmon spawning run upstream

Chinook Salmon spawning run upstream

Introduced from the west coast, these fish have made themselves at home in Georgian Bay, swimming up rivers like the Beaver River to spawn.  They made it to the second their falls at Slabtown, where 50 or 60 sat under the falls with tails too long to fit, then they attempted to swim up the falls which were entirely the wrong angle for their efforts, most faded due to exhaustion and floated back down stream. In some of the photos you can see how the heavy fish would jump the first tier just to land heavily into the cement.  It was kinda sad to watch, this dam could easily be re-engineered to help the...
Rainbow Trout swimming up the Beaver River

Rainbow Trout swimming up the Beaver River

Fish were moving up the Beaver River during the fall spawning Run to get to the nesting areas.  Rarely do I see so many jumping, so tonight was special.  There seemed to be Chinook Salmon and Rainbow Trout. Why are the Rainbow Trout with the Salmon? Because they are actually wrongly named Salmon!  These fish were jumping at the Slabtown Dam, so they had already made it through the Thornbury Fish Ladder, and Clendenam Dam.  In the calm eddies you could see many larger fish resting. This photo above is one of the very few that made it 🙁 Above: Chinook and a Trout leap at the same time, the heavier fish landed with a thud on the cement and the trout made it to the second stage of the...
Northern Harrier Hawk Juvenile

Northern Harrier Hawk Juvenile

We were so excited to see this different looking raptor, usually the adults we see are grey.  The white band above the tail is the telling sign that this is a juvenile Northern Harrier Hawk hunting the hay fields. They are known for the way they hover in place while they watch or look for...

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