Bluebells and birds

 It is the time of year when I try and get out to see the fabulous displays of Virginia Bluebells. It isn't a species that is very common at all, but where it occurs, can cover some extensive parts of the forest floor. Some readers may remember a post I made about a year ago, which among other photos, featured these two:

I particularly liked the first one, right along the river, and hoped to get to the same spot this year to improve on that photo, using a tilt\shift lens to get an even closer view of some of the flowers while showing the river in the background.

A few days ago I went to the Sydenham River Nature Reserve, where those two photos were taken. While there were lots of the bluebells, the flowers had continued to develop even in the cool, wet and overcast conditions so that by the time the sunny skies occurred, almost all of them were past their best. The overall photos turned out sort of okay, but even after looking over hundreds of plants, I only found one that didn't either have at least some brown on the blue petals, or entire petals had fallen off. I didn't attempt to get to the spot along the river where the first photo was taken. It would have been a lengthy trek, carrying lots of camera gear, with the bluebells past their best. Nonetheless, it was still an exhilarating time, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere while feasting my eyes on the blue and green spectacle, and listening to things like Yellow-bellies Sapsuckers giving their characteristic drumming. 

Here are some of the better ones I got this year:

This is the only one that was still early enough in its development to not show any senescence.

On that particular outing, I also stopped for a few moments to view the Bald Eagle nest right along the highway. A single young bird was busily jumping up and down at the edge of the nest, flapping its wings to develop its muscles so that it would be prepared to fledge from the nest in the very near future.

While watching the young eaglet, hoping for a less obscured photo, one of the adults arrived to sit above it, keeping an eye on its youngster.

I also came across a new spot for Eastern Flowering Dogwood, a legislated Species At Risk, right along the road.

On the birding front, it has been fairly steady, but one has to cover a lot of area to see many species unless you happen to bump in to a nice flock. The Erieau Rail Trail can be fairly productive, although with the birds busily feeding, they are often hard to photograph. A short time ago I was there and had more success seeing birds than photographing them.

 American Redstarts are becoming quite common, and some will remain to nest in nearby woodlands.

This Barn Swallow, another Species At Risk, took a moment out of its ongoing swooping for insects, for a rest.

Bay-breasted Warblers are not an early migrant warbler, but are building in numbers as they continue on to their northern breeding grounds.

Magnolia Warblers, another more northern breeding species, are quite common.

Gray Catbirds are fairly abundant.

Creatures that were motionless and easy to photograph included this Eastern Fox Snake, my first of the year. This one was half in the rock rubble, so perhaps had just emerged on this relatively warmish day.

 Midland Painted Turtles continue to be abundant, sunning to increase their internal metabolic activity so the developing eggs inside will be ready for laying in the next few weeks.

So many things to see at this time of year!