Usually I sit on the edge of a pond yearning for a duck to drift a bit closer. But with this young Wood Duck, sheesh, I was hoping he would give me a little space so I could fit a bit of his body in the frame.

 

The Falls.

 

Purple Finch. 💜 (A male this time).

 

Not much purple evident on the female Purple Finch but she's a beauty, regardless. 💜💜

 

Cool Top Gun move.

 

The Cooper's Hawk who visited the backyard yesterday. There is now one less vole scurrying around back there today.

 

Didn't find any wildlife at Algonquin Park but they sure have nice ponds to look at.

 

I'm a fairly patient guy when it comes to waiting for a bird to do something interesting like stab a minnow or preen a feather. But after staring at this pose for half an hour without so much as a twitch, I had to cut my losses and move on. #lifestooshort . Green Heron

 

The maestro.

 

A Yellow-rumped Warbler.

 

Smiles and kisses on the boardwalk.

 Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington.

This Lesser Yellowlegs was a highlight, so to speak.

 

When the tail goes high, time to say "bye".

 

We have a skunk living under our backyard shed. Most of the time you would never know she's there and you kind of forget about her. But every once in a while, when you go outside in the morning, oh baby, you get reminded. An Eastern Chipmunk.

 

The Merlin is a wee falcon not much bigger than a blue jay. Here's one that snatched a sandpiper off the sand

 

When the movie On Golden Pond came out, my sweet grandmother thought it was called On Goldie Hawn which was quite endearing. Wood Duck

 

Puffy coat season isn't far off. A Northern Cardinal.

 

Yellowlegs. I have a few skills but figuring out the differences between the Lesser or Greater Yellowlegs is not one of them.

 

I'm guessing this fella was near the front of the line when they were handing out the colours. 🎨 The Wood Duck.

 

I had about 12 nanoseconds to snap a shot of this Merlin before it carried on with its harassment of the shorebirds. Glad my settings were ok.

 

Great Blue Heron doing the sniff test.

 

Not sure how tasty that long-dead catfish was but it sure was easy pickings for this opportunistic osprey.

 

The backyard on this fine summer's evening.

 

A Northern Cardinal popping by to see what's up.

 

A Great Blue Heron picking stuff out from between its toes.

 

A Downy Woodpecker.

 

Tonight's Sturgeon Moon with an airliner hurtling past.

 

I'm complete rubbish when it comes to creeping close enough to photograph Belted Kingfishers. But this one seemed a little more tolerant than most and didn't take off when I got within 100m. Female Belted Kingfishers have a rusty patch across their chest making them one of the few bird species where the females are more colourful than the males.

 

A Great Blue Heron pretty proud of its pike.

 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird.