Spring Arrivals and Rough-Legged Hawks

It's Spring! New species are arriving every day in our cold but beautiful Northern Ontario region. This last weekend was a great weekend to go look for them... it was sunny and we could hear the snow melting.  The rivers are revealing more open water and there are creeks, ponds and flooded fields that are slowly attracting birds. Here's a sample of what we saw during the past week.

Wood Duck and Hooded Merganser
April 2014

American Woodcock
near South Porcupine (April 2014)

Great Blue Heron - Frederick House Lake
Connaught (28 April 2014)

Ring-necked Ducks
South Porcupine (30 April 2014)

The meaning of Spring has changed a lot since I started birding. Now, I'm enjoying spring a lot more than before; it's so exciting to go look for birds after a long winter. The only problem is that the house is cluttered with dirt and the garden will soon be cluttered with weeds. But let's face it; we just have to go explore because the chores will remain but the birds will fly away! (I'm seriously thinking of getting this quote printed on a t-shirt) 

Rough-legged Hawk
South Porcupine (28 April 2014)

The highlight of the last week has been the Rough-legged hawks.  I had seen them before but I had never seen so many in a 5 day period.  They are wonderful birds; we spent a lot of time watching them; they can hover over a prey almost completely still even in the wind. We only get to see these fascinating birds during spring and fall migration; they are now passing through on their way to their nesting ground far North.

Rough-legged Hawk
Timmins (27 April 2014)

Rough-legged Hawk - Dark Morph
Timmins (April 26 2014)

Rough-legged Hawk - Dark Morph
Timmins (26 April 2014)

There were also some Northern Harriers in one of the fields.  I could only manage this blurry photo of a male.  Watch for them flying really low over wet, muddy fields; they are one of my favorite birds.

Northern Harrier
Timmins (25 April 2014)

We also saw lots of American Kestrels.  You can see one of them on my new header photo above.