I headed out to the nearby willow marsh this morning and was immediately treated to a small fallout of warblers. Five species (Common Yellowthroat, Chestnut-sided, Yellow-rumped, Pine and Nashville) all foraged from the branches of the same larch. Black and White, Magnolia and a likely Black-throated Blue were also glimpsed.

I made a second visit to these grebes on a chilly Saturday morning. The pair were busy with their second brood of two chicks (the only ones to hatch of five eggs), the older over a week old and the younger only a few days out of the egg. Oblivious to joggers and boaters, the birds occupied themselves with keeping their young warm and chasing off hungry cormorants and nosy geese.

I visited this osprey nest near Guelph Lake several times over the summer. Today I found the young fledged but still hanging out in the vicinity of the nest, returning to it whenever a parent dropped off a fish.

I headed down to Niagara Falls early this morning and ended up hanging around all day, returning to the same location several times in between sight seeing for another look at this rarity. According to another birder I spoke with, non-birding locals had been seeing this bird for several weeks before someone finally recognized it for what it was. The heron had an obvious preference for a particular rock situated right in from of a park bench upriver of the falls, and never seemed to leave it for longer than a half hour at a time.

A fledgling Chipping Sparrow waiting impatiently on the back deck for its parents to return was reason enough to be late for work Thursday morning.

Drove out to Mirimichi Bay to look for shorebirds while up at the cottage this weekend. Found a scattered group of Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and Killdeer picking their way along the beach.