Yesterday while working away I noticed a Great Blue Heron in the pond I can see from my desk. I quickly noticed it had something in its beak and a look through my binoculars revealed it had caught an Eastern Gartersnake. I grabbed my scope and took a couple shots through my phone:
I even managed to catch it on video. I like how once the heron finally gets it into its throat it takes several gulps of water to help wash it down - must be a bit squirmy still!!
The gartersnake isn't the only tasty treat I've seen a Great Blue Heron catch recently. Last week my sister and I watched as a (the same?) Great Blue Heron walked through the pasture across from my house and captured then swallowed a small mammal - possibly a meadow vole.
This past week has really started to feel like spring! I had my firsts of several species including Snow Goose, Ruddy Duck, Wood Duck, Sandhill Crane, Killdeer, Green-winged Teal, Bonaparte's Gull, American Woodcock, and Great Blue Heron. Part of that list was because I've been down at Long Point but I think many of those species have spread north into much of southern Ontario now.
What do you think of this "white" goose?
"I came all the way for this?"
I think basically this past week served to "catch up" for alot of species, check out the eBird figures for our old friends RWBL and COGR:
We're pretty much bang on with last year at this time
That being said, it doesn't look like winter is ready to release us quite yet and we're getting a reminder of that for the first half of the week. For the birds that are "scheduled" to arrive this week, looking at the list I'm not too optimistic that we'll end March on schedule. Most of the birds that normally arrive this week are passerines and I'm not going to hold my breath that we'll see the first "mass arrival" of Eastern Phoebes. Anyways, here's the list of species that normally arrive this week (for methodology and full spring list click here):
