Summer has truly arrived on the prairies. Things are slowing down, the temperatures are going up, and the frenetic bird activity of the last few weeks is gone.
For the next few weeks, Marsh Diaries posts will be a sporadic event, as we won’t be going to the lake every weekend. The swallows have all but disappeared, and I suspect the kingbirds – both Eastern and Western – won’t be far behind.
The raptors are still there though. I’ve spent the last few months watching two Northern Harriers coursing back and forth along this little peninsula of cat tails. They spent hours doing this, and due to the location of this little spit of vegetation, I could not get close enough to get a good shot. They had a nest on here earlier, and all of this wonderful bird action was just out of camera range. Sigh.
The Swainson’s Hawks are always soaring overhead, in spite of the continual mobbing from the small birds, in this case Western Kingbirds.
It’s not like all the birds are gone. Ring-billed Gulls are such shy birds. So wary of human presence…
My old friend the Willet is still there.
The Baltimore Orioles, Yellow Warblers and American Goldfinches are still providing a flash of colour in the camp sight, and the sparrows are still feasting on the abundant seeds. The American Robins are still quietly going about their business.
The sky may be quiet, but the lake is still full of activity as the humans are getting more predominant. I noticed a large number of four-footed boat dwellers as well, and was wondering how you manage to keep a black lab inside the boat when all that lovely water beckons.
Oh, and just for the record, I only had to rescue and release about 11 moths the last trip. Things have gotten very quiet, indeed.