Western Kingbird Wing Stretch

Yet another rare sighting for bird lovers in Ottawa. This Western Kingbird must have migrated East vs South as they are indeed a Western species that normally live in the mid west to the Pacicfic. Anyway I was glad to see and photograph this lifer :-)

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One from the hard drives and the only Long Eared Owl I have seen in Ottawa ( almost all the LEO I've seen were on Ahmerst Island in Lake Ontario but not sure if that population is still active)

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A Parasitic Jaeger has been in our area for a couple of days now . These birds breed in Alaska and the high North in Canada as well as Greenland, Iceland and Northern Russia. Every once in a while one shows up along the Ottawa River this time of year ( I remember one from a few years ago) This dark morph bird was extremely aggressive this morning. The powerful flyer attacks and harasses gulls ( and some other species) until they either drop food or regurgitate food, hence the " parasitic" title. The gull is crying out here as did all the other gulls I witnessed being harassed. Quite the bully....

Left click for largest viewing

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This is two images merged in Photoshop to illustrate the size difference between the Little Egret and Great Egret. The two shots were taken within minutes of one another at the same focal length ( 700mm) and on a tripod, so location of camera to subjects was the same. The Little Egret was chased off the perch by the larger species...Great Egrets are now fairly common in our area but the Little Egret ( Eurasian species) was a first for Ontario and I believe the rarest bird for the Ottawa area so far this year

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An American Avocet takes to the air....This is only the third ever sighting of this species in Ottawa and it got quite a bit of attention. From what I have read it has not been seen now since June 27....


Left click for a better view of the blue legs and water drops........

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