Birding and the first herps near Guelph

Spring is here. Crocuses are blooming and being pollinated. Commas and mourning cloaks have been seen flying around.

Since Guelph has been smokin' hot lately... It was a great excuse to spend an afternoon birding and looking for herps.  My friends and I went out to Mountsberg Lake and Puslinch:  killdeer, canvas back, red head, eurasian wigeon, ringneck ducks, pied billed grebe, northern pintail, scaup, american coot, godwall, bufflehead, common and hooded mergansers, song sparrow and red winged black bird.

Killdeer

American coots

Ring necked ducks

Common merganser flying

Buffleheads landing

Along the road there were many song sparrows, red tailed hawks, a bald eagle, rough legged hawk and two eastern meadowlarks that we had the pleasure of hearing sing.

Eastern Meadowlark

Eastern meadowlark showing the bright yellow

On our way towards a nearby herping site we saw about eight painted turtles in a pond.

Painted turtles basking in the spring warmth

As we started flipping rocks and logs and walking through forests looking for snakes I am pleasantly surprised by the number of herps we were finding.  A few red backed salamanders and a blue spotted salamader were my first amphibians for the year as we heard spring peepers calling from ponds nearby.

Redbacked salamader

Blue spotted salamander

Chris found our first ribbon snake and then we continued to find 14 ribbon snakes and 9 garter snakes. Many of the garter snakes were paired off in their acts of mating.

Ribbon snake

Chris and the first snake of the year

There weren't to many wildflowers blooming but you could smell skunk cabbage and some green life had survived under the snow.

Skunk cabbage

Wintergreen is one of my favorite plants to find in the wild since it makes a nice treat if spending hours in the field. It's very common and the leaves taste kinda like bubblegum to me. I don't know about  eating the berries. Haven't ever tried it. They don't look to appealing.

Wintergreen

We didn't have to walk far to hit the treasure trove our of herping but we did walk farther back into the forest.

Josh and Chris on the hunt

 One of my favorite finds of the day was when Josh found a baby ribbon snake.

Josh with the baby ribbon snake

Another adult ribbon snake

Some local birding

Coming back from Jamaica it is hard to get back into sitting around studying. A friend and I spent a Sunday afternoon driving to various places near Guelph and going for short hikes.

Our first stop was driving near the Guelph quarries. We drove down low trafficked back roads and saw many crows, red-tailed hawks and one rough-legged hawk. At one stop before driving away from our rough-legged hawk a horned lark lands in the middle of the road in front of us.

Red tailed hawk

Rough legged hawk

Horned lark

Our second stop was a walk around Sudden Track. The trails were somewhat busy and the cold and windy day kept the woods fairly quiet in terms of birds.  Far back along the trails we saw red breasted nuthatches, red-bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers and chickadees.

Red breasted nuthatch

Red-bellied woodpecker

 

Downy woodpecker

We drove to Mountsberg Lake and saw Canada geese, mallard ducks, hooded mergansers and more crows.

Hooded mergansers

Canada geese, Common goldeneye and a blurry Bufflehead in the left corner

At a feeder along the road we saw a purple finch and many chickadees. I need to start using my tripod more often.These pictures are shamefully blurry.

Purple finch and black-capped chickadee

 Had to include this one since it's my first in focus action shot.

Mallards in flight

Our last stop for the day and another short walk around Guelph Lake was much quieter than expected.  The feeders at the nature center had woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches and dark eyed juncos. We looked for but couldn't find the owl or tundra swans which had been seen earlier.

Dark-eyed junco

My full bird list from Negril, Jamaica

My list:
Brown pelican
Magnificent frigate
Great blue heron
Great egret
Little blue heron
Snowy egret
Cattle egret
Green heron
Black-crowned night heron
Yellow-crowned night heron
Blue-winged teal
Grey catbird
Turkey vulture
Black vulture
Red-tailed hawk
Osprey
American kestrel
Common moorhen
Spotted sandpiper
Royal tern
Rock pigeon
White-crowned pigeon
African collared dove
Mourning dove
White-winged dove
Carribean dove
 Pea dove
Olive-throated parakeet
Yellow-billed amazon
Jamaican mango
Red-billed streamertail
Vervain hummingbird
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Jamaican woodpecker
Eastern kingbird
Loggerhead kingbird?
Grey catbird
Northern mockingbird
Wood thrush?
White eyed vireo
Northern parula
Prairie warbler
Black and white warbler
American redstart
Louisiana waterthrush
Common yellowthroat
Bananaquit
Jamaican euphonia
Greater antillean grackle

To see next trip:
Black-billed magpie
Jamaican owl
Blue- headed quail dove
Black billed streamertail 
Jamaican tody
Brown booby
Tropicbirds
Nutmeg mannikin

Currently unknowns:

Sparrow sized

Mockingbird sized

Flycatcher

Crow sized

Jamaica- Day 7

So it's my last morning in Jamaica and I am determined to at least do a short walk around the town as my last attempt to see some birds. I didn't see much other than a lot of American kestrels, doves, pigeons and mockingbirds. There was also another Bananaquit.

The most interesting thing I observed was a hummingbird trying to scare off an American Kestrel.

 But the kestrel ultimately ignored it completely.

Unknown bush

Bananaquit

 And as every morning the lizards are out sunning themselves in the trees

Unknown lizard

The late morning was spent on the beach again and snorkeling. I was out in the water for over two hours and  I had more success on my own in scattered reef than I did on the large busy reef tour.

This was my first interesting find of the day and probably my favorite. 

Spotted moray eel and small reef fish

 

 I didn't see this founder until I scared it. Then I watched as it tried to catch small fish for lunch.

Peacock flounder

 There were a lot of puffer fish scattered through the sea grass beds.

As I looked back to see the moray again he was trying to catch some small fish. It made for a good pictures so I couldn't resist.

Spotted moray

 I barely noticed these lobster barely sticking out from under a shelf of old reef. It was tempting to grab one for my own lunch.

Spiny lobster

 I saw this gorgeous fish that I didn't recognize. Turns out it is a juvenile french angelfish. They start to swim in odd ways when they are trying to get away from you. This one turned itself horizontally. Maybe this scares away predators somehow?

 Anemones are pretty common on the chunks of reef here and there were multiple species around. This one I found particularly beautiful. There are tangs and a blue headed wrasse in the background.

 This small fish actually followed me back to shore for some reason that still baffles me.

 Another juvenile french angelfish.

Juvenile french angelfish

 OOoops I scared him... but it made him even cuter to take pictures of.

Puffer fish starting to puff up.

 There were a lot of urchins in the sea grass and they attached the grass, bits of shell and other things to themselves. I even saw an urchin wearing a dead urchin shell.

 Another small ray that is the same species as the large one seen before.

 

Sadly this is my last day in Jamaica but I do plan to return to find the Jamaican owl and many other species that I did not see on this trip as well as to visit the many friends I made. I also an very interested in seeing more of the country since most of my trip was spent very close to Negril. The luminescent bay is one place where I am very interested in seeing next time I go. It is famous for bioluminescent zooplankton that glow when you swim.


My advice for anyone visiting Jamaica:
1) Try authentic local food or do one better get them to teach you how to cook it like I did!
2) Rent a car or motorcycle and see the countryside. If you do this. Honking is a very common way of saying I'm here when backing up, taking tight turns, passing etc.  Also cop cars are not always well marked but they will usually be standing outside of their cars in uniform. 
3) Relax and watch the wildlife
4) Do day trips out of wherever you're staying (I didn't do this as often as I would have liked)
5) If you're a girl and not comfortable with foreign strangers talking to you... travel with a guy.
6) Jamaican hospitality is amazing if you can get them to stop treating you like a tourist and treat you as a friend.