12 hours, 400 kilometres and $32.00 of gas!

Since the weekend was looking like rain for the most part I thought I would take advantage of the nice weather on Friday. I started my day with a drive up to Minesing Swamp. I made it there for the crack of dawn. I saw lots of waterfowl from the road like hooded mergansers, buffleheads, common goldeneyes, trumpeter swans, mallards, oh and a muskrat. There was also a really nice raft of ring necked ducks but the main reason I was going there was to see the northern pintails. They were way off into a flooded sod field so I took off the canoe from the car and started into the field. I went really slow and tried not to make too much movement with hopes of not scaring them off. I managed to snap off a few shots but they were very timid and kept their distance so no real good shots like what I was hoping for.

On the way home I found a new pond that had a few common mergansers in it. I watched them for a while and then went home. There I removed the canoe, refilled the cooler and took to the roads again. This time I made my way over to the Luther Marsh area and wow spring was in the air. There was a lot of new wildlife this weekend such as a killdeer, a groundhog, a beaver, robins and grackles but most exciting for me was the return of the northern harriers. I spotted one male and one female in the same areas as last year. I really love watching these guys. I think the harriers and coyotes are at the top of my list so far. I watched the female hunt over a field for a while and then all of a sudden she banks quickly and then dropped to the ground. She then lifted up with a pile of dry grasses in her talons. She dropped down in a different location and then started to pick at the grass, maybe she missed because she left right after that.

I have also marked where a few nests are and I have been checking frequently and waiting to see what moves in and today I saw a red-tailed hawk sitting in one of those nests. Maybe some baby hawk pictures this year.

I can't wait for next weekend to see what else is new.