Finally more nice weather here, and lots of bird activity in my neighbourhood!

Rose-breasted Grosbeak - FOY. Two females have been visiting our feeders this morning.




Northern Cardinal (male)




Indigo Bunting (male). Sadly, this guy did not show up until after I'd come back inside. My only photos were shot through a not-so-clean window, so all are out of focus. But the colour on these guys this time of year is spectacular!




American Redstart (male)




Swainson's Thrush

Gorgeous birds, all of them!

Wow....really cool! Thank you for sharing!

Tale care, my condolences.

I love the birds! the redstart is beautiful and the indigo bunting has indeed an intens color!

Beautiful!

Some of today's birds:

Blackburnian Warbler (male)




Bay-breasted Warbler (male)




Black-throated Green Warbler (male)




Yellow-rumped "Myrtle" Warbler (female)




Blue-headed Vireo

My next post will contain photographs of a decently large ophidian. Be forewarned (if that is something that freaks you out).

While cleaning up my yard this afternoon I was happy to stumble upon this beauty:



This was the first live Eastern Foxsnake I have seen in my neighbourhood in a few years. They are an endangered species here, so I was very happy to see they are still managing to hold on to the neighbourhood, in spite of all the construction we have had here recently.



The white measuring stick is 4 feet in length. Stretched out long, this snake would easily be 5 feet long -- a good size for a mature foxsnake!



The scale pattern on Eastern Foxsnakes superficially resembles that of the Massasauga Rattlesnake (Ontario's only extant poisonous snake). Unfortunately, this resemblance sometimes leads to the persecution and killing of Eastern Foxsnakes, which are harmless to humans. (Massassaugas are also not much of a threat since they are both shy and docile and will either freeze to avoid detection or slither away from a human interloper whenever possible. A rattlesnake will only bite a human as a last resort, and even then the human usually survives. Only two people are known to have died from rattlesnake bites in Ontario, and both bites occurred over 40 years ago.)




Live long and prosper, my friend.

Cool pictures!

That snake's a beauty!

Very cool!

Wow!

love all the picks! I have had a male rose breasted grosbeak visiting my feeder recently!

The snake is a real beauty!