Rouge Beach Park RBP (mouth of the Rouge) is not far from home but I seldom visit unless I can manage to get there early in the morning because of how generally noisy and busy the park usually is.  Getting up early during the dog-days of summer seems to be a lot harder than doing so in the spring, or in the fall.  Must be the humidity that lingers like a blanket over the precinct that contributes to lethargy.


 Late yesterday morning there were plenty of swallows at RBP.  Barn swallows were zooming around and under the observation deck, while bank swallows invaded the air near the parking lot and Cliff swallows nested under the pedestrian bridge.  Out on the floodplain there were a few wood ducks and a GB heron ... all far away.  Fish were splashing the surface all over the place although I didn’t check the parking lot.  These fish were big ... probably carp and/or catfish, which would explain the many anglers stationed near the bridge and the mouth of the river.
 
This morning there were countless Bonaparte’s gulls, although they were not fully mature.  I located a few that were mature and in doing so also noticed a mature Franklin’s gull.  It was hard to read the labels.  Bonaparte’s gulls sound decidedly different than Ring-billed gulls and Herring gulls.  Less screechy and more raspy, but not as prehistorically harsh as a tern’s call.  The sky was overcast early this morning, which favoured photography.








Bank swallow










Cliff swallow







Barn swallow













Bonaparte's Gull







Franklin's Gull
 
 

There is a rumour going around that surveillance drones have been deployed that mask their usual drone with a whine that mimics cicadas, as if that somehow makes surveillance more acceptable.  I'm sad to suggest that's the future.  I saw that!

Well, in that case, let's don scuba gear and have a base jump from the CN tower with a chute and land in the lake, jettison the chute and then dive to 19 meters and check the low-light submarine performance, video the assent while looking upwards, break the surface, switch to hyperlapse mode and then swim back to shore while playing circus music.  Then again, it has probably already been done.  How is the camera's IR and UV sensitivity?  When are you going to get a drone?  Sorry,  I just realized I'm still set on Silly-mode.  There, that's better.  Actually, no, it's not as much fun.  Now I wish that I hadn't responded.  Silly-mode, Goofy-mode, default mode.

Sounds like you have a plan for yourself!

When I took out the garbage this morning there was not the slightest breeze ... absolutely wind-still and thick humidity, like a jungle.  In the woodlot across the street I may have heard, or imagined hearing a kookaburra.  Then, were those monkeys in the trees?  Nahh!   I drove over to Reesor (lower) pond because someone spotted a Common Gallinule with two chicks a few days ago.  I did see one gallinule swim from the western shore to the central grass patch but then it disappeared.  Also saw a Virginia rail fly across the same stretch of water in the reverse direction.  There were several juvenile pied-billed grebe on the other side of the pond.  Also spotted a juvenile Yellow-bellied sapsucker,  Chipping sparrow,  Swamp sparrow,  Eastern kingbird (still one nest with two chicks),  House finch, Green-backed heron flyover and one kingfisher (out of phot0 reach).  I did NOT see gallinule (Moorhen) chicks.


Common gallinule


Yellow-bellied sapsucker


Green-backed heron


Dragonfly tail sticking out of chick's mouth


Eastern kingbird