Some of these photos may appear in other PhotoStories from May 2025
The photos are from primarily Mud Lake and Colonnade Ponds
Spring brought birds back from the south and new arrivals in the form of goslings.
With the exception of the Deschenes Rapids nesting area, we don't see many cormorants, and where we do see them they are busy fishing. A visit to Colonnade Ponds had them drying their wings, and sitting up in trees preening themselves.
One, possibly two green herons had returned to the Colonnade Ponds
The male wood ducks seemed lost at Mud Lake with most of the females on nest
The migrating Canada geese had returned and had gone to nest. During our visits, Colonnade had goslings and Mud Lake had geese on nest with eggs
A spotted sandpiper was at Colonnade. You don't realize how small they are until you see them up against a duck.
At Mud Lake a black-crowned night heron had caught a good size catfish. Unlike great blue herons that can swallow huge fish, the black-crowned seemed to be having difficulty dealing with it
A solitary egret was fishing at Mud Lake
Lots of smaller birds were around Mud Lake including a kingbird, robin and yellow-rumped warbler
A yellow warbler was singing high up in a tree
Some males and females were hanging close by each other, presumably having paired up.
Red-winged blackbird, cowbird, redstarts
Not sure if these were paired up swallows or not
A great-crested flycatcher was singing and preening at Petrie island
A crow had learned from the ravens to wash its lunch in our bird bath
