Beatin’ feet in the sweet heat

Warbler road (but not today)

Love it

Crow silhouette someone put up near the hummingbird feeders...

Some arseholes knocked over at least a dozen gravestones

Balloons are dumb

Baltimore Oriole Icterus galbula

Scarlet Tanager Piranga olivacea

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Empidonax flaviventris

Eastern Wood-Pewee Contopus virens

Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia chomping on a cricket

Mount-Royal Cemetery, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery + Université de Montréal woods, August 26, 2019

  Woah, seems it’s been almost a year since I did a proper cemetery walk. Was lovely and sunny, and fresh fresh fresh, ended up with 28 species in 3.5 hours. I bumbled onto the one-that-got-away early into the walk, on the northwest corner of the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery. For 30 seconds, the rising, piercing zhwink call of an Eastern Towhee circled me in a bushy area, then went silent. Having not clapped eyes on the bird, I can’t rule out an odd call from a juvenile Eastern Bluebird or something, so it shall have to remain a throbbing question mark.
  Nothing else too unexpected, and it was nice to see stuff like Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and Eastern Wood-Pewee around. Very birdy in G7 on the way out. A patchy Baltimore Oriole confused the heck out of me – initial furtive looks at the red-orange mottling bleeding down from the throat had me thinking Summer Tanager, until I was able to get a look at the head. Do juvie BAOR often look like this? I don’t have much experience with them in the fall.
  On Pine Hill Side I was strafed by a massive yellow butterfly, I’m assuming Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, based on the size (and colour). I know they’ve been seen closer to the border, but are they common on the island? Other butterflies seen out and about included several Monarch and Painted Lady, and Cabbage Whites were plentiful.
  Seems the groundskeepers at the MRC got a bit blade-drunk in several formerly reliably birdy spots – large tracts of bushes, shrubbery, and even several apple trees (that had been untouched for years) have been recently cut down. Shrug. Also, someone put up crow silhouette thingies up near the hummingbird feeder for some reason.
  Oh yeah, no warblers! They’re definitely out there, I just didn’t manage to see any. Early bird, something something, worm, something something. (The next day's edit: I sheepishly now remember I saw a Yellow Warbler in G7...it was in the midst of the "weird Oriole panic/hectic bird wave," so I plum forgot about it.)