This morning dawned clear and with a high tide, conditions that would be perfect for photographing Dunlin hunkered around the fresh water ponds in farm fields on the Bayview-Edison Road.  I mounted a photo expedition but upon arriving at the Dunlin's location was disappointed to find them not by the road but about 150 yards distant.  I waited around for about two hours but there were very few disturbances due to a lack of raptors flying.  (I did see a Peregrine falcon about half a mile away.)  I finally gave up and headed home. 

This time of year I usually take a route home that leads me by one of the local marinas, and for the past three weeks or so I've seen a Common loon in the marina basin from time to time.  This morning the loon was not only in the basin, but my 200-400mm lens was already mounted on my camera!  I exited my vehicle and took a lot of photos of the loon, then returned to my car and added my 1.7x tele-extender to the lens giving me, in 35mm parlance, something like over 1000mm of focal length.  While the majority of my photos were shot without the tele-extender, all I'm posting here, including a cooperative Song sparrow, were taken with the tele-extender. 

So these aren't yard birds, but they aren't far from the yard either!