A Relatively Decent Day

With the first south winds in awhile, it was thought that today might see some good birds, or at least a little push of new migrants. With this in mind, I awoke early and went out to one of my favourite local spots (only a five minute walk away!) Only took a couple photos today, so mostly just commentary!

Right off the bat, I heard a Wood Thrush singing. It is about right on time for the species, however the bulk won't be in until next week likely. Last year I had one on April 22nd! It immediately became clear that there had in fact been a push of birds come in overnight, as there were plenty of White-throated Sparrows, Hermit Thrushes and Ruby-crowned Kinglets which hadn't been there the day before. I also had a good number of Swamp Sparrows and even an Eastern Towhee, only my third or fourth for the neighbourhood (I had one later in the day as well!). I had two warbler species, Yellow-rumped and my first Yellow of the year. I have yet to see a Pine!

I wanted to be back home soon after 7:00, since I wanted to count Common Loons, and see what the flight would be like. Shortly after seven, I began my walk back home. As I turned onto my street, I spotted some gulls flying by. I raised my binoculars and much to my surprise, there were two Great Black-backed Gulls! New for my neighbourhood, but I wanted them for my yard! I sprinted home just in time to see them from my property! Right after, a Brown Thrasher flew over, another new yard bird, and my 100th one at that!

The loon flight wasn't great, but I still managed to come up with 26, as well as 50 Double-crested Cormorants. A flyby Yellow-rumped Warbler is my first warbler of the year for my yard.

After a quick bite to eat, I went back out. I checked out another woodlot nearby, hoping for a Blue-headed Vireo. Upon my arrival, I quickly heard my first House Wren of the year. I usually have already had one by now! Tons more kinglets, White-throats, and Hermit Thrushes. I also came across two Blue-headed Vireos.

On my way to my next spot, I stopped in at a little wetland, and was pleased to hear a Virginia Rail. I had one there a of couple years ago. I looked briefly for the American Bittern, but came up empty. Heard my first Spotted Sandpiper of the year though.

One last stop was the same woodlot I had hit earlier in the day. Not much was new, but I did manage to hear one of the Virginia Rails which have been around for about a week and a half. I missed that first thing in the morning.

Hard to say what tomorrow will bring (hopefully a new patch bird), but I'll be out and about (near home) to see what's up! Hard to believe its already almost May!

Notes from the St. Clair

Hello. Does this thing still work?

Yesterday I birded Sarnia and along the St. Clair river, with the intention of seeing what was around. I didn't take any photos (save for one bird), so I will recycle some old ones.

The day started off not so nice, with rain and quite heavy fog. Not too much of note along the way, but we did have a Snowy Owl in the usual location, as well as a Rough-legged Hawk. The roughie was in the same spot as the one we had last year, and looked to have the same patterning, so it could be the same bird as pictured below (from 2019).

We toured around Point Edward a bit, looking at the lake at a few different locations. Not too much to be seen. The usual Long-tailed Ducks, which always seem to be flying around, never settling. Had a few White-winged Scoters to shake things up as well. 

Quite the contrast to last year at this time. The only ice to be seen was on the rocks.

NOT like this (2019)

Off of Canatara Park, there was a sizable raft of Redhead, I estimated numbering around 1800. They were on the American side, but whatever...Also seen was a Great Black-backed sitting a distance out with an adult Glaucous Gull right beside it. Perhaps two of my favourite wintertime gulls.

There were more birds in the marina and Sarnia Bay than I expected, but nothing too much out of the ordinary. A few Great Black-backs and an adult Glaucous were among the Herring Gulls. I did see a Long-tailed Duck, which I think might be the first time I have seen one in the bay!

Heading downriver, we stopped a few times to sift through the gulls. There were easily a few thousand Herring Gulls present, as well as some more interesting things mixed in. Guthrie Park was good, as it always seems to be, and the gizzard shad die off attracted the gulls en masse. Along with about 2000 Herrings, I picked out a couple Iceland Gulls, some Glaucous, Great Black-backeds, and a Nelson's Gull, which is a hybrid between Herring and Glaucous Gull.

Great Black-backed Gull

At the OCF outflow down near Sombra, there were quite a few Great Black-backs, as well a some Glaucous and a pretty little first cycle Iceland Gull. A Belted Kingfisher also made an appearance. 

Final stop was the Sombra waterfront. As usual, lots of Redhead, but the star of the show was a Ring-necked Duck x Redhead hybrid, which has been coming back for a few years now. This is the first time I have seen this hybrid.

All in all a good day. Back to exams...

London Christmas Bird Count 2018

Today was the London Christmas Bird Count. I did the same route as last year. It is a long walk, but usually a good route! All the snow melted this past week, so it made for easy walking. It even warmed up to 5 degrees Celsius!

Easy walking...

I started about an hour earlier than last year in hopes of an owl, unfortunately that was just not to be, despite trying in three different locations. No doubt they are there, just weren't wanting to call!

We started the roughly 10 kilometer walk around 7am. Almost right away we had some early birds calling, like White-throated Sparrows, Swamp Sparrows, Song Sparrows, and Northern Cardinals.

We picked up two wren species, Winter Wren and Carolina Wren, right after one another. First the Carolina started singing, then it was quickly followed by the singing Winter Wren.

Numbers were down from last year on waterfowl. Only 190 Canada Geese, 39 Mallards, and 2 Common Mergansers! (We had 400+ Canada Geese and 350+ Mallards last year) I believe numbers of some of the songbirds were up however. Highlights include 48 American Goldfinches, 18 Pine Siskins, 24 Northern Cardinals, 13 Brown Creepers, 5 Song Sparrows, 5 White-throated Sparrows, 4 Swamp Sparrows, and 4 Carolina Wrens, to name a few! We also had a couple unexpected birds, such as a Yellow-rumped Warbler, Red-winged Blackbird, and Peregrine Falcon.

In the raptor department, we had 2 Red-tailed Hawks, a Cooper's Hawk, and a Bald Eagle. Somehow, we missed an eagle last year on the route!

Four species of woodpeckers include 8 Downy Woodpeckers, 3 Hairy Woodpeckers, 3 Red-bellied Woodpeckers, and a Northern Flicker.

We completed the route in a few hours, and managed to find 36 species, two more than last year.

After the route, we went down to check the landfill just south of the city. Although we were not assigned that area, there were a few cool things there as of late that I wanted to see, in particular gulls.

There were gulls.

The majority were Herring Gulls.

 There were some Ring-billed and Great Black-backed Gulls mixed in as well.

We also managed to pick out two other species, a couple Lesser Black-backed Gull and a couple of Iceland Gulls.

World's worst photo of an Iceland Gull...

A flock of 30 Tundra Swans also flew over.

Overall, I'd say that I had a good day, and managed to see a few cool things! I even managed to reach my goal of 200 species for Middlesex county this year (#199 Great Black-backed Gull, #200 Iceland Gull) I'll see what I can come across at the Rondeau/Blenheim Christmas Bird Count tomorrow!

In addition, after the CBC compilation, I went out ad found two Eastern Screech-owls!

Highlights of the 2018 London Christmas Bird Count (of the results that are currently in):

Tundra Swan (30)

Eastern Phoebe (1)

Common Redpoll (10)

Yellow-rumped Warbler (1)

Red-winged Blackbird (2)

Peregrine Falcon (1)

Swamp Sparrow (many!)

Great Black-backed Gull (25)

Lesser Black-backed Gull (2)

Iceland Gull (2)

Guthrie Gulls and Sombra Specks

Recently there have been some Greater White-fronted Geese (also known as "speckle bellies")  near Sombra. I still needed this species for the year, so I decided to try my luck at finding them. Not only would these geese be a year bird, but also they would be the final addition to my 2017 Ontario (regular) goose list!

Once we arrived along the St. Clair River, we noticed a large congregation of gulls in Guthrie Park. We pulled over, and I started to scope them out. I was hoping to maybe find an Iceland Gull, which was another species that I had yet to see in 2017. It wasn't long until I found what appears to be a second cycle individual on an ice floe among some Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls.

Also present were four adult Glaucous Gulls. Surprisingly, I couldn't find an immature bird!

A Lesser Black-backed Gull made a quick flyby, but their larger counterpart, the Great Black-backed Gull were a little more friendly for us observers.

We continued towards Sombra, along the way seeing more Herring Gulls, Long-tailed Ducks, Common Goldeneye, and Red-breasted Mergansers.

We arrived on Baseline Road about 20 minutes before sunset. We didn't get far until we saw the first group of Canada Geese. I figured that the speckle bellies may be among them, so I quickly got the scope out and set it up on them. Much to my surprise, the first birds I put it on were two Greater White-fronted Geese!

Somewhere in there...

I later found out from Steve Charbonneau that these birds actually represent a first for the Wallaceburg Christmas Bird Count. Pretty exciting!

On the way home, we stopped for a few minutes at the Sombra solar farm, hoping for Short-eared Owls. All we could find were a couple sparrows and some pigeons. Nice sunset though!

It was a good day, and I managed to see two longoverdue year birds. Four days to go...what will I see????

Big December Day

Yesterday in an effort to brighten up the last few days of December, I did a "Big Day" in Hamilton and along the Niagara river. I set a goal of 50 species, and I ended with 52. We started with looking at the Burlington Bay area, where 19 Greater Black-backed Gulls were found.

Next was the canal under the lift bridge that crosses the Halton/Hamilton county line. Hundreds of Long-tailed Ducks inhabited the area.

From Front to Back: Adult Male, First-winter Male, Adult Female

A few scoters and mergansers were with them.

White-winged Scoter

Then came the real prize...a female King Eider.

Windermere Basin yielded some puddle ducks such as American Wigeon and Northern Shovelers. This was also the only place where I found a few Ruddy Ducks among the Buffleheads.

We searched for Black Vultures at Queenston Heights next. Nothing at first but this Red-tail.

But then I noticed some dark blobs on the church...a kilometer and a half away!

I took pictures, but the blobs appeared to be Turkey Vultures, which also winter in the area. But I figured that where there are Turkeys there could be Blacks hidden among them. I ran back to the car to get my scope, and set up. It took 10, maybe 15 minutes before I saw three smaller-than-TV black birds flying at least another 500 meters behind the church. They then sharply dropped beneath the tree line but in the split second before disappearing, I saw the silvery wing tips of the Black Vulture...at two kilometers! We soon re-found at least one on the church.

The Queenston sand docks revealed this funny Long-tailed Duck. She swam quite far down river in this position.

At the whirlpool I found a Thayer's Gull, but no Black-headed! Four Canvasbacks as well.

I got my first real taste of gull-watching (gulling?) above the falls. Thousands of gulls were perched and flying around.

This barge known as "The Old Scow" broke loose from the tug boat up stream while dredging the sand banks almost a century ago on August 6, 1918.  There were two men on board when it got marooned on the rocks just up stream from the Horseshoe falls.  It took the US Army to help with the rescue, and 17 hours later the two men once again stood on solid ground.

We met a group of birders who were just leaving. They told us that there were a few Little Gulls flying around. Little Gulls are quite rare in the ABA area (code 3), but can be reliably found in Ontario. You just need to know where to look.

If Little Gulls didn't have a dark underwing, it would be nearly impossible to pick them out.  I had to be quick to get this shot.  He was hard to keep track of.

It was an awesome day, and I'm four species closer to 250. Eight more to go!