More March Birding (feat. Moths)

This past week has been rather nice. On Tuesday, I didn't have in-person school (one advantage of the global pandemic I guess, if we look at it from a glass half full perspective), so of course I went birding. 

I went for a long walk at Fanshawe CA in the morning. Waterfowl numbers were way down, I doubt I even broke 100 individuals. I didn't get there until a bit later in the morning, so maybe earlier in the day would be better.

I came across a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the day use area. Perhaps it is an early migrant, or it could be the same bird I had in the campground, a kilometer away as the sapsucker flies, back in January. I'd like to think its a new arrival. If that's the case, I believe its close to record early, if not record early.

There was a Common Loon on the lake as well, which was reported the day prior. Quite distant, but I was pleased to see it. Additionally, I had my first of year Double-crested Cormorant. 

In the afternoon I went for a bike ride down to the Thames River. Nice enough day for it. I didn't really have much of a plan, but ultimately ended up checking up on a couple of our local celebrities. 

First up was the long-staying Harlequin Duck. His molt is coming along nice. He remained asleep on the opposite side of the river.

Next I went to go see the Spotted Towhee. It came out after about half an hour of waiting.

As I was waiting, I spied this interesting Dark-eyed Junco. 

I identified it as a cismontanus Dark-eyed Junco, also known as a Cassiar Junco. This is a different "subspecies" than our usual Slate-colored (hyemalis) Dark-eyed Juncos. Some authorities consider Cassiar to be an intergrade between Slate-colored and Oregon (oreganus group) juncos. I have been looking for one of these western juncos for quite awhile, so I was pleased to finally find one. 

Last night I decided to set up the moth sheet. It was about 12 degrees Celsius with no threat of rain, so why not? The Spring Peepers sang in the distance, and I heard a displaying woodcock twittering overhead a couple times. 

All I got for the longest time were midges and other small flies, but finally just as I went out to take down the sheet, a moth showed up! It was a Speckled Green Fruitworm Moth (Orthosia hibisci), my first lifer moth of the year. A Nameless Pinion Moth (Lithophane innominata) showed up right after, another lifer which happened to be my 550th moth for my yard list. 

Nameless Pinion Moth

I had been expecting maybe a Phigalia moth at best, so two noctuids were very exciting! I did end up getting a Small Phigalia (P. strigataria) as well. I had a couple of these last April.

I got out for a bit today as well. Nothing too much  to report other than my first of year Tree Swallows, as well as some Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara).

Bring on spring!

Touring Southwest Middlesex

Today my aunt and I went for a tour of Southwest Middlesex. I had a goal of trying to find the Western Meadowlark within Middlesex County bounds, but it was not to be. I even made several passes of where it was in Lambton with no success! I think that the melting of the snow exposed a lot more open ground for which the meadowlark to feed, so it was no longer restricted to right beside the road.

Lots of driving today (we spent about three hours going up and down roads!) with few photos. A couple highlights which were not photographed include several Rough-legged Hawks (seemed weirdly abundant), as well as my first Killdeer and Tundra Swans of the year. I was hoping to cross paths with a Lapland Longspur, but it was not to be.

Down near Glencoe, we came across an adult Golden Eagle while cruising down Watterworth Road. Not great photos, but my best ones of the species. No flat tires today!

A little bit later, we came across a Northern Shrike, also my best photos of the species. I have enjoyed seeing shrikes this past winter (this was my fourth individual, usually I am lucky to see one!)

After spending nearly three hours going in circles, we called it quits and headed back to London. We stopped into Strathroy, where we saw the Snow Goose which has been around for a few days. I managed to see it a few days ago, but it had been back in a field, so was nice to see it close. I didn't feel like getting out of the car, so no photos :)

My aunt hadn't seen the famous Harlequin Duck in London yet, so we went to visit him. His molt is progressing nicely. I wonder how long he'll stay around. 

Afterwards we went to go check out the Spotted Towhee. I heard it call once, but it never came out into the open. Oh well, it'll probably be around for awhile yet.

MODO hanging out

A good day! 

Middlesex Biggish Year: January Update

We have survived the first month of 2021! It was quite an exceptional month for birding, with many highlights. After month #1 in my "Middlesex Biggish Year", I have amassed 82 species, almost 80% of the species reported from the county so far this year. This past month, my only "critical misses" were Pine Grosbeak and Barred Owl, and to a lesser degree, Red-shouldered Hawk and Lapland Longspur.

The breakdown:

Code 1: 60 species

Code 2: 14 species

Code 3: 4 species

Code 4: 3 species

Code 5: 1 species

Although code 1 species are pretty much guaranteed, there were several that I saw that are usually quite rare in the winter. These species include Wood Duck, Green-winged Teal, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Hermit Thrush, Chipping Sparrow, and Common Yellowthroat. These winter abnormalities are always fun to come across.

Hermit Thrush

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Green-winged Teal

Code 2 species were well represented, and I managed to see pretty much all the expected January ones. Highlights included Cackling Geese, three species of owls (Snowy, screech, and Great Horned), all the gulls, and a wintering Fox Sparrow.

Fox Sparrow

Although numbers were low for the code 3 species, that is to be expected for January. Golden Eagle and Short-eared Owl, two uncommon overwintering species, were ticked off, as was Common Redpoll, a common species this winter. An unusual winter Red-breasted Merganser on the Thames River was also found.

Red-breasted Merganser

Code 4 species were made up entirely of irruptive finches. Although I had scored White-winged Crossbill early on January 1st, it wasn't until a couple weeks in I finally found a Hoary Redpoll, as well as some Red Crossbills, the first of that species to be seen in the county for over a month. The mega flight of finches is certainly being kind to us...only three more species of finches to go!

Red Crossbills

A singular code 5 was seen, a Harlequin Duck first seen on January 9th, and refound on the 12th. I believe this may be the 5th record of the species for Middlesex County, and the first in a few years. An excellent bird to start off the year!

One month down, eleven to go. Although the next month will probably be pretty slow going, it will soon pick up! I can't wait to see what else is waiting to be found.

Weekend Birding

 My birding around Middlesex County has continued. This past weekend I put in some more time picking up year birds. First thing on Saturday, I went to the Fanshawe Conservation Area (where else?)

The large number of geese continued, but I could only spot two Cackling Geese. Hopefully more goose species will be found here in the coming weeks. I also spotted one of the Northern Pintails.

As for the passerines, I found my first bluebirds of the year, which was nice. A big surprise was a Chipping Sparrow coming to one of the areas people feed birds. Despite almost daily coverage of this area by birders, new wintering birds continue to be found!

Eastern Bluebird

My aunt and I went down to southwest Middlesex in the afternoon in search of raptors, in particular Golden Eagle and Red-shouldered Hawk. First was Shield Siding Road, where the hawk had been seen a couple weeks prior. No luck here however.

Argyll Drive was also pretty quiet. We spotted a suspicious eagle in the distance, but it disappeared before being identified.

We were driving down Watterworth Road, my tire pressure warning went off. I pulled over to investigate and found exactly what I was hoping it wasn't: my front tire was quickly losing air. I put my finger over the hole to try and save what I could (turned out we didn't have a tire plug kit, so it didn't end up mattering!) Funny enough, as I had my finger on the tire, an immature Golden Eagle flew over! At least we got our target bird!

Thanks to the assistance of a passing motorist, we managed to change the tire, but not without difficulty! The soft shoulder was certainly not kind to us. By any means, the birding was over for the day, and it was time to head back home.

The next day, I went for a long walk.(~11km) along the Thames River, starting at Springbank Park.

I spent nearly an hour sorting through a redpoll flock, but all I could find were Commons and a few tweener polls.

One of my intriguing redpolls. I left it as Hoary/Common. Who knows, they're probably the same species anyways (or at least, Acanthis flammea flammea and Acanthis hornemanni exilipes are). It would probably be easy to dismiss it as a regular old Common, but it stood out to me as a bit different. I'm always looking for those more "cryptic" Hoaries.

There haven't been a ton of ducks along the river this winter. My three year birds from the walk were all ducks, Bufflehead (basically absent from Middlesex this winter so far), Ring-necked Duck (unusual wintering bird), and a surprise Red-breasted Merganser.

On Monday morning, I got a text that a Harlequin Duck had been found on the Thames on the 9th. The finder was concerned for the wellbeing of the bird, so a location was not given. After some detective work, myself and a few other area birders were reasonably confident where the bird was, so on Tuesday morning, I went out to try and find it.

After searching for a couple hours, I finally managed to locate it. 

It eventually got up and went to feed and swim in the rapids.

Great looking bird, my second for Middlesex. The last one was 2016, and the last Harlequin I had seen period back back in 2018 in Hamilton. It was nice to catch up with one again.

That's all for now. Stay safe out there.

Tuesday Tuft and Other Stuff

Yesterday my Dad and I went to the Burlington/Hamilton area in search of waterfowl, namely the rare waterfowl that had been seen in the area recently.

I noticed a couple interesting birds on the way to Hamilton, including a Common Raven (uncommon this far south) and my first Turkey Vulture of the year! The vulture caught me off guard, but it is no doubt one of the ones that overwinter in the Hamilton area.

We first visited Spencer Smith Park, where a Ross's Goose had been found the day before. Within 30 seconds, I had found this tiny white goose snoozing with some Mallards.

Eventually the goose got up, walked around a little bit, then went back to sleep.

Next stop was the lift bridge and canal on the Hamilton/Halton county border. I found the resident Peregrine Falcons right away.

There were also a number of ducks such as scaup, Long-tailed Ducks, White-winged Scoters, and Common Goldeneyes present in the canal.

White-winged Scoter

I walked to where the canal opens up into the bay and decided to do a little bit of scoping to see what was out there. Within five minutes of looking, a scaup caught my eye. When the scaup turned broadside I realized that it was no scaup...it was a TUFTED DUCK.

Needless to say, I sort of lost my mind because I wasn't expecting to see the Tufted, as it it hadn't been reported since Saturday. I called my friend Owen right away to get the word out. After I got Owen and my other friend Ethan (who has a blog by the way) to post the sighting, I went back to my scope and tried to find it again....turns out ducks can swim.

After all that excitement I realized something...I didn't photograph the bird. Dang it!

Next, I went over to the Halton side of the canal in search of the female Harlequin Duck that has been hanging around. I found a few other things such as more scoters and a Mute Swan along the way.

Mute Swan

It wasn't long before I found the Harlequin Duck beside the pier. I hadn't seen a Harlequin since 2016, so this was a treat!

I stopped in quickly to Windermere basin just to scope out the ducks there. There were plenty of Mallards, along with lesser numbers of Bufflehead, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead, Gadwall, and Ruddy Duck.

flyover Gadwall

Northern Shoveler

Plenty of Double-crested Cormorants were also around.

Green Road was the last stop, and I was in search of King Eiders. I found a female shortly after being there, later ending up with two females and two first winter males. All the ducks were very far away, so this is my best pic (highly cropped).

All three species of scoters were also present, including my first ever adult male Black Scoter.

Surf Scoter

It's not often I see all my target species, and then some! A very good day, and I can't wait until I get back out!

Rondeau Rarites and Some Other Birds

Today I took advantage of my Friday off  and went down to the Rondeau are to see what was around. The temperature reached over 20 degrees Celsius, which broke the record high temperature for November 18th, which was 17.8 degrees Celsius which was set back over 70 years ago in 1941!

I arrived at Rondeau with my birding partner (aka my father) around 8 this morning, and we were treated to the sight of hundreds of ducks out in the bay. It was peaceful until shotguns started going off further south.

I heard the Eurasian Wigeon that has been hanging around, but I didn't find it. Quite a few of the American variety were around.

There were a of couple Tundra Swans flying around.

Gulls consisted of Ring-billed, Herring, Bonaparte's, and Great Black-backed.

We went to the dog beach first, but all we found was a group of Red-breasted Mergansers and six Snow Buntings.

We walked down the South Point trail a couple kilometers where we saw Downy Woodpeckers, Snow Buntings, a Common Loon, and a group of scoters.

I find the relationship between gulls and grebes/loons interesting. The grebe or loon will bring up food, and the gull will swoop in to grab the morsel from the bird! There was a Bonaparte's Gull following two Horned Grebes today.

There are a few odes still flying around, such as this White-faced (?) Meadowhawk.

After Rondeau, we headed to Blenheim Sewage Lagoons. There were a lot of gulls when I first walked in.

I was walking along the main berm, thinking about how it would be neat to find the Cattle Egret that had been gone for a week, when I looked up and saw a small white heron standing in the middle of the road 150 meters in front of me!

I managed to get quite a bit closer before it spooked.

I wonder if I can say that I "found" it? :-)

Another birder, who is in the top three on eBird for Chatham-Kent, came about 10 minutes later, and he was treated to it having fly directly over him! He also helped me find the continuing Semipalmated Sandpiper (Update: later identified as a Western Sandpiper).

I found that the Bonaparte's Gulls really enjoy the back "bubbler" cell.

The birder pointed us in the direction of the 5 Greater White-fronted Geese he found yesterday, so that is where we went next. When we arrived, it was a little hard to find them a first, but we eventually located them at the back of the pond with a group of Canada Geese.

We drove down Erieau Road, and made a stop at McGeachy Pond CA, where we discovered that we have totally underestimated the Cerulean Warbler population in Ontario, and actually tens of thousands migrate overhead each fall.

A very late Monarch was flying around. It should be in Mexico by now!

There wasn't much on the pier, however I managed to find the adult male Harlequin Duck first spotted on the sixteenth. It was much more brightly coloured than the one in London earlier this year.

A few gulls and cormorants were in the area as well.

The last stop of the day was the Erieau Rail/Marsh Trail.

I heard a late Blue-gray Gnatcatcher here, no doubt the same one that has been hanging around for the past few weeks. A number of Buffleheads could be seen from here as well.

It was a amazing day, and I met a few new birders along the way. I hope to be back soon!