Barrie Birding

Last Tuesday I ventured back down to Barrie to search for the Glaucous-winged Gull. I felt a little bit robbed after only seeing it for a few seconds my first time, so I wanted redemption. Barrie is only about two and a half hours from where I'm living, which is certainly one of the shorter drives I've done on my days off as of late :)

I got a late start to the day, as the weather was a little bit iffy. There were also a couple of delays on 11 heading south. As such, I didn't get to Barrie until a little bit after noon. I certainly didn't need to be in a rush however, because the Glaucous-winged Gull wasn't there when I arrived!

I spent the next freezing few hours watching gulls the and waiting. There certainly was some nice variety, with a few Glaucous Gulls and a couple Icelands, including two Kumlien's and a Thayer's. 

Thayer's Gull

A couple nice wintering passerines made an appearance in the form of a White-crowned Sparrow and Yellow-rumped Warbler. 

Finally, just past 4:30, the Glaucous-winged Gull flew in. I don't know enough about cameras to have photos turn out in such low light, nor was I keen to play around too much as my fingers were frozen solid. At least it proves I saw it!

Nice to get out of the park every once in awhile to see some birds! Although, perhaps I shouldn't venture too far until I have that pesky Merlin that has been hanging out around the Old Airfield on my winter list! :P

I'll be back down home this weekend for a couple of Christmas Bird Counts that I usually do. Will be nice to see some rarities (House Sparrows). 

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty...

Man, I love birding in Algonquin Park.

This past week, I kept religiously checking the weather on my days off, and it was looking like the conditions would be adequately horrible. As such, I made plans with Jeff Skevington to do some birding in Algonquin Park on Lake Opeongo and Lake Travers. It turned out that the weather wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting, but the birding sure fell into the "unexpected" category! 

I met Jeff early Tuesday morning to start birding at the Old Airfield. Nothing spectacular was seen, although we did have two Common Goldeneye fly over, a new park bird for me, and weirdly the only ones we saw on our travels. A fair number of Snow Buntings as well, new arrivals. There was also a selection of some lingering birds, such as Rusty Blackbird, Swamp Sparrow, and a Double-crested Cormorant.

After making a quick loop of the Spruce Bog Boardwalk (nothing of note), we went to the Opeongo docks, where we loaded up Jeff's motorboat, and set out on the water. The lake was a bit rough, but nothing we couldn't handle.

It wasn't too long until we saw our first good bird of the trip, a Red-throated Loon flying by. This is quite the rarity in Algonquin Park, with only a handful of records. 

We continued to make our way up the lake, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. There really wasn't all that much going on, although we remained vigilant. A large (for Algonquin) concentration of gulls on the rocks near the weather station gave us hope for something unusual, but alas, nadda.

Herring Gull

As we reached the North Arm of the lake, we did spy something interesting though. On the water some some Ring-billed Gulls there was a slightly smaller, darker mantled (backed) gull. After some choice words, we reached the conclusion that we were looking at the first Algonquin Park record of Black-legged Kittiwake! (!!!!!!!!!) The title of the post makes sense now, right?

The bird was not in the typical juvenile plumage that is often seen in Ontario, but looked rather adult like in its second cycle (I think, don't really have many gull resources at my disposal in Algonquin lol) plumage. As such, not only is this Atlantic Coast gull mind boggling for Algonquin, but this sighting is fairly significant for the province because of its appearance. 

The bird left at one point, and we thought that in typical Algonquin fashion, it had bailed, but to our surprise, it came back! It hung around for some time, often flying within a few feet overhead, and in the end, it was us that left it! 

As I mentioned above, this is a species of the Atlantic Coast. It is pretty much annual in Ontario, but of course, not in this plumage. It is worth noting that this bird was observed during a period of northeast wind. Perhaps it is associated with the large "invasion" of Razorbills, another bird of the Atlantic, along the Ottawa River that has occurred just a couple of weeks prior. My view of the Razorbill I saw in Ottawa earlier in the month was rather poor, but this made up for it! 

A pretty spectacular bird. It was a lifer for me actually—funny that I got it in the least likely of places!

We motored around the lake for a bit longer. Of course we couldn't top that sighting, but we did come across a Peregrine Falcon, a second Red-throated Loon, as well as a very late Bonaparte's Gull. 

Red-throated Loon

We got off the lake mid-afternoon, did some more birding, and then made the drive to the east side of the park, to Lake Travers. We ended up arriving to the access point around 9 PM, and paddled into our site in the dark. 

The next morning, we didn't have to go far. Right from the campsite, we saw such things as Long-tailed Duck, White-winged Scoter, and Lapland Longspur. Plenty of Red-breasted Mergansers as well. Snow Buntings were constantly flying about.

We hit the lake, and before long has found such goodies as Northern Pintail (rare in the park), both scaup, a large flock of Ring-necked Ducks, and a personal highlight of the day, Bohemian Waxwings feeding on Ilex, the first in the park this fall. 

We set up on a sand spit at the north end of the lake, and watched the skies, hoping for raptors. I should mention that before we even got out of the canoe, a Rough-legged Hawk flew over! It was not too long before we got our first of two Golden Eagles. Other things were moving too, and we tallied 13 Red-tailed Hawks and an additional Rough-legged, as well as a migrant Bald Eagle. All in all, a pretty good movement in Algonquin standards! eBird checklist. 

Not too much more to add, other than seeing a Northern Shrike on the drive out along Barron Canyon Road were a tornado had caused some severe damage. It is a slam dunk every time on the east side!

It was nothing short of an epic 48 hours. I tallied 10 new park birds, and had a great time in great company. Not once did I ever even feel sad about not getting to see that Groove-billed Ani...I think we put that bird to shame anyways. If you put the work in, it pays off. 

A Good Week of Birding

 This past week has been quite good for birding here in Middlesex County. Although the pretty much non-stop action of late October and early November has slowed down, still plenty to be seen.

The week started off with a bang. Late Sunday evening, I saw a Summer Tanager posted to iNaturalist from London. I was able to get in contact with the homeowner, and arrange for myself and Bill Lindley to go see it the next day. So on Monday morning, Bill and I staked out the feeder. It had been seen five minutes before we got there, but was a no show for the next three hours we stood there. We decided to go home to warm up, then come back a couple hours later. Not 20 minutes after being home, I got a call from the homeowner that said the bird was back! About 25 minutes later, we were on it!

 Certainly makes up for missing all the ones in the spring!

Later that night, a White-winged Dove was reported in Lambton, about 500 meters from the Middlesex county line. Bill and I made plans to head out and try to see if we could find it within the county the next day.

On Tuesday afternoon, we went out, but were ultimately unsuccessful in finding the dove. Since we were nearby, we opted to head down to Newbury. Although there were no Golden Eagles to be seen, we did end up having some great birding along Argyll Drive, highlighted by a couple White-crowned Sparrows, a Northern Shrike, and nearly 300 Common Redpolls.

Wednesday was a washout (literally), and Thursday wasn't much better. I just did some local birding. One thing that has been pretty good is the duck diversity in the neighbourhood. This week I have had the usual Mallards, as well as American Black Ducks (and a hybrid), American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Hooded Merganser, and Green-winged Teal. 

On Friday, Bill and I were out again, looking for Hoary Redpolls and Pine Grosbeaks. 

We drove through the Strathroy area, and ended up finding a couple Snowy Owls, the first of the season. This is the first time I have seen this species in November.

Our first stop was Argyll Drive in Newbury. It was not quite as birdy as it was on Tuesday, but we did see a pair of Common Ravens, quite the oddity.

Next up, we tried going up Oilfield Drive. It was pretty quiet at first, but we pulled over at one point after seeing a couple sparrows flitting around the bushes. As we were stopped a single redpoll flew over, not really unexpected anymore. I pointed my binoculars out to the field and saw a few more flitting around the corn stubble, still not unexpected. Then, a few hundred lifted up! We scrambled to get our scopes, and set them up, scanning for a whiter redpoll. After a few "oh that's a white one", but nothing definitive, we noticed three redpolls sitting on the hydro wire, and wouldn't you know it, one of them was a Hoary! We got brief, but satisfactory, scope views. Splendid! I still need one for my neighbourhood (flushed a good candidate from underfoot today, but I lost it!), but at least I can stop worrying about it for Middlesex! Just need a Pine Grosbeak (and Bohemian Waxwing) now!

We traversed a few more concessions, but nothing more to report. We stopped into the landfill for a bit to look for gulls, but it was mostly just Herrings and Ring-billeds. We did manage to find a couple Great Black-backs and a single Lesser Black-backed though.

It was a very fun week! Onward to December, hopefully we can end the year with a bang!

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...

Hamilton Lakewatch

Today I decided to shake it up a bit, and head out to Van Wagner's Beach in Hamilton for a lakewatch. The winds were looking good, coming from the east, and with the hurricane that just passed through, I was hoping for maybe some sort of vagrant. While that did happen, it was still a productive day.

I got to the beach shortly after 10:30, and for the first two or so hours, it was completely dead. Things started getting interesting when a Sabine's Gull was picked out of a group of Common Terns. Sabine's are expected migrants at this time of year, however, they are quite uncommon, and are quite exciting whenever they are seen!

This poor Ring-billed Gull had a really messed up wing. It was somehow able to fly though!

After the initial excitement, things quieted down again for a bit. Then I spotted a jaeger straight out, which proved to be none other than a juvenile Pomarine Jaeger! This individual put on quite the show for much of the afternoon, as it chased around gulls hoping to steal its next meal.

Soon, another couple Sabine's Gulls made a pass with a group of Bonaparte's Gulls. And not too long after that, a group of twelve Sabine's Gulls was spotted! Things were shaping up to be a good day for Sabine's! A couple more jaegers were flying around, and as I was tracking one of them with my scope, I happened to pan right onto another group of 14 Sabine's Gulls! Much to our delight, the two groups of gulls merged, for a big flock of 26 Sabine's! There was even an adult bird, which is a very uncommon sight on the Great Lakes.

The winds were shifting to be even more favourable, and with them came more jaegers, including at least four Parasitic Jaegers.

Later in the day, a lone Sabine's Gull came in close for good views, and a group of four flew right over us observers! In that group of four was another adult. I didn't think to get photos until they were more distant, but others got great shots of them right overhead. In total, I saw 34 Sabine's Gulls today!

Adult Sabine's Gull in top right

After six hours, I decided to call it quits, as things were slowing down. After I left, the group had two more Parasitic Jaegers and another group of 14 Sabine's Gulls.

I made a couple quick stops into Windermere Basin and the Tollgate Ponds. I miss seeing shorebirds, so those were my main focus. I saw Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, Black-bellied Plover, American Golden-Plover, Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Sanderling, Spotted Sandpiper, and Red-necked Phalarope.

It was quite an enjoyable day!

A Day at Pelee

This past Saturday, I did my annual trip down to Point Pelee, the southernmost tip in mainland Canada. Pelee is a well-known haunt for many birders in May, and low and behold, I am one of those birders.

The day started early. I arrived in the park about 5:15, and was at the VC and began the walk to the Tip at around 5:30. I planned to walk the road in hopes of finding a nightjar, in particular, Chuck-wills-widow. Thoughts of this species had been circling in my mind in the days leading up to the trip, and the day before I was to go, one had been found on the road. Perhaps my fantasy was to come true!

Alas, no nightjars were found on the road, but at least I was the second one at the Tip! I even got to see the Tip Tower for the first time. It is a sight to behold...but it wasn't open. Apparently it didn't pass its safety inspection. I'm sure there is a whole story behind that!

Upon arrival at the Tip, I was greeted by a number of Black-bellied Plovers, Ruddy Turnstones, a Sanderling, and a nice Red Knot.

Black-bellied Plovers

Nice bird, knot a nice photo

Soon, birds started "reverse migrating", in which birds will fly off the Tip towards the lake, and then they may circle back around to the mainland. It wasn't super intense, however there were a couple highlights, such as a Brown Thrasher flying in off the lake, and some Tennessee Warblers flying around people's feet. This is when my camera started acting up, so photos are limited.

Baltimore Oriole

After birding the Tip a bit, we walked up the West Beach trail. We flushed a Sora of all things while walking through a wooded part of the footpath, which was quite odd! A few non-birds too...

Ebony Sedge (Carex ebenea)

Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia cespitosa)

Orchard Oriole

Next was Tilden's Woods trail. A few warblers here and there, most notably Canada Warbler and a few Northern Waterthrushes.

Canada Warbler

Northern Waterthrush

American Jumpseed (Persicaria virginiana) was found here and there throughout.

We went next to Cactus Field, but no luck there. Though I must say, Common Yellowthroats can do a mean Sedge Wren impression! We did a tad more birding north of Cactus Field, but didn't get too far as an alert came through for a Worm-eating Warbler (pretty rare in Ontario) on Redbud trail!

We bee-lined it for the trail, but had to make a quick stop for a Blackburnian Warbler on the lawn near the VC parking lot. It came quite close, and even perched on my foot at one point!

We rode the tram to the halfway stop, then got off and began the search for the Worm-eating Warbler. Nobody had seen it in about 30 minutes, but we were determined. Lucky us happened to be standing in the right place at the right time, and it flew in right in front of us! It was quite elusive, but I managed a couple of usable pictures before I got out of the way so others could see the bird (I am a bit on the tall side).

The Worm-eating was actually a lifer for me, so I was quite happy. It was probably the bird that I wanted to see the most this spring, especially after missing a couple prior here and there.

After success with the Worm, we headed to take a peek for Prothonotary Warblers. We were successful right away. I actually missed Prothons at Pelee last year, and the only one I saw all year was in London (so I guess I can't complain).

There were a couple plants of interest.

Large-flowered Bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora)

Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense)

Walking back down Redbud, I was tapped on the shoulder, and told about another rare bird...a roosting Chuck-wills-widow!

I joined the convey of birders as we made our way through Post Woods to where the Chuck was roosting. Took me a bit to actually spot it, but once I did...woohoo! Another lifer, and the bird I had hoped for going into the day.

A Blue-headed Vireo stopped by for a visit.

After the Chuck, I walked around a bit more, before catching the tram back to the VC, where I hopped off and went and saw the reported Cerulean Warbler. It was right on the ground at our feet!

After the Cerulean, we went to the Marsh Boardwalk. A few non-birds were seen.

Midland Painted Turtle

Golden Shiners

Next, we wanted to go to Hillman, but first we checked out Orientation on our way out of the park. Bay-breasted Warbler was my 100th species of the day.

Hillman was pretty quiet. A few more ducks, and some shorebirds.

Short-billed Dowitchers

We went back to the park, as we had word on two more roosting nightjar species in the park, and we wanted to go for the nightjar trifecta. in addition to the Chuck, our second nightjar of the day was Common Nighthawk at Sleepy Hollow.

The third species of the day was Eastern Whip-poor-will, which was sitting on a log not too far from the side of the road! Hands down my best look at the species.

We heard rumours of a Golden-winged Warbler on Redbud. We had been trying to find a Golden-winged all day, and had even followed up on a couple of reports. It was a bit of deja vu for us, as last year, we did the same thing with Mourning Warbler. To add to it, the Golden-winged Warbler was under the same exact same log as the Mourning Warbler, which we had finally managed to catch up with late in the day!

After receiving word of a Kentucky Warbler in Post Woods, we decided to go and try to find it. We searched in the area where it had been seen, but with no luck. At this point my friends I had been birding with all day decided to call it a day. After saying goodbye, I continued up the path. After another 100 meters up the trail, I came across a small group of birders looking at the underbrush. I pointed my binoculars in the direction they were pointing, and low and behold, it was the Kentucky Warbler! No photos, as I only got a couple glimpses before it disappeared.

Since I was walking by the Chuck again, I grabbed a few more photos. Three nightjars on one eBird checklist, not what I was expecting to do on this day!

I made one last trip to the Tip. A couple bluebirds were on the east side.

The Tip is the longest I have seen it in years. As such, four species of gulls were seen.

Ring-billed Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Herring Gull

Bonaparte's Gull

A few warblers were on the rocks along the west side of the Tip.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

After missing it all day, I finally saw the Least Bittern that had been hanging out all day at the Tip, thanks to my mom pointing it out. It didn't look too good.

One last loop of Woodland Nature Trail resulted in a couple new birds for the day, such as Hermit Thrush, Blue-winged Warbler, and Great Egret. By this time it was getting dark, and such pretty much marked the end of my day. Appendage Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum appendiculatum) is an endangered species in Ontario, but it was seen along the paths.

It was a great day, with something like 125 or so species seen. Not too bad given the day and the amount of effort I put in. And heck, two lifers in one day is pretty great too!

Looking forward to see what the remainder of spring brings!