Charitable Big Day: London Report

Today was the Charitable Big Day, which is a Big Day competition raising funds for Wildlife Preservation Canada. Teams got 12 hours between 8 am and 8 pm to find as many birds as possible. I teamed up with my friend Owen from Toronto. Since we are both high school students, and not able to drive to a place to bird together, we decided that he would bird in Toronto, and I would bird in London. At the end of the day we would put our species list together, and see what the outcome was.

The outcome was great!

There will be two parts to this post, the "London Report", which I am writing, and the "Toronto Report", which Owen is writing, which will be published soon.

Anyway, on with the London Report!

I started the day at one of my favourite local spots, Uplands Trail. Unfortunately, it was slower than I thought it would be, so the day started out average instead of the "bang" I was hoping for. The warbler count was 8, but that is nothing compared to the number of warblers Owen was seeing meanwhile in Toronto (I won't steal his thunder!) American Redstarts, Common Yellowthroat, Nashville Warbler, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Northern Parula, Cape May, and Wilson's added a bit of colour to the morning.

Wilson's

Cape May

Black-throated Green

A few Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were buzzing around.

Thrushes were well represented this morning.

Swainson's

American Robin

I also managed to see an Olive-sided Flycatcher, however it was very brief.

I moved onto my next location, hoping to find a few more species for the day list. I had staked out Pied-billed Grebe and Blue-winged Teal, and I was hoping to catch up to them.

The Pied-billed Grebe was found right away.

Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, and Northern Shoveler followed suit.

Green-winged Teal

There were a couple Green Herons that were moving throughout.

Two Solitary Sandpipers came in at one point.

I continued onto my next spot, where I found a kettle of Broad-winged Hawks and a few Turkey Vultures. A single Red-tailed Hawk was also found.

There were a number of Great Blue Herons seen throughout the day.

I went to Greenway Park in the early afternoon looking for shorebirds. Although I didn't find as many as I would have liked, Lesser Yellowlegs was added to the day list.

Also found was an Eastern Wood-Pewee, Rock Pigeons, and a trio of Indigo Buntings.

The Wonderland Drainage Ponds didn't yield any new birds for the cumulative day list, but I did find a Black-crowned Night-Heron, uncommon in Middlesex, and a Caspian Tern, new for my Middlesex list.

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Caspian Tern

Dingman Creek was next, but it was pretty disappointing. The only thing of note was a Least Flycatcher.

I spent the next couple hours at Westminster Ponds ESA. While it was pretty quiet, I added a few new birds to the list, including Hairy Woodpecker and Pileated Woodpecker. There were a couple other notable birds as well, such as Eastern Phoebe, Green Heron, and Magnolia Warbler.

Eastern Phoebe

Magnolia Warbler

Also present were a few Painted Turtles.

My last stop of the day was Killaly Meadows ESA. While I only added one new bird to the cumulative list here, I did it in a big way. While hiking on of the trails I looked up, and imagine my surprise and awe when I saw 50+ Common Nighthawks at the same time!

I, of course, left my camera in the car, so I tried my best digiscoping.

I ended the day with a respectable 75 species, which is better than I thought I'd do. I deem it a successful day! I can't wait to read what Owen's got to say!

Cumulative day list. Bold means that it was recorded only on the London list:

1. Canada Goose
2. Mute Swan
3. Trumpeter Swan
4. Hooded Merganser
5. Wood Duck
6. Gadwall
7. Blue-winged Teal
8. Northern Shoveler  
9. Mallard  
10. Green-winged Teal  
11. Canvasback
12. Redhead
13. Common Merganser  
14. Pied-billed Grebe  
15. Double-crested Cormorant   
16. Great Blue Heron
17. Great Egret  
18. Green Heron
19. Black-crowned Night-Heron
20. Cooper’s Hawk
21. Northern Harrier  
22. Turkey Vulture  
23. Osprey
24. Bald Eagle  
25. Broad-winged Hawk  
26. Red-tailed Hawk
27. American Coot
28. Killdeer
29. Spotted Sandpiper
30. Solitary Sandpiper
31. Semipalmated Sandpiper  
32. Greater Yellowlegs   
33. Lesser Yellowlegs  
34. Ring-billed Gull   
35. Herring Gull  
36. Caspian Tern  
37. Rock Pigeon  
38. Mourning Dove  
39. Common Nighthawk  
40. Ruby-throated Hummingbird  
41. Belted Kingfisher
42. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
43. Red-bellied Woodpecker
44. Downy Woodpecker
45. Hairy Woodpecker  
46. Northern Flicker  
47. Pileated Woodpecker  
48. Olive-sided Flycatcher  
49. Eastern Wood-Pewee
50. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
51. Least Flycatcher
52. Eastern Phoebe
53. Philadelphia Vireo  
54. Warbling Vireo  
55. Red-eyed Vireo  
56. Blue Jay   
57. American Crow
58. Common Raven  
59. Barn Swallow  
60. Black-capped Chickadee  
61. Red-breasted Nuthatch  
62. House Wren
63. Winter Wren
64. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
65. Swainson's Thrush
66. American Robin
67. Gray Catbird
68. European Starling  
69. Cedar Waxwing  
70. Yellow-Rumped Warbler
71. Black-And-White Warbler
72. Nashville Warbler
73. Common Yellowthroat
74. American Redstart
75. Cape May Warbler
76. Northern Parula
77. Tennessee Warbler
78. Magnolia Warbler
79. Bay-Breasted Warbler
80. Blackburnian Warbler
81. Yellow Warbler
82. Chestnut-Sided Warbler
83. Blackpoll Warbler
84. Black-Throated Blue Warbler
85. Palm Warbler
86. Pine Warbler
87. Black-Throated Green Warbler
88. Canada Warbler
89. Wilson's Warbler
90. Clay-colored Sparrow
91. Lincoln’s Sparrow
92. Chipping Sparrow  
93. Song Sparrow  
94. Scarlet Tanager  
95. Northern Cardinal   
96. Rose-breasted Grosbeak  
97. Indigo Bunting
98. Red-winged Blackbird  
99. Brown-headed Cowbird
100. Common Grackle
101. House Finch
102. American Goldfinch  
103. House Sparrow