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!

From the Lake to the Flats

Some readers may be aware that Jeremy Bensette has recently broken the Ontario Big Year record that was set in 2012 by Josh Vandermeulen. On Tuesday, he saw his 344th species for the year with a Northern Gannet in Hamilton. A huge congratulations goes out to Jeremy for reaching this milestone in his birding career. I think I will need to ask Jeremy and Josh to mentor me for my Big Year attempt in a few years (more on that once I graduate high school)  :-)

This morning I set out to Hamilton to try to observe the Northern Gannet. Keeping with the tradition of the blog, I will come out and say it...I didn't see it! It was, however, reported 30 minutes after I left! Despite this miss, I did end up having a great time!

I first checked out the Halton side of the lift bridge. Long-tailed Ducks numbered in the hundreds.

There were plenty of White-winged Scoters as well, including the first adult male that I have ever seen! I was quite pleased by the photos!

Red-breasted Mergansers are the most commonly seen merganser on the great lakes during the winter months. During the Rondeau CBC last year, on our route, I estimated over 600.

Common Loons are always a treat to see, and today we had around 4 individuals. This one came up about 10 feet from the pier. Surprisingly, this is the first time I have had the chance to get a decent photo of a Common Loon!

Also present were around two Red-throated Loons, first of year for me. The first bird was quite a ways out, but the second one was spotted about 6 feet from the pier! Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough, so I only caught the last little bit of it as it dove. It resurfaced a little further out, but by camera refused to focus on it!

Believe it or not, it was a three loon day! Soon after I arrived, I noticed a different looking small loon way off in the distance. It dove after about 3 seconds, and I wasn't confident on the ID, so I decided to not to say anything to the other birders. About 5 minutes later one of the others said that they had a Pacific Loon out in the company of two Common Loons. It was pretty easy to find, and I even managed a few "record" (aka crap) pictures.

I went over the Hamilton side, where things weren't much different. A few more Long-tailed Ducks and a pair of Peregrine Falcons.

After checking out Beachway Park, where I got another look at the Pacific Loon and added some Mute Swans to the day list, we started to make our way towards Waterloo to look for the Mountain Bluebird which has been around for about a week now. This was the bird that Jeremy tied the record with.

When we arrived, the birders on the scene said that the bird had been seen, but wasn't being seen at the moment. After about an hour of searching the best thing I found was a flyover Common Merganser, and I was ready to give up.

Then, suddenly I looked up and saw a starling flying over...or was it? Upon closer inspection I saw it was the Mountain Bluebird and it had just landed in a tree!

I ran back to the road, only falling twice, and soon joined the group looking at the bird...or at least trying to look at the bird because she had disappeared again! She was soon found sitting on a low tree in the middle of the meadow, or whatever you want to call it.

I hopped the fence (not illegally, since there are trails throughout the open area, but I didn't feel like walking back down the road to the opening in the fence) and made my way closer to the bird.

For the next hour or so, I followed her around as she went on with her routine. Sometimes I would lose her, just to realize that she was 30 feet in front of me hidden in a bush!

Near the end of my time with her, the sun had come out and it was turning into a pleasant day. She gave us some great opportunities for viewing and pictures.

The highlight for me was getting the following picture of her on the ground!

All in all, a great day of birding! I think it is pretty cool to have seen a Townsend's Warbler, Mountain Bluebird, and Pacific Loon in the same week within Ontario!