Brown Booby Birding

 On September 8th, Nathan Hood (remember him from the Cochrane trip in March?) spotted a Brown Booby at Van Wagner's Beach in Hamilton. This represented the first record for Hamilton and the Hamilton Study Area (HSA), so it was kind of a big deal. It is presumably the same bird first spotted by Brendan Boyd in Port Darlington on August 24th, which was later seen flying by the spit in Toronto. This is the second record of this species in Ontario, the first being in Niagara in 2013.

My first chance to go see this bird was on September 13th. As such, I went down and sat at the beach watching the wave tower, hoping that the booby would fly in. No dice. This was the first time the booby hadn't been spotted all day since its arrival in Hamilton! It was, of course, spotted the next day, and on the 15th.

A few days later on the 16th, I went back, this time staying until dark. Again, no luck. This was the only the second time it hadn't been spotted all day, just my luck. It was again seen the next day, and the day after that. I did see a jaeger (either Parasitic or Long-tailed), but that was about the most interesting thing.

Finally, today, I went out again, hoping it would be the last time. Thankfully, it was there upon my arrival! A bit distant for photos, but the looks through the spotting scope wasn't all that bad. The booby is the fourth bird to the right of the leftmost pole on the top railing.

Since it was an east wind, there were a few other things of note. A juvenile Sabine's Gull flew by soon after I arrived, and a bit later a group of three Red-necked Phalaropes and a Parasitic Jaeger also made an appearance. This first year Lesser Black-backed Gull hung around for a bit as well.

Quite a lot of effort, but it thankfully wasn't for nothing in the end!

Early Spring(ish) Birding

This past week has been quite something in Ontario!

Last Sunday I visited the Rondeau area to have a look around. I stopped into Ridgetown on the way, and was rewarded with some Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese.

Snow Geese

Greater White-fronted Geese

Rondeau itself was pretty quiet, but I was able to find a few things here and there, including my first of year (FOY) Eastern Phoebes and Rusty Blackbirds of the year.

Horned Grebe

Lesser Scaup

Red-winged Blackbird

Downy Woodpecker

There was a flooded field just north of Shrewsbury which was quite productive. I managed to find my FOY Dunlin and Lesser Yellowlegs.

Gadwall

Green-winged Teal and American Robin

Dunlin

Lesser Yellowlegs

Last stop was the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons.

Plenty of ducks and Bonaparte's Gulls!

Ruddy Duck

Bonaparte's Gull

Just before I left, this Eastern Meadowlark popped up.

Fast forward to yesterday. I managed to get out to the landfill before the ice storm hit to look for some of the reported gulls. Although I missed the Glaucous Gull, I did see my FOY Lesser Black-backed Gull. I managed some far off record photos.

I also came across my FOY Greater Yellowlegs, as well as a Lesser Yellowlegs.

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Hopefully this weird weather clears out soon!

Hawk Cliff and Port Stanley

Yesterday was Nature London's annual field trip to Hawk Cliff and area. I went last year, and it was awesome. Although this year things were a little slow, it was still quite enjoyable.

The day started at Tim Horton's, where all good nature outings begin :) On the way to Hawk Cliff, we found an Eastern Bluebird plus a Broad-winged Hawk.

I didn't take all that many photos because most birds were just too far away (or fast in the case of warblers.) Sharpies (Sharp-shinned Hawks) were the most numerous, I counted around 30 birds throughout.

The Monarch tagging demonstration really piqued my interest. I'm thinking to order a tagging kit so I can get involved next season. You can sort of see the small 9mm wide tag on this male.

There were quite a lot of raptors (9) to be banded during the banding demonstration. Sharpies, kestrels, a Northern Harrier, a Merlin, and a Red-tailed Hawk were banded.

I found a Common Nighthawk which a few members of the groups managed to see. I've been seeing them for the last few weeks, but I finally managed to get a picture!

There were a few passerines observed including Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (immature), Canada Warbler, American Goldfinch, Black-and-White Warbler, Blue Jay, Cedar Waxwing, and American Redstart.

After Hawk Cliff, we went to Port Stanley for lunch (Mackie's). A few of us went to the beach to see what we could find, and weren't disappointed. Although we didn't re-find the Sanderlings that I had seen fly by before we ate (I was the only one to see them), we did find a nice variety of gulls. Ring-billed was the most common, but Bonaparte's and Herring gull could be found with them. I didn't realize this at the time, but there were a couple Lesser Black-backed Gulls with them as well. A Common Tern was seen as well.

The last stop was Port Stanley Sewage Lagoons. I immediately found three Hooded Mergansers.

Greater Yellowlegs was the only shorebird species found, Other ducks include Green-winged Teals, Ruddy Ducks, Wood Ducks, and Mallards. Merlin and Kestrels were numerous at the back of the cells.

Black Saddlebags were quite common today.

There was a family of Pied-billed Grebes with 8 young and 2 (obviously) adults.

It was a great day, with very few photographs taken (sorry). I'll be in Algonquin next weekend, so I'm looking forward to that.


On a side note, I won second in my division at the Western Fair photo contest!

2nd Place!