Christmas Bird Counts 2021

Time for my annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) blog post, which shrinks in content and length every year since I hardly carry a camera anymore...that's why I have friends who take pictures! 

I arrived in London late Friday night, and was up early the next morning for the London CBC. This is my fifth year doing this count, and my route covers about a 5km stretch along the river. Some years it can be dynamite, but others, like this year, it can be quite poor.

It was so poor in fact that I got my lowest species total ever on this route with 28 (average 32), and lowest individual total with 323 (average 685). Averages are only based on five years of data, but still...

Highlights? Not much! A couple Winter Wrens, nine Swamp Sparrows, and 47 Northern Cardinals were all nice. Lots of misses though. I did add Great Blue Heron to my all time list for this route. 

eBird checklist here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S99036733

Today I got to do a slightly more exciting count, the Rondeau/Blenheim CBC. This is my sixth year doing this count. This time around, I was joined by Nathan Hood and Ezra Campanelli. 

We started with a lakewatch at the VC beach access (which apparently is beach #10, never noticed the number before). It was slow at first, but quickly picked up. Highlights were Surf Scoters, White-winged Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, and lots of Red-breasted Mergansers. Took a bit for the loons to start, but ended up with 47 Red-throateds and a Common. Although I guess the place to be was off South Point because Blake had 217 Red-throats! I'm happy though, my perfect streak for Red-throated Loon on this count continues!

Eventually we had to pry ourselves away from the lake, and begin walking up Lakeshore towards the campground. Lots of redpolls around (we ended up with 95, a new Rondeau bird for me). Tufted Titmouse and several Carolina Wrens were real treats for me, having not seen either in months. A Fox Sparrow that was pished in was another real highlight for our trio of dedicated counters. 

A quick check of the beach at the traffic circle revealed a Great Black-backed Gull, a new one for our list. 

After walking the maintenance loop, which was pretty birdy, although nothing really of note, we began our way down Harrison. I thought for sure we'd get a Pileated Woodpecker, but it was not to be. What we did get however was a pair of singing Great Horned Owls, the screech-owl along Bennett Ave, and a flyover Eastern Bluebird at the group campground. 

We finished our route with 45 species, which we were quite happy with. Nothing too rare, and plenty of misses, but that is to be expected on a CBC.  

eBird checklist here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S99134628

After finishing our area, we went to walk around the campground for a bit. Although it was covered by others earlier in the day, always a good place to look around. It did not take us long to locate several Yellow-rumped Warblers, and the Blue-grey Gnatcatcher that has been around. The gnatcatcher is new for the Rondeau CBC if I am not mistaken. 

We scoped the bay before leaving the park. A few Canvasback among other ducks were nice to see.

One last stop was Keith McLean's CA to look for a couple lingering birds. After a bit of searching, we spotted the continuing Nelson's Sparrow. As we were in pursuit of the sparrow for a better look (which we got), we also saw the continuing Least Sandpiper, another new species for the count. The sandpiper also has the honour of being the only photo I took all weekend.

Rondeau has so far recorded 117 species this year, a very high total. It is still a developing situation, and will be interesting to see what the finally results are.  Edit: final tally is 124 species, setting a new record for Ontario if I am not mistaken 

And that just about wraps it up! An enjoyable weekend birding back in Southwestern Ontario. As much as I love Algonquin (to which I am just about to begin my journey back to), I sure have missed these locations! Although in past years I have only done these two counts, this year I have the Algonquin CBC coming up on January 3rd.

Today it was Least Sandpiper, Nelson Sparrow, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, and Red-throated Loons, tomorrow its Evening Grosbeaks, crossbills, Pine Grosbeaks, and Canada Jays...

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. 

Christmas Bird Counts

As per usual for this time of year, I did a couple Christmas Bird Counts. I do two counts, the London one, which I have been doing for four years, and the Rondeau/Blenheim count, which I have been doing for five. Obviously this year is quite different than previous ones! 

Yesterday was the London count. I did my usual route along the Thames River in the south part of the city. I was unable to turn up anything good however! Just the usual suspects. I ended up with 36 species on my walk, which ties 2018 for the most species I have seen on this route. It is up from 32 species from last year! The weather was sort of mild, which meant not many ducks on the river, but at least it was cold enough to somewhat concentrate the smaller birds.

eBird checklist here.

I ended up with two new species for my overall route list, Merlin and Common Redpoll. Interestingly, Carolina Wrens were fairly numerous. I couldn't find a single one last year! I think it has been a good year for the species.

Carolina Wren (from this spring)

Afterwards, I went to the landfill as it was not too far away. I only found one concentration of gulls, and only four species among them (Herring, Ring-billed, Glaucous, and Great Black-backed). Thankfully, Reuven Martin, who had been doing that area for the count, managed to also turn up Lesser Black-backed and Iceland in a different field, so at least we got those for the cumulative total! 

I did a quick check of a couple spots around the neighborhood later, but couldn't turn up anything of note.

Today was the Rondeau/Blenheim CBC, so I was down there by shortly after 7am. I started at the VC beach, where I was shortly thereafter joined by Reuven. We did a short lakewatch, highlighted by White-winged Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, and a couple Red-throated Loons. I have had at least one Red-throated Loon every time I have done this count, so I am glad my streak was not broken! 

We then began the long 16 kilometer walk up Lakeshore Drive, with plans of returned back down Harrison trail. It wasn't super birdy, but we managed to turn up an Eastern Towhee, a couple Hermit Thrushes, and a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Nothing really out of the ordinary. Lots of woodpecker action, as we had twelve Downies, eight Hairies, eight Red-bellieds, and three Pileateds. 

Downy Woodpecker from a past CBC

eBird checklist here.

With no compilation to go to, there wasn't much reason to stick around, so after scoping the bay, which held many distant ducks, we headed out. Reuven went back to London, but I wanted to quickly pop over to Erieau. It ended up being pretty quiet over there, and the only thing of note was about 165 American Coots.

That's a wrap for another year!

Christmas Bird Counts 2019

This past weekend I participated in two Christmas Bird Counts (CBC).

On Saturday I did the London CBC. My area is a 5 kilometer stretch of pathway along the river in south London. It can be quite good, however this year I averaged lesser numbers of birds, and it was my lowest species count out of the previous years, with 30.

While there isn't too much to comment on, I did have a few highlights. Cardinal numbers were higher than previous years, with forty tallied. Early on I had a Red-winged Blackbird in a cattail marsh, which is a good one on the count. The best bird was a House Wren, which is the second record ever in the 100+ years of the count.

After the morning walk, I went down to the landfill. Best bird was a Slaty-backed Gull, which was found the previous day. The first record on the London CBC, and a first record for Middlesex county. Other gulls included thousands of Herring Gulls, lesser numbers of Ring-billed, and some Great Black-backed, Lesser Black-backed, and Glaucous. I couldn't turn up any Iceland Gulls.

Herring Gulls and Glaucous Gull

Overall, the results of the London count revealed that it was a below average year, but with some exceptional highlights. Another new one for the count was a Wilson's Warbler. Other highlights included Greater White-fronted Goose, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Cackling Goose, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

On Sunday I did the Rondeau/Blenheim CBC with Blake Mann. We did the area in the park south of the visitor center.

We started the day with a lakewatch off Dog Beach. It was quite cold with limited birds. We had four Red-throated Loons, which means I can keep my Red-throated streak! I have had them on every Rondeau count I've done. The one I had in my first count four years ago was the first seen since 1981. As others have noted, sighting of this species are increasing in the Rondeau area, which is quite odd.

After the lakewatch (we also had three Long-tailed Ducks, which was nice), we went and started our usual walking route; down South Point Trail to the washout, then back up Lakeshore to the VC, and back down Harrison. As it has been the last couple years, it was a fairly uneventful. Best bird was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, which was the only bird around it seems! A Pileated Woodpecker was also good to get.

On our Lakeshore walk, we had an Eastern Towhee, as well as Common Grackle. A Tufted Titmouse at the feeders may have been the only on the count. Harrison was mostly uneventful, but we did have a Hermit Thrush.

After lunch, we did a quick walk around the campground, where we basically had no birds! Seemed to be the theme that day...

Blake went off on his own to check some other areas, so I went to check a few areas on my own. I went to the maintenance loop, where the only notable birds were a Carolina Wren and Carolina Wren. I basically gave up on birding and did some botanizing.

I found two mulberry (Morus) species on the loop.

The rare Red Mulberry (Morus rubra) has one of its last population strongholds in Rondeau Park. From what I understand the Rondeau population includes some of the best examples of this species in Ontario. With only a few hundred trees left in the province, it is at risk due to habitat loss and this next species, White Mulberry (Morus alba) which is invasive, and rapidly hybridizing with Red Mulberry, which is resulting in genetically impure trees.

Next I went to the beach off of the VC. I found a few more plants.

Common Yucca (Yucca filamentosa)

Canadian Wild Rye (Elymus canadensis)

I also found this on the beach, not quite sure what it is. (EDIT: pharyngeal teeth of the fish Freshwater Drum, thanks Kate!)

 Afterwards I went to the trailhead of the Marsh Trail, because why not? Had a Winter Wren, as well as some more plants. I saw some winter stems of Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos), a somewhat rare plant in Ontario. Saw a couple other things too.

Swamp Loosestrife (Decodon verticillatus)

Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos)

Prairie Cordgrass (Sporobolus michauxianus)

Afterwards I went to Erieau to do a quick check before heading off to the compilation.
Not much of note, other than a couple Field Sparrows in a flock of tree sparrows, and a Winter Wren along the rail trail.

Common Hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata) was locally abundant in the sandunes.

A few Muskrats were around.

The dinner and compilation was good as always. In total the count had 102 species, which is quite good considering the circumstances. I always enjoy Rondeau!

A hOWLing Good Time at Rondeau

I went on a little bit of an impromptu trip to Rondeau today. My target? Barred Owl. The Barred has apparently been around since December 1st, but went unnoticed to most birders until the Christmas Bird Count in December 16th, which is where I narrowly missed seeing it by leaving the park too early. Thankfully, it has been seen numerous times since then, so I was hoping to luck out today.

I arrived in the late morning, where I quickly met up with others scouring the area. The news they gave me was not good: They'd spent the last three hours looking at every tree with no luck. Not wanting to give up, we continued to search a part of the campground which hadn't been checked too thoroughly. An Eastern Phoebe made an appearance. One wonders what it is eating, but with this weather I'm sure it is finding something.

Basically as soon as I snapped the above photo, I heard Blake yell he had found the owl! I had been in the park for 15 minutes, what luck!

It was perched not too far away in a pine.

Eventually it got up and flew away, however we were able to relocate it, although much further away and much more obstructed. Most birders that were in the area were able to see it.

I was expecting to spend hours looking for the owl, so I was truly at a loss of what to do afterwards! I decided to check the north part of the campground, despite others saying it had been quiet. It was somewhat productive, no Baltimore Oriole (one has been seen for several weeks), but there was a nice group of chickadees, kinglets (Golden-crowned and one Ruby-crowned), Brown Creepers, and a Yellow-rumped Warbler, one of two on this day.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

I went out to the lake, where there was a large raft of Ruddy Ducks.

I walked down the beach a bit afterwards. There were quite a few Canada Geese.

Of interest was this odd looking fellow. I believe it is a Greylag x Canada Goose hybrid. Not entirely sure.

I spent the next little while wandering the campground. It finally paid off with the female Baltimore Oriole flying overhead and landing briefly in a tree.

After wandering a bit more (and missing an Orange-crowned Warbler by the sounds of it!), I finally decided to go quickly check a couple other areas of the park before heading home. First stop was the Visitor Centre, where I scoped a group of four Red-throated Loons out on the lake.

Next up was Maintenance and Pony Barn. Both were quiet bird wise. No White-eyed Vireo today!

Common Script Lichen (not a bird)

Red-tailed Hawk

Finally, I took a quick look at the bay. A few ducks such as Redhead, scaups, and Canvasback.

A successful day!

Rondeau Christmas Bird Count 2018

This past Sunday was the Rondeau Christmas Bird Count. Once again, I joined Blake Mann on his route south of the Visitor Centre.

We started with a lakewatch. We tallied some ducks, including Black and White-winged Scoters, scaup, mergansers, and about 30 Re-throated Loons. Apparently the previous CBC record for Red-throated was two, so that was easily broken.

South Point trail was dead, other than 12 more Red-throated Loons. I think that is the quietest I have ever seen that trail be!

The most interesting sighting came when a Herring Gull dropped a fish. I went over to find this, an American Gizzard Shad.

We next walked from South Point to the Visitor Centre along Lakeshore Road, then back again down Harrison. Also very quiet, though I think that, at least from my observations over the last two years, is that Harrison usually is.

We finished up the walk earlier than anticipated, so went and did another quick lakewatch at Dog Beach. Saw some more Red-throated Loons.

Ring-billed Gull

We missed the Gray Catbird that had been hanging around on our first pass, but on our second time coming up Lakeshore Road, we found it.

After lunch at the Visitor Centre, where we had some White-throated Sparrows and a flock of Pine Siskins, we went to the campground. It was a very nice and unseasonably warm day, so walking was quite easy with the lack of snow. The oddest sighting of the day was an Eastern Comma. No photo unfortunately, but certainly unexpected on a Christmas Bird Count.

Blake went back down to South Point, and I continued to check a few spots in the north end of the park. I was hoping for the White-eyed Vireo or Great Kiskadee, but was unable to find them. The vireo ended up being seen on the count, but the kiskadee wasn't.

Down near the Pony Barn there were a few birds.

White-throated Sparrow

Some plants because the birds were slow.

Round-headed Bush Clover

Oriental Bittersweet

Wild Yam

I also went to check the Marsh Trail where I saw the kiskadee back in September, just in case. The bay was mostly frozen, and there were several hundred Canada Geese and some Tundra Swans. Also a couple of Bald Eagles.

I went to Keith McLean Conservation Area after, hoping to maybe chance upon a lingering Nelson's Sparrow or something, however that was not to be. I did however find many Song (one leucistic), Swamp, and American Tree Sparrows. Also one Savannah Sparrow.

The biggest surprise came when I turned the corner and flushed three Killdeer from a mudflat. I soon relocated them with two others in a muddy part of the field.

I then decided to go to Erieau, which proved to be a crucial mistake, as I would soon learn about a Barred Owl in Rondeau. Ah well, can't win them all, though it kind of sucked to miss!

Not much at Erieau. Just a couple eagles and a Snowy Owl near the rail trail.

Photo by Dad

Afterwards, we went to the compiling at Keith Burk's, where we shared a wonderful meal and swapped stories and sightings from the day. I believe we ended up with an incredible 114 species. The highest ever tallied in one count was 115 I think. Also seen today was a Baltimore Oriole, which seems to fall within the count week period. Although it seemed slow, I guess the birds add up! The White-eyed Vireo was a new count record, and other highlights include the Barred Owl, Northern Waterthrush, and large numbers of Red-throated Loons.

Overall a great day, I had a bunch of fun. Certainly the best CBC in Ontario ;-)

Pelee Big Day

Last Saturday I joined up with some friends and we did a Point Pelee Area big day. I thought it was a huge success! Due to the rain/cold/lots of action, I didn't take too many photos, so visuals may be lacking, but I'll try to get into as much detail as I can!

We started around 5:30 am. At the Visitor Centre we picked up a few early birds, including American Woodcock, a target of ours for the VC.

Our first stop was the Tip of Point Pelee. It was quite miserable at first, especially with the wind, rain, and lack of birds, but soon it picked up. One of our first highlights of the morning were the groups of terns flying by. While the majority were Common Terns, early on we managed to pick out four Black Terns in with the Commons. Certainly a nice bird to "get out of the way".

We managed to pick out both Common and Red-throated Loon. The Red-throated in particular was a nice surprise, and personally my first bird that I have seen in the spring.

Red-throated Loon

Plenty of small birds, especially warblers, were around. There was actually what some people were calling a mini-fallout. I didn't take any photos, but we managed to see probably close to 12 species of warblers, including Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Bay-breasted, Black-and-white, and Wilson's. Plenty of Baltimore Orioles and a female Scarlet Tanager also made an appearance.

After spending some time at the Tip, we made our back to the VC via some trails through Sparrow Field and Post Woods. We came across a few birds of note, including Warbling Vireo, Scarlet Tanager, Lincoln's Sparrow, and Spotted Sandpipers. Plenty of warblers and Least Flycatchers were around as well.

Black-throated Blue Warbler

We walked a little bit of Woodland Nature Trail on our way back, and were rewarded with a flyover Great Egret and a roosting Common Nighthawk.

After a quick stop for a break at the VC, and quickly tallying our total thus far (90 species or so in the first few hours!) we went back out to Woodland to have a look for Prothonotary Warblers. Although we missed the Prothons (in fact, despite trying again later, we missed them for the day!) we managed to see a few new birds for the day list. There was a Northern Waterthrush singing, as well as our first and only Red-headed Woodpecker of the day. It is a miracle we even saw the Red-headed, as I had been looking at a Black-and-white Warbler, and in behind the warbler I managed to spot the woodpecker through a tiny opening in the branches!

Horrible picture of a Northern Parula

There was a nice Canada Warbler on Redbud trail.

 There was also a very cooperative Chestnut-sided Warbler, which entertained us for a bit.

Despite the pouring rain, we did a quick run of Tilden's, where we managed to pick up a Solitary Sandpiper. We also found an active Carolina Wren nest with four young birds.

We got a message about a cooperative Hooded Warbler behind the VC, so we went over to check it out. There was no crowd (very strange for Pelee), so we almost walked right past her. She was all wet, and the lighting was horrible, but thankfully the white outer tail feathers were obvious, which sealed the identification.

Just as we were about to leave the park for Wheatley, we got another message about a cooperative Mourning Warbler on Woodland, so we took a little jog for it. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it had hunkered down, but we managed to see a White-eyed Vireo and a Cooper's Hawk, which were decent consolation prize.

I saw my 100th species for the day, Field Sparrow, behind the Visitor Centre. Pretty convenient to go and claim my 100 species challenge pin!

We headed out to Wheatley, picking up Red-tailed Hawk, Short-billed Dowitcher, American Golden Plover, and Black-bellied Plover along the way. When we arrived in Wheatley we were soaked to the skin, but happy, because as soon as we pulled up the Dickcissel, the rare bird we had driven to see, was singing.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Satisfied, we moved on to the harbour, which was just down the road. There were a few birds, including Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, and Chipping Sparrow. Just as we were about to leave, a Whimbrel flew by, definitely a highlight of the day.

We took a drive down Mersea Road 21, where we managed to find a few good things. Highlights included Short-billed Dowitcher, Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover, Savannah Sparrow, American Pipit, Horned Lark, and Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Short-billed Dowitchers

Semipalmated Plovers

Great Black-backed Gull

Hillman was pretty quiet, but we managed to find Forster's and Caspian Terns. Just outside the marsh, as couple of us managed to pick up Trumpeter Swans and a Green Heron.

We returned to the park, where a couple of us managed to find Indigo Bunting and Yellow-throated Vireo. Also a few more warblers were around.

Northern Parula

Our last trail of the day was Woodland Nature Trail. The highlight here was definitely seeing a Mourning Warbler (we'll just disregard the whole "is that a Connecticut?!?!" thing) This was the first time I have been able to get some photos of this elusive warbler.

And with the light fading, we called it a day. As a group we saw just over 130 species, myself personally seeing 127 of them. It was certainly a big day!

It is going to be another busy weekend...I will be birding the Bruce Peninsula!

eBird checklists:

Point Pelee National Park (morning)

Onion Fields

Wheatley Harbour

Mersea Road 21

Hillman Conservation Area

Point Pelee National Park (evening)