London Christmas Bird Count 2018

Today was the London Christmas Bird Count. I did the same route as last year. It is a long walk, but usually a good route! All the snow melted this past week, so it made for easy walking. It even warmed up to 5 degrees Celsius!

Easy walking...

I started about an hour earlier than last year in hopes of an owl, unfortunately that was just not to be, despite trying in three different locations. No doubt they are there, just weren't wanting to call!

We started the roughly 10 kilometer walk around 7am. Almost right away we had some early birds calling, like White-throated Sparrows, Swamp Sparrows, Song Sparrows, and Northern Cardinals.

We picked up two wren species, Winter Wren and Carolina Wren, right after one another. First the Carolina started singing, then it was quickly followed by the singing Winter Wren.

Numbers were down from last year on waterfowl. Only 190 Canada Geese, 39 Mallards, and 2 Common Mergansers! (We had 400+ Canada Geese and 350+ Mallards last year) I believe numbers of some of the songbirds were up however. Highlights include 48 American Goldfinches, 18 Pine Siskins, 24 Northern Cardinals, 13 Brown Creepers, 5 Song Sparrows, 5 White-throated Sparrows, 4 Swamp Sparrows, and 4 Carolina Wrens, to name a few! We also had a couple unexpected birds, such as a Yellow-rumped Warbler, Red-winged Blackbird, and Peregrine Falcon.

In the raptor department, we had 2 Red-tailed Hawks, a Cooper's Hawk, and a Bald Eagle. Somehow, we missed an eagle last year on the route!

Four species of woodpeckers include 8 Downy Woodpeckers, 3 Hairy Woodpeckers, 3 Red-bellied Woodpeckers, and a Northern Flicker.

We completed the route in a few hours, and managed to find 36 species, two more than last year.

After the route, we went down to check the landfill just south of the city. Although we were not assigned that area, there were a few cool things there as of late that I wanted to see, in particular gulls.

There were gulls.

The majority were Herring Gulls.

 There were some Ring-billed and Great Black-backed Gulls mixed in as well.

We also managed to pick out two other species, a couple Lesser Black-backed Gull and a couple of Iceland Gulls.

World's worst photo of an Iceland Gull...

A flock of 30 Tundra Swans also flew over.

Overall, I'd say that I had a good day, and managed to see a few cool things! I even managed to reach my goal of 200 species for Middlesex county this year (#199 Great Black-backed Gull, #200 Iceland Gull) I'll see what I can come across at the Rondeau/Blenheim Christmas Bird Count tomorrow!

In addition, after the CBC compilation, I went out ad found two Eastern Screech-owls!

Highlights of the 2018 London Christmas Bird Count (of the results that are currently in):

Tundra Swan (30)

Eastern Phoebe (1)

Common Redpoll (10)

Yellow-rumped Warbler (1)

Red-winged Blackbird (2)

Peregrine Falcon (1)

Swamp Sparrow (many!)

Great Black-backed Gull (25)

Lesser Black-backed Gull (2)

Iceland Gull (2)

The Wilds of Algonquin: Part One

This past weekend I visited Algonquin Park with a group of other young birders with the Ontario Field Ornithologists (including Ethan). It was quite a lot if fun and we saw some great birds!

I arrived early Saturday morning to the Wildlife Research Station (I was late getting up, so we stayed in Dwight Friday night), and was immediately overwhelmed by the number of finches! Finches turned out to be pretty common throughout the park, and I don't think we ever really went a moment without hearing at least a siskin or a crossbill!

We birded around the Wildlife Research Station for a few hours, and we were treated to awesome sightings such as a White-winged Crossbill, Red Crossbill, Pine Siskin, Purple Finch, and a Merlin, which is good winter bird up there.

White-winged Crossbill

Afterwards we went to Opeongo Road to look for some Gray Jay nests with the researchers. Again, crossbills were numerous, as were Pine Siskins.

Red Crossbill

Pine Siskin

It wasn't long until we found some Gray Jays, including one on a nest.

There were some curious Red Squirrels as well.

We visited the Visitor Centre next, where the feeders were quite active. We saw Blue Jays, Pine Siskins, American Goldfinches, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Evening Grosbeaks among other things.

Evening Grosbeak

Red-winged Blackbird

Pine Siskin

White-winged Crossbill

Red Crossbill

I was quite excited to see my first American Marten.

There were a couple Wild Turkeys in the parking lot, overwintering birds.

We checked out Spruce Bog quickly after the Visitor Centre, which revealed to be more or less quiet. At least there were a couple cooperative Gray Jays and a Purple Finch.

We checked out Bat Lake and a little bit of the Old Airfield before dinner, but were unable to find anything that we hadn't already seen.

Certainly a great first day in Algonquin!

Blackbird Bonanza 2.0

This past Saturday I happened across a blackbird roost in north London with literally thousands of blackbirds of multiple species, including Common Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Brown-headed Cowbirds.

I captured a video, but since I had the telephoto lens I was only able to capture a small fraction of the spectacle. It was quite the sight! Please excuse my shakiness ;-)

St. Clair Sightings

Today I went down to Wallaceburg with family to run some errands. Afterwards we went to check out the St. Clair National Wildlife Area and the surrounding fields for migrating waterfowl. 

Heron Line proved to be most productive. I managed to see my first Killdeer of the year pretty quickly in a flooded field.

We soon came across a huge flooded field, filled with waterfowl, including my first Tundra Swans of 2018. There were well over a hundred!

As I was scoping out the field, I quickly got on a Greater White-fronted Goose! These geese have been showing up all over the place as of late. In all I counted 14, but there were no doubt more hiding in among the corn stubble.

I was also pleased to find two Sandhill Cranes, another first for the year, in the field.

Ducks, including Mallard, Northern Pintail, Redhead, and Ring-necked Duck, were quite numerous. At one point they all got up and flew around a bit.

After scanning the field until nothing new could be found, we went and checked out the St. Clair NWA. I didn't walk the whole thing, in interest of time, but I did walk the first portion of the trail. I found things such as Northern Shoveler, American Coot, Hooded Merganser, Bufflehead, Cackling Goose, and some more Canada Geese.

Hooded Merganser

Canada Goose (apparent "Giant" subspecies)

Red-winged Blackbirds were singing throughout.

On our way home, we found a cooperative Sandhill Crane on Town Line Road.

As we were driving down Belle Rose Line, my grandma said "was that an owl?"

Sure enough, it was a Snowy Owl, my first for Chatham-Kent (finally!)

I was very happy with the outing! Spring is coming!

More Blackbirds!

The blackbirds continue to increase! Tonight at the local blackbird roost I saw about 100 Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles. Pretty good numbers for late February!

Hopefully I can go out and find some more signs of spring this weekend!