Early May Migrants

Things have been slow to show up so far this spring, and I can only anticipate things won't be exactly hurrying to get here by the looks of the weather forecast! Nevertheless, I have gotten out every day for at least a couple hours to see what is out and about.

The first couple days of May were a bit disappointing to say the least. A few new things came in here and there, but for the most part it was quiet. May 2nd especially!

Yellow Warbler

A few hawks were moving through on the first and second.

Broad-winged Hawk

Red-tailed Hawks

Some of the local species posed for photos. Its getting to that time of year where we're seeing baby waterfowl again.

Red-winged Blackbird

Canada Geese

Mallard

Turkey Vulture

I've found a screech-owl that seems to be hanging around. It offered a decent photo op.

The Virginia Rails I first found a couple weeks ago are still hanging around. They've been coming out in the open more, but that doesn't mean they are easy to photograph (especially in the low light conditions of early in the morning).

Vroom

May 3rd finally saw some "good" movement, and was my first day I hit 60 species in a morning in my neighborhood this year. Hopefully that result will be duplicated several more times this May!

Savannah Sparrow

There was a slightly early Lincoln's Sparrow, which was fun to see.

I had a couple more Great Black-backed Gulls fly overhead.

I FINALLY saw my first of year Palm Warblers on the third as well. Took long enough!

This morning things weren't looking great, with temperatures below zero first thing. Despite this, I went out early. I am sure glad I did! It wasn't crazy with new songbird migrants, but I did manage six warbler species (Nashville, Black-throated Green, Yellow-rumped, Yellow, Palm, and Common Yellowthroat).

Yellow-rumped "Myrtle" Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Baltimore Orioles and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have arrived within the last few days. I saw my first Ruby-throated Hummingbird a couple days ago as well.

Baltimore Oriole

Sparrows are coming through, mostly White-throateds, but more and more White-crowneds have been showing up as well.

White-crowned Sparrow

Perhaps the biggest highlight was the good migration of Common Loons. I tallied a grand total of 299! I only fell one short of 300!!

Another highlight was getting to watch a Bald Eagle pursue an Osprey that had caught a large catfish. American Crows were also in hot pursuit.

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully some more birds coming our way!

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!

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)

Call of the Kiskadee

As many may already know, a Great Kiskadee was found on Friday on the marsh trail in Rondeau park. It was first posted to iNaturalist, and was quickly picked up by the Ontario birding community. ONTBIRDS and Facebook messages were posted. It was go time.

Unless you're like me, and are not legally allowed to drive.

So, why is this "Great Kiskadee" such a big deal? Well, this bird is native to central america and just makes it to south Texas. There has never been a Great Kiskadee recorded in Ontario, or even Canada, before this individual, so it got people very excited!

My kiskadee adventure started when my friend Owen and his dad picked me up around 9:15 or so Friday night. We pulled into Rondeau around 10:45 and set up for the night. The plan was to awake before first light the next morning and be there to start the search. Of course, we had to go to the washrooms first to look at the moths that the lights had attracted.

Large Maple Spanworm

Large Tolype Moth

Rose Hooktip

We woke up early the next morning and walked over to the marsh trail, where we began our search. After about an hour and twenty minutes, with no sign of the bird, I will admit I was beginning to think that perhaps we were out of luck (this is a flycatcher after all, and flycatchers are famous for being one day wonders!), but then all of a sudden I heard "There it is! We have it!". Lucky for me, the people who said that were only a few meters away, and I was able to get on the bird for about two seconds as it flew out of the willows and around to the backside of the tree. Woohoo!

We made a few phone calls, and within a minute we had probably around 30 or 40 birders sprinting down the trails from either direction towards where we had seen it. I found it kinda funny, though I know if I had been one of the ones further down the trail, I would have been the one leading the pack! 😜

It took a little bit, but it was soon relocated out on an open branch, where it remained as it preened for a considerable amount of time. It was viewed by all present, and all those who showed up in the next twenty minutes, on the branch. I think I said something along the lines of "Wow, this bird is very cooperative"....that proved to be its most, and only, "very cooperative" moment all day.

Long story short, I hung around for the next 10 or so hours, enjoying everything that the Marsh Trail (well, the first 200 meters or so anyway) had to offer. At one point I also went for a little walk to the front gate and around the campground, where I saw things such as Broad-winged Hawk, Common Loon, and a very nice looking Northern Parula at close range at eye level (Of course, I let Ethan borrow my camera when I saw her!)

It was great to see many familiar faces, and put even more faces to names. Over the course of my stay, I'd imagine a couple hundred people showed up to try and see the rarity. Not everyone was successful, but the bulk of them were!

While waiting for the bird to pop up, we entertained ourselves with the many other bird species around. Plenty of mixed flocks of warblers, vireos, and flycatchers moved through.

Great-crested Flycatcher

Palm Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

At one point a member of the park staff showed up with a large (well, to me at least) Eastern Foxsnake.

I saw this caterpillar in some vegetation along the trail, a Smeared Dagger.

Later in the afternoon, after at least four hours of waiting, the bird popped up and was enjoyed by all those present, Certainly nice to see after hearing it call from somewhere in the bushes for so long!

I think I can officially call it a very successful day! As of writing, the bird is still present, but patience is needed in order to see it.

Jeez, all these rare birds need to stop showing up so I can get to writing about James Bay (just kidding...please keep sending them oh mighty birding gods)