Summer Has Come to an End (For Me!)

Well, Summer Vacation is over. Tomorrow I will be back to school, and time for birding will become scarce. Although I am a bit sad, I am looking forward to the trips planned later this September! On the weekend of the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, Nature London is sponsoring me to go up to Orillia for Ontario Nature's Biodiversity Youth Summit. Then, a week later, I will be up in Algonquin Park for a weekend of birding. It should be fun!

This past summer has been quite awesome. With my family, we've travelled over 5000 km (3000 just for the great Violet-green Swallow dip). We've birded four of the five Great Lakes. In the last 2 months I observed an incredible 195 bird species (for comparison I saw 159 in my first year of birding), plus an astounding number of other organisms. I decided to compile a collection of photos from this past summer, highlighting all the great things I was able to see.

Compton Tortoiseshell 

Butterflies, Birds, and Mosquitoes

French River Photos

Ruffed Grouse

Superior Shots

Magnolia Warbler

Clay-colored Sparrow

Red Fox

Common Goldeneye

American White Pelican

Common Loon

Gitche Gumee: Exploring the North

Ring-necked Duck

River Otter

Gray Jay

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

Common Raven

Moose

Olive-sided Flycatcher

White-winged Crossbill

OFO Young Birder's Weekend in Algonquin

C-17 (not a bird, but it was fun to ride!)

Semi-palmated Plover

Northumberland Birding

Lesser Yellowlegs

West Perth Shorebirds

Wood Stork (!!!)

Red-necked Phalarope

Wilson's Phalarope

Arctic, Plains, and the Everglades

Eared Grebe

Red-necked Phalaropes

Evening Eared

Common Gallinule

Green Herons

Long Point Adventure

Yellow-headed Blackbird

American Bittern

Twitch to Mitchell

Well, there you have it. Two epic months spent observing nature in Ontario.

Just another 10 months before I get to do it all over again!

It will be time for the Christmas Bird Count before we know it....

Twitch to Mitchell

Well, I guess it wasn't your traditional twitch. My dad and I went to the West Perth Wetlands in search of one rarity, the Glossy Ibis, but in turn came across another rarity.

I was told last night that the Glossy Ibis flew off, but I was optimistic that it possibly had returned. So I convinced my dad to go, and we made the 45 minute drive to West Perth. When we got there, we were told almost right away that the ibis was nowhere to be seen (bummer), but there was a Yellow-headed Blackbird somewhere. The ibis forgotten, we began the search for the bird amongst the reeds.

The shorebird numbers were up from last time I came, and so was the species count (15, up from 10).

Both yellowlegs, Greater and Lesser, could be found. However, the Lesser Yellowlegs outnumbered the Greaters by about 22 to one!

Greater Yellowlegs (longer bill)

Lesser Yellowlegs (shorter bill)

Stilt Sandpipers were around in decent numbers, and I counted around eleven of them.

This Painted Turtle was crossing the path.

Pectoral Sandpiper numbers were also up.

y

This Sanderling was associating with some Least Sandpipers and Killdeer in the fenced-in cell. On eBird, the Sanderling is flagged as rare in Perth. A noteworthy bird for sure.

There was a large group of American Golden-Plovers that had come in.

There were a couple Short-billed Dowitchers present.

Two Wilson's Snipe were working the reed beds.

While I was looking at the dowitchers, my dad said that he had found a "black bird with a yellow chest". Soon after, we were both looking at a female Yellow-headed Blackbird.

She soon disappeared into the reeds, and we were unable to relocate her.

Just as we were about to leave, another birder told me about an American Bittern in the far cell. After he patiently showed me where it was (those bitterns are hard to find!), he went on to try to find the Yellow-headed, leaving just me and the bittern.

After watching it awhile, I saw it catch a frog.

Then it walked out into the open, the first time I've seen a bittern do that.

It then settled down into a clump of reeds, which is where I left it.

While I may have missed the Glossy Ibis, the other rarities I saw made up for it. If the year continues the way it is going, I'm sure I'll have another chance at seeing the ibis. Great outing!

Long Point Adventure

Yesterday I took a little trip down to the Long Point area. We started in Old Cut, where it was apparently a slow day for banding. The only birds I saw banded were Baltimore Oriole, Gray Catbird, Veery, and an American Redstart. Bird life around the station was present, but not abundant. A Cape May was the only warbler other than the redstart.

Cape May

There was a family of Green Herons in a Blue Spruce near the Old Cut marsh.

Olive-sided Flycatcher was one of the better birds.

I caught and tagged my first Monarch of the season...although she looks a bit weathered, I am being optimistic. It was great to practice the procedure of tagging.

We spent a couple hours at Old Cut, then went to Big Creek NWA where we found a vocal Virginia Rail.

After lunch, we went to the Port Rowan Wetlands. The target here was Common Gallinule (formally known as Common Moorhen), which called as soon as we got there. Pied-billed Grebes and Blue-winged Teal were also present.

Pied-billed Grebe

After about an hour of searching I finally found a group of about 10 gallinules. Many juveniles were with them.

A Least Bittern caught me off guard when it flushed from the side of the wetland. I managed to get one blurry photo as it disappeared into the reeds.

Hahn Marsh was somewhat of a disappointment, however I still managed to find 17 Sandhill Cranes.

I caught this little Eastern Gartersnake at Hahn Marsh as well...quite feisty!

Another visit to Old Cut was due to try for the King Rail. Despite waiting (and waiting, and waiting), it never did vocalize. The 15,000+ swallows made up for it, however. The majority were Bank Swallows, but Barn, Tree, Northern Rough-winged, and Purple Martin were mixed in as well.

At one point a fairly large group of Great Egrets flew over. On eBird, anything over 6 is flagged!

The Green Heron nestlings were equally entertaining.

Despite missing the King Rail, I was still happy with what I saw. It was a great trip (despite being bitten by a Dog Tick)!