Commence epic birding time

I'm back from Nova Scotia! It was an amazing 9 days spent with the lovely Laura Bond, but now I am back in Ontario. And since I'm back, starting tomorrow I am off for some epic birding!. As anyone who read my last blog post knows, the autumn is a great time of year for insane mega rarities, as well as for a lot of "easier" code 3s and 4s which I still need for the year!

I haven't really done any "all-out" birding since early June. Once I finished school in mid April I didn't really stop birding until the 2nd week or June. Since then, I spent a month working, 3ish weeks on James Bay, 10 days in Nova Scotia, and some birding here and there whenever I could find the time. Yes, I still did way more birding than the average person during the last few months, but I certainly wasn't going all out! And when one is doing a big year, one has to go all out.

But, I'm feeling the urge once again. We are now midway through September and rarity season is starting to really get cooking. In the past two weeks, Ontario has seen Thick-billed Kingbird, Kelp Gull, Brown Pelican, Swainson's Hawk, White-faced Ibis, and a frigatebird! Not to mention the "regular rarities like Long-tailed Jaeger, Sabine's Gull, a plethora of shorebirds, some good warblers (Prothon, Kentucky, etc), and more. And things should continue to keep rocking!

So starting tomorrow I am going full throttle again. I don't have any immediate plans to work or any big commitments coming up for the next little while! Here is my plan of attack...

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September 12: Leave for Point Pelee area. Spent about 3/4 days in the Pelee area, specifically on a Kelp Gull search. Of course, a lot of time will be spent looking for dark ibises as well as rare herons/shorebirds.  Last time that I was at Pelee there was quite a bit of good shorebird habitat, and hopefully there still is. I still need that pesky Ruff for the year, though it is getting quite late for them. I might do a bit of hawkwatching at Seacliffe as it could be a good spot to get a Swainson's Hawk. And of course I will spend some time at the tip doing lakewatches! That Brown Pelican is still on Lake Erie (seen in Ohio recently) so it might make a flyby at the tip. Who knows.

After that I will probably spend a few days checking out the entire north shore of Lake Erie to the Niagara River, then the shore of Lake Ontario until I get bored. After that, who knows!

On September 22nd I am going on an interesting boat trip (more on that later), and near the end of September I am going on a Northern Wheatear hunt to the Moosonee area! It will be about a 7 day trip when it's all said and done, but again, more on that later!

Of course, in between all this traveling I will obviously drop all plans to chase whatever rarity is around. But if nothing rare shows, that is a rough plan of attack.

Hopefully I will have some posts with ACTUAL photos of real birds soon; preferably photos of a Seaweed Seagull.

Now hopefully my car holds up for a little while (fingers crossed).