Wednesday 19 December 2012

Current birding plans

It is now December 19. The big year is all but over. I have only 6 full days left before I leave the province, and the last two days I will be busy with Christmas things with the family. Therefore, I have only 4 full days left in my big year!

The last few days, Laura and I have stayed fairly local. We checked out a good spot for Eastern Screech Owls yesterday, and after a fair bit of effort we were able to get one of the local birds (probably the female) fly in to her favorite tree, allowing us great looks at her.

Eastern Screech-Owl

The above bird is one of the birds in this pair, taken back in March of this year.

Today we checked out a few spots around Cambridge. We actually spent quite a bit of time feeding the chickadees, and we didn't see a whole lot else! However we did get some Sandhill Cranes in the field south of Grass Lake, which Laura first picked out. A pretty good record for this late in the year!

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What are my birding plans for the next 4 days? Yesterday a "possible" Slaty-backed Gull was seen at the Haliburton landfill. This is a fair ways to drive for a possible bird, but it is probably the only hope I have at this point at adding something new. Unless of course, I decide to try my luck at a Barn Owl search, a prospect that doesn't seem to inviting at this point. 

Stay tuned for news on the Slaty-backed - I may end up driving to Haliburton for it at some point this week. There is also a Northern Hawk Owl "on the way" to Haliburton, a species which I have only seen once this year. I wouldn't mind seeing one again and getting some photos of one.That would be a great species for #300 this year!

Speaking of which, my dad's backup camera which I have been using has crapped out on me, unfortunately. Once again I am completely without a camera so from now on out I will be forced to digi-scope with my phone. Oh well!

1 comment:

Alan Wormington said...

Ontario birder now famous:

http://tinyurl.com/d4xt6b4