I'm moving to Newmarket.

It is official as of today - I have a place to live near Schomberg, ON for the next while. Not too long ago I accepted a full time, permanent job as a Biologist for a consulting firm and I will be based out of their Newmarket office.

While Newmarket isn't the best location for a birder to live, I'm looking forward to the new job. The birding possibilities near my new place will be something different - I haven't really birded York Region before, so check the Ebird Top 100 for York later this year and I might be near the top. ;) I will also be visiting Dufferin and Simcoe Counties more thoroughly, as well as the northern end of Durham Region. While these counties are not particularly noted for their huge rarity potential, they do have some fun breeding birds, I guess. And I will be in a more central location for all of southern Ontario with a similar distance to both Ottawa and Point Pelee. Additionally, I am within an hour from some fantastic herping areas! Today I scoped out the area around my house. Within a few kilometers are the Schomberg "sewage lagoons" (basically a couple of storm water ponds) which has been host to Red-necked Grebes and a Ross's Goose the last few days. No luck with the goose today for me though! Red-necked Grebe was a tough one to get for the "patch", so I was happy. And I have a good patch bird from last year - a Hudsonian Godwit from the spring which was year bird #299 on my Big Year!

Hudsonian Godwit - Schomberg, ON (May 18, 2012)

However, I do not start work until May 6th, meaning that you can probably guess where I will spend the majority of the next 13 days! That's right, either tomorrow night or early Wednesday morning I will drive down to the Pelee area and plan to bird until I drop!

Hudsonian Godwit - Schomberg, ON (May 18, 2012)

Mike Burrell wrote a great blog post today about some of the rarities that have shown up already early in the season. Normally April 25 to May 25 is the big peak rarity time for Ontario, though we have already had such notables as Swallow-tailed Kite, Chuck-wills-widow, Say's Phoebe (which I unsuccessfully chased on the weekend), and some rare herons and warblers. Check out Mike's blog for the full recap, with links to photos or Ebird/blog reports of the notable species. 

Hudsonian Godwit - Schomberg, ON (May 18, 2012)

Anyways, I am off to Pelee soon! Visions of White-tailed Kites will be in my head....