We arrived off the train in Fraserdale and drove to a motel in Smooth Rock Falls for the night. The next morning, we slept in by a few hours due to a faulty alarm, but we were hastily on our way.
The day was relatively warm and sunny, with wind increasing throughout the day. We came across a decent amount of birds, and a few good gulls!
The Kapuskasing Dump had our first good bird as the day. I noticed a suspicious dark juvenile gull fly in and land, and about a minute later Alan called out that he had a Lesser Black-backed Gull!
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
This is it in the back compared to juvenile Herring Gulls. Lesser Black-backed Gulls are a rarity in northern Ontario, with only 9 accepted records as of the 2011 OBRC report (though last year about 4 were seen). This was the first inland record for northern Ontario, with all previous records being of birds seen on James Bay or the Lake Superior shoreline.
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
Some key ID features include the slightly smaller appearance, overall "gray and white" look as opposed to brown, light streaks on the breast, an all dark bill, large scapulars and unmarked coverts, and daintier appearance. In flight, one feature to look for is the lack of a pale inner primary panel in the wing, instead appearing dark across the flight feathers.
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
At one point a Peregrine Falcon flew over and buzzed all of the gulls.
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| Peregrine Falcon |
Continuing on with our day, we made numerous stops at all the sewage lagoons and little towns along the way. We especially focused on large, open spaces - attractive for lost birds from the Arctic or prairies. While no wheatears were seen, we did come across several groups of American Golden-plovers on baseball diamonds.
This one group consisted of 8 American Golden-plovers and a single Black-bellied Plover.
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| American Golden-Plover |
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| Black-bellied Plover |
One of the golden-plovers was heavily speckled with gold. It brought thoughts of Pacific Golden-plover and made my heart jump at first. Unfortunately other key ID features point to American Golden-plover.
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| American Golden-Plover |
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| American Golden-Plover |
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| American Golden-Plover |
The group was quite tolerant in our approach (via car!) and we were able to get some great photos.
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| American Golden-Plover |
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| American Golden-Plovers |
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| Black-bellied Plover |
Several stops later, we hadn't seen any rarities though numbers of pipits, larks, etc was good. In Hearst we drove up to the dump and started scanning the 200 gulls that were present. After a few minutes a Thayer's Gull materialized! It was a beautifully-marked adult.
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| Thayer's Gull - Hearst, ON |
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| Thayer's Gull - Hearst, ON |
This was easily the best looks that I had ever had of a Thayer's Gull. Most of my previous sightings involved distant birds in Niagara or on breakwalls.
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| Thayer's Gull - Hearst, ON |
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| Thayer's Gull - Hearst, ON |
Thayer's is a relatively rare bird in most of Ontario, but individuals pass through the northwest of the province with a little more regularity. Thayer's Gulls also retain their alternate plumage longer than similar species of gulls, which would explain this bird's immaculate plumage.
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| Thayer's Gull - Hearst, ON |
It too was tolerant of our approach at one point, and we were able to drive right up beside it. The eye, which appears dark from a distance, is actually an dark amber color up close.
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| Thayer's Gull - Hearst, ON |
Here is the Thayer's standing next to a Herring Gull. Other than the darker eye, note the smaller, thinner bill, rounder head, slightly darker mantle, increased white in the primaries, and deep pink/purple legs.
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| Thayer's (foreground) and Herring (background) Gulls - Hearst, ON |
In flight, the bird almost recalled an Iceland Gull at points. The wingtips had limited dark slaty coloration with large white windows. From below, the wingtips were nearly white.
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| Thayer's Gull - Hearst, ON |
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| Thayer's Gull - Hearst, ON |
We eventually left the bird after all of us had exhausted our photographic opportunities about an hour later. We stopped at the Hearst lagoons, a large and impressive set of ponds that had attracted hundreds of ducks. Two American Coots were my first for Cochrane District. This place has a lot of potential and I could see it holding a rarity like a Ross's Gull or rare flycatcher after a storm.
Driving back towards Cochrane as the skies darkened, we turned onto a side street when we noticed a big group of Canada Geese. Hidden amongst the masses was a single Cackling Goose. This species can be found occasionally in this part of Ontario, yet it is incredibly rare in Moosonee for some reason!
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| Cackling Goose - Kapuskasing, ON |
We continued on past Cochrane, settling in Haileybury (Timiskaming District) for the night. That evening, Jeremy and I heard several nocturnal migrants go over, including Gray-cheeked, Hermit, and Swainson's Thrushes.
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