Ontario Birds and Herps

Flamenco flamingo

2012-02-29T03:45:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Laura and I went to Spain. Amidst exploring the old city, biking along the beach, enjoying tapas, watching street performers, and unsuccessfully attempting to converse with the locals, we also managed to get out and do some birding for an afternoon at the Delta del Llobregat. I will post a thorough report of this day once I get back to wintery Canada. For now, I'll leave you with some shots of 3 of the 50-odd species we saw at the Delta.

The most common of all the teal

"Hey cool, its another egret flying by." (takes photos, and looks at them) "Wow, it has a weird bill....oh %$#@ its a spoonbill!"

We saw our first wild flamingos! Sure they may be somewhat common in this area, but we were pretty stoked.

We are back in Edinburgh for the rest of this week until I fly back home on Sunday.

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Big year news.... on February 26th, Peter Middleton found a Slaty-backed Gull in Owen Sound and it was reported to ONTbirds yesterday morning. I haven't heard any reports, positive or negative, since. If it is still being seen that is my number one priority when I get back to Ontario.

Additionally both the Ottawa Varied Thrush and the Sault Ste. Marie Varied Thrush are still being seen. Which one should I go for? I've already struck out on the Ottawa bird twice(!) already so the Soo bird seems tempting, even though its an extra 2 hours drive. Plus I've vowed never to return to Ottawa again.

Update from Scotland

2012-02-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

It is now day 5 in Scotland and it has been a pretty fantastic few days. Obviously we are without a car, so any traveling we have been doing has been by public transit....makes me really miss my car! Laura and I have seen a lot of pretty spectacular views, some castles, and a few birds here and there. I'm finally starting to get the hang of look right THEN left when crossing the street. I haven't really edited many of my photos but I'll get a few posted now from the first day of the trip. Once I return on March 4th I will start posting some day by day recaps.

So what birds have we been seeing? Nothing too out of the ordinary and I haven't seen or chased any rarities since I'm happy seeing the common stuff. However I am up to 68 species so far here in Scotland, not a bad total considering this isn't a birding trip. Many of these are new birds for me. The weather hasn't been bad as the temperature is between 5 and 12 degrees Celsius each day. Flowers are blooming and it definitely feels like spring. However, I am pretty sure that Edinburgh is where they grow the wind because we have seen winds of 35 km/h or greater every day that Ive been here! Today it was 55 km/h. There has been a fair amount of "liquid sunshine" too.

Some things that are definite highlights so far:
-great views at a number of species of tits - Long-tailed Tits are awesome!

-finding a male Smew waaaay up in the highlands on a loch - a bit out of their wintering range

-identifying some lifers by their calls/songs without previously having looked up what they sound like. For example, on Monday we were alongside a meandering creek when I heard a flock of tits/finches. As we were going through them, I heard what sounded just like a kinglet from back home. Sure enough, there was a Goldcrest in the buch! Today I thought I heard some goldfinches, and they were European Goldfinches. Pretty cool

-getting familiar with the gulls out here, many which are vagrants to Ontario. Black-headed Gulls are everywhere (even downtown Edinburgh), and Euro Herring Gulls and Common Gulls aren't shy either. All this practice may make it easier to pick these things out in Ontario. Same goes with Eurasian Jackdaw, Common Ringed Plover, Tufted Duck, etc. They're all pretty easy to identify once you see several dozen of them.

Tufted Duck - they're as common as Mallards in small ponds

Carrion Crow - filling the ecological niche of American Crows back home

Laura on top of Arthur's Seat - Edinburgh, UK

view of Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat

Eurasian Kestrel

male Common Eider

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Big year news from back home:

In my case, no news is good news! Fortunately no new rarities have been found since I've left and hopefully it will stay that way. The other 2012 Ontario big year birders have now seen the White-winged Dove to keep pace. If you look at the ebird standings I am in 4th place but I'm not worried at this point. Other than the Black-throated Gray Warbler which I missed right at the start of the year, I have seen all the other big rarities. This means that the birds that the others have up on me are, for the most part, birds which I will pick up as the year goes on. As well, once I get back I plan to go pretty much all out until mid-June. I will still have school as a priority until mid April, but there are several trips around the province I intend to make before then. And of course, any big rarity is a top priority!

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Tomorrow Laura and I leave for Spain for 3 days before returning to Edinburgh. We're looking forward to sunshine and no wind!

Scotland

2012-02-15T11:53:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow afternoon I will be headed on a jet to Scotland. My girlfriend Laura is currently a vet student at the University of Edinburgh, and with her finishing exams this week now is a perfect time to visit! I will be gone until March 4th. I haven't been to Europe for about 13 years, and I've never looked for birds there, so I am excited to see some new birds. We will be spending a weekend in Spain as well.

When I was planning the Big Year, this seemed like a perfect time to be out of the province for several weeks. Not only did it co-ordinate well with Laura's schedule, it is also traditionally a very slow time for rarities in Ontario. However, given the rash of rarities in the province as of late, I am not so sure about that!

The bird list (see the side panel) has been updated. Good birding everyone, and please don't find any rarities while I am away! Or at least, make them stick around for a few weeks.

Another drive to Muskoka (and beyond), another pigeon

2012-02-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

Today was a very long day....and I got in the door about an hour and a half ago.

Long story short, a White-winged Dove has been sporadically coming to a feeder in North Bay and I've been keeping tabs on this bird for a few days. After several days where it wasn't seen, it magically re-appeared yesterday at the feeder! Barb Charlton, Brett Fried and I drove up to look for it today since there are only 32 accepted records of this species in Ontario. Additionally, it is only the 2nd winter record, with the first coming on December 14-19, 1975.

After the long drive from Guelph, we arrived in North Bay around 10:15 AM. The dove had been seen only on sunny afternoons and the gray skies didn't bode well!

In Guelph, squirrels roam the neighbourhoods. Apparently in North Bay, deer roam the neighbourhoods.

neighbourhood deer - North Bay

The friendly deer even came by the feeder we were stationed at to eat seeds. Yum.

After about 15 minutes of waiting, we decided that perhaps we should follow the deer's lead and also roam the neighbourhood in search of the dove. Reasonable, the thought seemed.

Turns out that was a good idea since I spotted the dove hanging out with some MODOs (Mourning Doves) in a tree just down the road. Well that was easy.

White-winged Dove - North Bay, ON

Here it is doing the crazy neck thing that pigeons/doves love to do.

White-winged Dove - North Bay, ON

After a few minutes of checking us out it followed its MODO friends into the backyard. This photo shows the diagnostic tail pattern that White-winged Doves possess.

White-winged Dove - North Bay

Hmmm....what to do, what to do? We could either drive the 4 hours back to Guelph, or perhaps go to Algonquin which was kind of on the way. Looking for Spruce Grouse at Algonquin ended up winning over the less desirable option of studying for my midterm tomorrow, so onward we went.

Algonquin was fantastic! The Spruce Grouse (grice?) eluded us, but everything else wasn't able to be so elusive. I tried to outdo a previous attempt (see here) at getting the world's worst shot of Red Crossbills and I think I succeeded! Check it out - you can hardly even tell they are birds! There were about 30 or so Reds flitting about the Spruce Bog area as well as a few others heard in other spots. This was really cool as you rarely get decent looks at so many Red Crossbills in Ontario (at least I don't). White-winged Crossbills, Pine Siskins, Pine Grosbeaks, and redpolls were flying over while we were here.

Red Crossbills - Spruce Bog, Algonquin

Of course, what is the Spruce Bog boardwalk without several Boreal Chickadees? These vocal little bastards were not as shy as usual.

spread your wings: Boreal Chickadee - Spruce Bog, Algonquin

The highlight of Algonquin for me was getting reacquainted with Marty, the brave little Pine Marten who likes stealing suet from the bird feeder at Spruce Bog. Marty likes granola bars too.

Pine Marten - Spruce Bog, Algonquin

The visitor centre was somewhat birdy, as usual. Just one Evening Grosbeak this time, but this vocal Common Raven kept us company. Brett had a pretty extensive croaking "conversation" with the raven.

Common Raven - Algonquin visitor centre

A trip down Opeongo road was great - we spent some time feeding the Gray Jays and checking out a Black-backed Woodpecker.

Gray Jay - Opeongo Road, Algonquin

Hoppy McHopperson

Black-backed Woodpecker - Algonquin

A partially leucistic Black-capped Chickadee has been hanging out near the parking lot here, and it didn't take long before we had him in our sights! He was just as inquisitive as the "normal" chickadees, and though he thought about it, he didn't take food from our hands. Cool little guy though.

White-faced Chickadee

It was another great day in the field with even better company. The weather co-operated, we saw our main target bird (the code 4 White-winged Dove) and we saw a nice variety of wildlife in Algonquin. We didn't get our Sprucers, so that will have to wait until next time!

Not much news + winter birding list

2012-02-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

No new birding news since the last update! I haven't gotten out since Thursday since I have a midterm on Monday and another on Wednesday. I've also spent this snowy weekend catching up on rare bird reports for the Ontario Bird Records Committee...done six and counting. I would encourage anyone else to submit written reports and photos to the OBRC when they get a chance...link to the website is http://www.ofo.ca/obrc/reportform.php.

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At the beginning of the month I posted to the listserv about the 2011-2012 Ontario winter list. In the month of January an additional 9 species were added, and 1 removed (Blue-winged Teal), to bring the total to 215 species. This is easily the highest total we have had since the winter list has been compiled. Edit - 5 more species have been added since! See the end of the post

Among the major highlights were:

-A total of 4 Gray-crowned Rosy-finches have been seen in Ontario in the last few months including 3 since the start of the winter birding period. One of the Hepburn's race at Geraldton from January 4 to January 5, one at Rocky Bay (east of Lake Nipigon) January 10 to present, and one at Rossport (north Lake Superior coast) January 24 to 25.
-Two female Mountain Bluebirds have been seen in Ontario this winter. The first was found south of Guelph on January 1 and the second was found January 16 north of Thamesville.
-The other major highlight has been Fish Crow, the first winter record for Ontario. A probable bird was seen January 1 along the Niagara River and another probable bird was photographed in Hamilton on January 4. A single bird was found and its call recorded on January 15 and since then up to 5 birds have been seen daily in Fort Erie before continuing over the Niagara River to roost in Buffalo.

The other new birds are:
-Pectoral Sandpiper (January 1): Wheatley harbour
-Black-headed Gull (January 15): Fort Erie. This bird has been present along the Niagara River since December but first found in Ontario waters on January 15
-Ovenbird (December 26): Peterborough
-Vesper Sparrow (January 5): Beachville, southwest of Woodstock
-Lincoln's Sparrow (January 9): Perth
-Indigo Bunting (January 8): Cambridge

The total list is posted on Blake's webpage: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/maybank/other/onwinter.htm

Edit - 5 species added since
Virginia Rail (January 25):found dead near St. Williams
Gyrfalcon (January 25): Northwest of Crysler which is southeast of Ottawa
Band-tailed Pigeon (February 4): Bracebridge. Was seen at a feeder for 3 days, consequently many birders were able to see and photograph it. Thanks to the Sinclairs for being such gracious hosts.
White-winged Dove: coming to a private residence in North Bay, no longer being seen. Still working on finding out the first date it was seen.
Yellow-throated Warbler (February 1): Windsor

Gulls and rarities at Niagara

2012-02-09T17:02:00.000-08:00

I woke this morning to the sound of a robin singing outside my window as the sun rose and knew that I had picked a good day to spend birding. The Niagara River was my destination, first of all because there had been several interesting species that I "needed" for my big year being sporadically seen, and second of all because I love looking at gulls (actually!).

I pulled into Niagara-on-the-lake around 10:00 AM and immediately began scanning the waterbirds. Among the highlights were a number of White-winged Scoters and singles of Horned and Red-necked Grebe, both new for the year.

This was a good start and I was exited for what the day could have in store. Queenston was next, and after scanning through all the Bonaparte's Gulls (watching a couple of Little Gulls mixed in with them), I parked myself on the lookout to view Queenston, ON and Lewiston, NY. The day was warm and sunny and I was hoping I could find a Black Vulture. Even if I did, it would need to fly across the river for me to be able to count it towards my year list (those are the rules!). After 1/2 an hour, no vultures were in sight and I was getting a little restless. Noisy Tufted Titmice, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, and a Carolina Wren kept me company, however.

Finally, I noticed a vulture soaring low over the trees and it turned out to be a Turkey Vulture. Within the next 10 minutes, 4 more joined it. At one point 2 of the vultures briefly flew over to the Ontario side before heading back to New York. Then, after about 45 minutes of waiting, a Black Vulture flew through my scope view, about 1 kilometer away on the New York side. I watched it for a while as it circled around, refusing to cross the river so I could add it to the list. After about 15 minutes of this, it headed straight for the river! I grabbed my camera and took a series of photos as it floated over the river into Ontario airspace. Success! It slowly drifted out of sight towards the Adam Beck lookout.

Black Vulture - Queenston, ON

Lev Frid soon pulled up, about 5 minutes after the vulture left. Not the greatest luck for him, but he's on his way to North Carolina for a few pelagic trips so it's hard to have sympathy!! ;)

At the Adam Beck lookout I scanned the gulls, coming up with a few interesting things. 2 Thayer's Gulls (1 juv., 1 2nd winter), a Glaucous Gull (2nd winter) and about a dozen Iceland Gulls of various ages were the main attractions until I spotted a slightly smaller gull sitting on the rocks. It was an adult, mostly alternate-plumaged California Gull, presumably the same bird that was seen here last weekend. I managed to grab some very poor shots through my scope. In the photo, it's the third bird from the top.

California Gull (centre) - Adam Beck generating station, Niagara River

While its hard to tell from the photos, this bird was slightly smaller than the nearby Herring Gulls with a mantle that was darker (barely, however). It had a thinner bill with a small, red gonydeal spot, a dark eye, yellowish legs, and a clean white head. In flight there was a large amount of black in the primaries.

This was my 5th year bird of the day for me and I added one more above Niagara Falls. After a considerable amount of scanning I was able to spot several dark lumps on a rock halfway across the river. The 3 lumps woke up, revealing themselves to be female Harlequin Ducks. Two of them went for a swim while the third went back to sleep.

Tundra Swans - Niagara River

After birding the rest of the Niagara River I made it over to Fort Erie in mid-afternoon. It didn't take long before I heard several Fish Crows calling! I was even able to get a photo of one, though not of the greatest quality. At least I can now say that I've seen a Fish Crow this year as my original sighting was heard only.

Fish Crow - Fort Erie, ON

A brief scan across from Rich's Marina in Buffalo only yielded a few Bonaparte's Gulls, so the Black-legged Kittiwake that had been accompanying them will have to wait.

Later in the afternoon, right before sunset, I tried Bayfront Park in Hamilton just to see what was around and to get out and stretch my legs. There was a good variety of waterfowl including several Canvasbacks.

Canvasback - Bayfront Park, Hamilton

Mourning Doves are actually quite beautiful when you see them up close.

Mourning Dove - Bayfront Park, Hamilton

Lots of geese around, though no rare geese mixed in with all the Canadas.

Canada Goose - Bayfront Park, Hamilton

I was surprised to see this 1st winter male King Eider hanging out with a bunch of Mallards. If I recall a King Eider had been reported here recently - this must be him!

King Eider - Bayfront Park, Hamilton

It was an extremely successful day at the river. I added another rarity for the tally with the Black Vulture (code 4), several locally uncommon birds in the California Gull (code 3) and Harlequin Ducks (code 3), as well as Tufted Titmouse (code 2), Red-necked Grebe (code 1) and Horned Grebe (code 1). I still need that darn kittiwake but that will have to wait til I get back from Scotland.

Late afternoon trip to Brampton

2012-02-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

After completing a bit of homework today, I decided to travel to Brampton to look for the reported Ross's Goose. Unfortunately traffic did not work in my favor due to an accident on the 410, forcing me to travel through Brampton to get to Professor's Lake. I arrived at around 5:00 PM and immediately found the Ross's Goose (code 3) swimming with a bunch of Canadas.

The ~1000 geese were taking off and heading north throughout the 15/20 minutes I was there, until about 100 geese were left.

Eventually the Ross's took off, disappearing into to the north. I didn't stick around long enough to see if it would return to the lake to roost for the night.

The Ross's Goose makes 130 birds for the year. The only regular waterfowl that I still haven't seen this year include Snow Goose (code 1), Eurasian Wigeon (code 3), Blue-winged Teal (code 1), and Harlequin Duck (code 3). Off to Niagara tomorrow!

Are you sick of the Barred Owl yet?

2012-02-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

If so, well too bad! My dad was interested in taking some photos of it, so we headed up to Guelph Lake today. Fortunately it wasn't too hard to find (just look for photographers pointing their lenses up a tree) and we were both happy to get some decent photos.

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Current birding plans....
With no pressing rarities in the province, I have taken it easy a bit the last couple of days and done schoolwork. I have a pretty busy couple of weeks before I go to Scotland but I do have some plans in the works.

Tomorrow morning I am going all the way to Brampton to hopefully see the Ross's Goose that is present every morning and evening. Thursday I don't have class, so if I can catch up on all my schoolwork by then, I am hoping to go to Niagara for the day. Recent sightings of birds I still need include Black-legged Kittiwake, California Gull, possible Mew Gull, etc. Finally, I am hoping to go to Sault Ste. Marie on the weekend (if the Varied Thrush is still around). Should be fun.

Driving to Muskoka for a pigeon. Twice.

2012-02-05T14:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, I was just getting out of bed when I got word from Al Sinclair about a Band-tailed Pigeon that was coming to his feeder in Bracebridge. I immediately rounded up David Bell and Reuven Martin and we were on the road almost immediately. Along the way, Al was giving me constant updates of the bird as I pushed the pedal to the metal. We did see a few birds along the way, including an adult Golden Eagle slowly crossing Mavis Rd. while we were stopped in traffic, and 4 separate Northern Shrikes along HWY 400 and 11. At around 2:00 PM, Al emailed me that the bird had flown into some hemlocks and he was going to wait pursuing it until we arrived. Around 3:15 we rolled into the driving, but despite a few hours of searching his property as well as waiting at the feeder, the pigeon didn't show. Dejected, we headed back to Guelph. That evening I was determined to try again the following morning.

This morning, after sleeping in by accident, David and I left Guelph to try for the pigeon once again. After carpooling with Andrew Keaveney and Sarah-Jane Stranger-Guy we arrived around 10:30. Jean Iron and Ron Pittaway were already there, and Jean informed us that it was still present but hidden in some branches. Eventually Jean's sharp eye picked out a pigeon like shape and got everyone else on it. My first view of Ontario's 12th Band-tailed Pigeon:

The pigeon spent its entire time while we there resting in the tree, occasionally eating snow. We were hoping that it would go to the bird feeders so that we could have better looks at it, but it stayed in place. It may be "only" a pigeon, but I was happy to see one in Ontario! The last record was in 2003.

The bird was a juvenile and can be identified by its bright yellow bill, yellow feet, large size, and tail band, among other things.

Band-tailed Pigeon is a code-5 rarity - my 6th rarity of the year so far. With the Golden Eagle and Band-tailed Pigeon, my year list is now 129 and I am still missing species like Common Grackle, Chipping Sparrow, Great Blue Heron, etc.

Come on, spring

2012-02-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

We may be currently experiencing one of the mildest winters in recent memory, but I've just about reached that point where I can't wait for spring to come! Perhaps it has to do with my recent trip to the north, or the fact that I wasn't able to make it south this winter, or because I've spent the last 4 days more or less couped up inside doing "important" things like studying. I heard on the radio the other day that January 30th is usually the coldest day of the year but fortunately, we are now past that. Not sure if there's any truth to that, but it seemed about right (and I'm too lazy to actually look it up). At any rate, the days have been growing longer. The shortest day of the year, usually in mid to late December, is apparently about 8 hours and 56 minutes long here in Guelph. Ouch! Currently the day length is just under 10 hours and its only going up from here! So while spring may seem a long ways off...there is hope. I'm itching for the day when I see my first grackle singing (or grackling, or making that sound of a rusty fence or whatever) from the top of a tree. Or perhaps seeing the first familiar Killdeer pecking at the edge of a muddy field.

Some of the first spring "migrants" have already shown up, perhaps a little too eagerly. Flocks of Northern Pintails and other ducks were reported about a week ago when we had a bout of warmish weather. It won't be long before the musical songs of Horned Larks can be heard in most agricultural areas. And my favorite sign of spring....the first Spring Peeper in a thawing out vernal pond. Usually I find my first amphibians of the spring sometime in mid-March.

Here are a few photos of some local herps and other organisms which signal the beginning of spring to me. Hang in there, its just around the corner...

Often the first "leps" seen - Mourning Cloak (from March 15)

N. Ribbon Snake out for the first bask of the year (March 15)

one of the first plants of the year - Skunk Cabbage (March 16)

Four-toed Salamander (March 24)

polyploid Ambystoma about to take the first plunge of the year - March 31

Northern Ribbon Snake basking - April 1

Love is in the air - April 7

Spotted Salamander mating dance - April 4

Northern trip stuff and another owl for the list

2012-02-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

I had a number of target species to get on the northern trip. The following is that list and how successful I was at seeing them.

Varied Thrush

Spotted Towhee

Harris’s Sparrow

Gray-crowned Rosy-finch

These were the four rarities that we hoped to see and the Gray-crowned Rosy-finch (code 5) and Spotted Towhee (code 4) were the main reason for this trip! Fortunately we saw both of them, immediately making the trip worthwhile. The Harris's Sparrow (code 3) was nice to get early on. I will probably see Harris's Sparrows when I go north in the fall (they migrate through in small numbers), but even still I don't want to have to worry about this bird later in the year! We missed the Varied Thrush (code 3) in Ottawa which was really depressing since it was my second unsuccessful try for that individual. Two days after passing through Sault Ste. Marie we heard about a Varied Thrush near the Soo that had been present for several weeks....that's how it goes I guess.

Ruffed Grouse

Spruce Grouse

Sharp-tailed Grouse

The grouse weren't major targets on the trip, simply because I will pick them all up at various points throughout the year. We were hoping that we would stumble upon them at some point on the trip but didn't have really high expectations. We did see Ruffed Grouse (code 1) in a number of locations, but missed the other two species.

Great Gray Owl

Boreal Owl

Northern Hawk-Owl

Barred Owl

There were extremely few small mammals up north and that would explain the paucity of owls. We missed all three of the northern species! I already had seen Great Gray Owl (code 3) in Kingsville and was really hoping to get the other species. We tried several times for calling Boreal Owls (code 3) in suitable habitat, but it was perhaps too early in their breeding season and we were unsuccessful. Northern Hawk-owl (code 3) was one that I thought we would stumble across as we drove backroads in the north, but that was not to be. We had a probable Barred Owl fly over the road in the north but didn't get a great look. Fortunately, I picked up Barred Owl yesterday in Guelph (scroll down the post).

N. Three-toed Woodpecker

Black-backed Woodpecker

We did get Black-backed Woodpecker in Sault Ste. Marie, but struck out on Three-toeds in several locations. Weather definitely played a factor.

Gray Jay

Bohemian Waxwing

Boreal Chickadee

We got Gray Jays in several locations and a big flock of Bohemian Waxwings in Sault Ste. Marie. Surprisingly we didn't get any Boreal Chickadees in the boreal forest, but I did see a single bird in Algonquin on the way back.

Pine Grosbeak

Hoary Redpoll

Evening Grosbeak

These were the remaining 3 regular finches I needed to see and we saw many individuals of all three species (all were code 2 birds). Getting the northern subspecies of Hoary Redpoll (Hornemann's Hoary Redpoll) was a great bird, even if it doesn't count as a year bird.

So when it all comes down to it, I got 3 of my 4 main targets, and 8 of my 15 secondary targets. Not great, but at least I saw the birds that mattered the most for my big year! I should get multiple opportunities to see all the secondary targets I missed.

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Yesterday I spend a couple hours in the morning doing some local birding around Guelph. The Barred Owl which had been hanging out at Guelph Lake all winter wasn't too hard to find and Matt Strimas-Mackey and I spent some time watching it hunt in the early morning sun. Very cool bird!

Barred Owl - Guelph Lake

I tried unsuccesfully for a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in Guelph (not a bird I'll miss this year, but a cool bird to get in the winter), and succesfully saw my first Northern Pintail of the year, a drake. Brings the list up to 127.

Northern Pintail - Guelph

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You may recall at the beginning of the year that I made a goal of seeing all 10 regular finches and 10 regular owls early in the year. I have now seen all the finches (plus the bonus rosy-finch) and 8 of the 10 owls. I'll probably head north in April to get Boreal Owls calling on territory as well as trying for Three-toed Woodpeckers again.

There are several other birds that I hope to see before I leave for Scotland on February 16. They are:

Northern Hawk-owl

Black-legged Kittiwake (Fort Erie bird still being seen)

California Gull (one was seen on the weekend at the Niagara River - could very well be around)

Varied Thrush (might have to drive to the Soo for this one)

Tufted Titmouse (not really rare, but I should get them in Niagara)

Harlequin Duck (female bird occasionally being seen in Niagara)

Snow Goose (several birds are in the province, hopefully I can see the one in Hamilton)

Sharp-tailed Grouse (would be a life bird for me. Will try for them when I am back in the Soo)

I have to keep forcing myself to stay focused and only look for winter specialties and rarities. I could easily go to Long Point and get 5 or more year birds, but they would be all common birds that I will pick up later. If I spend time doing that I may miss a great rarity because of that.

This post is getting fairly long-winded so I think I'll end it here.

Northern Trip summary and photos (part 2 of 2)

2012-01-31T12:52:00.000-08:00

Barb sent me a few of her photos so I thought I would post them. While we were snowshoeing in Pukaskwa we were surprised to see several Pine Grosbeaks hopping on the ground. Closer inspection revealed that they were foraging on a herbaceous plant which Mike IDed as Bush Honeysuckle - Diervilla lonicera. The snow was high enough that the birds could reach the seed pods. We wondered why they would waste their time on this food source when feeders with ample seed were just down the road. Perhaps they were obtaining different nutrients from this plant? Barb managed to get some shots of the birds tracks in the snow while they foraged.

Pine Grosbeak tracks - Pukaskwa National Park

A photo of yours truly photographing grosbeaks in White River...

Back to the trip report.................

The following morning was very windy, nixing any chances we had at getting a Three-toed Woodpecker. After contemplating our options we left Marathon and headed north once again. We had received word from several people that a second Gray-crowned Rosy-finch was in the area. This one had shown up at a feeder in Rossport, and since it was on the way to the rosy-finch in Macdiarmid, we were hoping to get two rosy finches in one day. Had it ever been done before in Ontario? Our bad luck, which had started when we struck out on Three-toed Woodpeckers the day before, followed us throughout the day. Long story short, we missed both rosy-finches! Rossport was a really nice town to visit and it has that rarity-attracting vibe to it. I'll definitely visit again in the fall when I spend a few weeks along the north shore of Lake Superior. Despite reassurance from the Michon's in MacDiarmid that the rosy-finch was due to show up at the feeders any minute, the bird didn't cooperate. I did photograph this interesting redpoll that looked bigger and paler than the rest. I'm not very good with redpolls so if anyone has any thoughts as to the species/subspecies I would appreciate it. I was originally thinking it was one of the Hoaries but the red on the breast seems extensive and there is a bit of streaking on the undertail coverts. The bird was huge and the streaking on the sides is very fine...

Harold Michon convinced us to come back the next morning - "Coffee will be on at 8:30!" - so we made the long drive to Geraldton to look for a hotel for the night. We contemplated whether we would cut our losses and continue on, or if we would backtrack and try once again for the finch. The decision was made easy when I discovered that I had forgotten my phone back at the Michon's house!

We backtracked the following morning and showed up right on time in MacDiarmid. Almost immediately I saw the rosy-finch as it came to the feeder! Our luck had turned! After a bit of waiting it hopped up onto a branch next to the feeder and I was able to get a number of shots with my 300 mm. The below shot has not been cropped - goes to show how close the bird was!

Gray-crowned Rosy-finch - Macdiarmid, ON

On top of that, somebody stopping by to visit the Michons found my phone, undamaged, on the driveway! What a great start to the day.

We arrived in Longlac later that morning and were worried that we wouldn't see the Spotted Towhee since it had been more easily seen early in the morning. As we arrived, Fred Jennings informed us that he had seen it 15 minutes prior to our arrival. His wife, Penny, put on a pot of coffee and Barb and I stationed ourselves at various locations inside with clear views of the towhee's favorite haunts. Eventually Fred came bursting through the doors and said that Barb was watching the towhee at the feeder! I arrived, saw the bird, and even managed to get a few shots through the window. This was probably the high point of the trip.

Spotted Towhee - Longlac, ON

The Jennings made us a great lunch and another pot of coffee, then we were on our way. We didn't see much the rest of the day although we saw our first Ruffed Grouse of the year. We spent some time searching for owls near Kapuskasing and Cochrane but came up empty again. Nevertheless it was a fantastic day as we were now 3 for 3 on rarities.

Day 5 was cold but calm as we spent the morning birding some of the side roads outside of Cochrane. I predicted we would get 4 or 5 species, but amazingly we came up with 8 (I could probably see more species in my small suburban yard in Guelph - goes to show how slow the boreal forest is in winter). Pine Grosbeaks were conspicuous once again.

Pine Grosbeak (picture taken in Marathon)

We did come across a family of 4 Gray Jays which are always nice to see. Before that, our only sightings this trip was a heard-only bird in Pukaskwa and a single bird flying over the highway.

Gray Jay - Cochrane, ON

The weather had started to turn so we drove south towards Ottawa. Somewhere along the way I got the "bright" idea that if we traveled through Algonquin, we would have 2 hours of light to try for Spruce Grouse and Boreal Chickadee. We arrived around 3:30 PM at the Spruce Bog boardwalk where snowy but relatively calm weather conditions awaited us. After a brief run-in with several members of the University of Guelph wildlife club we began our search. 2 hours later, the closest we had gotten to our grouse was some fresh tracks. I did see and hear a Boreal Chickadee and we watched a Pine Marten stealing suet from the feeder. I bet the woodpeckers were pissed.

Pine Marten - Spruce Bog Boardwalk (photo by Barb Charlton)

From here we made the long drive to Algonquin where we were staying with the Toews for the night. They were very hospitable and it was great to have a place to stay for the night!

The following morning Brendan and Kim Toews waited at the feeders with us for several hours but the Varied Thrush didn't show. Quite a few Blue Jays kept us entertained with their antics however. It is too bad that Blue Jays are so common as we tend to overlook this beautiful species.

Blue Jay - Limoges, ON

The Toews's took us on a tour of the concessions around Casselman and I added Lapland Longspur to the year list. We decided to not chase a hawk-owl which was farther east and instead try for the one near Perth that was along our route home. Bad move - we didn't see it. The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful bird wise and I rolled into Guelph around 11:30 PM. What a whirlwind trip!

Northern Trip summary and photos (part 1)

2012-01-30T10:59:00.000-08:00

Late last night I finally arrived back in Guelph after the whirlwind trip to the north. There were many ups and downs on this trip....but we stayed (mostly) positive and saw a lot of good birds!

Like I said in the previous post, Barb and I arrived in Sault Ste. Marie on January 24 around noon, giving us all afternoon to bird the city. Our first stop was in the north-east section of town along Fish Hatchery Road to search for the Black-backed Woodpecker. This bird was almost too easy as we found a very visible female only about 10 meters off of the road.

The bird was pretty good at keeping most of its body hidden behind branches at all time, making photography a challenge.

Black-backed Woodpecker - Sault Ste. Marie, ON

Extensive scaling was visible on most of the spruce trees in the area. Various Soo birders had seen a male bird at this location meaning that at least two birds are wintering here.

woodpecker scaling - Sault Ste. Marie, ON

While here we saw our first Pine Grosbeaks of the trip! They would prove to be one of the more common birds, being seen and heard at almost every stop we made on this trip.

Dave Bell guided us (via texting) throughout the afternoon. This day in the Soo was an early highlight of the trip as we saw just about everything that was around. A stroll around the Locks produced quite a few good birds (and mammals), including this Red Fox which apparently has become quite tame.

Red Fox - Sault Ste. Marie, ON

While we were checking out the fox we heard the distinctive calls of a White-throated Sparrow near a feeder. According to Dave this bird has been wintering in the area.

White-throated Sparrow - Sault Ste. Marie, ON

This bird feeder consisted of an open jar of peanut butter fastened to a tree - obviously the chickadees liked it!

Black-capped Chickadee - Sault Ste. Marie, ON

The highlight for me at the Locks was the flock of Bohemian Waxwings that flew over us several times. I counted all the specks in the frame (about half of the flock) and came up with 120-ish birds. So the flock was probably close to 250.

Bohemian Waxwings - Sault Ste. Marie, ON

Barb and I found this very obliging owl. I'm sure its a new species for Ontario, if only we could identify it...

We also found a flock of redpolls containing at least 1 Hoary as well as a decent variety of waterfowl. That night we stayed at the Bell's place and feasted on a fantastic steak dinner they put on. Living the dream!

After the Soo, we had several of our targets already in the bag and so we left early to get to Marathon in decent time. Along the way we stopped in several towns to check the feeders. White River was particularly good and numbers of both Grosbeaks were around town. Evening was a year bird for both of us.

male Evening Grosbeak - White River, ON

female Evening Grosbeak - White River, ON

We spent a bit of time photographing the Pine Grosbeaks here - us southerners never got sick of them the whole trip (ok maybe a bit near the end).

female Pine Grosbeak - White River, ON

male Pine Grosbeak - White River, ON

We arrived in Marathon around 1:00 PM and immediately went to the feeder where the Harris's Sparrow was over-wintering. Michael Butler had checked in on it previously for us and reported that it was still present. As soon as we arrived, Barb went inside to chat with the homeowners, only to come back outside to see me taking photos of the bird. Nice bird and our first rarity of the trip in the bag! A few Cedar Waxwings were present which was also a year bird.

Harris's Sparrow - Marathon, ON

Later, Michael told us that we were really lucky to see the Harris's Sparrow - apparently it can be extremely difficult to locate during the middle of the day.

That afternoon after checking his feeders (tons of the usual finches including both redpolls), Michael gave us a bit of a tour for Three-toed Woodpeckers in Pukawska National Park. He has seemingly got it down to a science, but despite our best efforts we couldn't turn one up! The wind was a little strong and the birds are usually more easily found in the morning. However this snow-shoe clad hike was one of my trip highlights. Its not everyday that one gets to explore pristine spruce forest in the north, and it was fantastic to not hear other people or cars as we walked. The only year bird we got here was Gray Jay. I was happy to spot a Northern Shrike at the top of one of the trees which may explain why we didn't see any Boreal Chickadees at this location.

Mike and I at Pukawska National Park

Mike and his wife Martha cooked us an amazing chili dinner that evening and good conversation, stories, and maybe a little gossip flowed over wine. Throughout our stay at their place they were gracious hosts and very welcoming. Barb and I felt at home here!

That evening we went out for another snow-shoe trek to search for owls. While we were unsuccessful in that regard, it was great to explore the winter wonderland with the stars in the night sky appearing a lot brighter than they do at home!

The following morning after eating a breakfast consisting of fresh fruit, sausages, bacon, eggs, and coffee, I took the time to take some shots of Mike's feeder birds. I couldn't get any shots of the Hornemann's that were present the previous afternoon, but I did get a chance to photograph "Mr. Creamy", a leucistic redpoll. Any thoughts on the species?

leucistic redpoll - Marathon, ON

This bird we were debating whether it was a southern Hoary Redpoll or a Hornemann's. It did appear larger than the nearby redpolls and could very well be a female Hornemann's.

possible Hornemann's Hoary Redpoll - Marathon, ON

Update after 3 days in the north

2012-01-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

Barb and I are currently in a motel in the quaint town of Geraldton, located northeast of Thunder Bay along highway 11. We have had a whirlwind 3 days and have another 3 crazy days ahead of us! I will post a full report when I get back, so this brief report will do for now.

On Tuesday we made good time, getting into the Soo around noon. Dave Bell was our virtual tour guide - telling us where to go via text messaging. He did a great job and helped guide us to a location where Black-backed Woodpeckers were seen. We got a nice female as well as tons of finches as a bonus!
Dave directed us to Bellevue Park and the Locks among other places. Among the highlights were a huge flock of Bohemian Waxwings (250+) and our first Hoary Redpoll. I didn't notice it until looking at photos later.

Black-backed Woodpecker - Sault Ste. Marie, ON

That night we stayed at his parents place, enjoying their hospitality, gourmet steak dinner, and wine. Off to Marathon in the morning!

We got to Marathon and immediately saw the Harris's Sparrow that was coming to a feeder. After meeting up with Michael Butler we got settled then headed out to search for Three-toed Woodpeckers - unsuccessfully I might add. On our evening snowshoe trek we unfortunately couldn't turn up any owls despite our best efforts. The wind picked up and by the morning it was too strong to find the woodpeckers so we decided that we would leave Marathon and head north. While we missed the woodpeckers, we did get a Gray Jay and great looks at a Northern Shrike. Best of all was enjoying Michael and Martha's hospitality and amazing cooking! I spent quite a bit of time studying Michael's redpoll flocks as all four subspecies were present.

redpolls - Marathon, ON

Day 3 was one to forget. Long story short, the entire day was devoted to chasing rosy-finches unsuccessfully. We did find our own "probable" Hornemann's Hoary Redpoll which was rewarding.

Tomorrow we are back-tracking an hour to the last rosy-finch. I forgot my phone at the house of the couple who has the rosy-finch coming to their feeder - perhaps it is a sign. Afterwards we are trying for the Spotted Towhee in Longlac. A Varied Thrush was seen yesterday nearby...could be interesting...

Pine Grosbeak - Marathon, ON

quick update from the north

2012-01-24T18:45:00.000-08:00

Barb and I are currently in Sault Ste. Marie after driving and birding all day.

I woke up at 1:45, picked up Barb, and drove to the Soo. I wasn't expecting much today but we arrived by noon, giving us time this afternoon. Mainly with the suggestions of David Bell, we managed some good birds including Black-backed Woodpecker, pine grosbeak, 200+ Bohemian waxwings and tons of other finches and stuff. 3 year birds for me.

Tomorrow we hope to get Harris's Sparrow, Hoary Redpoll, Evening Grosbeak and A. Three-toed woodpecker in Marathon.

Itinerary for the northern trip

2012-01-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

This Tuesday, Barb Charlton and I leave southern Ontario for the cold snowy north of Ontario. This is a trip I've wanted to do for some time, and so now that there are a few rarities coming to feeders up north we're making this trip happen. While our total species seen on this trip will be relatively small we should get most of the northern specialties that one can get in the winter. Here is a brief outline of our itinerary:

Tuesday, 3:00 AM: leave Barb's place in Flamborough and drive up to Sudbury, then across to Sault Ste Marie. Hopefully get into the Soo with a few hours of light left to check some of the spots around town. Stay overnight in the Soo.

Wednesday: Leave Sault Ste. Marie early with our destination being Marathon. Once in Marathon, try for the Harris's Sparrow that is coming to a feeder as well as various finches. Try for Boreal Owl that night.

Thursday: Bird the Pukawska area in the morning to try for Three-toed and Black-backed Woodpeckers. Leave Marathon and drive towards Longlac, stopping at MacDiarmid to try for the Gray-crowned Rosy-finch. If we have any light left (unlikely), try for the Spotted Towhee in Longlac. It hasn't been seen for a couple of days so it might be gone/dead. That evening, try for Boreal Owl in several spots if we still need it.

Friday: Go back to MacDiarmid if we missed the Rosy-finch that day. Try for the Spotted Towhee again. Then drive to Cochrane, birding along the way. Again, try for owls late afternoon/evening.

Saturday: Leave Cochrane and, if the Varied Thrush is still being seen, drive to Ottawa. Bird along the way and if we're missing any boreal species then try to pick them up somewhere. Arrive in Ottawa late that night.

Sunday: Try for the Varied Thrush first thing in the morning, then head-er home. If there are any things we still "need" on the way home (Hawk-owl, maybe harlequin duck or something) then try for it.

Depending on what birds we have seen/haven't seen, as well as things we can't control like weather, our route may change and we may stay up in northern Ontario for a longer or shorter amount of time. The itinerary I've outlined above is more of an "ideal" itinerary.

Here are a list of the target species in order of most likely to least likely, as well as the rarities coming to feeders.

Rarities at Feeders:
Harris's Sparrow (likely)
Gray-crowned Rosy-finch (likely)
Spotted Towhee (unlikely)
Varied Thrush (likely)

Very likely to guaranteed:
Gray Jay
Boreal Chickadee
Pine Grosbeak
Evening Grosbeak
Hoary Redpoll

Greater than 50% chance:
Bohemian Waxwing
Northern Hawk-Owl
Great Gray Owl
Ruffed Grouse

Could go either way:
Black-backed Woodpecker
American Three-toed Woodpecker
Boreal Owl

Unlikely but possible:
Spruce Grouse
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Gyrfalcon (none reported yet this winter)
Barred Owl

Other species are quite possible that wouldn't be year birds but still nice to get. They include both crossbills, Common Raven, Pine Siskin, Northern Goshawk, cool subspecies of redpolls, Snowy Owl, etc.

Duck, duck, Goose!

2012-01-21T12:34:00.000-08:00

This morning I was contemplating whether I would do the "right" thing and catch up on schoolwork, or whether I would try some birding. Since I would be missing nearly a full week of school next week that was currently the option which seemed the most prudent at the time.

What birds were there to chase, anyways? Could I go to Fort Erie and hope the kittiwake flies over to this side of the river? Maybe head up river and hope that the Black Vultures would fly over the river? Despite being at the river about 10 times since November I still hadn't seen these birds, on the Ontario side or the New York side. Should I go up to Guelph Lake and see if the Barred Owl is still around? It hadn't been reported in quite some time but that could just be a factor of the bird roaming around the woods a fair bit combined with the fact that most birders in the area had already seen and photographed it. Or should I drive to Aurora and try my hand at turning up the Townsend's Solitaire which was reported waaaay back on the Christmas Bird Count? It would be a long shot, but that's what big years are about sometimes.

Eventually I received an email on ONTbirds from Mark Peck who had refound the Brant and Greater White-fronted Geese at LaSalle Park in Burlington. Long story short, 45 minutes later I was looking at the geese!

Greater White-fronted Goose - LaSalle Park, Burlington

Barb Charlton and the rest of the Hamilton "crew" were there among other birders and photographers looking at the geese. 6 Cacklers were hanging out along the edges of the flock of Canada's. While I had a Cackler earlier in the year fly over me at Stoney Creek, it was nice to get prolonged close-up looks at this species.

3 (of 6) Cackling Geese - LaSalle Park, Burlington

The Brant was supposedly hanging out to the west along the lakeshore. After staring at the distant flocks of geese I was able to see a small dark goose mixed in with a small flock of 8 Canadas. Eventually this flock got up and flew more towards the middle of the bay.

It was a few great hours outside in sunny, calm conditions. This may be the last birding I do before my trip on Tuesday with Barb as the schoolwork is really piling up. Well, those plans could change if someone turns up a rarity!

(Partly) successful Hamilton trip! Eared owls

2012-01-19T15:32:00.000-08:00

Brian Enter did me a favor by editing the Fish Crow video to make the calls of the crow more noticeable. He got rid of some of the background noise and increased the volume, as well as labeling when each species of crow called. The timing is just slightly off at the beginning of the clip. The Fish Crow is listed as calling right when an American Crow calls. The Fish Crow calls immediately afterwards.

Thanks Brian!

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After Tuesday's unsuccessful jaunt to Hamilton, I wasn't feeling that motivated to brave snow squalls and rush hour traffic today. However, by 11 AM this morning, the lure of the big year (a feeling of obligation more than anything) was enough to kick my butt out the door. Instead of spending all day fruitlessly searching for geese, I thought I would fruitlessly search for owls instead. I have missed Short-eared Owl exactly three times this year already, and Long-eared Owl twice.

My first stop was Bronte Creek Provincial Park in the howling winds. After about 15 minutes of searching a dark owl-like bird flushed from a stand of trees I was searching. It landed back in the stand and I had brief looks at my first Long-eared Owl for the year. I found a second not long after. Unfortunately they are not always the most photogenic subject and it was hard to get a view of these owls amidst the tangles and branches.

I was planning on trying for Short-eared Owls later in the afternoon in Stoney Creek which meant I had a few hours to kill. I drove around looking for geese, at one point even parking myself for an hour and a half along Eastport Drive as some geese started to trickle in. This is one location where the Brant and Greater White-fronted Goose has been seen sporadically over the last week or two. However, only about 40 geese filtered in and none of them were anything but Canada's.

After birding for another hour or so, picking up Green-winged Teal for the year at Windermere, I headed up the mountain.

The snow squalls that had lasted pretty much all day finally disappeared. I had great looks at a Northern Shrike, a Rough-legged Hawk, several Red-tails, an American Kestrel, and a smattering of Northern Harriers.

Northern Shrike - Stoney Creek

American Kestrel - pre mouse kill

American Kestrel - post mouse kill

Finally at around 4:20 PM I noticed a Short-eared Owl rise up out of the grass. I managed to get a few distant photos of it and 2 others as they circled the field with bouncy wingbeats.

distant Short-eared Owls - Stoney Creek

Success. Hopefully someone else can find the geese this weekend so I can try for them before leaving for up north. 109 for the year, in case you're keeping score.

Quick update - unsuccessful Hamilton trip

2012-01-18T16:31:00.000-08:00

Quick update on the old year list....

I headed down to Hamilton on Tuesday since I have no classes Tuesday/Thursday. My main targets were Brant and White-fronted Geese. Both these species I will undoubtably have many more opportunities to look for, but they are still tough birds to find.

And I struck out. It rained for a lot of the day and despite looking at seemingly every single goose from Bayfront Park in Hamilton around the bay to Windermere, and the Lake Ontario shoreline from Spencer Smith Park in Burlington to 50 Point Conservation Area in Winona, I couldn't turn up anything interesting! Not Cackling Geese either.

My first Brant - December 10, 2008

I did add 6 new year birds but they are all very common birds that I will get multiple times this year. The 6 new birds were:

Pied-billed Grebe
all three scoters
Purple Finch
Ring-necked Duck

By the way - I did get some documentation-purpose photos (also known as bad photos) of several species in Hamilton and will probably end up posting them soon. Edit - here they are.

Pied-billed Grebe - Desjardins Canal, Dundas

Long-tailed Duck - 50 Point marina

Tomorrow I am heading back down to Hamilton to give the geese another shot. It is kind of hard to get motivated to drive to Hamilton for round 2, especially since these are geese that I've seen several times in Ontario. But that's the life of a big year birder!

I also hope to pick up Long-eared Owl at Bronte (if anyone has any specific locations where they have been seen lately, I would be grateful) as well as a try for Short-eared Owl later in the afternoon. If I get those two owls, the only other regularly occuring species I need will be Boreal, Northern Hawk, and Barred.

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The itinerary for the northern trip is coming together! As of today, the 2 rarities are still coming to feeders (Gray-crowned Rosy-finch and Spotted Towhee). As well, there are several Harris's sparrows being seen and winter finches are super abundant. Northern Hawk-Owls have started being found so hopefully we'll get one! We'll put in a solid effort for both boreal woodpeckers and hope to cross path with all 3 grouse and Bohemian Waxwings if everything goes to plan.

Northern Hawk-Owl - February 23, 2008

One of my goals at the start of the year was to get all 10 regularly occuring owls and all 10 finches by the end of March. After this northern trip I should have all 10 finches (11 with the rosy-finch) and 9 of the 10 owls. If I can get the two major rarities, I will have 5 Code-4 or higher birds on my list for January. Not a bad start considering I will need at least 20 for the year.

Fish Crow video from Fort Erie

2012-01-16T14:45:00.000-08:00

This is the video of the Fish Crow that I recorded from Fort Erie, Ontario on January 15, 2012. You'll need to turn the volume up as it is a fairly quiet video with a bit of background noise. Feel free to leave comments on what you think.

0:01: You hear me go "shh", right when an American Crow calls.
0:02: The Fish Crow calls (very short, nasally single note)
0:03 - 0:06: An American Crow calls several times
0:10: The Fish Crow does the same nasal note, and you hear me say "It just called again" right after.
0:13: The Fish Crow calls immediately once I finished saying "It just called again"
0:18: The Fish Crow calls a final time.

Throughout the duration of the observation, we only heard the single nasal call note from the Fish Crow, and we didn't hear the double "uh-oh" note that they also do. It responded to the playback I played on my phone which was the first vocalization that is given for the app "IBird Explorer Pro 2". Its call sounded identical to this recording. It called between 5-10 times after I played the call note on my phone several times. After that, the bird was silent until I prompted it by re-playing the call on my phone. It continued like this until the bird flew across the river with the rest of the American Crows. While we most likely saw the bird, we couldn't pick it out from the other American Crows. I never got a really good look at any of the crows in the tree.

After that observation we spent the next half hour watching and listening to the thousands of American Crows swarming by. Many landed in trees for several minutes before continuing. None of the other crows made the Fish Crow-like nasal "cah", despite many attempts with playback on my phone.

I don't have any video editing software so the video is pretty rough. If someone is able to edit the video to clean up some of the background noise/make the crow calls louder, let me know and I'll send you the file.

Crazy bird for # 100!

2012-01-15T17:32:00.000-08:00

Today started out like many other do...waking up much too early, meeting up with other birders, and driving a ways to a premier birding destination. The place was the Niagara River, and the people were Andy Keaveney and his girlfriend Sarah.

We started out at Fort Erie to see if we could find the Black-headed Gull and Black-legged Kittiwakes which have been reported on and off from the American side. Just like a few days ago, we struck out on these species again. As we were scoping the gulls an American Pipit called overhead and landed on a nearby beach. We had great scope views of this bird as it foraged on the beach.

The weather was cold but sunny and with very little wind as we continued downriver. Unfortunately we didn't see much and eventually ended back at Fort Erie in mid-afternoon. As Andy and I parked ourselves in Fort Erie across from Rich's marina in Buffalo we began scoping the gulls again. At one point when they flew up, Andy picked up the Black-headed Gull in flight and quickly got me on it. However we both lost it and didn't see it over the next 45 minutes. It stayed on the American side of the river so technically we couldn't count it for our year list (yet).

He headed downriver to try for the gull there while I stayed in place. The gulls flew several more times, but I had no luck picking out anything rare with them. Eventually something scared all the gulls and I was pleased to see the Black-headed Gull mixed in with thousands of Bonaparte's Gulls. They made a big loop, coming over to the Ontario side for a minute or so, before ending up back at the harbour. I called Andy but unfortunately we couldn't locate it later.

As the sun was getting low in the sky we noticed crows starting to build up in the trees nearby. Andy mentioned we try to call in a Fish Crow, considering that Brett had one on the river on January 1 and they winter regularly only an hour from the border in Rochester. As soon as I played the call on my phone, a Fish Crow responded!! We couldn't believe our luck and listened to the crow call several times over the next few minutes. Andy got Sarah to come out of the car and listen to the bird as well. I tried to make a video of the bird calling, knowing full well that my phone probably wouldn't pick up the call. Unbelievably, it did! The crow calls about 4-5 times in the video (there are some American Crows calling as well). Once I figure out how to get it off my phone, I will post it.

The Fish Crow was year bird #100 and a code 4 rarity. Looking at previous years, the earliest date I had gotten to 100 species was March 12. More importantly, I now have 3 rarities on my list - Mountain Bluebird, Black-headed Gull, and Fish Crow (all code-4 birds).

What's next? I plan to take it relatively easy this week and focus on schoolwork for the first time this semester. After that, a plan is in the works to travel up north via Sault Ste. Marie, Marathon, Thunder Bay, and all the way around HWY 11 to North Bay. It should be one hell of a trip! Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch (coming to a feeder), Sharp-tailed Grouse and A. Three-toed Woodpecker are all species I have never seen before. We are also hoping to get Spotted Towhee, Harris's Sparrow, the rest of the finches, Northern Hawk Owl, and Boreal Owl.

Niagara River on Thursday

2012-01-14T09:58:00.000-08:00

In the near future (next 1-2 weeks) I will be traveling up north, maybe making it as far as Thunder Bay, to search for northern species and a couple of rarities. If anyone lives anywhere between North Bay and Thunder Bay either along the HWY 11 route, or along the route near the great lakes (Sault Ste. Marie route) and would be willing to provide me with a place to stay for a night, I would be more than grateful! Sure beats sleeping in my car.

Anyways, back to birding. On Thursday, I headed to the Niagara River with Maggie Macpherson, a friend and former Guelphite who is now doing a Ph.D at Tulane University in New Orleans. She was visiting Guelph for a few days so we decided to check out the gulls along the Niagara River.

Unfortunately it rained pretty steadily for most of the morning. We spent a bit of time checking out the flocks of Bonaparte's Gulls near Fort Erie to hopefully pick out a Little Gull (code 2), Black-legged Kittiwake (3), or Black-headed Gull (4) but the rain made it very difficult to see well and we did not find any of those rare gulls.

The whole day wasn't a waste though. We did see all the expected gulls on the river including a distant Little Gull at the Queenston docks. I was happy to pick out an adult Thayer's Gull in flight at the Adam Beck power plants as well. Lesser Black-backed, Little, Iceland, and Thayer's Gulls were all year birds, as was American Wigeon.

By early afternoon fog had rolled in along the river so we drove to Port Weller to try to find the previously reported King Eider and Snowy Owl. They were both present and Maggie was happy to get her lifer King Eider. The only year bird I got here was Northern Flicker.

Tomorrow I plan on going back to the river and searching for some of those rarities again.
By the way, for some reason the links to my big year list haven't been updating. I have fixed that, but if anyone sees any problems just let me know.

Ottawa to Amherst Island

2012-01-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

A Varied Thrush was found by Giovanni Pari in Ottawa on Sunday and was seen several times throughout the day by various birders as it came to a feeder. Andrew Keaveney and I immediately made plans to see it as it would be a great bird for a big year. While more will probably show up, this west coast thrush is never guaranteed! Unfortunately it wasn't seen the next day but we decided to go down anyways. Varied Thrushes will often stay at a feeder for days or even weeks.

We left Monday evening after my first day of classes, arriving at our destination for then night at around 1:00 AM. The next morning we showed up at the spot and immediately met Nicholas von Maltzahn, also standing vigil at the feeders. Unfortunately it wasn't seen for the several hours we were there. Nick showed us some spots around the Larose forest before he had to take off. After not getting any Evening Grosbeaks at the feeders where they are supposed to be, we lucked out and heard two Red Crossbills calling. I managed to get very crappy photos of one!

Red Crossbill - Larose Forest

We then tried for Gray Partridge in an area southeast of here, but after driving the fields for an hour or so we didn't have any luck. At this point we were getting kind of desperate as we headed over to Kanata to try for them there. We arrived around 3:00 PM, but lucked out as the first spot we looked contained 4 partridge! 3 females and 1 male. This was only the second sighting that I have had of this species, the other being in Brantford last winter.

With about an hour of light left we drove down to Bate's Island to try for Barrow's Goldeneye. In the fading light Andrew picked out a textbook example of a female Barrow's Godeneye! I found an adult Glaucous Gull nearby and I ended the day with 82 species for the year.

Today we took the Amherst Island ferry to try for some owls and other wintering raptors. Driving along the roads we saw several raptors, including Snowy Owls, Rough-legged Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Northern Harriers and American Kestrels.

distant Snowy Owl - Amherst Island

A walk around Owl Woods was next on the agenda. A flock of 4 Common Redpolls greated us near on the walk in.

Common Redpolls - Amherst Island

Thar be owls in them woods....

owl pellet - Amherst Island

There's one!

Northern Saw-whet Owl - Amherst Island

We couldn't turn anything else up in the woods and continuing on. Before grabbing our ferry we drove farther west on the island. We were very surprised to see an adult Goshawk perching at eye level in a nearby tree! I managed one shot through the window as it flew away.

Northern Goshawk - Amherst Island

A couple more shots from the day:

House Finch - Amherst Island

American Robin - Amherst Island

Eastern Ontario highlights

2012-01-11T14:56:00.000-08:00

Im making this brief cause I'm typing on my phone making use of the free wifi at McDonald's. A full report with photos will be up tonight!

I spent the last two days birding eastern Ontario with Andrew Keaveney. We missed the Varied Thrush yesterday but got most of our other target birds in Ottawa including:

Gray Partridge (Kanata)
Barrow's Goldeneye (female at Bate's Island)
both Crossbills (Larose Forest)

Today we went to Amherst Island. Highlights:

Northern Saw-whet Owl
3 Snowy Owls (9 already for the year)
Northern Goshawk (adult)

This brings my year list up to 89. My first visit to Niagara for the year will be tomorrow and I hope to hit 100. Hopefully the Black Vultures fly over the river so I can count them.

Great Gray Owl in Kingsville

2012-01-08T16:16:00.000-08:00

Brett Fried and I headed down to Kingsville to look for the Great Gray Owl which has been seen well for several weeks. When we arrived first thing in the morning, there was already a group of 30 or so photographers on scene. Brett and I had great looks as it hunted and flew between perches, and everyone was respectful of the owl while we were there. I took a few crappy photos (lighting wasn't the best) which I'll post later.

crappy flight shot of Great Gray Owl - Kingsville

The rest of the day was a tour along the north shore of Lake Erie from Kingsville to Ridgetown before going back home. We didn't have too many highlights, however we did have a flyover White-winged Crossbill on DeLaurier Trail in the late morning. We ran into Richard Carr here and he put us on to some owls in the vicinity. We got the screech owl at the tip and a Snowy in the Onion fields north of the national park before continuing.

The only other bright spot of the day was near Erieau as Brett and I counted 4 Snowy Owls in the same field. Too far for photos unfotunately! Unfortunately the Ross's Geese at Ridgetown (which hadn't been reported in a while) did not show, though there was a huge flock of 100+ Tundra Swans.

late Bonaparte's Gull - Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons

Tundra Swans - Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons

I didn't add as many year birds as I had hoped, but the main goal of the trip was to see the Great Gray Owl. I'm currently at 72 species for the year.

Pics will be up soon. I have school all day tomorrow so no birding, but if the Varied Thrush in Ottawa is seen tomorrow that's where Andy Keaveney and I will be headed on Tuesday! The craziness has begun (who really travels 6 hours one way for a Varied Thrush???).

Mountain Bluebird, King Eider, and more

2012-01-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

Lots of photos today, so I'll try to keep the text brief.

This morning I woke up and headed straight to where the Mountain Bluebird has been reported. It only took a few minutes after arriving to see it as well as a male Eastern Bluebird. My first rarity of the year (and my 7th bird for the year).

Mountain Bluebird - Puslinch

Mountain and Eastern Bluebirds - Puslinch

After that success I booked it down to Hamilton, hoping that I could work some magic and turn up the Black-throated Gray Warbler that hadn't been reported in several days. No luck there (actually, no warblers of any kind!) but I did see a few things.

I'm trying to photograph most of the species I see this year so I grabbed some shots of even the common stuff.

even Mallard's are fair game!

Bufflehead - Bayfront Park

Greater Scaup - Bayfront Park

mocker - Bayfront Park

Herring Gull - Bayfront Park

When doing a Big Year, a House Sparrow counts just as much as a Laysan Albatross! They are each worth "1".

HOSP - Bayfront Park

Red-breasted Merganser - Bayfront Park

I really cleaned up on invasive species at Bayfront, getting a grand slam! Mute Swan, House Sparrow, European Starling, and Rock Pigeon.

immature Mute Swan - Bayfront Park

Belted Kingfisher - Bayfront Park

cormie - Bayfront Park

These guys were a nice surprise. I've never seen one before in the winter.

Black-crowned Night-herons - Bayfront Park

Bald Eagle - Bayfront Park

After all of that shutterbuggery, I headed on over to Port Weller in search of a reported male King Eider. I've never seen an adult male before, plus its a good bird to get "out of the way" when doing a big year in Ontario. After setting up the scope, literally the first bird I looked at was the one I was looking for!

male King Eider - Port Weller

The Snowy Owl was also present, sitting waaaay out at the end of the west pier. A boat spooked it so I grabbed a crappy flight shot. Very cool birds!

Snowy Owl - Port Weller

On my way home, I stopped in Stoney Creek to try to turn up a Short-eared Owl at dusk. No luck, but I did see the long-staying Bobolink, a Northern Shrike, and a bunch of Harriers. A Great Horned Owl hooted in the distance, and I drove home with 59 species in the bag.

Tomorrow - Kingsville for the Great Gray Owl and who knows what else!

Kicking off the year right

2012-01-06T19:33:00.000-08:00

After arriving at the airport in the dark, my parents drove me back to Cambridge, I got my stuff, and I headed up to Guelph. On the way I made a few stops trying for owls. Near Puslinch Lake I heard an Eastern Screech Owl trilling - a great way to start off the year! Tomorrow I am going to try for the Mountain Bluebird before checking out Hamilton. Good birding!

The big list

2012-01-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

I stated earlier that I would make my bird list available as the year goes on. Apparently, Blogger (the site that my blog is hosted on) doesn't allow someone to upload a file directly to their blog. Instead I'm using a file sharing site. Essentially I upload my spreadsheet containing my big year list to the file sharing site, and this site hosts it and makes it publicly available. I've created a link in the upper right hand corner of my blog (above my photo and short bio) that lets you download the spreadsheet. I'll update it frequently as the year goes on. Hopefully this works!

The first tab of the big list contains a list of all the species of birds on the Ontario list. I have the species ranked based on how likely I am to see them (remember the codes?). As you can see by scrolling down to the bottom I have 215 species ranked as code 1 (meaning that these 215 species are guaranteed on my big year), 66 as code 2, 38 as code 3, 39 as code 4, 63 as code 5, and 62 as code 6.

The second tab of the spreadsheet contains all the Ontario species in phylogenetic order.

The third tab of the spreadsheet contains all the species in chronological order. Whenever I see a new year bird, I'll add it.

Good birding!

Still counting down

2012-01-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

I'm still in Nova Scotia! I have gotten out and done a bit of birding around here and have seen a few interesting things. A Dovekie, Northern Goshawk Harlequin Duck, and group of 6 Black-headed Gulls was nice on December 29. Today, while walking around the lake that Laura lives on, I found a Northern Saw-whet Owl, White-winged Crossbill and Boreal Chickadee.

=============================================================

Its now the evening of January 3. I'll be in the province late on January 6 and out birding the next day. Here are the statuses of the 4 "code 4 or higher" rarities that are in southern Ontario at the moment. If you can recall, in a previous post I mentioned that I would need to see at least 20 rarities (code 4 or higher) to break the record.

Mountain Bluebird (code 4)
I had a bit of a "scare" this morning when I read an ONTbirds post stating the Mountain Bluebird didn't show. The nighttime low was WELL below freezing so perhaps the bird had succumbed. However, it has been reported all day today, so there is still hope it will hang around to the morning of January 7! This will likely be the first bird I chase.

Black-throated Gray Warbler (code 4)
I hadn't seen any reports of the Black-throated Gray today, but a quick check of ebird showed that there was a sighting today.

Black Vulture (code 4)
The Black Vultures were still being seen coming to the roost along the Niagara River (January 2 report).

Black-headed Gull (code 4)
The only recent report I've heard of from Buffalo did not mention whether the BHGU was there. The Kittiwake (code 3) was reported, however.

Several other birds I'm keeping an eye on and will likely chase once I get any of the previous rarities include Great Gray Owl, Spotted Towhee (way up north but I'll likely chase it later in the month), King Eider, Barrow's Goldeneye, Greater White-fronted Goose and Ross' Geese.

Mountain Bluebird photo

2012-01-02T10:12:00.000-08:00

Brian Husband, one of the original finders of the Mountain Bluebird, kindly allowed me to post a photo of his that he took of the bird yesterday. Good birding!

Mountain Bluebird - south of Guelph

Photo is copyright Brian C. Husband, 2012. Do not use without permission from him.

January 2nd and winter bird list update #4

2012-01-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

*Edit. Breaking news - A female MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD was found and photographed yesterday just south of Guelph. It is still being seen today. Of course, I am still away in Nova Scotia visiting Laura. While I definitely am not regretting spending this time with her, it is a little frustrating that the Mountain Bluebird couldn't have waited a few days before showing up/being found...at any rate I hope it hangs around! What a bird and a great find by Paul Kron, Brian Husband, and John Garreth.*

At the end of the year I made the 4th post about the Ontario winter bird list. We had already recorded 200 species at that point, just short of the all time high (201 species) that was actually set last winter. The Ontario winter bird list has only been "officially" kept track of for several years, but still, this year we were off to a blazing start. My latest post detailed the 7 species that have been brought to my attention since. Since that post, I have heard of a Pectoral Sandpiper seen at Wheatley harbour on January 1 (Dean Ware and Adam Pinch). Brett Fried and Erika Hentsch also had a probable Fish Crow at the Niagara River on January 1. Brett is a top notch birder and fairly confident in his sighting, but since it would be the first winter record for Ontario, perhaps the first record not during the spring migration, I am going to hold off adding it to the winter list unless it is seen again.

From my ONTbirds post:

=====================================================================

There were two major highlights this past week - the Bobolink in the Hamilton Study area (second winter record in over 100 years - the only other was December 5, 1971), and what will be Ontario's third record of Smew, if the Whitby harbour bird is accepted by the OBRC. This Eurasian species is a mega rarity anywhere in North America outside of the Aleutian islands in Alaska so that fact that Ontario already has 2 accepted records is incredible. An additional bird was seen at Mountsberg Reservoir on April 15, 1982 but that record hasn't been submitted to the OBRC for review yet.

I have send the list to Blake Maybank and he has posted a link to his webpage: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/maybank/other/onwinter.htm

The new species to the 2011-2012 Ontario winter list are as follows:

Smew (December 26) - Whitby harbour
Gray Partridge (December 18) - Woodhouse CBC
Barn Owl (December 23) - Durham Region
Townsend's Solitaire (December 17) - Manitoulin Island and Aurora CBC
Pine Warbler (December 24) - Hamilton area
Bobolink (December 24) - Stoney Creek
Brewer's Blackbird (December 18) - Port Burwell (correction - one was seen by Bill Lamond on December 17 at Long Point)

Out of the missing species to the winter list, the most likely to be added include:
Eurasian Wigeon
Gyrfalcon
Virginia Rail
Vesper Sparrow
Yellow-headed Blackbird

=================================================================

So there you have it. 209 species so far on the winter list, and its only January 2nd! 210 if the Fish Crow can be confirmed.

random photo of a Ring-necked Snake to break up the text.

I'll be back in Ontario on the 6th and I'm itching to do some birding! The Black-throated Gray Warbler is still being seen and if I'm really lucky it will hold until I arrive. The -15 degree C temperatures that Ontario is getting soon is not looking too good...

Some strategy to start the year.

2011-12-31T06:10:00.000-08:00

Being New Years eve, I am pretty excited for my big year to start next year. However, I am currently many miles away at Laura's place just outside of Halifax and I don't enter the province until January 6. There are several rare birds that are around the province and if nothing else changes between now and then, here is a strategy of attack:

The only super rare birds still in the province are the 6 Black Vultures at Niagara and the Black-throated Gray Warbler in Hamilton, refound recently by the Hamilton crew. So on January 7I'll probably go to Niagara for first light, hope the vultures fly from their roosting tree over the Niagara River, then go upriver where the Black-headed Gull (code 4) and Black-legged Kittiwake (code 3) are being seen. Hopefully they will also fly over the border! I'll definitely keep an eye out for the Mew Gull that was seen (only once) at Adam Beck and the Slaty-backed Gull which may still be present along the Upper Falls.

The famous Bayfront Park Black-throated Gray Warbler

I'll then spend the rest of the day at Bayfront Park in Hamilton looking for the Black-throated Gray. If I have time, I might make a quick detour for the King Eider at Port Weller before getting to Hamilton.

The following day I might go back to Hamilton or Niagara to pick up whatever I missed the day before. If I did really well on the 7th, I'll probably do a day trip to the Pelee area to grab the Great Gray Owl (code 3). If I can get Great Gray early in the year it could definitely save some considerably effort later on as it can be a notoriously difficult species to find. Barb almost missed this species in her Big Year, and probably would have if this bird didn't show up near Kingsville!

Once I've seen the big rarities that are in the province, I'll spend the next few days/week trying to get the rest of the semi rare birds that are in southern Ontario at the moment - Barrow's Goldeneye, Harlequin Duck, Purple Sandpiper, some owls, finches, etc.

Of course, if the Smew is re-found or something else rare shows up, these plans may be completely dropped.

Happy new years everyone, and good birding!

2011 Year in Review

2011-12-29T12:03:00.000-08:00

Now that I am spending the remainder of the year and first 6 days of the new year in Nova Scotia visiting my lovely girlfriend, I thought I would take the time to post a few photos to sum up the year.

January was fairly uneventful, but in early to mid February I traveled to southern California and Arizona on a whirlwind trip with 3 buddies - Matt Strimas-Mackey, Brett Fried, and David Bell. We basically flew to Los Angeles, rented a van and toured around the southwestern US nonstop, looking for birds and other wildlife along the way. These few photos sum up the experience...

As winter turned to spring it was time for the annual "salamander migration". I spent about 5 consecutive nights during the peak of amphibian season in my hipwaders at my favorite spot with good friends.

After exams finished in April I headed down to Windsor to do some environmental consulting for a highway project. Fortunately the location was close enough to Pelee that I managed to get down there 2-4 times a week during migration. I didn't "find" any mega rarities this spring but did find an Eared Grebe, Snowy Egret, Eurasian Wigeon, Kentucky Warbler, and a few other odds and ends. A highlight was seeing this Neotropic Cormorant, found by Brandon Holden on April 24.

As the summer went on I bought my first telephoto lens, a 300 mm f/4, and I started getting into butterflies around the same time. Working in tallgrass prairie all day every day was phenomenal and I managed to see about 60 species. The lens was a perfect length for butterfly photography.

Spending the summer tracking Butler's Gartersnakes and Eastern Foxsnakes was a lot of fun and we got to witness a lot of cool behaviour.

Summer and autumn is shorebird time in southern Ontario. I put in a lot of hours searching for them this year and ended up finding 31 species, including this American Avocet.

In early September I visited Nova Scotia for about a week. It was nice to get out and see some of the pelagic species that we don't get in Ontario...

This fall I was fairly busy with school but made it out quite a few times nonetheless. On a trip to the Bruce Peninsula in late September I was happy to find a Lark Sparrow and a neonate Eastern Massasauga among 9 species of snakes.

In October I went to the Great Smoky Mountains with my buddy Chris for 3 days of solid herping. Without a doubt the highlight were the 2 Hellbenders we saw!

This fall was fairly slow for rarities, but it really picked up in December! Among the highlights for me was Slaty-backed Gull, Franklin's Gulls (3 different birds), California Gull, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, and Smew.

This gnatcatcher was one of 2 that were (are?) present along with several rare warblers at Bayshore Park in Hamilton.

I had some big misses in Ontario in 2011, even though I ended up with a year list of 287. Biggest misses include:
Least Bittern
Spruce Grouse
Upland Sandpiper
Long-eared and Short-eared Owls (!)
Whip-poor-will (!!!!)
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Summer Tanager
Pine Grosbeak

See you all next year!

Hey look, its a Smew

2011-12-27T21:44:00.000-08:00

Last night when checking my email on my phone, a message popped up from Glenn Coady. I could only read part of the message's title, which read: "Miracle on Brock Street: ". Knowing that when Glenn posts its usually a rare bird, I clicked on the message and was shocked to read that a Smew had been found by Jim Robinson at Whitby harbour!!! Since Smew was my most wanted Ontario bird, I tried to find out a way I could finagle my schedule to see it today.

After an appointment I couldn't cancel, I picked up Brett Fried and Erika Hentsch and we booked it down to the harbour. I had Christmas dinner at 3, and I didn't pick up Brett and Erika til 11:30, so it was going to be close! If anyone knows me I don't like to miss a meal let alone a Christmas feast.

Fortunately when we arrived a hoard of birders already had their scopes set up on this bird, potentially Ontario's 3rd accepted record of this Eurasian species of duck. When we first arrived, this is how far away the bird was. It's between the raft of ducks and the Mute Swans:

waterfowl at Whitby harbour (Smew is in there!)

A Snowy Owl was conspicuous on the breakwall as well.

Snowy Owl - Whitby harbour

Eventually, the 1st winter male Smew took off and flew right at us. It ended up landing in the water not far off from where we were all standing, so everyone ended up with great looks at this bird.

Smew - Whitby harbour

Most wanted Ontario bird: Check! Now we just need an adult male to show up...

Smew - Whitby harbour

Thanks to Jim Robinson for finding the bird and to Glenn Coady and Jean Iron for providing regular updates throughout the day. Brett, Erika and I had to leave after about 10 minutes, we raced back home (except for moments of heavy traffic) and I ran in the door just as everyone was sitting down for Christmas dinner! Perfect.

Some more shots...

Check out Jean's photos. http://jeaniron.ca/2011/smew.htm
Brandon's: http://www.blog.peregrineprints.com/2011/12/smew-tacular.html
Kenny's: http://kenburrell.blogspot.com/2011/12/holy-shit-its-smew.html

If only this bird hangs around for a while! Not only would it be great to have more extended views to study the bird, but it would also be a good way to kick off the big year.

Common Yellowthroat - Wellington County

2011-12-26T10:35:00.000-08:00

Found by Fred Urie on December 25. The entire time I was at the spot the bird wouldn't stop calling and flying around. Not a shy bird at all! Also in the same marsh were at least 1 Swamp Sparrow and 1 female Red-winged Blackbird. Beautiful day to be out.

The location is on the east side of Cambridge. The bird was in a cattail marsh on the east side of Townline Road just north of the intersection with Saginaw Parkway. This location is in the extreme southwest corner of Wellington County and in the northwest part of the Hamilton Study Area.

Excuse the quality of the shots. Despite the bird's boldness it was hard to get an unobstructed view of it.

An 'owl'right day of birding in Guelph

2011-12-24T16:21:00.000-08:00

Between yesterday and today I spent about 12 hours doing some serious birding in Guelph. The weather for both days was supposed to be excellent and I happened to luck out and see some really awesome birds, including one that is at the bottom of the post and who's identity inspired that "clever" title for this post. But first, yesterday.

I started out by skipping Puslinch and Mountsberg and only hitting up the quarries in the southern part of the county. Several cool birds seen here so far this winter - Harlequin Duck, Bonaparte's Gull, Iceland Gull, Common Loon, Red-throated Loon, Long-tailed Duck. However there is also a high turnover of waterfowl, and needless to say the Common Loon that Mike Cadman had found here a few days previous was no longer present.

Undeterred, I pressed on and ended up at the Heritage Ponds (intersection of the Hanlon and the 401). Getting out of my car I was surprised to see a flock of Snow Buntings wheeling around - my first for the Guelph area this season. I picked out two darker birds in flight, and by approaching the flock, managed to obtain reasonable views of a Lapland Longspur. The other dark bird was most likely a "lappie" as well. There was a nice selection of waterfowl present including 15 Greater Scaup (rare in Wellington County in winter) and 6 Redhead (also rare in Wellington in the winter).

Driving north, I stopped at a little marsh to see if I could turn up a Swamp Sparrow that was found on the Christmas Bird Count by Val Wyatt and co. No luck with that, but a Common Raven croaked as it flew overhead. They seem to be getting more and more common in the county all the time!

I spent much of the afternoon thoroughly checking out Guelph Lake. Along the southeast side of the "island", viewed from the bottom of the hill along Wellington Road 124, were 1 Ring-necked Duck, a group of 3 richardsonii Cackling Geese with some Canadas, and a swan which was most likely a Trumpeter. The distance was far so it was hard to be 100% certain, but it was a young bird and was retaining a lot of brown coloration. 1st year Mute and Tundra should both be mostly/completely white by now.

The previous day, a Greater White-fronted Goose was reported to the WELLbirds listserv by Rohan Van Twest at Guelph lake. While walking out to the island off of Conservation Road in search of Rohan's Greater White-fronted Goose I came across a nice flock of birds which contained mostly robins but also a few Northern Flickers and other things.

By 4:00 in the afternoon I still had no white-fronted goose despite looking at every single bird in the area at least 5 times! Geese had just started to leave the lake so I parked myself up on top of the dam and watched the flocks lift off.

waterfowl taking off - Guelph Lake

While scanning, I noticed a flock of about 15 birds coming in, and one on the far right looked to have a white "front" as the flock flew head-on towards me. I suddenly released that my camera was still in the car so figuring that I had enough time, I sprinted back (actually) and grabbed the camera from my front seat. Much to my dismay I realized not only that I was still very much out of shape, but that the flock had flown quicker than I had anticipated and was over the dam, flying away. I fired off a few shots, not knowing if I captured the goose or not. Fortunately by cropping the photo I can see the goose in the lower part of the frame!

Greater White-fronted Goose - Guelph Lake

When I got back to my car I noticed a flash of gray and white and saw a shrike dive into some nearby bushes in hot pursuit of a junco. It emerged, unsuccessfully I should add, and perched on a nearby wire. Northern Shrikes are the badasses of the songbird world. They readily catch birds or rodents that weight almost as much as them and impale the unfortunate prey on hawthorns and even barbed wire.

Northern Shrike - Guelph Lake

Today I ventured back out to the Guelph area. I didn't see a whole lot throughout the late morning and early afternoon but it was nice to be out in the sun, especially since there was very little wind. Around noon I checked my email and saw that a Barred Owl was seen at Guelph Lake, so off I went!

Upon arriving the bird was nowhere to be found. I walked around a little bit and turned up a few kinglets and chickadees, had a House Finch fly over me calling, and finally found my first Hairy Woodpecker for Wellington county this winter.

Hairy Woodpecker - Guelph Lake

Eventually I ran into several of Guelph's finest birders - Mike Cadman, Brian Wyatt, and Larry Staniforth, and we decided that we should split up to find the sucker. After about 20 minutes, I turned around to greet some dog walkers who were walking past and looked up, right at the beautiful Barred Owl that I must have walked right past! The boys came by and we were all happy to have great views of this amazing bird. Wow! Almost as cool as the Great Gray Owl that showed up in Essex County recently. A great early Christmas present for us Guelphites.

Barred Owl - Guelph Lake

Winter bird list update #3

2011-12-23T16:50:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I posted to ONTbirds again about the Ontario winter bird list. Since then, I have received word of several new species to the list which I will mention first. These 3 species bring the winter list up to 203. I have also removed Willow Ptarmigan from the list since the last confirmed sighting of the Darlington bird was November 30. There were rumours of a sighting in December and someone is looking into this.

Gray Partridge: 3 birds seen on the Woodhouse CBC (December 18)
Townsend's Solitaire: 2 birds. One on the Manitoulin CBC (December 17) and one on the Aurora CBC (December 17)
Brewer's Blackbird: seen on the Port Burwell CBC (December 18)

And, the email I sent to the listserv:

==============================================================

In the past week an additional 12 species have been seen in Ontario and brought to my attention, bringing the 2011-2012 winter list up to an even 200. I am not sure what the all time high for one winter was, but last year's 201 will almost certainly be passed! How high will the winter list get? Undoubtedly the highlight from last week came from Bayfront Park in Hamilton where up to 5 species of warblers have been seen along with several Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and a Blue-headed Vireo. I will send the list to Blake Maybank and hopefully he will post the results on the website soon. A link to the webpage: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/maybank/other/onwinter.htm

The new species to the 2011-2012 Ontario winter list are as follows:
Blue-winged Teal
American Woodcock
Boreal Owl
White-eyed Vireo
House Wren
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Palm Warbler
Baltimore Oriole

Out of the missing species to the winter list, the most likely to be added include:

Eurasian Wigeon
~~Gray Partridge~~
Gyrfalcon
Virginia Rail
Barn Owl
~~Townsend's Solitaire~~
Pine Warbler
Vesper Sparrow
Yellow-headed Blackbird
~~Brewer's Blackbird~~

If anyone has heard of sightings of the missing species, just shoot me an email.

Rules for my Big Year

2011-12-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

With any game or sport, there has to be some groundrules so that everyone is on the same page. With my proposed big year, that is no different. These are some of the rules that I will follow next year. If anyone has any comments/suggestions, just let me know. If I think of any more rules that I have so far forgotten about, I will add them to this page.

- The period runs from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. Obviously.

- Taxonomic changes that happen in the future will not affect my big year total. For instance, say I see both subspecies of Yellow-rumped Warbler next year (Audobon's and Myrtle). Since they are not recognized by the OBRC as distinct species, they only count as 1 species for my total. However, say 5 years down the road the OBRC decided that the evidence is sufficient to "split" Yellow-rumped Warbler into 2 species. I will not go back and modify my totals to accommodate this change. I think of splitting and lumping as random error - splits and lumps will continue to occur, but this variation is roughly equal.

- Species that are OBRC rarities will only be counted if the OBRC accepts the record. For instance, say that I chase a European Goldfinch in May, but the OBRC decides that the evidence isn't enough to determine that it is a wild bird (as opposed to an escaped bird), and subsequently does not accept the record. Even if I think it is a countable bird, I will not count it.However if, in the future, the OBRC goes back and accepts the record, based on new evidence or whatever, then I will modify my Big Year totals depending on the OBRC's decision. This is the only case where I will go back and modify my big year totals.

- I will only count species that I see or hear sufficiently to ID independently. Let's say I go chase a Thick-billed Murre in Kingston. Just as I arrive, I see a flash of black and white as the bird flies away out of sight, never to be seen again. Even though dozens of good, reputable birders are on site and inform me that that was indeed the Thick-billed Murre, I will not count it because I didn't see it well enough to be 100% sure.

- I will count birds that are heard only, but only if I am 100% sure (or as close to 100% as one can be). There will probably only be a couple species that I will "hear only" next year and I'll have to look at them on a case by case basis. If I hear a Whip-poor-will calling in central Ontario in June, I can be reasonably sure in my identification to count it. However, if I hear the song of a Kirtland's Warbler at Point Pelee in May, I will probably not count it on that alone. It could have been another birder playing a tape, it could have been another species sounding similar, etc. Hopefully I will see every species next year so I don't have to rely on heard only birds!

-The birds have to be wild. I won't count the Ring-necked Pheasants I see on Pelee Island, since the island is regularly stocked with this species for hunting every year. I will have to count Ring-necked Pheasants that I see elsewhere, where I can be reasonably sure that there are from a wild, established breeding population.

Great day along the bay

2011-12-20T19:01:00.000-08:00

Today, Laura had plans to meet up with some friends in Hamilton for the day. I was more than willing to drive her down, spend the full day birding around the lakeshore, then picking her up and driving back home.

I met up with the one and only Barb Charlton this morning to look for rare Passerines at Bayfront Park in Hamilton. Barb was "stuck" on 320 species for the year in Ontario, and with no new rarities around for her to try for, we decided our best bet to find something interesting was to check out the Waterfront Trail. If you can recall a number of really rare December birds had shown up in recent weeks including Black-throated Green, Black-throated Gray, Wilson's, and Orange-crowned Warblers; a Blue-headed Vireo, and multiple Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers (check out Brandon's photos of some of the goodies here: http://www.blog.peregrineprints.com/2011/12/black-throated-gray-warb.html).

Barb and I didn't have much success though we briefly heard a gnatcatcher. A few Mockingbirds kept a close eye on us, however.

"Mocker" mocking us

She left to do some Christmas shopping and I would have been wise to follow her lead and get started on mine. Instead, I headed back down the waterfront trail, determined to find some of these birds. I made it all the way to Princess Point before turning back. There was not much to show for it except for this extremely RARE morph of a Double-crested Cormorant. The only field mark to distinguish it from a normal "cormie" is that it only has one wing. Very rare.

Double-crested Cormorant, one-winged variant

Eventually I saw some of the birds as the Black-throated Gray put in an encore performance. I ran into Ross Wood here, and he was pleased to add this bird to his Ontario list.

Black-throated Gray Warbler - Bayfront Park, Hamilton

Heading back to my car, I found not one, but two gnatcatchers! The second was crawling around near my feet, gleaning insects. This photo is about 90% full frame, and I was shooting with a 300 mm lens. Gives you an idea how close I was!

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Bayfront Park, Hamilton

Around this time, I had an interesting conversation:

Random passerby: "Hello."
Me: "Hello." (just being friendly, ya know)
R.P.: "Are you with a school group or anything? There's all these young guys walking around and taking pictures."
Me: "Nope, not with a school group. Just looking for birds!"
R.P: "You're a birdwatcher? I thought all birdwatchers were old and wore floppy hats!"
Me: "Actually the demographics are changing- you'd be surprised how many of us young guys and gals there are."

It's a conversation I have all the time! Lets break that stereotype (except for the Tilly hats -they're pretty awesome).

Just then, Tim King posted a nearby Snow Goose to the listserv, so I hustled over and watched it for a while. Nice bird!

And a CANG, cause no one gives them any love.

With a few hours to spare I headed over to Bronte Provincial Park for no particular reason. I walked around for a few hours, enjoying the crisp air and seeing a few birds (Pileated Woodpecker, White-crowned Sparrow, Northern Mockingbird, Eastern Bluebird,etc). Twas a great day in the field, but I think now I better get started on whittling down that Christmas list!

Eastern Bluebird - Bronte Creek Provincial Park

Updates

2011-12-18T19:25:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since I've posted, and I don't really have any updates. I finally wrote my last exam on Friday, spent the rest of Friday and yesterday cleaning my car/oil change/cleaning my house/running errands/making the house presentable for Laura's visit. Yesterday however, I got out for a bit of birding in the morning with budding birder Chris Law, before picking up Laura from the airport. I hadn't seen her since early September, so as you can imagine not too much of anything birding or blog related was done.

So yeah, yesterday's birding. Chris is a good buddy of mine, and he's one of the herp guys. He was the guy who went to the Smoky Mountains recently with me to chase salamanders! Remember this?

Chris has been turning into a well rounded naturalist lately and has been learning his birds, though he still won't admit he is a birder! We did a brief tour of the southern part of Wellington County with a few highlights. On December 17 in Wellington County one does not expect much of anything, let alone waterfowl so finding some Ring-necked Ducks among other things were nice. A Horned Grebe was a bit of a surprise at McNally Pit, but best of the day was an Evening Grosbeak flying around near Mountsburg, loosely associating with some Pine Siskins and goldfinches. Despite not seeing any raptors and, other than the finches, any passerines of interest we still had fun and it was nice to get out.

Unfortunately I can't do any CBC's this year due to various reasons but I will have most of Tuesday to do some birding as Laura is meeting up with some friends in Hamilton. Perhaps the Black-throated Gray will given an encore performance and I'll be ready with my camera this time!

I should be around until December 28th, at which point I head to Nova Scotia for about 9 days. Then, the big year is ON!!!!!! Current rarities that I am keeping an eye on that I will definitely chase within 2 days of being back (if they still hold) include:

Black-throated Gray Warbler
Slaty-backed Gull
Black Vultures - I haven't heard any recent reports though
Rufous Hummingbird

Winter bird list update after two weeks

2011-12-14T08:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I sent out an email to ONTbirds about updates to the winter bird list - instead of retyping it, I just copied the email with a couple of small changes (see below). Since the email, which brought the 2011-2012 winter bird list up to 189 species, a few more have been brought to my attention. They are:

House Wren - December 6 (Fonthill)
Willow Ptarmigan!!!????!!???!?!?!?! - apparently the Darlington bird is still around. As far as I am aware there is not going to be a "second viewing" for this bird. They are hoping to confirm its presence on the CBC coming up.
Black-throated Green Warbler - December 14 (Hamilton)
Black-throated Gray Warbler - December 14 (Hamilton)
Black-throated Blue Warbler - December 10 (Huntsville)
Wilson's Warbler - December 15 (Hamilton)
American Woodcock - December 15 (Toronto)

That brings the winter list up to 195, and we are only 2 weeks in. 200 seems extremely likely now. Mild weather has amazingly continued, and for people like me doing a big year next year, hopefully it will continue for another few weeks so some of these rarities (namely Rufous Hummingbird and Black-throated Gray Warbler) will hold .How high will the list get this winter? Anyways, the aforementioned post:

================================================================

In the past week an additional 28 species have been seen in Ontario and brought to my attention, bringing the 2011-2012 winter list up to 189. 200 is certainly in sight. Some highlights in the past week include Pacific Loon at Prince Edward Point, Rufous Hummingbird in Eganville, Spotted Towhee in Longlac, Magnolia Warbler at Presqu'ille Provincial Park, and Clay-colored Sparrow near Kingston (1st winter record?). I have sent the list to Blake Maybank and he will post the results on the website soon. A link to the webpage: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/maybank/other/onwinter.htm

The new species to the 2011-2012 Ontario winter list are as follows:

Brant
Barrow's Goldeneye
Great Egret
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Wilson's Snipe
Pacific Loon
Dunlin
Northern Hawk Owl
Great Gray Owl
Long-eared Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Rufous Hummingbird
Red-headed Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Black-billed Magpie
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
Varied Thrush
Orange-crowned Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Red Crossbill
Hoary Redpoll

Of course there are several species which we are missing that are seen most winters. Some possible species are:
Gray Partridge
both Ptarmigans (anyone going up north soon?) now only Rock Ptarmigan, but how likely is it that someone is going to Hudson's Bay....
Gyrfalcon
Virginia Rail
Boreal Owl
~~House Wren~~
Townsend's Solitaire
Pine Warbler (check your suet feeders....)
Vesper Sparrow
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird

If anyone has heard of sightings of the missing species, just shoot me an email.

Something a little different

2011-12-13T09:06:00.000-08:00

Since I have 3 exams between now and Friday morning, I haven't really had time, nor will I have time for a few days, to post something exciting/about actual birding/the winter list/etc. So instead, I thought I would delve into something that I wrote last semester for my Nature Interpretation course. It was a creative writing assignment about some phenomenon of nature, so naturally I picked the spring migration of salamanders. Its a bit of a long read, so if you're short on time bow out now!

=====================================================================

The day has finally arrived. After restlessly checking the weather forecast for weeks, it appears that tonight will be absolutely perfect. Despite looming end of the year projects and finals, I cannot pass up on an opportunity like this to see one of nature’s greatest spectacles.

As I drive in my car through the countryside towards my destination, my mind begins to wander to the night that is in store. Eager with anticipation, I do my best to keep my car at a reasonable speed. With the daylight quickly surrendering to the dark gloom of the evening, my spirits continue to rise.

It isn’t long before I arrive at my location – one of the last remnant areas of true Carolinian forest in this part of Ontario. Stepping out of my car, I can hear the clear, high song of a Black-capped Chickadee calling to a potential mate – “Choose meeeee!!!!” – as a second chickadee repeats the phrase, but outdoes the first with a higher song. Love is in the air!

vernal pond in Carolinian forest

The darkness encroaches while the sweet smell of the rain-soaked ground beckons me. At a temperature of 8 degrees Celsius, the evening is bordering on mild. At last, old man winter is loosening his grasp. Once again, the two male chickadees call in awkward harmony, this time in the distance as I make my way down the muddy trail towards my destination. While the chickadees are music to my ears, this is not the reason that I am visiting the area.

Tonight is the night that I hope to observe the march of the salamanders. Every spring for thousands of years, these denizens of the deep woods stir from their subterranean haunts when the warm rains of late March penetrate through the layers of ice and snow and touch their bodies. Spurred on by their biological clock and need to reproduce, the salamanders emerge from their burrows to make their way to their favourite ponds. There, they will reproduce by means of an obscure mating ritual before returning to the hills.

While these ponds are filled with ice-cold water at the time, this is not to last. By mid-summer, all but the deepest vernal pools will dry up, leaving any potential progeny to bake in the hot sun. “The chill, edge-of-spring night with abundant rain, final snowmelt, saturated earth, and an overflowing vernal pool is measured against the inevitable day of blazing sun, great heat, and desiccating winds in July or August, when the last film of water in the deepest pool depression becomes transformed into windborne vapour.” (Carroll, 1999). The salamanders have to move NOW, even with layers of ice on many of the ponds, so they can reproduce and give their aquatic offspring a chance of surviving this furiously ticking clock.

I arrive at the first pond and my spirits slowly begin to sink. Instead of the usual cacophony of Spring Peepers and Western Chorus Frogs, the only sound I hear is the steady pitter-patter of the warm rains on my ball cap. Perhaps I have arrived too early in the season, with all the amphibians still deep in their winter retreats? Peering into the murky depth of the wetland I can see no sign of amphibians so I moved on. Hopefully I will have more success at the next pool. Spring is not only about migratory birds, a Painted Turtle basking on a sun-drenched log, or the first flowers poking through the ground – it is also about snow banks, late season blizzards, icy water, and sleet. As David Carroll (1999) mentions, spring is in good measure a time of waiting within a constant, incremental advance. With our tendency to think that the world revolves around us, we humans become rather impatient with its turnings. Of course, the earth simply spins and follows the same path, year in, year out, with the resulting life becoming so attuned to these cycles.

My thoughts are abruptly halted when the beam of my flashlight catches something shiny in front of me on one of the hillsides. There it is – the first salamander of the spring season. Adorned in his clown suit with a big grin on his face, the chubby Spotted Salamander is steadily crawling across the path, his hormone-filled body only stopping once it reaches its destination. I may have seen hundreds of this beautiful species in the past, but after such a long absence I must get reacquainted. Carroll (1999) expresses this beautifully: “As in the past, the meeting of my expectant search image with reality is a striking revelation, undiminished by remembrance or repetition. To see these living things anew is to know them anew”. The salamander freezes instantly – not from the cold rain or quickly disappearing patch of crusty ice he is standing on, but from the sudden intrusion of a blinding light into his world. He does not move for 2 minutes, but finally the urge to reproduce is much too strong and he continues blundering down the hillside towards the vernal pond.

male Spotted Salamander on his way to a breeding pond

As I walk, my mind begins to wander about the fragility of this ecosystem. From where I am standing, all my flashlight beam can catch is dense forest, small ponds, and a large expansive marsh. However, even in this relatively pristine place, I cannot help but notice the steady drone of cars driving by the near road. While at first glance this sensitive Carolinian forest is secure, it is a small size and is surrounded by farmland and encroaching development. It is a little disheartening to think that this is one of the largest strongholds of Carolinian forest in the county. Even with all the sensitive species abounding in this beautiful place, it will not take much for a developer to get permits to knock down the trees and drain the wetlands. The diversity and tranquility can be traded for the bustle of a neighbourhood with much too little effort. Even if the vernal ponds, ecosystems that are crucial to a wide variety of terrestrial and aquatic organisms, are protected with a relatively large buffer zone of 25 or 30 meters, this will not be enough to protect the salamanders. Spotted Salamanders, along with the closely related Blue-spotted and Jefferson’s Salamanders, are together in the family Ambystomatidae (mole salamanders). As their name suggests, much of their year is spent deep in subterranean crevices, rotted out tree roots, and other ancient passageways. Ideal vernal ponds are few and far between in forests such as these. Often, a single ephemeral wetland will be the sole breeding ground for all mole salamanders within a kilometre or more of the pond. Studied have shown that up to 50% of the salamander populations are usually found at least 100 meters from the vernal pond so this 25 meter buffer zone will only protect a tiny fraction of the entire population (Petranka, 2000). As Carroll (1999) points out, “leaving a narrow band of buffering vegetation around an encircled vernal pool has been likened to protecting a bird’s nest and the tree it is in, while eliminating the surrounding field and forest habitat required by those who fledge from the nest”.

I arrive at my favourite ephemeral pond for the 4^th time this spring. The first visit was on a warm, rainy night in late January with the temperatures hovering around the 10 degree Celsius mark. While enticing, this early rain was not the alarm going off inside of the salamander’s internal alarm clock, so naturally I found nothing. The second night was similar, this time in early March. Again, it was too early and all I found was the bloated body of a Green Frog that had not survived the winter, or perhaps, mistakenly ventured out on the warm night in late January. Three nights ago I had visited the pond, pleased that much of the ice had receded after the 3 days of the 10 degree weather we had experienced. However, the rains did not arrive so the salamanders stayed put. But tonight, this is the night.

My beam picks up an incredible sight in one corner of the vernal pond, where the sides slope up to at least a 30 degree angle and the water is not too shallow. The bodies of at least a hundred Spotted Salamanders, tightly woven and intertwined, are writhing together in a mesmerizing ball. It is almost dizzying to watch as the salamanders move with fluid and precision that, if I did not know any better, would have made me believe they were fully aquatic. Occasionally one salamander wriggles free, propels himself to the surface with arms tucked to his sides, gulps a quick breath of air, and rejoins the captivating mass of solid salamanders.

These giant mating balls are some of the most fascinating biological phenomena I have ever laid eyes on. Starting out with 4 or 5 solitary males, they are soon joined by many others, with finally a few large females, stomachs swollen with eggs, joining the bunch. This mating ball is essentially some sort of foreplay though it is not understood exactly why it takes place (Petranka, 2000). Eventually, pairs break off to the side of the writhing orb – pairs intent on love-making. The male drops multiple spermatophores – tiny, jelly capsules with a miniscule packet of sperm on top - and attempts to lure the female to straddle one and pick it up with her cloaca. Once she does, the salamanders separate with the female looking for a quiet place to deposit her eggs. After the closeness of the mating ball and subsequent courtship, the actual event of mating is surprisingly impersonal.

female Spotted Salamander depositing eggs

After what seems like hours pass while I observe this incredible phenomenon, I leave the wetland. The air has a certain chill to it and the rain has stopped. Ever since I had arrived at this wetland, I would occasionally catch a glimpse of a Spotted salamander slip into the edge of the black water to join in the activities. Now that the rain has paused and the air has become frigid, the hurried frenzy of the mating ball has started to dissipate. While watching the few remaining males, twisting together desperately in the wee hours of the morning in hopes of attracting one last female, I start to think of the blissful ignorance of these animals. Here they are, unchanged for thousands of years, performing the same ritual each and every spring. Yet just over the hill may loom the first bulldozer, ready to destroy this beautiful display of life for good. I only hope, however unrealistic that hope may be, that these salamanders are able to carry on this incredible behaviour for years to come.

“In wilderness is the preservation of the world”

-Henry David Thoreau

References

Carroll, D. 1999. Swampwalker’s Journal: A Wetlands Year. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, NY. Chapter 1.
Nash, R. 2001. Wilderness and the American mind. Yale University Press, London. Chapter 5.
Petranka, J. W. 1998. Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., USA.

T minus 22

2011-12-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

In 22 days, the year 2012 begins and I start my big year, though I won't actually be in the province until January 6. With it being only 3 weeks away, I thought I would start to strategize on how I would spent the first month of the year.

Several people have offered advice so far. For instance, Russell Cannings advised me to clean up on any rarities that are in the province before trying for any winter specialties. Alan Wormington mentioned that I should clean up on all of the owls, finches, and other winter specialties before the end of February/March, so I don't have to worry about them the following winter. This would enable me to spend all of November and December chasing rarities, instead of getting caught up on trying to find a Boreal Owl or Red Crossbill or something.

And so that's exactly what I am planning on doing! There are several species of birds in the province right now that would great birds to start off the year. Several are even code 4 birds (remember the codes?). Unfortunately the Razorbill didn't make it. However, Niagara is still hopping with a Slaty-backed Gull, Kittiwake, Franklin's Gull, and the Black Vultures. The Franklin's Gull I'm not too worried about. However, I plan on being in Rainy River in late May when Franklin's may not have arrived yet. The birds that end up in Ontario usually breed across the border, and spend the summer in Rainy River and area. So if I can grab the bird in Niagara, it might save me the hassle of trying to wrangle one up later in the year, especially if I can't turn any up in Rainy River in late May.

Black-legged Kittiwake is the other one which I'm not too worried about, since I should pick this species up in the late fall doing a lakewatch somewhere. However, if I could get it at Niagara, where it currently is super easy at the whirlpool, it would save me a bit of effort later on in the fall.I have a feeling that both the Kittiwake and Franklin's will leave before the new year, as they usually travel with Bonaparte's Gulls (numbers of bonies at the Niagara River will drop off substantially by the new year).

juv Black-legged Kittiwake at Niagara Falls

The Slaty-backed Gull, originally found my Kevin McLaughlin on December 3, is one that I really am crossing my fingers for. In 2008, a Slaty-backed Gull was found at the same location on December 13. It hung around until late January at least, and I managed to see it on January 24, 2009. I am hoping this one follows a similar pattern!

And finally, the Black Vultures. They are seen sporadically at best, but there are up to 5 birds which roost near the Niagara River and travel to a landfill on the American side. This landfill is really interesting - a landfill is one of the things which can entice vultures to overwinter! I'm willing to put in a day or two at least searching for just this species in January if they are still being sporadically seen.

There are other good birds that have been seen recently in Ontario, birds that I am very interested in. Varied Thrush and Spotted Towhee near Thunder Bay, Pacific Loon in eastern Ontario, Barrow's Goldeneye and King Eider in several spots, etc. The Christmas Bird Counts usually turn up a few rarities as well.

Owls are starting to worry me a bit - while Snowy's are clearly having an erruption year, everything else seems very quiet....I haven't heard of any reports of Great Gray Owl, Boreal Owl, or Northern Hawk Owl from any location south of Attawapiskat! As well, I have only heard of 1 report of Northern Saw-whet Owl this month, and 0 reports of Long-eared Owl. Maybe it just means that owls are late this year, possibly due to the warm November and 1st week of December we had. At any rate, between rarities I hope to do some traveling to pick up all the winter specialties, even if I have to go nearly to James Bay to search.

It will be very interesting to see how the next few weeks play out.

Winter bird list update

2011-12-08T13:01:00.000-08:00

*****To those who don't care at all about the "Ontario winter list", or listing in general, I apologize for this post. More interesting content (actual birding, etc) will be posted soon enough!*****

Since my post on Ontbirds about the Ontario winter bird list a few days ago, my inbox has been flooded with additional reports. As well, some people have asked me where some select species have been found, so I thought I would quickly highlight the recent additions to the list over the last 2 days here, as opposed to spamming Ontbirds with an additional report. I'll send another report to the listserv in a week.

I sent Blake an email with 11 additional species, and he has already posted the update onto his site (http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/maybank/other/onwinter.htm). The 11 new species are:

Brant : December 5 - present (Trenton)
Barrow's Goldeneye : late November to present (Oshawa)
Dunlin : December 3 (Erieau harbour)
Northern Hawk Ow l: December 7 (waaaay up north near Attawapiskat)
Great Gray Owl : December 5 to present (waaaay up north near Attawapiskat)
Red-headed Woodpecker : December 6 (the Pinery). Most likely a wintering family
Varied Thrush : November 29 to present (west of Thunder Bay)
Orange-crowned Warbler : December 2 to December 3 (Highland Woods, London)
Chipping Sparrow : several reports
Field Sparrow : several reports
Red Crossbill : several reports.

There have been an additional 13 species which I have heard about recently, and thus their presence isn't indicated on Blake's site yet. They are:
Pacific Loon : December 3 (Prince Edward Point)
Great Egret : December 3 (Luther Marsh)
Spotted Sandpiper : December 7 (Long Sault Parkway)
Wilson's Snipe : December 10 (Rondeau area)
Long-eared Owl : December 10 (Bronte)
Northern Saw-whet Owl : December 2 (near Ottawa)
Eastern Phoebe : December 8 (Ayr, near Cambridge)
Black-billed Magpie : December 4 (Thunder Bay area)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet : December 1 (Oshawa's Second Marsh)
Eastern Towhee : seen in December, photo taken, but haven't verified dates yet
Spotted Towhee : November 13 to present (Longlac)
Clay-colored Sparrow : December 3 (Kingston area)
Hoary Redpoll : December 4 (Rainy River area)

This brings us to 185 species for the winter birding season so far, with lots of time left to break 200! Some possible species which I haven't heard any reports of so far, include:

Eurasian Wigeon (though there was one in the Ottawa area on the Quebec side)
Blue-winged Teal
either Ptarmigan (who wants to go to Hudson's Bay?)
Gyrfalcon
Virginia Rail
many shorebirds, including Black-bellied Plover, Lesser Yellowlegs, American Woodcock etc
Boreal Owl
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Townsend's Solitaire
Pine Warbler
Vesper Sparrow
Brewer's Blackbird
Baltimore Oriole

Another run around the county

2011-12-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

With no exams for over a week, I thought I would waste another day driving around the county looking for birds. As I was leaving my driveway, I got an email from the WELLbirds listserv about a Snowy Owl 5 minutes from my house. 4 minutes later I arrived, with the owl sitting on the hydro wire in plain site!

It appeared to be an adult male, but I didn't linger long so that I wouldn't scare it off.

Snowy Owl in natural habitat - Guelph

I headed up north, hoping to get a few new species. Sandhill Cranes were hanging around and I was hoping to run into them somewhere near Luther Marsh.

On the way up north, I stopped by the Arthur lagoons and had my first Horned Larks of the winter, as well as many gulls (all Herring and Ring-billed, unfortunately).

Horny Lark

Needless to say, I didn't get any Sandhill Cranes. However, there were a few highlights, such as a beautiful light morph Rough-legged Hawk that flew right over my car! I also had a flyover White-winged Crossbill while walking some random trails near Luther, and a Common Raven which was hanging out in a farm field.

Common Raven - southwest of Luther Marsh

showing off that Wedge-shaped tail

Oh yeah almost forgot - I stopped at Guelph lake during the morning and found a rare for the county (and even rarer in winter) Red-necked Grebe. Cool! It was the only bird in that section of the lake.

Red-necked Grebe - Guelph Lake

"Winter" birding in Guelph

2011-12-06T17:03:00.000-08:00

I guess since we had our first snow fall of the season last night, it is starting to feel a little like winter. However, almost every body of water in the county is still wide open, and quite a few good birds for Wellington county in the winter are still around. With an urge to add a few lingering species to my Wellington winter list, yesterday Dave Bell, Emily Rooks, and I headed north to Guelph Lake to chase a Black-legged Kittiwake found 2 hours early by Mike Cadman. We didn't have any luck, and really didn't see anything of note!

Today I booked it to some spots in the southern part of the county. From my post to the WELLBIRDS listserv:

(Also, I'm really starting to learn that a 300 mm lens isn't conducive to photographing waterfowl a mile away)

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Corner of Forestell Road and Wellington Road 32:
-1 Rusty Blackbird
-3 Brown-headed Cowbird
They were mixed in with about 500 starlings

Neibaur's marsh:
-1 female Ring-necked Duck
no luck with the Belted Kingfisher I had here the other day

Puslinch Lake (as viewed from the marina restaurant)
-2 female Red-breasted Merganser
-many Common Mergs, Hooded Mergs, and Common Goldeneye
-1 male Ring-necked Duck (in the small pond to the northeast of the main lake)
-6 Ruddy Duck
-1 Double-crested Cormorant (in the usual spot near the island)
-1 1st basic Lesser Black-backed Gull (presumably the same bird that I had December 2)
-1 2nd basic Glaucous Gull
-2 Great Black-backed Gull

2nd cycle Glaucous Gull with other gulls and waterfowl - Puslinch Lake

Double-crested Cormorant in the gloom - Puslinch Lake

Ring-necked Duck - Puslinch Lake

McMillan Pit
-EASTERN MEADOWLARK
-several C. Goldeneye, Bufflehead, A. Black Ducks etc

Quarry to the northeast of McMillan - not sure its name
-1 Double-crested Cormorant
-several Coots, Bufflehead, C. Goldeneye, A. Black Duck, etc
-no luck with the Bonaparte's Gull I had here on Dec 2

North end of Mountsburg:
-1 male Wood Duck
-1 Great Blue Heron
-1 White-throated Sparrow (at the feeder of the first house west of the little bridge)
-35 Cedar Waxwings in a tree (no Bohemians, unfortunately)
-no luck with the E. Bluebirds

backlit Cedar Waxwings - Mountsburg

Pond at the northeast corner of HWY 401 and the Hanlon
-2 female Greater Scaup
-1 adult wing-tagged Trumpeter Swan (it was hard reading the tag due to the distance/lighting, but I believe it said "334". Hopefully someone can confirm this)

Greater Scaup and Bufflehead - pond at corner of HWY 6 and HWY 401

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So yeah, that about sums it up! I think I am close to 60 species for the county this month. Kind of a fun thing to do, though I'm sure it will really drop off once the real winter weather hits.

In other news, due to a few recent additions the Ontario winter list is 160 species. We are still missing a bunch of easy ones! Barrow's Goldeneye, Gyrfalcon, Dunlin, W. Snipe, most of the owls, Red-headed Woodpecker, E. Towhee, Chipping, Field and Vesper Sparrows, Red Crossbill, etc!

What a day on the Niagara River

2011-12-05T17:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I spent the entire day birding the Niagara River with Brett Fried and Reuven Martin. The rarest birds in Ontario right now include Black Vulture, Razorbill, Slaty-backed Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, California Gull, etc. THey all happen to be at the Niagara River now too!

We arrived at the Control Gates bright and early but failed to see the adult Slaty-backed Gull that was found by Kevin yesterday. I did spot an interesting gull mid-river and got Reuven and Brett on it. It showed all the characteristics of an adult California Gull. Also seen here were our first Bonaparte's, Ring-billed, Herring, Lesser Black-backed (2 1st winter, 1 adult, 1 3rd winter), and Great Black-backed Gulls. There was also an interesting bird I observed briefly that had the mantle color of a California Gull but with pink legs and a light eye (hybrid perhaps?). 3 female Harlequin Ducks (as opposed to the 2 seen previous days) were hanging out on the breakwall as well.

Photo of Harlequin ducks to be posted here

Moving down the river, we stopped at the whirlpool to look for the Kittiwake. No luck there, so we continued on to Adam Beck. Here, we had great looks at an adult Thayer's-type gull, as well as our first Kumlien's Gulls of the day. We were up to 8 species of gulls for the day. After hearing reports that the Kittiwake was back at the Whirlpool, we hurried over and had great looks as it circled with the bonies. I couldn't believe the size difference between the two species!

Photo of the the kittiwake will be posted here

Sometime later that morning we headed back to the Upper Falls, and immediately got on a darker mantled gull that had all the field marks of the adult Slaty-backed Gull. A group of birders nearby, including some very good gullwatchers, had the bird much closer and confirmed its identity of the Slaty-backed Gull. Two 1st cycle Glaucous gulls were also present.

I was surprised to spot the Purple Sandpiper on the traditional rocks near the barge. It had jammed itself into a tiny crevice and was nearly impossible to see!

With 11 gull species under our belt, we headed back downriver to search for Franklin's and Little. Franklin's was no problem, as it was sitting in "the usual spot" at the roosting rocks, just upriver at Adam Beck. We only needed Little for a 13-gull day!

We skipped Queenston and headed to Niagara-on-the-Lake to search the Bonaparte's Gulls that would be flying past. Eventually they started streaming by, and the OFO group also stopped by. We managed to get 3 adult Little Gulls go past - 13 gulls for the day! As far as I am aware the adult California gull was only seen by a few other parties throughout the day.
By the way, no luck with the Razorbill or Black Vultures, though both were seen on the day.

Another great day at the river!

Winter birding

2011-12-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

This year, there seems to be a pretty big competition within the Wellington Co. birding community to compile a winter list of birds seen in Wellington County. I thought I would join in just for fun - really just an excuse to get outside during December while I am busy studying for exams! If you live in Wellington and would like to join in on this endeavor, check out the link to the post:
http://naturesbestcreations.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6669&p=34663&sid=46108a53bb7eace490f050eaf7a9f96a#p34663

Obviously with winter listing, the first few weeks are crucial and most species are seen then. I doubt I will get out much in the county next year so this month of December is critical for me to have a decent list. Yesterday I made it out to the southern part of the county hoping to add a few lingering species of waterfowl. Mountsburg was fairly slow, but eventually I added a few decent birds such as Canvasback (female), Horned Grebe (2, of which one was in Wellington Co. waters), Lesser Scaup, many Hooded and Common Mergansers, etc. I met several other local birders and chatted with Bryan Wyatt for a bit. He gave me some tips of other good winter birds in the area, but I couldn't located the Eastern Bluebirds that were seen near the north end of Mountsburg that day. David Bell visited Mountsburg earlier in the day and had a Pine Grosbeak fly over.

I checked out the quarries just south of the 401 on the west side of HWY 6. One of them had a nice little flock of gulls which contained, among many Herring Gulls, 1 ad. Kumliens (Iceland) Gull, 10+ Ring-billed Gulls, and a surprise ad. Bonaparte's Gull. Bonaparte's Gulls are extremely rare in the county any time of year. A few American Coots were nice, since the ones at Mountsburg weren't within the boundaries of the county. I added a few more birds at McMillan Pit (Green-winged Teal, A. Robin, etc), and several more at Puslinch (Double-crested Cormorant, Lesser Black-backed Gull (1st cycle), Redhead, Ruddy Duck) before heading home. A beautiful light morph Rough-legged Hawk was a good way to finish the day!

By the way, this year I'm coordinating the winter list for Ontario. Blake Maybank will be hosting the results on his website, http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/maybank/other/onwinter.htm. The winter birding season includes the months of December, January and February. A cumulative total of 336 species have been recorded during the winter in Ontario, with around 196 species recorded annually. Last year, 203 species were recorded; highlights including Slaty-backed Gull, Black Vulture, Wilson's Phalarope, Summer Tanager, and "Hornemann's" Hoary Redpoll. With the unseasonably warm temperatures we had in November, perhaps enough fall migrants will hang on into December and we will break the 200 species mark again. It's been a bit of a slow start, and I have compiled 149 species seen so far this month in Ontario. We are still missing a number of easy ones, such as Brant, Eurasian Wigeon, King Eider, Barrow's Goldeneye (I'm sure the Ottawa birds are still present though), Black-crowned Night-Heron, Dunlin, Wilson's Snipe, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Long-eared Owl, Eastern Phoebe, Black-billed Magpie, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Gray Catbird, Field, and Chipping Sparrows, Brewer's Blackbird, Red Crossbill and Hoary Redpoll. Additionally only two species of warblers have been reported. If anyone has heard any reports of those listed species (or other rare species that haven't yet been reported to Ontbirds or Ebird), I'd really appreciate it you send me an email.

Why do a Big Year?

2011-11-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

Why do a big year? That's a question that I've asked myself numerous times ever since I starting tossing the idea back and forth in my head. And to be honest, I still don't really have a straightforward answer!

For one, I want to explore my home province a lot better. While I am pretty familiar with the southern 1/4 of the province, I haven't really made it up north yet! I've never visited Ontario's ocean coast of James and Hudson's Bay. I've never visited the prairies in the Rainy River region, or even the Boreal forest in northern Ontario! I think the farthest north that I have explored/birded in Ontario is probably the Algonquin area.
Meeting other birders is another reason I want to do this big year. Since I've only been in the "Ontario birding scene" (its actually bigger than people might think!) for a few years, I haven't even met a large percentage of birders. It will be cool and a lot of fun to put faces to names and to meet birders in far off areas of the province I haven't really explored. My knowledge of birds is far lower than many other birders in the province so it will be a great learning opportunity as well.

Like I mentioned before, the logistics of doing a big year seem to be in my favor this year, so if I ever was to do one, this would be the year. I'll be graduating with an Ecology degree in the spring, and I don't have a full time job to tie me down yet. So far, my girlfriend Laura, my family, and my friends have been really supporting of the idea of me spending an entire year driving around the province and looking at birds (hopefully they are not only supportive of the idea because it means that they won't have to put with me as much :P ). Obviously money will be an issue next year, and I haven't really figured out what I'm going to do about that. I'd like to pick up some consulting work for a few months sometime from mid June to mid August - if you hear of anything, by all means let me know. ;)

Obviously doing a big year isn't all fun and games, especially since I plan on going virtually "all out" next year. There will definitely be a lot of times when I will miss friends or family. I'm sure I'll question my decision to spend a year screwing around looking at birds instead of pursuing career opportunities with my brand spanking new Ecology degree. And of course, I'll smack myself in the head and mutter, "What the hell are you thinking?" to myself after driving all night to chase a rare bird, only to discover that it is not longer around.

While it will be cool to beat the record, I'm not sure if that's the sole reason why I'm going to do a big year. If anything, having a numeric goal will give me the excuse to go on an adventure, explore some cool areas, see some amazing birds, and meet more individuals in the birding community. I can hardly wait for it to begin :)

Rarities on the river

2011-11-26T17:47:00.000-08:00

Razorbill - check!
A. White Pelican - check!
Frankin's Gull - check! (x3)
California Gull - check!
Little Gull - check!

Needless to say, it was a great day birding Niagara with the University of Guelph wildlife club (our drinking club with a wildlife problem).

Our convoy of 27 enthusiastic gullers left Guelph shortly after 7 in the morning, and eventually we all arrived at Jack Custer's Bird Sanctuary near Niagara-on-the-Lake. The juvenile American White Pelican was sitting exactly where it was supposed to, hanging out in a pond that seemed much too small. What a cool bird to start the trip! After an extended photo session, we rounded up the troops and continued on.

American White Pelican - Niagara-on-the-Lake


American White Pelican - Niagara-on-the-Lake

Niagara-on-the-Lake was our next stop, and unfortunately it was pretty slow. Despite spending over an hour here, we couldn't wrangle up any Razorbills, jaegers, or other super-neat birds. A flock of 30+ Snow Buntings was nice to see, and of course there was the usual assortment of loons, grebes, and ducks. We continued on to Queenston.

Queenston was a decent spot with lots of gulls around to study. Many people in our group got looks at their lifer Little Gull, excellently spotted by Reuven Martin. A group of 5 Turkey Vultures began to kettle, but we couldn't locate any Black Vultures with them.

Fort Niagara

We arrived at the Adam Beck power plant somewhere after 11:00 and began studying the gulls. Meanwhile, Brett Fried, Erika Hentsch, David Bell, and Emily Rooks went to the "roosting rocks" just upriver to see if the Franklin's or California Gull were present. The rest of us managed to find a crisp looking juvenile Thayer's Gull, a fugly 2nd winter Lesser Black-backed Gull, and an adult Iceland Gull. The other four found the Franklin's, so off we went!

Fortunately for us it was still present when we arrived, but it took several of us (not me of course.....haha) an embarassingly long time to pick it out on the rocks. Unfortunately there was no California Gull at the time, so we continued to Chippewa to eat lunch.

The Upper Falls (viewed from several vantage points) was next on the agenda. While we didn't see anything super rare here, it was fun to study some of the ducks, including Hooded Merganser and Gadwall. Lots of gulls, but nothing out of the ordinary (save for a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls).

Great Black-backed Gull - Upper Falls

Mallard - Upper Falls

A Black-legged Kittiwake was being seen at the whirlpool (thanks for the heads-up, Barb!) but we were running a little late so we decided to skip the kittiwake to make one more run at the Razorbill at Niagara-on-the-Lake. A brief stop at Adam Beck was worthwhile as "Frank" was flying around with Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. It was nice to see some familiar faces here too, such as Kevin McLaughlin, Jean Iron, and Blake Mann. Brett texted me that they had the Razorbill at Niagara-on-the-Lake, but by the time my car came rolling in it was out of sight. A nice "consolation prize" was this beautiful intermediate-morph, juvenile Pomarine Jaeger! It chased Bonaparte's Gulls on several occasions, even getting one to spit out a fish, which it caught just before the fish hit the water. The photos definitely don't do it justice, but in the scope this bird was a thing of beauty. While scanning for the Razorbill, Brett and I caught several glimpses of it as it dove, but it was much too far out that no one else got on it. One of the flocks of Bonies heading to the river contained the Franklins Gull, which circled several times, giving good views.

juvenile Pomarine Jaeger - Niagara-on-the-Lake

While most of the group left, Ken Burrell texted me that the California Gull was being seen at Adam Beck, so the remaining 5 of us booked it over there, arriving well after sunset, but with just enough light to see the gulls! Several birders were still there, and Jean Iron and Willie D'Anna got us on the Cali Gull. What a fitting end to a great day on the river!

Niagara tomorrow

2011-11-25T17:46:00.000-08:00

Like many southern Ontario birders, I will heading to the Niagara River area tomorrow in search of gulls and waterfowl. This time, I will be leading a trip with the University of Guelph Wildlife Club as we do our annual gull extravaganza. There are a number of rarities that are frequenting the area, such as the long-staying Razorbill, the 3-4 Black Vultures, an adult California Gull, a Franklin's Gull, and a Black-legged Kittiwake. I'm hoping that we are able to locate at least some of these birds as many would be lifers/new Ontario birds for some of the members coming along on the trip.

In other news, tons of rarities have been showing up across the continent! Check out this White-breasted Nuthatch, the first one EVER for Newfoundland. You may have to scroll down a bit to see it.

I mentioned previously about a Graylag Goose that was present near Montreal. Amazingly, a Fulvous Whistling-Duck was found in the same flock of birds a few days later!

Gray Flycatchers are cool little birds, and one showed up near Louisiana. A few years ago one was found by the Skevingtons on a Christmas Bird Count, and it hung around for a few months! Unfortunately that was before I was into birding.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jboslerbirds/6367234165/in/pool-ebird

BC had its 3rd ever Summer Tanager the other day - what a bird!

And of course, we can't forget the Hepburn's Gray-crowned Rosy Finch that was found near Thunder Bay a few days ago. Pretty crazy! I'm not sure if this subspecies has been seen in Ontario before?
http://northshorenature.blogspot.com/2011/11/gray-crowned-rosy-finch-hotspot-in.html

A numbers game (Big Year)

2011-11-21T12:29:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before, the Ontario Big Year record is 338 species, set by Glenn Coady in 1996. In preparing for my Big Year, I have categorized every Ontario species based on how likely I think I am to see it.

I arbitrarily ranked the birds as either Code 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, based on what I think my relative chances are of seeing each species. Code 1 birds are guaranteed, and code 6 birds are highly unlikely. This categorization is fairly arbitrary – for instance, California Gull is an OBRC bird – meaning that it is rare enough in the province that documentation needs to be sent in to the Ontario Bird Records Committee if one sees the bird. Ruff, a Eurasian species of shorebird, is not an OBRC bird – meaning that it occurs regularly enough in the province, so there is no need to send in documentation if you see one. However, I have given Ruff “Code 4 status”, and California Gull “Code 3 status”, since California Gull observations have been increasing in frequency every since the first provincial record in the early 1980s. Now there seems to be one (or multiple) birds spending a few months on the Niagara River every winter, plus a few other individuals are seen through fall, winter, and spring migration. Ruff on the other hand is a tough species to nail down and rarely do more than 1 or 2 show up a year. I haven’t even seen one yet in Ontario. I think my chances of seeing California Gull (of which I’ve found 2, and seen ~4 others) are much higher than are my chances of seeing Ruff!

Note: I wrote this post before the last one on my big year (see: ). Since then I’ve tweaked the numbers a little bit (changed Yellow-crowned Night Heron and Townsend’s Solitaire from code 3 to code 4, among other things). The numbers don’t really line up with the other post because of this.

Code 1 birds include everything from exceedingly abundant (like European Starling) to common (like Stilt Sandpiper, Snow Bunting, or Chestnut-sided Warbler). These birds I am absolutely guaranteed to see on my Big Year – I cannot afford to miss a single one! I have 219 species ranked as Code 1 birds.

White-breasted Nuthatch (code 1) - going way back into the archives for this one!

Code 2 birds are also very common, though they may be a little tough to get. This includes everything from annual winter specialties (like Pine Grosbeak and Snowy Owl) to uncommon breeding birds (like Sedge Wren, Acadian Flycatcher, and Prairie Warbler), to uncommon migrants (Red-necked Phalarope). I listed 62 birds as Code 2. This makes a total of 281 birds which are Code 1 or 2. I cannot afford to miss a single one of these species.

Red-necked Phalarope (code 2) - to break up the huge amount of text in this post!

Code 3 is when it starts to get a little tricky. None of these birds are guaranteed on a big year, though if one is persistent enough one should get nearly all of these species. These include regular spring overshoots (Worm-eating Warbler, Summer Tanager), rare breeding birds (King Rail), some of the owls (Boreal Owl), some of the rare gulls (Black-legged Kittiwake, Pomarine Jaeger), etc. Some species on this list, like Cave Swallows, are common some years but absent other years. It will take a lot of luck to get all the species on this list! Out of the 38 species listed, I will only be doing well if I get AT LEAST 33 of them. To break the record I will probably need to get all 38.

Boreal Owl - perhaps my favorite Code 3 bird

Code 4 birds are generally OBRC birds, usually birds that show up 1-5 times annually (like Western Grebe). Some on this list however (like Black-throated Gray Warbler, or Mountain Bluebird) occur less than annually. Basically, all the Code 4 birds are genuine rarities and I can’t count on any of them to show up. There are 40 species which I’ve categorized as Code 4. The “easiest” Code 4 species are probably Laughing Gull, Black Vulture, Townsend’s Solitaire, Black-headed Gull, and Kirtland’s Warbler.

Black-headed Gull - an "easy" Code 4 (this one's from Nova Scotia though)

As expected, Code 5 and 6 birds are the rarest of the rare. Most Code 5 birds on my list have shown up between 5 and 20 times EVER in Ontario (like Gray Kingbird, or Slaty-backed Gull), while others (like Ivory Gull with 29 accepted records) have shown up more often. I placed Ivory Gull as a Code 5 as opposed to Code 4 because if one shows up, the chances of it hanging around long enough for me to see are very small! I have listed 65 species as Code 5.

Finally, Code 6 birds. These ones have usually been seen less than 10 times in Ontario. Out of the 59 species listed, I’ll be doing really well if I see more than 3 in this category! These include extinct species like Eskimo Curlew, crazy vagrants (Bachman’s Sparrow, Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher), and one-hit wonders (Variegated Flycatcher, Black-capped Vireo, Audubon’s Shearwater, etc). I don’t think I’ll be seeing any Passenger Pigeons or Eskimo Curlews next year.

Neotropic Cormie - one of the few "Code 6" birds I've seen!

So, to recap: There are 281 Code 1 and 2 birds which I am sure to get. There are 38 Code 3 birds, and if I get them all, it would bring me to 319 species for the year. To beat the record, I would need an additional 20 genuine rarities on top of that. For every Code 1, 2, or 3 bird I miss, I’ll need to see an extra rarity on top of the 20!

There is also one more thing: these rankings are based on my abilities to travel to all 4 (5?) corners of the province to search for birds. Smith’s Longspur and Willow Ptarmigan are both Code 2 birds, since if I make it up to the coast of Hudson’s Bay during the breeding season I will be (nearly) sure to get them. That is a big IF though, since I haven’t really figured out how I am going to be able to make it up there without having to sell all of my possessions, and possibly one or both kidneys, to afford it! Without that trip, Smith's Longspur drops to Code 4, and Willow Ptarmigan to Code 6. This is true with several other species.

I will have an extremely narrow margin of error next year to say the least! If any of my big trips (Pelee area from late April to late May, Rainy River in late May and early June, Hudson’s Bay in June or July, north shore of Lake Superior for a week or two around Oct. 1, James Bay in the mid/late autumn, etc) fall through, it will be nearly impossible to beat the record.

Note****

I will eventually make a spreadsheet available to download right off of this blog, much the way that John Vanderpoel does on his big year blog. This spreadsheet will contain the big list (chronologically and taxonomically), the status of each species (codes 1-6), remaining target birds, etc.

Short and sweet

2011-11-20T16:22:00.000-08:00

I'm lazy and don't feel like typing today, so this entry is mostly photos.

Instead of heading back to the tip, I spent the day birding various spots along the lake from Wheatley Harbour to Port Stanley before booking it back to Guelph (the G spot as we affectionately call it). I didn't see much! The highlight was probably a very late Semipalmated Sandpiper at the Port Stanley lagoons with 1 Pectoral, 2 White-rumps, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, and 30ish Dunlin. Strong northwest winds kept the harbours nearly devoid of gulls.

Lots of Pipits today!

American pipit - random sideroad near Hickville

Ridgetown lagoons were alright, and I found a flock of 550ish Tundra Swans and a Northern Shrike. No photos of the shrike unfortunately - it was quite sneaky.

Tundra Swans - Ridgetown

Female Hooded Merganser eating a Frog! Didn't realize what it was until I blew up the photo.

Hooded Merg

Bonies are always fun to photograph.

Bonaparte's Gull - Ridgetown lagoons

I found a few massive flocks of gulls while driving random sideroads. Despite my best efforts, this one contained nothing other than 2,700+ Ringbilled Gulls with a handful of Bonies and Herring Gulls. My Mew Gull dreams have been squashed for another day.

Ring-billed Gulls - also from a random sideroad near Hickville, ON

And that's about it! I wasn't kidding when I said it was a slow day.

Have you met Frank?

2011-11-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

I know I wasn't going to post until tomorrow night, but its pitch black by 6:00 PM and I have nothing better to do, so I went to McDonalds to steal their free wifi (its not stealing though - I bought a small coffee for 90 cents so that I wouldn't feel guilty).

I arrived in the Point Pelee area around 2:00 in the morning last night, and after a short sleep in my car I headed down to the Point. Driving towards the park, the winds were already very strong and the waves quite large.

I set up at the tip with Blake Mann and Kevin McLaughlin. After a while Alan Wormington showed up, as did Richard Carr (the "afternoon shift"!). Despite the heavy winds, there were very few "good" birds! Maybe we need a good bout of north winds to bring in some rarer things to Lake Erie.

Despite being a quite common species, I enjoyed watching the 10s of thousands of Red-breasted Mergansers, fighting the wind and streaming past. Occasionally flocks of other ducks would be mixed in with them, and I saw all three scoters, several Black Ducks and Mallards, many Scaup sp. (mostly Greater Scaup), Long-tailed Ducks, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, and a few Redheads. Alan saw a Sanderling fly past. Common Loons are Horned Grebes were fairly common too, with about 18 of each seen by me. Unfortunately many of the loons were too distant for me to try to turn them into Pacific Loons!

Perhaps the highlight of the day was watching Kevin almost swimming in the lake to fetch a lost glove! Unfortunately we didn't have our cameras ready and he wasn't about to recreate the shot for us!

Kevin had seen a Franklin's Gull just north of the park on Thursday, and Alan had seen it yesterday. Franklin's Gull is a midwestern species of gull that occasionally wanders into southern Ontario, particularly after strong west winds. I figured after leaving the tip that I would chase this bird, as I've never seen one before. No luck there (its a nemesis bird of mine), so I headed back to the park. As expected there were very few songbirds around. Highlights include Chipping Sparrow, a few young Bald Eagles, and a beautiful Great Horned Owl. Any day where you see an owl is a good day, in my book!

Later that afternoon I headed back to Sturgeon Creek to try for the Franklin's Gull again. This time I lucked out, as the first bird I saw was the Franklin's flying over my car! I was surprised by how dainty they are - almost as small as a Bonaparte's Gull in flight.

I managed to fire off a few frames as it circled. The lighting wasn't the greatest and I had to use a high ISO - hence the low quality shots.

Franklin's Gull - Sturgeon Creek, Essex Co.

The combination of white eye-arcs, long drooping bill, buoyant tern-like flight, and dark half-hood distinguish it as a 1st cycle Franklin's Gull. In the above photo, notice the dark mantle colour and black tail band as well.

Franklin's Gull - Sturgeon Creek, Essex Co.

Spurred on by that success, I made my way over to Wheatley harbour, stopping briefly at the north end of Hillman marsh to get a few crappy photos of a Great Egret. Its starting to get late for Great Egrets.

Great Egret - Hillman Marsh

Along Deer Run Road (southwest of Wheatley), I saw a large flock of Ring-billed Gulls behind a house. Immediately I picked out a second Franklin's Gull. Funny how it was my nemesis bird not half an hour earlier, and now I had seen two. By the time I managed to get my camera gear and scope ready for digi-scoping, the bird was farther off in the field against the setting sun so I was unable to take any photos (you should be glad - they would have been pretty crappy quality!). Not a bad day!

Tomorrow I plan on following the lakeshore east, hitting up several harbours, beaches, and sewage lagoons. Maybe I'll see some more gulls named Frank after all these winds.

Odds and ends

2011-11-18T18:12:00.000-08:00

I'm getting ready to leave for Pelee soon, as the forecast has remained strong. Strong southwest winds are still forecast through tonight until tomorrow night, before shifting towards west winds. Maybe I'm getting excited over nothing, but I'm pretty stoked for the potential possibilities that weather like this can bring. A Cave Swallow was seen at Pelee yesterday, and today they were reported from New Jersey and Ohio. Hopefully we'll get lucky tomorrow at the tip! Speaking of Ohio, here's a link to the photos of the state's first Black-tailed Gull found a few days ago right across the lake from Point Pelee.

http://www.rarebird.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6142&PID=18445&#18445

A Grayleg goose, which apparently most birders think is a wild bird, was found on the other side of Ontario, in Montreal. If accepted, it would only be the 2nd (or 3rd) record for North America! Scroll down to the entry entitled "16 Novembre 2011". If only I knew French...

http://www.quebecoiseaux.org/index.php?option=com_oiseauxrares&Itemid=133&lang=en

Despite all the fantastic rarities being found just outside of Ontario (especially in Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota), there are still a couple of things being seen in our province. The Razorbill is still present in Niagara, as well as 3 Black Vultures which apparently could be a family group. This in particular interests me, with my big year starting in 6 short weeks. The last Razorbill seen at Niagara-on-the-lake, in 2006, was present from November 19 until January 7 the following year. I hope that this bird hangs around until the new year - it would be a great way to kick off my big year! The Black Vultures are also exceedingly interesting - while its unlikely that they will hold until the New Year, you never know...

Excellent forecast

2011-11-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

I just checked the forecast for Leamington. Tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 7 degrees C with southwest winds at 50km/h! If anyone knows about lakewatching at Pelee, strong winds from the southwest are often the best for bringing in rare "pelagic birds" or water birds. Things to look for this time of year include jaegers (should still be Parasitics and Pomarines around this time of year - its a good year for Poms especially, it seems), Black-legged Kittiwake, Franklin's Gull, Northern Gannet, Pacific Loon, Cave Swallows, King and Common Eiders, Harlequin Ducks, etc.
Saturday's forecast is almost as good - strong southwest winds at 35 km/h and a high of 10 degrees Celcius. Sunday has a forecast of strong southwest winds at 45 km/h and a high of 13 degrees Celcius. With all these strong, increasingly warm winds from the southwest, who knows what birds may show up. Last year around this time an Ash-throated Flycatcher was seen just north of the tip.
I can't make it out to Pelee tomorrow unfortunately, but I should be there for the whole weekend if the forecast is still good by tomorrow night. Certainly looks like half decent conditions for Cave Swallows.

Despite many days with forecasted southwest winds at Pelee this fall, little has been seen by the regulars at the tip. Maybe this will be the weekend when loads of birds are seen???? (or maybe not....)

edit: Almost forgot - there is some very interesting news from across the lake in Ohio. Yesterday, Craig Holt found a state-first Black-tailed Gull along the lakeshore at the Ashtabula power plant. I don't know of any photos posted of this bird yet, but check out the Ohio birding listserv for more info. Who knows, maybe its the same bird that graced our side of the lake 2 winters ago...

Breaking the Big Year record

2011-11-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

I've spent some time recently, WAY too much time actually, comparing previous years of birding in Ontario to see if it was possible to break the record in those years (the record = 338 species).

Last year was a good year for birding in Ontario, and 350 species were reported to ebird. There may have been a few other species that didn't make ebird since only a handful of Ontario's birders, perhaps half of the serious ones, post their sightings to this program. However I don't have access to last year's OBRC report, and ebird data is generally accurate, so I'll use that.

I had a particularly good year of birding in 2010, personally seeing 304 species in Ontario. As I mentioned in a previous post, I figure that I will have to see at least 16 genuine rarities (which I have labeled as codes 4-6), but probably 20 or more to break the record. Of the 304 species I saw, 14 of them were category 4-6 birds. They were:

Western Grebe - Point Pelee tip, May 13
White-faced Ibis - Amherstburg, May 1 and Windsor, May 6
Black Vulture - Dundas, March 20
Black-bellied Whistling Duck - Milford, July 25

Mississippi Kite - Point Pelee, May 15
Laughing Gull - Point Pelee, May 8 and May 10
Mew Gull - Niagara Falls, December 27
Chuck-wills-widow - Carden Plains, June 20
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Luther Marsh, August 7

Kirtland's Warbler - Point Pelee, May 22
Spotted Towhee - Long Point, December 3
Golden-crowned Sparrow - Ottawa, October 15
Blue Grosbeak - Rondeau, May 11
Painted Bunting - Kincardine, November 26

So basically, I could have broken the record IF I saw another couple of rarities, plus got all the category 1-3 birds. The reason why I only saw 304 species was because I never made it farther north than Algonquin, thus missing all the Rainy River specialties (Franklin's Gull, Yellow Rail, Le Conte's Sparrow, Black-billed Magpie, Western Meadowlark, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Western Kingbird), the Hudson Bay specialties (Arctic Tern, Smith's Longspur, Willow Ptarmigan, Common Eider), the stuff that Alan and Brandon saw at Netitishi (Black Guillemot, Dovekie, Sooty Shearwater, Gyrfalcon, A. Three-toed Woodpecker etc) plus some other odds and ends (Eurasian Wigeon, Barrow's Goldeneye, Gray Partridge, King Rail, A. Avocet, Red Knot, Western Sandpiper, Red Phalarope, Boreal Owl, N. Hawk Owl, Bohemian Waxwing, White-winged Crossbill). All the rarities I saw wouldn't have been missed if I have gone to Rainy River in early June, Netitishi for 2 weeks in early November, and Hudson's Bay in July. Both the Chuck and the Whistling-duck were long staying so I would have gotten them regardless.

There were a number of chaseable rarities which I could have easily gotten if I was trying to do a big year, such as:
Little Blue Heron - one present at Oshawa's Second Marsh May 9-13, also one present in Cornwall September 15-21

Glossy Ibis - one present at Hullett WMA from August 26-August 31
Lark Sparrow - several seen on Pelee Island - April 30 and May 19, plus some years one (or more) are on territory near Long Point
Gray-crowned Rosy-finch - one present in Marathon from February 12 - March 13 (quite the drive but definitely chaseable!)

I'm sure I am missing a few too. So basically, last year if I had gone all out, including trips to James Bay, Hudson's Bay, Rainy River, plus chased a bunch of rarities, I could have seen around 340 species of birds. It would have been a ton of effort, and there are a LOT of Ifs there. Just goes to show that it is possible!

A few birds from the weekend

2011-11-13T20:51:00.000-08:00

This weekend I had plans to drive out to Kingston to visit my sister and brother, both who attend schools out there. I left Friday mid morning and planned to do a few stops along the way for birds. I didn't see much til I got to Thickson's Road area. While I was scanning the bay at the end of Thickson's Road, I was happy to hear two White-winged Crossbills fly over. They were my first WWCRs since the winter of 2008/2009! Other birds seen here included 1 Red-throated Loon and a whole bunch of ducks. I also stopped briefly at Presqui'lle Provincial Park. The male Eurasian Wigeon was still swimming near the campground office, but it was too late in the afternoon for photos, plus it was quite some distance from me. This was my second Eurasian Wigeon of the year - the first was a male I found at Blenheim in late April. Due to the waterfowl hunt I was unable to scan for shorebirds on Gull Island (I didn't want to get shot!).

I stopped at Presqui'lle again on the way back from Kingston today. This time there was no hunt going on so I was able to check out the situation. Unfortunately I neglected to bring any boots with me, so I ended up wading about 100m through ice-cold, knee-deep water to get to the island. I suppose it was worth it, since I scared up a Purple Sandpiper with all the other shorebirds. The diversity was pretty decent considering the late date - I also had:
79 Dunlin
2 White-rumped Sandpiper
10 Sanderling
6 Black-bellied Plover
2 Greater Yellowlegs

As expected, all the shorebirds were juveniles. I also had a skulking American Tree Sparrow on the island that was acting like a crazy rare sparrow or something, the way it skulked through the grasses. Other than a pipit and some Snow Buntings, it was the only Passerine I saw on Gull Island. Unfortunately there weren't any super interesting gulls or ducks out on the lake or on the island. The walk back through the icy water seemed twice as far as the walk there!

I did grab a few photos of a confiding White-rumped Sandpiper and Dunlin, so I will post them when I get time.

In recent news, check out these photos of the Lucy's Warbler found at Whitefish Point. What a crazy bird!!!

http://web.me.com/karloverman/Site/North_AmericaN_Birds_III/Pages/Lucys_Warbler.html

We have had persistent strong south and southwest winds lately, but we haven't had any southwestern specialties to show for it. Mainly this is because the low pressure systems are passing to the west of us.Michael Butler did an excellent write-up on some of the rarities showing up just to the west of us.
http://northshorenature.blogspot.com/2011/11/rash-of-vagrant-birds-in-western-great.html

Some low pressure systems are moving in from Texas, and they look like they could be more in line to go over Ontario. The weather forecast is calling for strong south and southwest winds for the next little while! I am finally going to predict that we will be getting Cave Swallows later this week/next weekend. Ash-throated Flycatchers are another species that could very easily show up at this time. Who knows whats out there, so get out birding!

An Ontario Big Year

2011-11-12T14:32:00.000-08:00

Its official - I am going to do a big year next year. For those who don't know, a big year is an attempt to see as many species as possible in a given geographic area over a one year period. In the last few years, I've become interested in this concept, and I regularly followed Russell Cannings (http://bcbigyear.blogspot.com/) last year as he set the BC record, seeing an astonishing 373 species in his home province. This year, John Vanderpoel is attempting this on a much bigger scale - the ABA area (North America north of Mexico, essentially). He is currently sitting at 733 species, not far from the record set by Sandy Komito and made popular by the movie The Big Year (which I still have not seen, though I own the book). John's blog is http://www.bigyear2011.com/.

In Ontario, the Big Year record is an astonishing 338 species, set by Glenn Coady in 1996 as far as I am aware. This is a huge number, one that many believe won't be broken. Most years, about 350 species are seen in Ontario, including all the mega rarities. So to beat the record, I will need a ton of time, help, and luck! A few hurricanes certainly would help too. While I don't think I will break Glenn's record, I am certainly going to do my best. I haven't even seen 338 species of birds in Ontario in my life, let alone in one year so a huge effort will be required to even come close to his record!

Between now and the end of this year I will make a series of posts regarding my Big Year, including strategies, the pros and cons of doing a big year, breakdowns of possible species, etc.

Why am I doing a Big Year this year? First of all, I will be graduating from the University of Guelph in April and I plan on working as little as possible during the year. I have arranged my schedule next semester so that I am taking easy courses and have only a few classes a week. This will enable me to chase birds virtually anytime. I will need funds at some point, so hopefully I can get some contract work for a few months during the summer! Also, with no school to tie me up in the fall, I will be able to do some big trips and some serious chasing of rarities. I would love to make it up to Netitishi Point on James bay for a few weeks. Also, my girlfriend, Laura, is away in Scotland for school. It sucks that she's not around, but at the same time I will be able to devote more time to birds when she is away. It seems like this would be an ideal year for me to attempt a Big Year, so I'm gonna do my best!

I will be in Nova Scotia visiting Laura until January 6, so that will delay the beginning of the Big Year. I also am heading to Scotland for a couple weeks in February (generally a slow time for birding here, anyways), Baja California for a week or so in August, and possibly Nova Scotia for a bit in the summer. Other than that I should be around for the whole year.

Razorbill in Niagara

2011-11-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

This morning while in class, I got a text from Brett Fried telling me to go get the Razorbill. I had been planning to go to Kingston on Friday, so I figured he meant that the Ottawa bird was back (Ottawa is only 1.5 hours from Kingston!). I checked my email and saw that Joshua Cain Stiller had found a Razorbill at the mouth of the Niagara River from the New York side on November 8. That was good enough for me, so Dave Bell and I cut our classes short and booked it on down to Niagara.

It only took about 15 minutes of scanning before I located the bird in flight near the border. It ended up flying into Ontario and landed on the water for a few minutes (so I can technically count it for both New York and Ontario). The bird dove a few times, then was gone. We ended up viewing it for about 10 minutes. A link to my Ontbirds post: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/ONTB.html#1320971640

This was a new Ontario bird for me - #331 and my 3rd new Ontario bird in the past month (the previous two being Purple Gallinule and Red Phalarope).

By the time Dave had got the cameras, the bird was no longer in flight and would have been nothing but a distant speck in our viewfinders. A few minutes later it was gone, so no photos were obtained.

We did however, see many Red-throated Loons, such as this juvie:

juv. Red-throated Loon - Niagara-on-the-lake

This tiny black speck is actually a dark morph Pomarine Jaeger, a bird seen harassing gulls. It was still present when we left. It might be some dust on my sensor, but I'm pretty sure this is the jaeger!

Pomarine Jaeger - Niagara-on-the-lake

We also spent some time near Queenston searching for the reported Franklin's Gull. No luck there, of course! This has been my nemesis bird for a few years, and I still haven't seen one anywhere. We did have this juvenile Common Loon swam right up to us, almost as if it was begging for us to throw it a fish or something. Also seen from here was a nice adult Little Gull. Dave had a Thayer's Gull in flight, but I didn't get on it.

juv Common Loon - Queenston docks

Our final stop was 50 Point CA, right at sunset. We scrambled over some rocks, unsuccessfully searching for Purple Sandpipers (it would have been a lifer for Dave).

Dave at 50 Point CA

I was kind of proud of myself as we left, since I saw what I thought was an owl, traveling low over a brushy field well after the sun had set. I still don't know how I saw it! Anyways, Dave and I got out, and I found it acting very much like a Short-eared Owl, sitting near the top of a shrubby tree. The ear tufts gave it away as a Great Horned Owl, though!

Beautiful weather, but no birds

2011-11-07T17:27:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have been absolutely gorgeous out, but as is typical, nice sunny weather with light winds don't bring in the mega-vagrants we birders hope for. I've been trying to get out as often as possible in between midterms, papers, classes, and group meetings. Yesterday was the Hamilton Fall Bird Count in its 38ish year. Brandon suckered me into doing his route, so I rounded up a gang of good Guelph birders (Dave, Mark, Reuven, and Matt) and we raged across the area, not letting a single species escape the views of our binoculars.

Despite our enthusiasm and effort, we couldn't turn up much. Starting bright and early in LaSalle marina, we picked up most of the regular waterfowl species and a few odds and ends like Red-necked Grebe, Hermit Thrush, and Snow Bunting. A quick stop in Burlington (just out of our area) produced the annual Brant feeding on the lawn.

Brant - Spencer Smith Park, Burlington (photo by Dave Bell)

We kept birding around the north and east part of the bay, picking up Pine Siskin and great looks at the Peregrine Falcons at the lift bridge. We finished up near Windermere Basin where we ran into a nice little flock of sparrows (including Swamp, Junco, White-crowned, and American Tree) and a few remaining waterfowl species. That afternoon we left our area since we had fully covered it and tried a few spots along the lakeshore. The end of Gray's Road was excellent with rafts of ducks extending way out into the bay. All three scoters were seen, including quite a few male Black Scoters - more than I had ever seen in Ontario before, I'm sure! Many Red-throated Loons were around as well. A typical owl spot revealed a roosting Saw-whet Owl, who watched us warily as we photographed it through out scopes. At one point it regurgitated a pellet which was cool to see.

Phone-scoped Northern Saw-whet Owl

At this point we had a few hours left of sunlight and debating driving to Niagara to chase the Franklin's Gull - I still haven't seen one anywhere. We decided we were all lazy, and drove home instead! But first, a detour at Mountsberg yielded some Greater Yellowlegs and our 22nd and 23rd duck species for the day - A. Wigeon and Wood Duck. Add to that 2 swan species, 2 loons, 2 geese, and 3 grebes - we had a pretty good day for water birds! The only regular duck we missed (and its not even that regular in November) is Blue-winged Teal. We had around 75 species for the day - not bad for November.

As I have mentioned before, I am taking an interest into birding my "local patch" of Guelph a bit more recently - its a lot cheaper on gas than my local patch of Point Pelee! Despite not known for great birding, I've picked up a number of new county birds lately. One surprise was an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull which spent part of a morning flying around my subdivision with the regular gulls, even landing on my driveway at one point. I didn't even have to leave my room!
I've also checked out some lakes in the southern part of the county (Neibaur's Marsh, Puslinch, Mountsberg, the quarries west of HWY 6, etc) and have seen a lot of waterfowl. Yesterday, Mike Cadman reported a Harlequin Duck at one of the quarries, but I couldn't find it there today. Lots of Bufflehead and Hooded Mergansers though, which I always enjoy seeing.

That's all for now! I am really busy with school this week, but I am planning on heading out to Kingston this weekend to visit my brother and sister who are both in school out there. Maybe on the way I'll stop at some of the typical lakeshore spots. A Pacific Loon or Harlequin Duck would be nice, somewhere! I was really hoping the Razorbill would hold in Ottawa, as it is "on the way", kind of, to Kingston. Oh well...hopefully another one shows up in my lifetime....

Great Smoky Mountains - October 26-29, 2011

2011-11-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

I traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains not to long ago with a friend to look for salamanders. As opposed to most of my other trips, this one was kind of spur of the moment with no prior research done. We basically grabbed our field guides, hopped in my car and drove there.

After a 14 hour drive through the night, we arrived, found a campground, set up, and started herping. It didn't take long before I flipped a denizen of fast flowing streams throughout the park.

Desmognathus quadramaculata

Flipping rocks behind the campsite revealed a few common low to medium elevation Plethodontids.

Plethodon serratus

Plethodon glutinosus

We found a decent seep not far from our campsite. Sifting through the leaves and vegetation revealed more new species for us. The only one I photographed was this Spotted Dusky.

Desmognathus conanti

Running on absolutely no sleep, and having ingested nothing other than cold ravioli, some beer, and some energy drinks, we were pretty tired but decided to press on to a location where we had one species in mind. It took us over two hours to get there, but we finally arrived.

Chris checking for herps in the mountain stream (I was more bad-ass and waded in - no hipwaders required)

It didn't take long before we found 2 beauties crawling out in the open. These have got to be the coolest herp in North America.

Cryptobranchidae alleganiensis

Hellbender kiss

What a great start to the trip! At this point we were at almost delerious and hallucinating as we made the drive back. Somehow we arrived in one piece as darkness was arriving. Most logical thing to do = keep herping. We didn't drive 14 hours to do nothing.

We decided to go back to the rocky seep near the campground. I was happy to finally grab some shots of my first Seal Salamander.

Desmognathus monticola

More quads were found, as well as a few conanti.

Desmognathus conanti

I was happy to have this guy crawl out of a leaf pack. Being from Ontario, we don't get any Gyrinophilus or Pseudotriton. Unfortunately he was missing the tip of his tail.

Gyrinophilus porphyriticus danielsi

Finally, we went to bed. What a day!

On day two, we "slept in" till 8:15 and decided to hit up some high elevation areas for some species - namely, Plethodon jordani. We arrived at a locality where no one ever misses them, and promptly missed them. We tried a few more spots on the way down, but still nothing! It was pretty dry and cold - maybe that had something to do with it? I got excited briefly when I found this guy - unfortunately it was a Desmognathus imitator. Nonetheless, it is a cool species and one I was happy to see.

Desmognathus imitator

We flipped a rock and found this...someone's passport photos. Kind of creepy...

The only other high elevation specialty we got was this cute little Ocoee Salamander. At first we thought it was a Desmognathus wrighti - the Pygmy Salamander. Unlike most of the creek-dwelling desmogs, the Pygmy Salamander undergoes direct development (i.e. no eggs) and spends the majority of time in the forest, away from water sources.

Desmognathus ocoee

On the way down the mountain, we passed a corner where Chris thought was a nice mountain creek. He convinced me to turn around and we checked it out. Sure enough, we found a few cool species in 15 minutes!

Desmognathus santeetlah

"stardust" form Desmognathus quadramaculata

Also seen were a few D. wrighti in moss around the edges of the creek.

Typical waterfall in the smokies:

That evening, we made the journey to a mountain peak at the east end of the park. It was foggy and raining, and the road was pretty sketchy. We were both sure we were going to die, since one small mistake could send a vehicle hurtling down the mountain. Nonetheless, we made it to the destination and began walking. Since it had been raining all day, we figured some Plethodontids may be out and about.

Unfortunately we didn't get any P. jordani, but we did get some individuals of P. glutinosus and P. teyahalee.

Plethodon teyahalee

Plethodon glutinosus or P. tayahalee (seemed somewhat intermediate)

The following day, we headed west to another part of the park. Little did we know that we would be stuck in a traffic jam behind "leafers" - people there most likely for the fall colours. Most of them didn't know how to use the pulloffs at the side of the road, so it was a frustrating drive! As well, we couldn't find our target destination, and it was raining extremely heavily. However, we walked a few creeks and turned up some Eurycea and more Spotted Duskies. One looked VERY similar to a Seepage Salamander (a species we ended up striking out on)

Desmognathus conanti

Eurycea longicauda

We arrived back at camp that night and decided we would stay local, checking out some streams near us. We had some fun chasing Desmogs in the fast flowing creeks, and even caught a couple!

We saw our only frog of the trip here - a Wood Frog.

Lithobates sylvaticus

Here's a picture of Chris with a tight grip on his woody.

I was glad to finally obtain some good photos of the abundant Blue Ridge Two-lined Salamanders.

Eurycea wilderae

We managed to see a few more Gyrinophilus as well!

Gyrinophilus porphyriticus danielsi

At this point, we had seen most of the low to mid elevation species in the area, and we didn't feel like driving up another mountain, so we decided to go home. I drove through the night again, through blizzards and swerving around deer, finally arriving back at 1:00 in the afternoon the following day. We missed a lot of targets, but it was still a decent trip.

As far as birds, we didn't see much. At one point, a Barred Owl perched on a branch beside my car one night as we were traveling up a perilous mountain road. I was also happy to see a flock of Red Crossbills (they were straddling the border so I have them on both my Tennessee and N.C. lists haha). I had never actually seen a Red Crossbill before - the one I have in Ontario was a bird calling as it flew over.

Quick update from North Carolina

2011-10-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

As some as you know, I am currently in the southern Appalachians (along the border of North Carolina and Tennessee) on the hunt for salamanders with Chris Law. We have had a bit of success so far, but have struck out on many target species. A shot to whet your appetites for more to come...

Eastern Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) - North Carolina