Hamilton birding (October 7)

After writing my first midterm of the semester, I thought I would celebrate/relax by doing some birding towards Hamilton. The first stop on the agenda was Coote's Paradise, a favorite place of mine. Everytime I go there I seem to see decent birds - recent visits have produced both godwits and Nelson's Sparrows.

The day was absolutely beautiful - 23 degrees C and sunny. If it wasn't for the hoardes of Yellow-rumped Warblers and White-throated Sparrows, one might think it was still August.

As expected, the usual creek cormorants kept a close watch on me.

Double-crested Cormorant - Coote's Paradise

An American Mink patrolled the far bank of the creek.

American Mink - Coote's Paradise

Eventually I arrived at the large pond on the south side of the trail - a place which happens to be a favored haunt of Nelson's Sparrows. These secretive sparrows are rare to uncommon migrants in southern Ontario, though Coote's Paradise usually has some present for a few weeks in early October. I only took about 15 steps before flushing a little grey and brown sparrow. A few seconds of quiet pishing got it to perch up for me, just long enough to confirm its identify as a Nelson's, before it dashed back down. Eventually it crept back up into the higher parts of the grasses and I was able to grab a diagnostic shot.

Nelson's Sparrow - Coote's Paradise

As I continued, I ran into Barb Charlton and Dave Don who had just returned from a trek to the end of "the willows". They informed me that 2 Hudsonian Godwits were feeding on the mud at the end. Perfect! After a brief chat I continued on my way, but not before I photographed some Rusty Blackbirds at the edge of the mud.

Rusty Blackbirds - Coote's Paradise

female Rusty Blackbird - Coote's Paradise

The Hudwits were still there when I arrived - two juvenile birds in crisp plumage. I spent some time taking some shots of them since they were relatively close and the first ones I had seen in quite some time.

Hudsonian Godwits - Coote's Paradise

Hudsonian Godwits - Coote's Paradise

I eventually made it all the way back to my car (no easy task while carrying binoculars, a camera, and scope on tripod!) and headed back to Guelph. On the way I made a brief detour to check out Mountsberg Reservoir since I had never been there before. 3 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, about 60 coots, and some ducks (Redhead, Hooded Merg, Woodie, A. Black, both teals) were the highlights.

Recent news (or lack thereof)

Yeah, I haven't updated the blog with epic bird sightings over the past week. But there is a good reason for that! Mainly because I have not had any epic bird sightings lately.

Ever since being back at school, I have been quite busy and haven't really been out much. Some of this is schoolwork, but mostly it is socializing since that didn't happen a whole lot this summer. I had grand plans this weekend to do some birding, but yesterday and today left me nursing a hangover instead. Oh well.

I did actually get out for a bit yesterday afternoon and headed over to Guelph Lake in the north part of town. This man-made lake is a favorite local spot of mine and the site where Dan Riley and I had a Parasitic Jaeger (first Wellington Co. record I think?) on October 22, 2010. Unfortunately it was very quiet there today. Water levels were way down leaving quite a lot of mudflats, however only Killdeer and a single Spotted Sandpiper were present. A few ducks included an American Wigeon and some Green-winged Teal. Various songbirds were flitting around the edges, but nothing noteworthy.
I then checked out the ponds along York Road east of downtown, and was surprised to see several hundred geese hanging out. They seemed to be mostly the interior subspecies, and with them were 6 spanking Cackling Geese. The cacklers were hanging out in a type group off to the edge of the flock.

Here are a few photos I took at the OFO conference a few weekends back that I finally got around to editing.

White-rumped and Pectoral Sandpipers - Tilbury lagoons

Double-crested Cormorant - Point Pelee tip

Orange Sulfur - west beach footpath, Point Pelee

Fiery Skipper - west beach footpath, Point Pelee

In other news....
It is now October, which means it is prime rarity finding time! Once this weather system finally passes to the east and more birders get out with the fine weather forecasted, I wouldn't be surprised if a few good birds turn up.
The season is definitely heating up and there have been some decent sightings lately.

- Holiday Beach had its second Swainson's Hawk of the season yesterday, a dark-morph adult. Jealous...

- at least 2 Lark Sparrows have been found in the province, and there could definitely be more!

- an American Avocet made an appearance at Rondeau yesterday (J. Burk) and there was a flock reported from Port Burwell as well (J. Stephenson et. al)

- a female Common Eider was reported from Grafton (between Cobourg and Presquille) and is still being seen (M. Bain)

Also, check out these photos of a Franklin's and Black-headed Gull from across the pond in Ohio. Taken by Geoff Malosh. This location also had 4 American Avocets. Why is it that some of these places along the lake get avocets just about every day, and on our side they are relatively rare?

http://home.earthlink.net/~pomarine/index.html

That's all for now.

A tour of Essex County

Today I decided to take full advantage of my day off and tour around, hopefully kicking up some cool birds and butterflies.
The first stop was Tilbury. This remains the best, easily excessible shorebird spot in the county and it wasn't bad today. There must have been a big influx of dowitchers as there were more than a dozen. 5 of them were Long-billed and a few juvenile Short-billed were around. I didn't get any photos as they were too far for my 300 lens. I did, however, grab a few shots of this closerish Lesser Yellowlegs.

juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs - Tilbury lagoons

Cormies!

Double-crested Cormorants - Tilbury lagoon

Next up was the Ridgetown Lagoons. I was actually disappointed as I thought that there would be more habitat than there was. The smaller cell did have mudflats, but the geese were hoarding them. There were, however, a handful of semi-sands, a single Least Sandpiper, a single Semi-Plover, and a couple Lesser Yellowlegs.

Blenheim was next on the agenda. I hadn't actually visited in a few weeks so I wasn't prepared for how terrible it would be. Every single one of the lagoons was filled to the brim with water, and even the sprinkler cells were completely dry! Highlights from here included Mallard and Starling. Well, there was still a single Semipalmated Sandpiper that I watched for a bit. I kind of felt sorry for it, "foraging" on bare dirt. I also scanned through about 500 Mourning Doves and didn't see anything interesting. On to Erieau!

Off the pier were various gulls and terns, including a 1st summer/2nd winter Lesser Black-backed. There were tons of people here hanging out on the pier, so I didn't linger. Off of Erie Beach I had a young Little Gull with the Bonaparte's, which I think is the first one of those for me this year.

Next I checked out Hillman Marsh, Wheatley Harbour, and the harbour by Sturgeon Woods. I didn't see anything unexpected, though I got a second Little Gull at the harbour by Sturgeon Woods.

The final stop was at a weedy field in Leamington to look for butterflies. 3 or 4 Common Checkered Skippers were nice!

Common Checkered-skipper - Leamington

As was this thing, which I think is a Fiery Skipper?

Fiery Skipper - Leamington

That's all for now. Overall it was a typical day for early August - hot weather, lots of driving, few birds, but a couple nice summering gulls/migrant shorebirds/southern butterflies.