Gulls and rarities at Niagara

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.

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.



ADDENDUM: Looking back at my photos of the California Gull, it does not appear to be one after all. At this point in time four years later I can't recall if I just happened to photograph the wrong bird or if I mis-identified it, so to be safe I have removed California Gull from my year list.

Fish Crow video from Fort Erie

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!

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 that I had arrived at 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.