Duck, duck, Goose!

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 Marina, 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 Marina, 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

Brian Enter did me a favor by editing the Fish Crow video to make the calls of the crow more noticeable. He reduced the background noise and increased the volume, and labeled 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 two 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

Quick update on the old year list....

I headed down to Hamilton on Tuesday since I have no classes on Tuesday/Thursday. My main targets were Brant and White-fronted Geese. Both these species I will undoubtedly 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 Basin, 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 occurring 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 occruring 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.

Great day along the bay

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.

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!

Snow Goose - Bayfront Park, Hamilton

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

Canada Goose - Bayfront Park, Hamilton

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

Beautiful weather, but no birds

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.

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.

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....