(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.

Mountain Bluebird, King Eider, and more

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

Northern Mockingbird - 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'd never seen one before in the winter.

Black-crowned Night-herons - Bayfront Park

An adult Bald Eagle flew over, possibly patrolling the waterfront for ducks.

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 it's 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!

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....

Recent happenings

Yesterday, after competing a midterm, David Bell and I headed down to Hamilton to do a lakewatch. The weather was perfect:  45+ km/h northeast winds. Brandon did a full write-up of the sightings of the day here: http://www.blog.peregrineprints.com/2011/10/van-wagners-highlights-oct-19.html

Despite not arriving until 2:30, we had the majority of the species that Brandon mentioned. Seeing all three species of jaegers within an hour was pretty cool, as was the adult Little Gull that was flying with about a dozen Bonaparte's Gulls. Unfortunately I didn't see the Kittiwake(s) that was around. There was also a Yellow-billed Loon reported from the New York side of Lake Ontario a few days ago, last seen flying west. Unfortunately this bird didn't materialize at Van Wagner's!
I didn't take any photos due to the crappy weather.

Today I went for a 2 hour hike around the arboretum in Guelph, taking the advice of friend and fellow student Reuven Martin. He was there yesterday and had huge numbers of all the expected mid-late October migrants.

The day did not disappoint! Among the highlights were cracking looks at an Orange-crowned Warbler, an Eastern Towhee, 39 Hermit Thrushes (yep - I counted every last one), 5 Blue-headed Vireos (a pretty good count for October 21!), and my first 3 Fox Sparrows of the year. I also had both Swamp and Lincoln's Sparrow to round off a good afternoon.

So what's next on the agenda? I am heading to Hawk Cliff tomorrow with the U of G wildlife club, and then on Tuesday/Wednesday I am going on a road trip for 4/5 days to look for herps....more info on that trip coming up soon. It should be epic, with loads of salamander species!

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.

Another day at the beach, plus some passerines in Guelph

Well, it looks like I picked the wrong day to go to Van Wagners! David Bell and I drove down for most of the day yesterday, but today a lot more stuff is being posted. At least 14 Sabines' Gulls have been seen, as well as jaegers. A good variety of shorebirds are being seen at Windermere too...

Anyways, here's a recap on yesterday's sightings. I personally saw about 10-15 jaegers by the time we left at around 1:30 PM. Most were too far out to identify, though we did get at least 4 Parasitic and 1 Long-tailed (intermediate/light juvenile). I managed to photograph 2 of the Parasitics that were relatively close - however they were still too far away for good photos.

juvenile Parasitic Jaeger - Van Wagner's Beach, Hamilton

sub-adult Parasitic Jaeger - Van Wagner's Beach, Hamilton

A number of shorebirds were seen, including a single Whimbrel (before Dave and I arrived) and a few Red Knots (after Dave and I left, of course). Still, it was an enjoyable bay out at the beach.

By the way, we did check Windermere and the Red Hill stormwater pond as well, but all we came us with were 2 Stilt Sands (Red Hill) and a single Black-bellied Plover (Windermere).

Late last week I checked out the Guelph Arboretum for the first time all fall. There was a good diversity of passerines, with Mourning Warbler highlighting the 15 warbler species. A Yellow-throated Vireo was nice, as was a few Philadelphia Vireos, a Scarlet Tanager, and a few Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.

Next weekend is the OFO convention at Point Pelee. I am going to be a hike leader this year, so I plan on heading down Thursday evening or Friday morning to do some scouting. Should be fun.

East winds at the beach

On September 7th I headed down to Hamilton to see what the forcasted east winds would bring to Van Wagner's beach. Due to the previous evening's festivities I was unable to drag myself out of bed til about 9:00, but eventually I was on my way and arrived at the beach around 10:00.

A few other birders were already there scanning the lake, including David Bell from Guelph and his girlfriend, as well as Brett Fried and Erika Hentsch. We spent some time scanning and eventually had less than satisfactory views of distant jaegers. Eventually, one pair came from the north close enough to identify as a Long-tailed and a Parasitic.

Later in the afternoon we checked out Windermere basin and the Red Hill stormwater pond, with little to show for it. A few Stilt sandpipers were the only noteworthy thing (they were at Red Hill).

The others left to go back home, so I returned to Van Wagner's for a few more hours in the afternoon. The rain had finally stopped which was nice, and we were rewarded with many jaegers. The few that came close enough to identify were all Parasitic. Brandon Holden had a nice spot with a Sabine's Gull not too far out that I watched briefly.

Other birds seen in the afternoon were 3 seperate sightings of Black Terns, small flocks of sanderlings, 2 Red-necked Phalaropes (flyby) at least 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (I only got on 2 of them), and a smattering of Common Terns and Bonaparte's Gulls. At one point 10 Green-winged Teal flew directly overhead. A few Purple Martins rounded out the sightings for the day!

All in all it was not a bad day at the beach. If the winds continue from the north-east, we might get larger numbers of Sabine's Gulls plus the first Black-legged Kittiwakes of the season. Stay tuned.