"EAGR"ly kicking off the month

I headed down to Long Point today with Brett, Barb Charlton, and Georg Hentsch. We didn't have any specific targets in mind, and we hoped to just bird the area. It was nice to do this for a change, as opposed to driving far away to "chase" a certain bird. The forecast called for intermittent showers, but we managed to stay dry for most of the day! At our first stop, Turkey Point, we scoped out some Little Gulls way out on the lake.

Scoping for LIGUs - Turkey Point

A few stops later, we ended up at the BSC headquarters. ALL the Tree Swallows were evidently back and checking out the nest boxes. This little guy wasn't too eager to move...

Tree Swallow - Long Point

There are a few belligerent cows in the Long Point area.

mooooooo

An unexpected surprise came as we stopped by at the viewing platform near the marina along the causeway to stop and chat with Ron Ridout, who was scoping the ducks on the bay. As we were about to leave, I took a look at a small black bird swimming in the channel (Brett had mentioned something about a coot there). Needless to say I was surprised when the "coot" turned out to be an Eared Grebe, in near breeding plumage! The rest of the day, anytime Brett saw a coot, we all double-checked ;)

Eared Grebe - Long Point

Despite Eared Grebes being labeled as a code-3 species in Ontario (uncommon but annual), I've had an abnormal amount of luck with this species, finding 5 individuals over the last 3 springs. On the other hand, I've only ever seen 2 Olive-sided Flycatchers, a species that migrates through southern Ontario regularly.By the way, for those who don't know, EAGR (from the title of this post) refers to the unique four-letter code that is used for every North American species.

Eared Grebe - Long Point

This was a year bird for all of us and we spent a bit of time taking photos of it diving for fish about 20 feet away. It was Ron's second for the Long Point birding area.

Eared Grebe catching a fish - Long Point

Spurred on by that success we headed over to Old Cut and then went for a walk in the Provincial Park. There were decent numbers of the typical spring migrants, including Fox Sparrows, Winter Wrens, both kinglets, Eastern Phoebes, and Brown Creepers. This banded individual thought he'd give the nets another shot.

Brown Creeper - Long Point

We all got our first Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers of the year, but the photos leave something to desire! Several Mockers were in the park.

Northern Mockingbird - Long Point

It's good to see these signs around. We need more of these around Ontario!

We ran into a large group of birders from London doing their annual Long Point trip, led by the Platts. They had missed the Eared Grebe, so we promised to let them know if we saw it on our way out. Surprisingly, the cute little bugger was still diving around, going after fish! Their group was able to view it, with many getting good photos.

Eared Grebe - one last time

After a few more relatively unproductive stops in the Long Point area and the Townsend lagoons, we headed back home. The Eared Grebe and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker bring my year list up to 169.

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