March Jaeger?!

Today, Reuven and I headed to Toronto in chase of a reported Eared Grebe. We arrived at the east bay of Colonel Sam Smith Park to several birders looking at the bird, however the lighting was bad and the bird was distant so it was hard to see well. We moved farther west and had much better views of it in better light and it became apparent that the bird was in fact a Horned Grebe in heavy molt with an interestingly placed tuft on its head. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes!

the culprit - Toronto, ON

While we were here we enjoyed the sights and sounds of hundreds of Red-necked Grebes calling back and forth. This is a major staging ground for them and there are presumably several thousand between Toronto and Oakville on the lakefront. There has got to be a Western Grebe mixed in somewhere!

Red-necked Grebes - Toronto, ON

Garth Riley had found a Pomarine Jaeger earlier in the day way out over the lake, a crazy March record for Ontario. Most likely this was a bird that wintered on the Great Lakes. Several Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers continued to be seen at Niagara-on-the-Lake until mid December, at least.

Reuven and I set up our scopes with Garth, as well as Andrew Keaveney and Sarah Jane Stranger-Guy who had arrived. After about 20 minutes of scanning I picked up a darkish jaeger barreling in. We all got on it but it was very distant. Several times it harassed some gulls, and it even flew out over land at Humber Bay to the west!

Pomarine Jaeger - Toronto, ON

We squabbled a bit over the ID but the bird appears to be an intermediate morph immature Pomarine Jaeger. This is a code-3 bird for me, and quite an unexpected one! This may save me from a few trips down to Van Wagner's beach in the fall, though I'll probably still go since jaegering can be a lot of fun (with rarity potential).

Pomarine Jaeger - Toronto, ON

Reuven and I slowly started to make our way back to Guelph, stopping at a few lakefront parks without seeing much. A few cormies were here and there.

Double-crested Cormorant - Port Credit, ON

 We stopped at Mountsberg once we got off the highway to check out the situation. No shorebirds yet, but there were a few ducks including a pair of Blue-winged Teal. Since I'm trying to photograph as many species as I can this year, I grabbed some crappy digi-scoped shots (species #105 photographed this year). What better way to finish off a blog entry than with a blurry, cropped photo?

Blue-winged Teal - Mountsberg reservoir

Late afternoon trip to Brampton

After completing a bit of homework today, I decided to travel to Brampton to look for the reported Ross's Goose. Unfortunately traffic did not work in my favor due to an accident on the 410, forcing me to travel through Brampton to get to Professor's Lake. I arrived at around 5:00 PM and immediately found the Ross's Goose (code 3) swimming with a bunch of Canadas.

The ~1000 geese were taking off and heading north throughout the 15/20 minutes I was there, until about 100 geese were left.

Eventually the Ross's took off, disappearing into to the north. I didn't stick around long enough to see if it would return to the lake to roost for the night.

The Ross's Goose makes 130 birds for the year. The only regular waterfowl that I still haven't seen this year include Snow Goose (code 1), Eurasian Wigeon (code 3), Blue-winged Teal (code 1), and Harlequin Duck (code 3). Off to Niagara tomorrow!

Driving to Muskoka for a pigeon. Twice.

Yesterday morning, I was just getting out of bed when I got word from Al Sinclair about a Band-tailed Pigeon that was coming to his feeder in Bracebridge. I immediately rounded up David Bell and Reuven Martin and we were on the road almost immediately. Along the way, Al was giving me constant updates of the bird as I pushed the pedal to the metal. We did see a few birds along the way, including an adult Golden Eagle slowly crossing Mavis Rd. while we were stopped in traffic, and 4 separate Northern Shrikes along HWY 400 and 11. At around 2:00 PM, Al emailed me that the bird had flown into some hemlocks and he was going to wait pursuing it until we arrived. Around 3:15 we rolled into the driving, but despite a few hours of searching his property as well as waiting at the feeder, the pigeon didn't show. Dejected, we headed back to Guelph. That evening I was determined to try again the following morning.

This morning, after sleeping in by accident, David and I left Guelph to try for the pigeon once again. After carpooling with Andrew Keaveney and Sarah-Jane Stranger-Guy we arrived around 10:30. Jean Iron and Ron Pittaway were already there, and Jean informed us that it was still present but hidden in some branches. Eventually Jean's sharp eye picked out a pigeon like shape and got everyone else on it. My first view of Ontario's 12th Band-tailed Pigeon:

Band-tailed Pigeon - Bracebridge

The pigeon spent its entire time while we there resting in the tree, occasionally eating snow. We were hoping that it would go to the bird feeders so that we could have better looks at it, but it stayed in place. It may be "only" a pigeon, but I was happy to see one in Ontario! The last record was in 2003.

Band-tailed Pigeon - Bracebridge

The bird was a juvenile and can be identified by its bright yellow bill, yellow feet, large size, and tail band, among other things.

Band-tailed Pigeon is a code-5 rarity - my 6th rarity of the year so far. With the Golden Eagle and Band-tailed Pigeon, my year list is now 129 and I am still missing species like Common Grackle, Chipping Sparrow, Great Blue Heron, etc.