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

Rarities on the river

Razorbill - check!
American White Pelican - check!
Frankin's Gull - check! (x3)
California Gull - check!
Little Gull - check!

Needless to say, it was a great day birding Niagara with the University of Guelph wildlife club (our drinking club with a wildlife problem).

Our convoy of 27 enthusiastic gullers left Guelph shortly after 7 in the morning, and eventually we all arrived at Jack Custer's Bird Sanctuary near Niagara-on-the-Lake. The juvenile American White Pelican was sitting exactly where it was supposed to, hanging out in a pond that seemed much too small. What a cool bird to start the trip! After an extended photo session, we rounded up the troops and continued on.

American White Pelican - Niagara-on-the-Lake

American White Pelican - Niagara-on-the-Lake

Niagara-on-the-Lake was our next stop, and unfortunately it was pretty slow. Despite spending over an hour here, we couldn't wrangle up any Razorbills, jaegers, or other super-neat birds. A flock of 30+ Snow Buntings was nice to see, and of course there was the usual assortment of loons, grebes, and ducks. We continued on to Queenston.

Queenston was a decent spot with lots of gulls around to study. Many people in our group got looks at their lifer Little Gull, excellently spotted by Reuven Martin. A group of 5 Turkey Vultures began to kettle, but we couldn't locate any Black Vultures with them.

Fort Niagara

We arrived at the Adam Beck power plant somewhere after 11:00 and began studying the gulls. Meanwhile, Brett Fried, Erika Hentsch, David Bell, and Emily Rooks went to the "roosting rocks" just upriver to see if the Franklin's or California Gull were present. The rest of us managed to find a crisp looking juvenile Thayer's Gull, a fugly 2nd winter Lesser Black-backed Gull, and an adult Iceland Gull. The other four found the Franklin's, so off we went!

Fortunately for us it was still present when we arrived, but it took several of us (not me of course.....haha) an embarassingly long time to pick it out on the rocks. Unfortunately there was no California Gull at the time, so we continued to Chippewa to eat lunch.

The Upper Falls (viewed from several vantage points) was next on the agenda. While we didn't see anything super rare here, it was fun to study some of the ducks, including Hooded Merganser and Gadwall. Lots of gulls, but nothing out of the ordinary (save for a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls).

Great Black-backed Gull - Upper Falls

Mallard - Upper Falls

A Black-legged Kittiwake was being seen at the whirlpool (thanks for the heads-up, Barb!) but we were running a little late so we decided to skip the kittiwake to make one more run at the Razorbill at Niagara-on-the-Lake. A brief stop at Adam Beck was worthwhile as "Frank" was flying around with Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. It was nice to see some familiar faces here too, such as Kevin McLaughlin, Jean Iron, and Blake Mann. Brett texted me that they had the Razorbill at Niagara-on-the-Lake, but by the time my car came rolling in it was out of sight. A nice "consolation prize" was this beautiful intermediate-morph, juvenile Pomarine Jaeger! It chased Bonaparte's Gulls on several occasions, even getting one to spit out a fish, which it caught just before the fish hit the water. The photos definitely don't do it justice, but in the scope this bird was a thing of beauty. While scanning for the Razorbill, Brett and I caught several glimpses of it as it dove, but it was much too far out that no one else got on it. One of the flocks of Bonies heading to the river contained the Franklin's Gull, which circled several times, giving good views.

juvenile Pomarine Jaeger - Niagara-on-the-Lake

While most of the group left, Ken Burrell texted me that the California Gull was being seen at Adam Beck, so the remaining 5 of us booked it over there, arriving well after sunset, but with just enough light to see the gulls! Several birders were still there, and Jean Iron and Willie D'Anna got us on the Cali Gull.  What a fitting end to a great day on the river!

Razorbill in Niagara

This morning while in class, I got a text from Brett Fried telling me to go get the Razorbill. I had been planning to go to Kingston on Friday, so I figured he meant that the Ottawa bird was back (Ottawa is only 1.5 hours from Kingston!). I checked my email and saw that Joshua Cain Stiller had found a Razorbill at the mouth of the Niagara River from the New York side on November 8. That was good enough for me, so Dave Bell and I cut our classes short and booked it on down to Niagara.

It only took about 15 minutes of scanning before I located the bird in flight near the border. It ended up flying into Ontario and landed on the water for a few minutes (so I can technically count it for both New York and Ontario). The bird dove a few times, then was gone. We ended up viewing it for about 10 minutes. A link to my Ontbirds post: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/ONTB.html#1320971640

This was a new Ontario bird for me - #331 and my 3rd new Ontario bird in the past month (the previous two being Purple Gallinule and Red Phalarope).

 By the time Dave had got the cameras, the bird was no longer in flight and would have been nothing but a distant speck in our viewfinders. A few minutes later it was gone, so no photos were obtained.

We did however, see many Red-throated Loons, such as this juvie:

juv. Red-throated Loon - Niagara-on-the-lake

This tiny black speck is actually a dark morph Pomarine Jaeger, a bird seen harassing gulls. It was still present when we left. It might be some dust on my sensor, but I'm pretty sure this is the jaeger!

Pomarine Jaeger - Niagara-on-the-Lake

We also spent some time near Queenston searching for the reported Franklin's Gull. No luck there, of course! This has been my nemesis bird for a few years, and I still haven't seen one anywhere. We did have this juvenile Common Loon swam right up to us, almost as if it was begging for us to throw it a fish or something. Also seen from here was a nice adult Little Gull. Dave had a Thayer's Gull in flight, but I didn't get on it.

juv Common Loon - Queenston docks

Our final stop was 50 Point CA, right at sunset. We scrambled over some rocks, unsuccessfully searching for Purple Sandpipers (it would have been a lifer for Dave).

Dave at 50 Point CA

I was kind of proud of myself as we left, since I saw what I thought was an owl, traveling low over a brushy field well after the sun had set. I still don't know how I saw it! Anyways, Dave and I got out, and I found it acting very much like a Short-eared Owl, sitting near the top of a shrubby tree. The ear tufts gave it away as a Great Horned Owl, though!