Couldn't resist...I might have trouble sleeping the next couple nights. Hopefully I'll be out on bird watch Thursday/Friday/Saturday. Brandon's blog is probably the best source of information if you want to get really excited about this storm in Ontario. But also check out the ebird story and birdcast for more information.
Ken came up this weekend and we did some "local" birding. Saturday it was western Prince Edward County with nothing too unusual amongst the rain/cold/wind. We were mainly checking out Point Petre. White-winged Crossbills have definitely started to move (we had a single) and same with Evening Grosbeaks, even though we didn't have any. Pine Siskins are still going strong. We had another late Vesper Sparrow (had one last week too). We did a quick zip into Gosport to nail down the continuing Glossy Ibis and Hudsonian Godwit. Ken managed a phonescoped shot of the ibis here.
This morning Ken and I walked around Gull Island at Presqu'ile first thing. We had our first Snow Buntings of the fall plus a decent mix of 8 shorebird species. Add in the Hudsonian Godwit and Killdeers at Gosport again and we had ten shorebird species on the day!
After Gull Island we got some danishes and then made a couple stops along the lake between Presqu'ile and Cobourg. Tons of Red-breasted Mergs and Greater Scaup moving (east) and good numbers of Common Loons and Horned Grebes but not much else.
I was headed home today from Peterborough when I noticed a big flock of waterfowl flying south up ahead. As we approached the flock, I realized it had the characteristic "jumbled" look of a flock of Brant! I estimated there were about 150 birds in this flock and I was pretty excited. Less than 10 minutes later I was pulling out of our carpool parking lot in my own car when I noticed another flock, right above me! This one was even bigger (about 300) and also contained 2 Canada Geese holding up the rear. Even better, I managed to get my bins on this flock and enjoy it for a second or two through them.
The second flock was really amazing because it was traveling very quickly- I followed it all the way from Springbrook to Stirling, a distance of about 11.5 km! I was traveling about 95km/h but the flock was going more in a direct S direction while I was going SSE.
Brant at Presqu'ile PP, Northumberland on June 1, 2009
I still get pretty excited anytime I see Brant in Ontario because I did all of my birding growing up west of Toronto, where Brant is a very uncommon migrant. There seems to be a sort of imaginary line east of Toronto where beyond that Brant become much more common. In the Ottawa and Kingston areas this is a pretty normal migrant to see going overhead in late May and October. The reason for this is that the Brant we see in Ontario likely all pass through southern James Bay and then follow the Ottawa River valley and cross over to the Atlantic in the NE US. It will be interesting to see if these Brant were part of a larger movement of birds exiting southern James Bay after some north winds and stormy weather there....we'll have to wait and see if Josh and Alan were on the coast yesterday and today watching thousands of Brant pass by...For those of you who don't know, they are at Netitishi Point, on James Bay. Netitishi Point is an Important Bird Area, partly because of the large number of Brant and other waterfowl that pass through there each year.
Well, I made it out to Point Petre yesterday morning. There was a nice selection of sparrows, including a late Grasshopper and a single Vesper. The only other highlight here was a single female Black Scoter hanging out with some Long-taileds...I made a few other short stops on the way home with nothing much of note to show for my efforts except maybe a latish Caspian Tern at Wellington harbour/bay.
Today was a bit different story, Erica and I met up with Doug McRae, Barb Charlton, Mark and Diana Peck, and Sarah and Georgia Petrasek at Presqu'ile. We birded Owen Point and then walked across to Gull Island (no hunting there on Sundays...). The crossing to Gull Island was a bit ridiculous; it is so dry you could have done it in sandals and not gotten your feet wet! Just before we crossed a large shorebird flew in from Gull Island and obligingly fed along the shore for us.
Yep, that's a late Willet! I can't remember hearing of one before in Ontario in October...Checking Bob Curry's Birds of Hamilton he lists a late date of October 19 for the HSA. Anyways, a pretty sweet bird to say the least. The rest of the island was pretty standard fare. On the way back to the cars we had a late Northern Parula along the trail. Here's the full list of goodies from Owen Point and Gull Island.
After the island, we had word of Evening Grosbeaks visiting Bill Gilmour's legendary feeders so we headed over that way. The feeders and bird baths were hopping, but the Grosbeaks had apparently taken off shortly before we got there when a Merlin buzzed the yard. There were a few nice birds around including a Fox Sparrow, Eastern Towhee and a late Gray Catbird at one of the baths. Here's the full list.
From there Erica and I headed home but not before checking out the Hudsonian Godwit present for a few days now in Gosport. All in all it was a very birdy morning, with a bunch of new Northumberland birds for me, bringing me up over 200 now for the county...
It's been a little too quiet on the rarity front lately (with the exception of Ottawa's Western Grebe/Grebes and Brandon's Cattle Egret today). I got out a bit this week but plan to do a fair bit more birding over the next week. The plan is Prince Edward County tomorrow and we'll see for Sunday. Next weekend Ken is heading up here so him and I will have to go find something good.
As I said, I got out a bit this week. I was home for the weekend but it was mostly consumed by Oktoberfesting. I made it out to Conestogo Reservoir briefly, not much was there besides the usuals.
This week I had some work to do at the ROM and UofG insect collections, which afforded a chance to make a few stops along the way. On Tuesday I stopped at Newcastle Harbour for a dawn visible migration watch. Lots of Horned Grebes and Common Loons but nothing that I could string into something rarer...best bird was a Snow Goose...or maybe the Chinese Swan-Goose? According to Tyler Hoar those imported geese have been there for several years. After our work at the ROM Colin Jones and I checked out Valens CA (which was dead) and the Hespeler Mill Pond (which was full O ducks).
On Wednesday Colin Jones and my Dad and I stopped at Floradale Reservoir which was very foggy with just a few ducks. On our way home Colin and I stopped at Cranberry Marsh where we had a nice assortment of sparrows and ducks, plus a nice group of 8 Cackling Geese. At Whitby Harbour there were a lot of Mute Swans and a flock of Black-capped Chickadees that flew across the harbour heading west.
Well, no rarities, we'll see what this nice looking weather brings...
It's been a while since I posted here so I decided to one big post from a few highlights of the last few weeks..
First up was a couple days I spent on the Carden Alvar at the end of August. The main goal was to do some insect surveys but as usual I had plenty of other distractions. Best bird of the trip was by far a flyover Dickcissel "farting" overhead first thing August 31. The other major highlight was a flock of 15 Red Crossbills the day before. Here are a couple ebird checklists from that trip: August 30 at North Bear Alvar August 31 at North Bear Alvar
We also managed to see a few Loggerhead Shrikes on Wylie Road, no doubt some of the last in Ontario for the year. As for photo highlights, this Smooth Green Snake was the definite winner:
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Next up, I headed to the Bruce Peninsula. I had the chance to check out the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory while there and enjoyed some active birding while doing some more insect surveys. Like Blake Mann has reported on his blog, migrant butterflies had made it well onto the Bruce and our first stop on the way up at Oliphant yielded Buckeye, Fiery Skipper and Variegated Fritillary!
Not sure if this is more of a "quiz" photo or not...phonescoped Variegated Fritillary at Oliphant on September 12, 2012
Common Buckeye phonescoped at Oliphant September 12, 2012
We saw a few more Buckeyes elsewhere but the real highlights became dragonflies. We found an apparent breeding colony of Black Meadowhawks (a boreal species) and ovipositing Green-striped Darners!
Black Meadowhawk, Bruce Peninsula on September 13, 2012
Black Meadowhawk, Bruce Peninsula on September 13, 2012
Green-striped Darner, Bruce Peninsula on September 13, 2012
Also nice to see were a couple of nice ferns on the escarpment:
Cliffbrake spp. Bruce Peninsula, September 13, 2012
Maidenhair Spleenwort. Bruce Peninsula, September 13, 2012
Black-throated Green Warbler with growth (?) on bill. Bruce Peninsula September 14, 2012
The real bird highlight was a young Broad-winged Hawk that we came across on September 14. This individual was on the dirt road leading out of the bird observatory. It was raining fairly steadily at the time and we watched this bird picking up earthworms off the road. Eventually we scared it and it flew down the road. We scared it up off the road further down a couple hours later when we went that far, suggesting it continued eating worms for a couple hours. Here's a short clip:
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Following the trip to the Bruce, it was back home for the OFO convention. Brandon summarized our day's outings on his blog already so I'll just add this photo of the Variegated Fritillary we saw in the parking lot of Owen Point trail.
Variegated Fritillary at Presqu'ile Provincial Park September 16, 2012
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I got home to Heidelberg the next weekend and Ken and my Dad and I checked out Mitchell Sewage Lagoons (AKA West Perth Wetlands). Shorebirds and ducks were as expected but our biggest surprise was this cooperative Clay-colored Sparrow in a 5-sparrow shrub!
Finally, that brings me to this past weekend. As part of the friendly 50 days of rare competition, I checked out a couple spots in Prince Edward County on Saturday morning. It was very active for expected migrants, but the best bird I could find was my second latest Eastern Kingbird at Point Petre. Another definite (mostly non-bird) highlight was when a Merlin came flying in off of the lake and gave chase to a bat! To me, it looked like this was likely a Red Bat based on, you guessed it, its reddish brown colour. I snapped a couple crappy shots of the bat flying away:
Lots of phoebes around...other than the Eastern Kingbird no rare flycatchers to be found :(
Here's the Red Bat flying away (with Blue Jays in the frame) after escaping a Merlin.
