I grew up in southwestern Ontario and not surprisingly, that biased my view on birds and their movements and populations in the province. I don't think there is a better example of this than my view of goose migration.
For most of my life, I thought seeing several hundred or even a thousand Canada Geese was a good flock. And sure enough, scrutiny of any "good-sized" flock (read: a few hundred) in my neck of the woods has a pretty good shot at turning up "something good", usually Cackling or Snow Geese or maybe if you're really lucky a Greater White-fronted or Ross's.
Big or small flock? Depends on where you're from! Spot the Cacklers?
My eyes were opened when I started hanging around this girl, Erica and her family's farm southeast of Ottawa. Turns out what I thought was a lot of geese was pretty sad. Not a day goes by in far southeastern Ontario during migration season when you can't easily find tens of thousands of geese in the air or in the farm fields.
My view of Ontario goose migration, like so many other southern Ontario-centric birders, was extremely flawed. Southeastern Ontario is on a huge goose flyway along the Atlantic coast. In recent years, as the Greater Snow Goose migration has increased in southeastern Ontario, awareness of this seems to be increasing, but still most Ontario birders really don't appreciate how different goose migration is in the southeast.
Greater Snow Geese near Cornwall
This really revealed itself to me while on the OBRC and the committee was discussing a record of Barnacle Geese outside of Ottawa. In short, I am of the belief that Barnacle Goose occurs as a natural vagrant in this part of the province but some people, largely because of their southwestern Ontario view of goose migration, disagree. So, I decided to compile some information...that spiraled a bit out of control and before I knew it I had a decent article for Ontario Birds.
Anyways, this is all to say that I am happy with an article I recently wrote for Ontario Birds. Here are a couple of figures to get you thinking:
Canada Geese banded in Greenland and recovered or re-sighted in Canada and the United States. Prepared using data obtained from the Canadian Wildlife Service Bird Banding Office.
You might notice a similarity with this:
Barnacle Goose reports in eBird for northeast US and Canada.
If you're an OFO member check out the article in the December issue of Ontario Birds. If you're not...why not? (email me and I can send a pdf)
Looking forward to hearing your feedback on this one!
eBird has become the go-to source for bird information after what was at first slow buy-in from the birding community. There are a few hold-outs still in Ontario but it's a great example of how powerful a community can be when they are organized...virtually every question about bird distribution and abundance patterns is now best answered using eBird data.
But if you're like me, you occasionally look at things that don't have feathers and beaks. Seems like a shame to just let all of that great data go to waste. Over the years I have tried a number of other citizen science portals to report butterflies, moths, invasive species, reptiles and amphibians, bumblebees and more but I usually just got frustrated that the systems weren't as good as eBird and that I really didn't want to use ten different apps/programs.
I'm happy to say that I think I have settled on a universal program for all of my non-bird sightings - iNaturalst - and I hope you'll join me in adding your observations too. After all, these programs are more fun and provide better data as more people join in.
Since I bet most of you haven't used iNaturalist but are familiar with eBird I'll outline some of the differences and similarities between the two programs. eBird by far offers many superior features that are geared towards birders and will certainly continue to be the platform of choice for other birders and myself.
Checklist or record based? A really important thing to know going in to iNaturalist is that it is focused on individual records, not site checklists like eBird. The argument is that birders are really unique (perhaps along with "honorary birds" butterflies and dragonflies) in that they think about things in a site list kind of way, whereas most other naturalist think about things one record at a time. This works pretty well for iNaturalist but means it is very tedious if you want to enter a list of every species you observed at a site.
Photos are key. In iNaturalist, photos are strongly encouraged for all records. That's not to say you have to have a photo, but it is strongly encouraged and your record won't be eligible for "research grade" without one. The plus side to this is that if you submit all of your photos to iNaturalist you are backing them up and iNaturalist will then let you search by species or locations, so it is actually a great photo organizer tool (same with eBird). Another difference from eBird is that you can set which type of copyright you want attached to each photo you upload.
All species. iNaturalist takes records of ALL species. Yes, that means fungi, plants, birds, insects, etc....so far in Ontario there are reports of about 4700 species.
Don't have to know what you saw! iNaturalist lets you identify a record to any level. So, if you know it is an insect but no idea what kind, you can just report it as an insect. Someone will likely come along and suggest a higher identification for you.
Simple app. The app for iNaturalist is really simple to use, since you are submitting one record at a time you just take a photo and iNaturalist grabs the location and date/time...then all you have to do is enter your identification.
Uncertainty distance. This is a feature I always have wished for in eBird; in iNaturalist, each record has a location but also the uncertainty distance.
Location obscuring. You can manually obscure a location for a record to a 27 km area, or you can even set it as private; both of these options keep the detailed location of the record on file but other people will either see an obscured location or just the province, unless you give them permission by adding it to their project. All records of rare species are automatically obscured.
For rare species like this, the sighting is somewhere in this rectangle. The dot is the randomized coordinates displayed.
Keeps all of your lists. Just like eBird, iNaturalist keeps lists for you - but unlike eBird these include all species and you can add to a list even if you don't have a record.
Community Review. This is a big difference from eBird and both a strength and weakness of iNaturalist. Review can be done by any iNaturalist user - just chime in and agree or offer an alternative ID of a record.
Places. In iNaturalist, places are defined with polygons - like eBird for Countries, States/Provinces, Counties, and IBAs. But in iNaturalist, anyone can create a place and define its boundaries. This is really handy because it lets you automatically collect all records that fall within that place.
Projects. This is a feature that eBird doesn't have (or need?) - it allows anyone to create a project which is basically a data aggregation tool. For example, you can have a bioblitz project to automatically collect records within a date/location or you can have a "standard" project like the NHIC's Rare Species of Ontario which collects records of provincially rare species (join it!).
Unlimited data fields. The bare minimum in iNaturalist is very simple, just date, location, and species but anyone can create a new data field and anyone else can add a value for it to an observation. Think things like insect life stage, breeding bird evidence, etc. It's very flexible if you want to track something in particular.
iNaturalist is by no means a perfect platform, but I think it is much better than any other system that takes records of all taxonomic groups out there. With the use of Projects, all of those other citizen science projects can grab your observations and add them to their databases. And, like eBird, it will only get better as more people use it.
By contributing your records to iNaturalist you're turning your observations into digital specimens making them available to inform our knowledge and contribute to conservation.
So please join the growing number of Ontario naturalists submitting to iNaturalist...let's make Ontario the powerhouse it is with eBird!
As always, I'm happy to help people if you have questions about getting started.
It's been a long winter here in Peterborough...we got a taste of spring at the end of February, but since then it has been back to winter. And winter wasn't too exciting for birds since there was no real finch movement of any sort and feeder activity in general has been very poor. The one glimmer of excitement has been a nice Great Gray Owl irruption, but anyways, the point is, birding has been slow.
Things have started changing in the past week and birding around my yard has been full of surprises. For me, yard birding is one of the best ways to enjoy birding since it results in being very aware of even small changes. Plus, it gives you an excuse to get excited for birds that might be common just a few kilometres away!
My excellent week of yard birding began last Wednesday (March 15) when I looked out my kitchen window and noticed this sitting on one of my feeder poles:
Hermit Thrush
I can only assume this is a bird that over-wintered nearby, rather than an extremely early migrant. After all, it was an excellent year for berry-eating birds here in Peterborough.
The next piece of excitement was REALLY exciting. We were minding our business on Saturday (March 18) when my neighbour knocked on the door to tell me she had seen a large owl. I quickly put on pants and boots, grabbed my camera, and ran down the road to see....
Great Gray Owl!
After my excitement wore off a little bit, I slowly backed up until I was standing on my yard and could still see the owl, thereby adding it to my yard list!
Sunday on the yard brought some more excitement with a flock of Bohemian Waxwings descending (finally!) on our crab apple tree. They feasted all afternoon, interspersing some sips of water from nearby puddles. They were a very photogenic bunch:
That brings us to today (March 20)...what surprises were in store? First steps outside and I was greeted by a singing Winter Wren, then Erica texted me mid-afternoon to say there was a Barred Owl in our wetland. As soon as I got home, I went to check and sure enough there it was:
That Barred Owl was extra neat because it was in the same spot one was a couple of months ago, and it eventually flew to virtually the same spot the Great Gray was just a couple days earlier! I went out at dusk to see if any owls were out and about and while I didn't see/hear any, I was greeted by a displaying American Woodcock; more yard birding magic!
All in all, it just goes to show that sometimes you don't have to travel too far to find some great birds.
I've been really enjoying my seasonal hiatus as it has allowed me to be off for the last two months with Erica and Abby and it has been a great experience to see us all grow. Even more fun was the fact that we just got back from two weeks in Florida; a very welcome break from the middle of winter in Ontario!
We flew to Orlando on January 23 and stayed with Erica's parents at their rental in Celebration. Erica's sister and her family also met us down there so it was some great family time on top of the birding. We spent just over two weeks and covered lots of ground so here comes the trip report!
We arrived late on the 23rd and picked up our rental car and headed for Tropical Palms which would be our home for the next two weeks. Abby did great on the plane! The next morning I was up before the sun and so was Abby so her and I went for a walk. Nothing exceptional, but it sure was nice to be birding a different place!
Tricolored Heron at Tropical Palms
We spent the rest of the day with some Disney stuff then relaxing at the resort in the pool. The next day was one of our big driving days, heading for a hotel in Florida City. On the way I had a few stops planned with the hope of picking up some lifers and just plain-old fun birds.
Before we even got to our first spot we picked up our first Short-tailed Hawk of the trip, right near Yeehaw Junction. After about three hours of driving we entered West Palm Beach and headed for our first stop; Snook Islands. This is part of an area that has been rehabilitated and there were some American Oystercatchers regularly seen...sure enough, soon after we got out of the car we found our birds and 16 other species, my first lifer of the trip!
American Oystercatchers at Snook Islands
Abby and I looking at oystercatchers!
Brown Pelican
From there we headed for the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is nearly 150,000 acres (almost 600 square kilometres) and includes an absolutely massive marsh. We of course walked the Marsh Trail picking up a fine assortment of wading birds including my second lifer of the trip (and day!) - Limpkin (I somehow managed to miss this species on my 2009 trip to Florida...we would see well over 30 on this trip!).
Florida Softshell Turtle
White Peacock
Little Blue Heron
Limpkin!
Our final stop for the day was just around the corner; the Green Cay Wetlands. This is a city park in Palm Beach county and we were totally blown away; the visitor centre is very nice but the boardwalk is amazing, spanning over 1.5 miles through great wetland habitat. There were tons of birds here to be seen including my third lifer of the day, Gray-headed Swamphen (an established exotic...hard to get excited) and our first Painted Buntings of the trip. The close-up views of all thirty-odd species was definitely worth the walk.
Abby taking a turn with the Canon
Purple Gallinule; native
Gray-headed Swamphen; same genus, but exotic
Painted Buntings
The next morning I got up early and cheated a bit because I birded on my own. I headed out in the dark and drove some fields hoping for a Barn Owl (no luck) and then walked down the road by Lucky Hammock just outside of the Everglades. I walked the road south for about two kilometres before turning back. I picked up about 40 species including a couple rare in winter for Florida in Dickcissel and Blue Grosbeak. It was a productive walk but I dipped on Brown-crested Flycatcher but lucked into a Smooth-billed Ani.
Common Ground-Dove
Blue Grosbeak
Grasshopper Sparrow
Smooth-billed Ani
I headed back to the hotel and picked up Abby and Erica so we could head into Everglades National Park for a few hours. Before we left we stopped for gas and I stepped out of the car and got lifer #4; Common Myna (another established exotic).
Common Mynas
Before we got to the entrance to the park we spotted a kingbird on a telephone wire so we turned around and found a Western Kingbird with 12 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers!
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Once we got into the Everglades we headed straight for the end of the road; Flamingo. There we had lunch, picking up our only Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and best of all a few Manatees in the marina!
Manatee!
We were kind of rushing at this point because we were thinking of meeting Erica's family in Key West for dinner, so we headed out of the park and into the keys. The drive was fairly slow with lots of traffic, but I did see a quick glimpse of a White-crowned Pigeon zipping across the road in Key Largo.
We spent the next two nights on Big Pine Key and explored a bit of that key, No Name Key, and Key West. We didn't do a ton of birding but I added species like American Redstart, Ovenbird, and best of all, Red Junglefowl (:))....we did do a nice walk at the Key West Botanical Gardens where I had great looks at at a White-crowned Pigeon
Erica and Abby at Key West Botanical Gardens
Brown Anole
White-crowned Pigeon
Green Anole
After the keys, it was back to the Florida City/Homestead area for another night, but before we checked in we headed back into the Everglades for the afternoon. We took a leisurely stroll through the Long Pine Key campground where we picked up my lifer Brown-headed Nuthatch.
Brown-headed Nuthatch habitat
Following this, we headed for the Anhinga Trail at Royal Palm. This was more what I expected the Everglades to look like, with the trail consisting of a boardwalk through a wetland. Our walk was most enjoyable as the trail lived up to its name with several Anhingas on nests, plus nice looks at Alligators.
Female Anhinga on nest with young
male Anhinga
Alligator
As it got dark, clouds began to roll in as a cold front was approaching. Nevertheless, I got up early the next morning to try a spot for Mangrove Cuckoo (Black Point Park). Well, it was cold (10 degrees C, and pouring rain), so I didn't find it but it was still a fairly enjoyable walk. The one upside to the weather was I had the park to myself as all the natives were bundled up by their fireplaces!.
After I got back to the hotel we packed up and headed north with a quick stop at Castellow Hammock Park. Our target was a Buff-bellied Hummingbird that had staked out the park's butterfly garden for the winter. It was still pouring rain and things didn't look good, but just as we were about to leave the rain lightened up just a bit and the garden came to life; Ruby-throated Hummingbirds started chattering, and a Rufous Hummingbird joined in. A Yellow-breasted Chat popped up. And finally, the Buff-bellied made his presence known! We got some shots and enjoyed the hummingbirds before continuing on. Here's our list.
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
From there we made the drive back to Celebration, where we would spend the rest of the trip.
We spent the next couple of days fairly close to home so I took the opportunity to photograph a few common species:
I especially like how the Wood Stork photo shows that the black primaries are actually irridescent green!
Wood Stork
Tricolored Heron
Little Blue Heron
It wasn't long before we started getting antsy so we took some short trips. Our first was to the north end of Lake Tohopekaliga near downtown Kissimmee. We walked the trail along the lake and were treated to some interesting sightings, including great looks at several Limpkin and a Marsh Rabbit.
Close-up of a Limpkin's bill tip, showing the twisted end which is a specialization for its diet of Apple Snails.
Marsh Rabbit
Our next trip was to Circle B Bar Reserve in neighbouring Polk County. This place came to our attention because of the reports of a huge alligator spotted a bit before we came to Florida, but it stayed on the radar because of the wading birds being reported there. We weren't dissappointed...this place was great; the visitor centre was excellent, the trails were extensive, and the birds were good too! We tallied over 50 species in our walk of about 2 hours. The highlight for me was FINALLY getting a Roseate Spoonbill.
Erica and Abby under the Live Oak/Spanish Moss canopy
Nine-banded Armadillo
Great Blue Heron catching some rays
Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks
Purple Gallinule
Roseate Spoonbill
Next up was another relatively new birding area; the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive. The wildlife drive is just a small part of the Lake Apopka North Shore; a massive rehabilitation project converting farm land back into its natural state. The wildlife drive is 11 miles long and follows drainage ditches/dikes. There's even an audio tour to go along with it. We dipped on Ash-throated Flycatcher at the entrance, but were plenty entertained with over 60 species including my lifer Fulvous Whistling-Duck and our biggest 'gator of the trip.
real Mottled Ducks
big ol 'gator. We estimated it around 10-12 feet.
Fulvous Whistling-Ducks
Glossy Ibis
The next morning I found myself wide awake at 5 am so figured I might as well get up and go birding! So I headed south of Kissimee towards the Three Lakes WMA to try for a few specialty birds. My first stop was to drive some farm fields in the dark, hoping I might come across a Barn Owl (nope!). Then I headed for the WMA...my goal was to be there just as it was getting light so I might get to hear a Bachman's Sparrow singing or find a Red-cockaded Woodpecker emerging from a nest hole. Well, before I even fully stopped my car I had my first Bachman's Sparrow singing! I drove on a bit further and parked the car and could hear three more counter-singing! With that I walked the road looking for Longleaf Pines that had a key field mark for finding the woodpeckers - white spray-painted rings on the trunk....sure enough, after staking out such a tree for a few minutes I watched one bird emerge and start calling to another! Succcess :)
Bachman's Sparrow habitat
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
The nest hole it came out of
When looking for Red-cockaded Woodpecker, the best field mark is the white ring on the tree :)
Having got my target birds so quickly, I made a "bonus" drive up Joe Overstreet Road finding lots of open country birds. I recorded one meadowlark (in my eBird checklist) that I assume is a funny-sounding Eastern, but I'd love some thoughts on it!
I was back by mid-morning so we went out to lunch in St. Cloud with Erica's parents. The chosen restaurant just happened to be one of the better places in the area to find Snail Kites, and we hadn't even stopped the car before we spotted our first of five. Snail Kites, like Limpkins, make their living off of the huge Apple Snails.
Snail Kite
check out that bill!
The resident subspecies of Sandhill Cranes in Florida (pratensis) is amazingly tame. Which is great if you want full frame photos of their head. While photographing the above Snail Kite, this crane just screamed to have its photo taken.
Sandhill Crane
Our final birding trip was a day trip to the Atlantic coast just south of Cape Canaveral. We headed straight for the Helen and Allan Cruickshank Sanctuary to try for Florida Scrub-Jay. It was tense for about five minutes when we found our first, then second, and finally they started jumping out of the scrub at us. We had at least ten individuals in the 45 minutes we were there.
Florida Scrub-Jay
From there we headed for the Viera Wetlands. Ontario birders would probably consider this spot a sewage lagoon on steroids. There were many cells and you could drive your vehicle around them. It made for great birding and we definitely weren't the only people enjoying them!. In just under an hour we had over 50 species. Basically, this was a mini version of the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive.
Our next stop was the parking lot of Moccasin Island in the River Lakes Conservation Area where an Ash-throated Flycatcher was wintering for something like the fifth winter in a row. Much of the area was fenced off so there were only so many places we could look. At one point I thought I heard the bird give a call note, but then nothing for many minutes. Then finally it began calling long enough for me to locate it in a Brazilian Pepper tree.
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Our final stop was Cocoa Beach, where we spent some time soaking in some sun (and counting birds). Gannets plunged off shore, several shorebird species ran along the beach, and a few small flocks of Black Skimmers flew by...a nice end to a great day.
And with that, we were down to our last day in Florida. We got in some pool time, and enjoyed the resort a little more before making our way back to snowy, icy, Ontario.
