Yard birding magic

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.

Kingston Lark Sparrow

On this warm spring evening Erica and I were pulling in to our local mini putt establishment when I got a text message from Mark Read that read "Just found a Lark Sparrow at Lemoine Point.". Yep, he didn't even include an exclamation mark. So, with less than an hour of daylight left, we headed for Lemoine Point.

As we arrived we could see Mark and fellow Kingston birder James Barber up ahead on the path, faithfully keeping an eye on the prize:

So there it was. We all enjoyed this rare bird from the mid-west before it eventually flew into some nearby pines to hopefully spend the night.

As mentioned above, Lark Sparrow is primarily a bird of the central US, regularly reaching into Canada in southern BC and the southern prairies. It is also rare but regular in southern Ontario with up to about 5 records per year. It is a species that could be expected here more often in years of extreme drought in the core of its range, like this year. This must be one of the earliest spring arrivals of this species in Ontario - the only earlier date I could find was one on 10 April 2010 from Pelee Island - most records fall in late April or early May.

The great thing about seeing this bird was that it meant two rare birds in Frontenac County in two days after Mark and I found this wayward White-crowned Pigeon on Wolfe Island yesterday. 

Greater White-fronted Goose and waterfowl at Long Point

Big Creek is finally open and the warm melt water flowing through it is starting to open up a lead in Long Point's inner bay, so this morning when I stopped to check out the bridge on the causeway there I was happy to find about 1500 Tundra Swans, hundreds of ducks and geese and a single Greater White-fronted Goose.

Here's a link to my full checklist from the causeway. With south winds predicted on Friday and Saturday there should be more birds filling into the small bit of open water this weekend!

Even though it is still cold, it does look and sound like March in the area. Check out this video from the IBA Canada YouTube channel that I took a couple days ago:



Thanks for looking and don't forget to support my birdathon for bird conservation!

Did you enjoy spring? Good, because that's it!

Well, not really but it sure feels like we had spring and now we're back to February! There should be a distinct pause in spring migration over the next day or two and then it should gradually ramp back up. I hope you were able to get out and enjoy our first real taste of spring. Lots of birds have arrived and if you're like me, your Ontario year list has started to bulge in the last couple of weeks.

I made a trip down to Prince Edward County last weekend and it was a trip with signs of spring and signs of lingering winter:

A huge snow drift near Sandbanks PP

There are still lingering Snowy Owls

Red-tailed Hawk carrying food

Goose migration has been in high gear for a couple weeks now

 

This Rainbow Trout almost answered the question "what's on the other side of the road"

Since last weekend temperatures have warmed up and it has been an even more steady stream of new arrivals - check out the Ontario arrival dates for this year and you'll see what I mean.

Brown Creepers and other typical April migrants are really moving

Golden-crowned Kinglets are hard to miss these days

Pied-billed Grebes are now back in many areas

even Ring-billed Gulls look good this time of the year!

It's not just birds declaring spring has arrived - I heard my first frogs (chorus, peepers, and leopard) this past weekend and insects and plants are showing now too.

Hepatica will be blooming soon

My first butterfly of the season!

Firefly out and about

But the great thing about spring, is that we're just starting and arguably the most exciting stuff is still to come! According to the spring arrival dates I calculated using eBird we've got the following to expect in the next week:

15 April -	Surf Scoter
	Barn Swallow
	Chipping Sparrow
	American Goldfinch
16 April -	Broad-winged Hawk
	Brown Thrasher
	Yellow-rumped Warbler
	White-throated Sparrow
17 April -	American White Pelican
	Northern Rough-winged Swallow
18 April -	Virginia Rail
19 April -	Purple Martin
20 April -	Cliff Swallow
21 April -	Yellow-throated Warbler
22 April -	Black Scoter
	Upland Sandpiper

Yellow-throated Warbler...just getting started?

More to come this week?

Every thing on that list made an appearance in Ontario in the last few days with that push of warm southerly air, we'll see if we can get more of them as the week progresses, then it's just a short wait to the big push of late April/early May when almost everything happens all at once!

Will the winter ever end? The first week of April

It's finally starting to feel more like spring every day, though slowly. But if you check the weather as frequently as I do or you're reading Brandon's weather bird blog you'll know that we're still going to be getting at best seasonal temperatures for the next while. I'm OK with seasonal temperatures at this point.

Thankfully, the worst is likely behind us and we are into April. The birds that will arrive over the next 3-4 weeks are a bit less dependent on weather than March migrants, so we'll probably stay pretty much "on schedule" from here on out, despite cooler weather.

Personally, I had a great start to April with a big movement of birds all day going past my office window. Check out my eBird checklist from the morning - I tried my best to work but almost 10,000 Canada Geese going by is a bit of a distraction! I've got my yard list up over 50 species now with my first Tree Swallow this morning.

10,000+ Canadas and 152 Snow Geese passed by on April 1

Two Snow Geese right over my house!

This is 1 of 2 (the ugly one) Red-shouldered Hawks from 1 April

I had a meeting in Prince Edward County yesterday evening so on the way made a quick stop at Kaiser X-Road. This place is great all spring because there is a big flooded field that attracts waterfowl and later on shorebirds and Little and Bonaparte's Gulls. It was still mostly ice covered but there were loads of waterfowl including Snow Goose and Tundra Swan. Here's the full list.

Anyways what do we have to look forward to arriving this week? Lots! Many of these species have already begun arriving in the extreme SW part of the province (and beyond) so keep an eye out for them this week:

01 April -	Bonaparte's Gull
02 April -	Double-crested Cormorant
	Tree Swallow
03 April -	Great Egret
	Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
	Field Sparrow
	Vesper Sparrow
04 April -	Osprey
06 April -	Common Loon
	Sharp-shinned Hawk
	Greater Yellowlegs
07 April -	Cooper's Hawk
	Hermit Thrush

Osprey on nest

One of my favourite signs of springs is when Ospreys show up back on nests. They are always really amazing because it seems like one day there are none and then the next day all of a sudden almost every nest  is occupied.

Birds are in the air!

We finally have a night with favourable conditions for migration and it looks like lots of birds are taking advantage of it. Check out the wind map showing light ESE winds over southwestern Ontario:

The Radar is lighting up with birds tonight - check out this animation from the Cleveland station over southwestern Lake Erie. You can see the birds taking to the sky just after dusk:

eBird has a good primer on Radar and bird migration here.

With the favourable weather tonight (and the direct evidence above) we should have lots of new birds (finally) reaching southern Ontario for us to wake up to. The rain predicted to start early in the morning should stop this migration pretty quickly. At this time of year it's not likely to result in anything too crazy but we might get closer to being "caught up" in terms of migration. I'd expect to see a good push of dabbling ducks, robins, blackbirds, killdeer, and maybe the odd passerine species that normally shows up in late March...we'll see!

I'll be listening for my first Song Sparrows tomorrow!

Good things come in small flocks of White-crowned Sparrows

The birding in southern Ontario since mid-April has been great, to say the least with a long list of rarities having shown up.  I've been lucky enough to connect with more than my fair share and I have been very happy for that.  The last two have had something in common - they were both associating with flocks of White-crowned Sparrows.

White-crowned Sparrow in Polar Bear Provincial Park last summer

The first of these rarities was a young male Blue Grosbeak on Pelee Island.  It was found during the Pelee Island bird race (AKA Botham Cup) by Paul Carter.  Unfortunately, Paul wasn't on a team and though he waited for one of the 7 teams to pass him, none did, so no teams got it for the tally.  Most of them (including us) headed to there right after the race ended at noon on Saturday and got looks at this bird.  It was pretty elusive, alternating between the thick hedgerow and the grassy field that was just high enough to hide the bird.  It stuck around until at least May 13 (3 days) and on May 12 I got a few "record" shots of this bird:

This was a really nice bird to get and it was only my second ever (the first was a female I found at the Tip of Long Point on May 6, 2004). I think the photos of the more recent Blue Grosbeak might be a bit better....

The next nice bird to get was today. I was headed into Prince Edward County to check out some spots when I saw the post on Ontbirds advising that a Lark Bunting had been found by Mark Saunders at his home near Sharbot Lake.  I decided to do some birding in the county first, then head north.  I got on site a little after 1pm and I was greeted by Mark himself.  He told me the story about how he heard this strange song that reminded him of a mockingbird at 5am and when he went outside to investigate it turned out to be a Lark Bunting.  Amazingly, Mark had a Lark Sparrow at the same spot a couple years ago.  His farm is small but it is one of the only open field habitats in a sea of Canadian Shield forest for many kilometres in each direction.

Anyways, back to the bird.  The Lark Bunting was hanging out in a fairly small area near the actual house, usually with White-crowned Sparrows and after about 1 or 2 minutes of Mark telling me the story and showing me some of the places it had been seen the bird popped up and flew in front of me!  Obviously, it is a pretty distinctive bird with those big 'ol white wing patches and I got my camera out right away.  I managed a few shots and even one video of it. Overall I was a bit surprised at how small it was (certainly no bigger than the White-crowned Sparrows it was with), expecting something a bit bigger but that didn't bother me!

For some reason Blogger isn't letting me embed my YouTube video, so here's the link:
http://youtu.be/kaqIEzjwXfw

Well, it goes to show you, it is definitely worth checking through those flocks of common birds!

Swallow-tailed Kite chase

Erica and I headed to tropical Ontario yesterday and camped at Rondeau; we picked up lots of new arrivals for us and then spent a couple hours birding the park this morning after camping over last night.  It was a really nice day already and we headed out at 10 towards Pelee.  That's when the excitement really happened!

Just after passing through Port Alma a bird appeared in the air beside someone's house.....and I yelled to Erica "Swallow-tailed Kite!!!" Wow, what a sweet bird as it lazily kited around the trees in the yard and then started moving NW into the field.  After some frantic phone calls the bird started heading west down the road....so we followed it!  Erica got the word out on Ontbirds as we watched as it gracefully flew back and forth over our heads, checking out each grove of trees it came to.  After doing this for a few minutes the bird started picking up speed and just basically b-lining west along the lake shore.  And I mean RIGHT along the lake shore - presumably getting some lift from the bluffs and with a nice tail wind.  At times I had the car doing 60 km/h just keeping up with it! After about 30 minutes Ken met up with us frantically heading east and we got him to turn around and follow us and the bird.  The bird had gotten ahead of us so we dumped his car (windows open and keys in the ignition!!!) and found a good spot to look for the bird.  Sure enough we picked it up over Wheatley Provincial Park.

Since the bird was now well to our west we decided to leave the bird and to backtrack to get Ken's car. After getting through Wheatley and passing Hillman Marsh amazingly we picked it up again as it miraculously appeared directly overhead on Mersea Road E, where we lost it as it disappeared over the marsh before we could get up over the dyke that borders the Pelee marsh.  A few minutes later the crowd that had gathered at the visitor centre parking lot had the bird obligingly come right overhead as it headed south (apparently David Bell's calculated time was within seconds!).....as far as I know that was the last it was seen so it either snuck back north or made the crossing over Lake Erie...

Anyways, pretty sweet bird! Here are some pics:

I'm sure Brandon and David (and lots of others who waited patiently at the VC for the bird!) will some some pictures on their blogs...

And of course some eBird checklists with location info:

Port Alma: http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S13988137
Coatsworth Road: http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S13988231
Wheatley: http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S13988201
Pelee: http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S13988271

Heading north...

Well, I've been back from Pelee Island for a couple weeks now and haven't gotten around to doing a blog post.  I'll remember this May as being one of the dullest I have experienced weather-wise, which resulted in very monotonous birding.  Still, you can never complain after a spring in Ontario! Anyways, there's always next spring!  Here are a few highlights from Pelee Island

Lake Erie Watersnake

Little Yellow

Juniper Hairstreak

Bay-breasted Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler

 And a couple videos:

Well, that's it from me for a few weeks.  This time I have a better excuse as I am headed for Polar Bear Provincial Park on Hudson Bay! I should have lots of photos and videos from the trip when I return in late June!