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 was very excited to hit two eBird milestones this past month. The first (and least exciting) was to enter my 15,000th checklist:
But the really fun milestone was to finally fill out my eBird barchart for my yard. Here's are a couple snapshots:
Even though we had been living at this place since December 2013 (and of course I was regularly reporting my observations to eBird) there were a couple monthly quarters that I had missed in my first year. I was able to fill those gaps with at least a single checklist on the second pass this year. The result is something anyone can accomplish by regularly reporting the birds in their backyard (or their local park or favourite trail) - it's a pretty powerful way to summarize simple data!
If you want to see the full bar chart of all 165 species I have seen on the yard so far, you can download a pdf version. I'd love to hear about your complete barchart.
It was a very exciting week for me with all sorts of pleasant surprises wherever I went.
To start things off, on Sunday, Ken, my Dad and I were headed down to Holiday Beach IBA for the annual Hawk Festival. We left Waterloo in the dark but hadn't even made it to the 401 when we had our first surprise of the day. Just as we were getting off Hwy 8 I noticed a raptor sitting on a light post. Without thinking much I said "hey there's a red-tail". But as I looked at the bird a bit longer I realized that's not what it was. I pulled onto the shoulder of the ramp and put my bins on it and was surprised to see this:
Yep, a Snowy Owl - on September 13! I think it is more likely that this is a lingering bird from the big irruption last winter rather than an early fall migrant. We don't expect them until November at the earliest. Last year there were a couple of lingering Snowy Owls in Hamilton and on Amherst Island through the summer, so it does happen but it sure is a surprise to see!
With our spirits high from our surprising find we continued towards Holiday Beach. Before arriving we knew we were in for a good hawk flight as the conditions were perfect (clear with a brisk NW wind) and we were already seeing Sharp-shinned Hawks flying over the fields we were passing. We weren't the only ones thinking the same thing as the turnout was excellent:
And here's what everyone was watching:
A kettle of Broad-winged Hawks
That's right, nice big kettles of Broad-winged Hawks. They really got going at about 11 am and were still going strong when we left at 2. In any given year 2-6% of the world population of Broad-winged Hawks funnels through Holiday Beach, and usually a big chunk of those birds pass through in a few key days. The day's tally was over 7000, or about .5% of the world population! Needless to say we weren't disappointed, or even that surprised since the conditions were perfect. What was a surprise though was a dark morph Broad-winged Hawk that we saw go over with a group of "normal" (light morph) broad-wings in the afternoon. That was my first ever and Ken's second.
Our highlight, however happened just before noon. I was waiting by the classroom to get organized for a presentation I was to give when Jeremy Bensette and Emma Buck came walking over. As we were chatting I looked up to see a line of broad-wings passing overhead through a gap in the trees. I lucked out because as I put my binoculars up I noticed a heavily marked, slightly larger, and longer wings buteo overhead - "I've got a Swainson's Hawk!". Jeremy got it right away and even snapped a couple photos. It was an Ontario bird for both of us. I phoned Ken since he was on the tower and I wanted to make sure they got the bird too - he answered the phone with "juvenile light or intermediate morph!" then hung up. Pretty sweet!
And we had one more surprise fly over that day from the tower:
American White Pelican
That was Sunday. Through the week I was busy with some great staff meetings at Bird Studies Canada's headquarters in Port Rowan. A Say's Phoebe was found near Rondeau but a chase was not in the cards for me.
But my biggest surprise came yesterday, when I was at Erica's childhood home for some birthday parties. I checked my email in the morning and saw that Parasitic Jaeger had been found feeding in a field just 10 minutes to the north. I filed the information away thinking I'd go have a look later in the day. My phone promptly died so I didn't think too much more about it. Then, Erica's brother texted her to say he had spotted a crowd of birders checking something out at the spot so Erica and I went for a drive. When we got there we found out that it was actually a Long-tailed Jaeger - much rarer, and probably a first county record. At first it was a bit distant but eventually it started flying around feeding around the field, sometimes flying within 5 metres of us. At one point it landed, caught and ate a worm about 10 metres away from us. Absolutely amazing views of a bird that I have only ever seen way out on Lake Ontario off of Hamilton.
Now that's a sweet yard bird!
Can't be too many shots of this species with a silo in the back
Yes, that's a worm!
Needless to say, before the week started if you had told me I'd see a Snowy Owl, Swainson's Hawk, dark morph Broad-winged Hawk, and a worm-eating Long-tailed Jaeger I would have asked you if you'd hit your head!
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.
