I’ve decided not to call this a Canada Big Year because we are not going to be in a position to fly all over trying to get rarities, nor try for the record that currently stands at a whopping 480. We simply want to visit all the provinces during the year and try to get to 400 species of birds seen during 2025. It will not be the crazy chasing like Ontario was. I hope it will be almost leisurely traveling with lots of birding LOL. This is not to say that we will not willingly go past the 400, but it will not be the priority. Birding and lots of birding is the priority and seeing Canada’s top birding spots along the way. Because we will get Western and Eastern birds on trips to other provinces we do not need to chase these birds as rarities in Ontario so we can wait and get them in their usual ranges. The only birds to chase in Ontario will be species from outside Canada that might show up.
In any given year there are about 535 species of birds seen in Canada and hitting 400 is much more of a challenge than getting 300 in Ontario because of the vast distance of our country. In 2024 there was only one person at 405 and in 2022 4 people, the most in one year, managed to get over 400. Many years there has been no one over 400. In 2022 when we drove out West and birded Ontario as we normally do we saw 370 species so we know we can likely get the 400 by adding an Eastern trip and getting a few more Western species.
So the plan at the moment is this:
Start the year in Ontario with a winter trip or two into Quebec for owls, rare ducks, seabirds and Willow Ptarmigan. In early February we will take our one flight out to Vancouver and the Island for a week or two to pick up winter birds that we will miss in the summer.
Back to Ontario for spring and 2 weeks at Pelee in May and then we start driving out west at the beginning of June – Rainy River, Grasslands National Park, Waterton National Park and out to Grand Forks (my brother lives there) which will be our home base for the summer. We will cover the Okanagan, Vancouver and the Island again, then a bit into the Interior and north to Jasper National Park before heading back through Alberta and heading home for August.
We will stay in Ontario for August/September and then in September/October (not decided yet) we will head out East for our first trip to Newfoundland with visits to the other eastern provinces.
Then back to Ontario for the rest of the year but quite willing to chase into Quebec for any rarities or misses.
I’ve got excel lists done and I have some lists of where to see what across the country but I will also be watching my Needs Alerts lists for the provinces to decide when and where to do some of the trips depending on what birds are being seen. So some things will be last minute. I don’t like last minute. I like everything booked and planned way in advance but I am not sure that strategy will work for this year. I might have to be flexible and spontaneous…ugggh! I did get lots of practice last year with being flexible every time the Discord beep would come and my plans changed in an instant so maybe it won’t cause me anxiety to do this year in the same way.
Basically in Ontario we are just repeating our Big Year but chasing less rarities and since we know where we ended up seeing most species we will just repeat a lot of those plans. I don’t really need to hit the 300 mark this year but it would be good to be in the 290’s for sure.
We still have responsibilities with Babi ( Jerry’s mom) and are hopeful that she will be in her care home in the next week or so but we still have to decide what to take and move everything in and then we will need to support her in the transition so that she is happy with the move. We then have the task of emptying a very full 3 bedroom condo to get it ready to rent. I’m hopeful we can still get in quite a bit of birding in these next months but if not we can leave the Quebec and/or BC trip until the end of the year and get those same species then. There is flexibility and if I learned anything last year it is that many of the expected rarities return at the end of the year so there is always another chance. I’m not going to stress over it.
I hope to keep the weekly blogs going but if things are slow I’ll lump a few weeks together. Thanks for reading along!
Just my thoughts on different aspects of the Big Year, in no particular order…enjoy!
Stats and Costs of the Big Year
We drove 49,449 kms! and since we drive a hybrid plugin some of our travel was “free” so assuming average gas prices we figure we spent approximately $2,650 on gas and we spent $9,095 on accommodation and some restaurant meals although as a rule we took food with us. We walked 1,145 kms and that was truly disappointing – I had thought we would be hiking much more than that. I suppose you could suggest that we were efficient in our walking but very inefficient in our driving LOL. Jerry managed to get pictures of all but 11 birds and 7 of those were “heard only” birds anyway so he only missed pictures of 4 which is very good! We birded in every one of the 50 Counties in Ontario and found some very cool places to bird that we had never been to before.
In the beginning we were putting in long days and hiking for hours but as the year went by and the species needed were fewer and fewer we found ourselves driving many hours to spend a few minutes seeing one bird. I had hoped we would be able to bird the areas more but inevitably there were time constraints on us to get back for caregiving or other life needs. If we did not have the caregiving I imagine that this would not have been as much of an issue and we would have been able to just bird more and try to find more species for ourselves.
This hobby is really not about the numbers but instead about spending time in the company of birds and often other birders. I tried not to get sucked into the numbers too much BUT it is a Big Year after all and the expectation is that you will be trying to be the top birder in Ontario. Somehow, we have managed to stay at the top until the end with Jeremy Hatt only 3 birds behind and Margaret Hough and Jude Szabo placing 3rd and 4th in numbers. Remember that for most, if not all of us we have an extra bird with the Hoary Redpoll that was lumped with the Common so the counts are 1 bird more for the official year count. Huge Congratulations to Jeremy who managed those numbers working full time and to Margaret and Jude who are relatively new birders and managed those numbers. Margaret, Jude and ourselves often ended up at the same birds and if we were not we were cheering each other on and sharing information so we could all get the same rarities. Thirteen people have made it over the 300 this year and there have been 372 species seen in Ontario (373 if you count the Hoary Redpoll). We have seen 89.8% of the birds seen. Can I just round it up to the 90% that I wanted to achieve? There have only been 12 birders, including us, that have seen 335 or more in an Ontario year. This was far more than I thought we would achieve.
First column is checklists Second column is species of birds
Once I had got the 300 so early and I realized I could likely hit 320 I was far more relaxed as we chased a rarity and meant it when I intoned my mantra “we either see the bird or we don’t”. It is crazy to me that if I had just gone for the 4 birds I now regret not going for and maybe taken on a few of the long distance chases I could have hit 340! I’m not sure how it will feel to not bird this intensively even next year with doing Canada and I don’t really feel that I will be trying to hit 300 again but I know many people that find they go for that benchmark every year now. So we will see how the numbers and listing manifests for us…
One of the absolute best things to come out of doing this Big Year is the people we have met and the friendships that have developed. It pushed me to talk to people more, to give out my card with my blog on it, to message birders I did not know and ask for help and information and overwhelmingly birders wanted to help, wanted to cheer us on, wanted to make sure we had seen a post. I won’t name you all as I don’t want to miss someone but you all know who you are and your advice, cheering and thumbs ups kept us going through the tough times. Many kept birds in scopes, stayed with birds until we and others arrived and shared in our excitement. I love this community of passionate, interesting people with sometimes just one thing in common – a love of birds! It was only through all of the birders out there that we achieved that number. Big Years are always a communal effort and the result belongs to all the birders in Ontario. The birders who go out every day, often to the same patch are usually the ones to find the rarities or the ones that stop at a new area for the first time and find something fantastic all contribute. There are many non-birders that find something that looks different and think to post it to a facebook group so that others can see that bird too. I have enjoyed helping other birders doing big years in past years and have always gotten a thrill from helping them achieve their goals in a small way.
Another hope was that our birding improved doing these years and I feel happy with our progress, particularly in learning bird songs and calls. We used Merlin a lot at the beginning of the year and especially in the spring when the bird song is strongest. I have managed to learn quite a few more songs and I certainly am way better at recognizing a “different” call and stopping to investigate what it is. We spent a lot of time on the lakes and I can proudly say that I can identify a Jaeger from a Gull and Cormorant now LOL. I can’t tell you what species of Jaeger but I feel much more comfortable looking through a spotting scope at far away dark spots! Whenever we birded with the elite birders we tried to ask questions as much as we could and they always graciously answered our queries and that translated to learning a lot more about many species. Both of us have upped our “pishing” game and I have managed multiple times to get birds to pop up for a look. We keep saying we want to record a really good pisher and then just replay it when we are in the field but doing it yourself and getting the response is waaay better.
Historically, Big Years have been a young man’s game and certainly the record holders generally show that. But I wanted to show that you can be older, have other responsibilities and not necessarily be that knowledgable and still post great numbers. Technology has enabled that with up to the minute posting of rarities, ebird allows you to search where any species can be found at any given time, and apps can help you identify birds you see by song or pictures. If anyone is thinking it might be fun to try one I urge you to give it a go and take a chance. There were other birders who had committed to doing their own versions of Big Years and/or trying to get over the 300 number and I like to think maybe we inspired them to keep at it just as they inspired us to keep going. It was often the same group of us chasing rarities and that made it much more fun when we could celebrate others with their own numbers and lifers.
I absolutely loved doing this Big Year, yes, there were times when I wanted to give up and that it just seemed too hard, BUT, the fun times far outweighed the bad. The joy I still feel every time I am out and raising my binoculars to see a bird clearly is the same joy from the first years we started this. The thrill is still there. The peace I get from being out in nature and the calmness that comes when I’m in the woods has kept me grounded for the three years we have been caring for Jerry’s mom.
And finally, I have to give a massive shout out to my husband and partner of 46 years, who to be honest, I dragged into this by saying we would just be trying for 300 knowing full well I would want to go as hard as I could. Way back in 2013 it was my idea to get off the couch and start listing and then I suggested he could start taking pictures so we (I) could establish my reputation as an honest birder and it was my crazy idea to do a trio of Big Years when we realized we would be caregiving for a number of years and not able to travel far. He has embraced these goals of mine and happily (for the most part) come along for the ride and I think he is now hooked just as I am. He did the vast majority of those 49,500 kilometers of driving this year as I was navigating, checking updates and making plans as we traveled this province and he did it with me often criticizing his driving – too fast, too slow, watch the road, that’s the long way! etc etc. I promise I absolutely won’t do that for the Canada year….as much! LOL Love you! Thanks for helping me reach my goal!
And a big thank you to all of you for reading along, hope I have been mildly entertaining and made you feel like you came along.
I thought the year might be over, and then the stars all seemed to align after Christmas. Jerry’s mom’s unit in the hospital was locked down due to Covid and so, sadly, we could not visit for a week and then on Friday we finally found a memory care unit in Brantford that has one room available for her in another week or so and suddenly we had a bit of freedom at the end of the year. We thought we might head to Wolfe Island to try for a Gyrfalcon but a friend had already checked the area and had not seen anything. On Dec 27 a Gray-crowned Rosy-finch was seen 7 hrs away up in Matachewan but at a private residence. I made some inquiries about access and waited and nothing was reported until the 29th when it was confirmed it was still coming to the feeders and the owners were fine with birders having access. Thank you to Jared and Kari for welcoming birders and sharing this rarity! We made plans to head up on the 30th with a hotel booked until Jan 1 so that we might also get the bird for 2025.
We left at our usual 4am with rain and strong winds for most of the 7 hour drive until the last 40 kms when it switched to light, wet snow making the driving a bit slippery. We arrived at the house at 11 and there were Evening Grosbeaks and a couple of Pine Grosbeaks feeding but a quick look confirmed that the Rosy Finch was not present. We anxiously panned the area over the next few minutes and then all the birds took flight and left. We kept scanning with our bins checking every movement but no Finch. We waited and I said, “I think we might have an hour or so wait until the next feeding” and 30 seconds later a bird flew into the tree by itself and IT WAS THE GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCH!!!!. BIRD #335!! We were very excited but had to be quiet so we didn’t spook the bird and Jerry had to try and get pictures. It stayed around for only 5-10 minutes and moved to a few spots where Jerry got better pics and then it flew away without feeding. We left some black-oil sunflower seeds and a thank you note for the home owners and went on our way.
Gray-crowned Rosy Finch
The weather had deteriorated and the snow was staying on the road so we opted to head for the hotel and find a Tim Hortons to work on blogs until check in rather than trying to continue to bird although we are always on the look out for owls in Northern Ontario. We saw a few grouse on the roads and Jerry got a pic of this nice Ruffed Grouse. They come to the roads to pick up grit and unfortunately do not move fast. Further along we saw the remains of one that had been hit by a car.
Ruffed Grouse
On the last day of the year we headed a bit south to Hilliardton Research Station where we had seen the banding of Boreal and Northern Saw-whet Owls in September. We were hoping to see a Boreal Chickadee or a nice owl but it was pretty quiet. We did get out of our car and walk the roads and had great views of Canada Jay and later a Northern Shrike. I love this kind of birding on a quiet northern road with little traffic, easy to walk and easy to see as birds cross over the road. Animals love to use it too as we saw tracks on both sides of the road of fox or coyote.
Road BirdingCanada JayNorthern Shrike
At 10:15 the familiar ping from Discord interrupted that lovely walk on that northern road announcing that a Eurasian Tree Sparrow was coming to a feeder on Wolfe island near Kingston. Crap!, my nemesis bird was giving me one last opportunity but not quite chaseable when I was 8 hrs and 22 minutes away. We had discussed leaving to head home an hour earlier when we saw snow in the forecast for tomorrow but even if we had the timing would just not work out. The sparrow was one bird I was not going to get this year but perhaps it would stick around and I could get it for 2025? At the end of the day we found four more Ruffed Grouse on the side of the road and one male was showing his namesake, lovely black ruff. We could not resist more pictures and video.
Ruffed Grouse
We drove slowly back to the hotel and finished up these blogs satisfied and happy with how it all went.
And so we come to the end of this crazy year, at midnight on the 31st there will be a reset and all of us birders will be back to a count of 0 for the year 2025 until the alarm goes off and we rise from our beds, open the blinds and click “Start a checklist” and see what birds we can find …
Only out once to bird this week. Took a walk at Bayfront between hospital visits hoping to find the elusive Pacific Loon close enough for pictures. Met up with Barry and Doug and had a lovely walk in balmy temperatures. The Northern Mockingbird has returned to its winter home along the tracks and posed nicely for us. And we dipped on seeing the Pacific Loon.
Northern Mockingbird
Jerry’s mom remains in hospital and our focus is trying to figure out LTC options for her so lots of appointments, phone calls, hospital visits and facility tours. She will likely not be out for Christmas but we hope to find a space for her soon. Our system is certainly in disarray caring for the elderly with few options that make sense to families so it has been very frustrating and stressful for us feeling like there are few options at the moment and nothing happens quickly. I will give a shout out to all the staff we have encountered in the hospital and emergency, without exception, have been compassionate, caring and kind with us and his mom and are sympathetic to the situation. Our governments have certainly let the population down knowing that the baby boom generation would be aging out through these years and allowing a situation where you have some LTC places with 300-600 people on the wait list. I could go on in great depth of our trials this week but you are here for news about birds…
I thought you all might enjoy a look at the birds we did miss seeing and how feasible it would have been to get higher numbers so here are the birds that were seen in Ontario but we missed seeing SO FAR LOL as there is still time for one of these to show up somewhere that maybe I can get to.
1. Gyrfalcon – sensitive species so no reports on ebird but at least one seen the beginning of the year – I received one older location 5 hours away a few weeks back but didn’t go
2. Common Gull – 2 accepted reports both sightings for a very short time, no other observers, not re found not chaseable
3. Black-headed Grosbeak – Present at feeders for a few days, a few local birders saw it but access was not given to public – not chaseable
4. Eurasion Tree Sparrow – 5 attempts with one in Thessalon, should have returned to Ottawa for one but had just come back from there when it was found. Another one was seen in Middlesex just last week but the people would not allow birders to see it. I would have attempted to drive the area but we have not had the time to go. Bird 1 – regret not going for in Ottawa
5. Gray-crowned Rosy Finch – 3 reports Jan/Feb/March – all Kenora/Rainy River area 17 hrs away
6. Prairie Falcon – 2 reports – 2 days apart a week after our trip north – 7 hour drive
7. Yellow Crowned Night Heron – few reports 5 days apart in the spring from SSMarie – 8 hr drive – most people said don’t chase as we almost always have YCNH in the fall in Southern Ontario – only this year we did not – a report from Hamilton in the fall was determined not to be a YCNH although my understanding is a couple of birders maintain they saw it but no photo proof
8. Swallowtail Kite – 35 reports in May from numerous locations on Lake Erie and Ontario – we were very close to getting this bird – I blogged about our chase – but sadly we did not see it pass over us near Pelee.
9. Swainson’s Hawk – 16 reports from 4 locations – the hawk went through Hawkcliff hawk watch and we should have headed to Holiday Hawk watch the next day as it went through there! but instead we spent the day at Hawkcliff.
10. Henslow’s Sparrow – sensitive species in breeding time – I missed the best views at Pelee when we were caregiving on the weekend but thought I would pick one up on their traditional breeding place but none were found there this year and while they likely were further back in the field I was not going to walk through to flush them
11. Little Blue Heron – 2 sightings, 3 birders – one fly past at Pelee, never re found and 1 reported days later after sighting near Kingston – we went for that one in hopes to re find but did not
12. Worm-eating Warbler – 3 sightings, many birders saw at Pelee on the weekend we were caregiving, not chaseable
13. Laughing Gull – 4-5 sightings – 2 day sighting but we were up in Rainy River and missed it at Erieau – not chaseable
14. White-tailed Kite-mega rarity, first record in Ontario – 3 birders reports accepted for one sighting over 1 hour – we had driven to Pelee that morning – not chaseable
15. Eurasian Collared Dove – 2 reports – many birders saw it at the tip at Pelee – we had left 30 mins before to chase the White-faced Ibis – other report was a fly past at Zion Road – not chaseable
16. Says Phoebe – 1 report Polar Bear PP – Hudson Bay – not chaseable
17. Kirtland’s Warbler – 1 accepted report Grimsby – I was at Pelee – almost every year there is a Kirtland’s at Pelee so I took the odds that I didn’t need to drive 6 hours round trip at end of the day – that evening I saw the Ferruginous Hawk but in hindsight I could have got both birds as the hawk was seen the next day. Bird 2 – I regret not going for.
18. Painted Bunting – 1 report – at a feeder Baysville – owners did not allow public to visit – not chaseable
19. Mississipi Kite – 30+ birders saw a Kite at 4 locations spring and fall – not lucky enough to be there when seen – closest chance we were at Pelee on May 21 and left the tip around 11 and it was seen at 12:10!
20. Bell’s Vireo – 63 people saw this one bird at Pelee May 15 and we were at home caregiving. Never re found.
21. Black-bellied Whistling Duck – 1 report private residence did not allow public – ducks did not return – not chaseable
22. Townsend’s Warbler – 13 people were lucky to see the bird at Rondeau – we had left Rondeau 20 mins earlier to twitch a Blue Grosbeak, turned back but bird was never re found
23. Chuck’s Wills Widow – Long Point Tip Bird Observatory – only heard – no public access – not chaseable
24. Black-headed Gull – 1 report – private property – not re found – not chaseable
25. White-winged Dove – 5 reports – 3 far north, 1 Rondeau – I should have showed up at the door of a place north of Thunder Bay as we drove past that day instead of being “polite” Bird 3 – I regret not going for.
26. Western Kingbird – Hoped to catch up with 2 birds seen in Rainy River but did not re find, 4 single reports around Ontario, we twitched another one but no birds were ever re found
27. Lazuli Bunting – 1 report at a feeder – never re found – not chaseable
28. Lark Bunting – 20 people saw the bird in SSMarie that was around for 3 days – we should have gone for this bird but care giving gave us a very small window to go – Bird 4 – I regret not going for
29. Broad-billed Hummingbird – 1 report Georgian Bay stayed 3 days private residence – not reported until after bird departed – not chaseable
30. California Gull – 1 report from Pelee – not re found – not chaseable
31. Smith’s Longspur – reports from Polar Bear PP – Hudson Bay
32. Black Guillemot – reports from Moosenee – far north
33. Common Eider – 1 report – 5 birders – seen at Van Wagners – not re found – did many Lake watches hoping to re find
34. Ross’s Gull – 1 report Lake Huron – fly past – never re found – not chaseable
35. Tropical Kingbird – 5 birders saw it at Rossport over 4 days – made decision not to go – got the Black-tailed Gull at same time so it was a trade off
36. White Ibis – 1 report late afternoon of Black-tailed Gull find – went next morning first thing but bird never re found
37. Rock Wren – 14 birders saw it in Thunder Bay – 2 days seen – decided too far
38. Razorbill – Reports flying up the Ottawa River – still hope one will show up before end of year –not chaseable
39. Ancient Murrelet – was briefly seen by a few birders in Oakville Harbour but not re found – not chaseable
372 birds seen in Ontario this year + Hoary Redpoll that has been combined so total of 373 birds seen in Ontario and we have seen 334 including the Hoary.
When we first announced our Big Year one of the first questions we got asked from non-birders, friends and family was “what will you get when you “win”?” They thought there was money, or a trophy, a prize of some sort, that surely no one would take on this task without some reward. But the reality is birders do Big Years simply to set a goal and achieve that goal, for themselves. At least that is why I did it. Well, I guess some people do it for the recognition from the birding community but I think the personal goal is the usual reason because I suspect that the vast majority of birders in Ontario don’t really pay any attention to the “Top 100 e-birders” list and have no idea who is doing what. I know I did not pay any attention to it until I considered doing a Big Year and I think only the people trying to get over 300 or doing a year are watching the numbers. There are many years where multiple people are doing Big Years and so only one will also be first in Ontario. I had not expected to be in the number one spot too.
My bestie, Marg, was one of those people that could not fathom why I would subject myself to sitting in a car for 150,000 kms this year, often up at 4am, to find birds. While we have many shared past-times we both love, birding does not resonate for her, just as her bridge playing does not resonate with me. But despite not “getting it” Marg has supported us in our journey from day one, faithfully reading my blog, and cheering us along as we hit milestone after milestone. i think she has even learned a bit about birds! She has helped edit my blogs from the beginning and corrects my spelling, grammar and run on sentences to keep me from any public humiliation.
Last week she delivered a small gift bag to me and a card that read “Congratulations on your amazing Big Year” and inside was a beautiful T-shirt by Blackhare designs in Toronto (blackhare.ca) with, appropriately, a gull on it. So now I can say that I got a T-shirt for doing a Big Year!
Thanks Marg, love ya!
A very slow birding week due to rain, caregiving and appointments. On Friday a Eurasian Tree Sparrow was found at a feeder in Middlesex County and we were very happy! We have tried for ones up in Thessalon and didn’t go for one up in Ottawa back last January so to have one just under 2 hours away was fantastic. Except, the owners chose to say no to any visitors. Sigh, this is always a tough one to swallow. I understand people do not want 100’s of people showing up in their backyards but I also really wanted to add that bird to my list.
On Saturday afternoon an Ancient Murrelet was spotted and photographed briefly at Bronte Harbour. That would be a fantastic bird to get as 335 but sadly we were at the hospital with Jerry’s mom. She has been admitted and will be in until decisions can be made about her returning home or not. The bird was not re found despite heroic efforts by many birders late Saturday and on Sunday. So we remain at 334. Only 2 more weeks left.
