As I said in my previous post, we had our 4 Grandkids for most of the week for our annual “camp” so no birding happened. We did see the Ripley’s Aquarium with them, they ran their own Olympics, multiple games of hide and seek were played and there was an over consumption of sugar treats and late nights. We loved every minute of it.
Saturday we headed to Blenheim because there had been reports of Baird’s Sandpipers the last two days and it seemed like one of the few spots not forecasting lots of rain. We scoped the edges of the lagoons and once again thought we had a Baird’s but Steve C. arrived and quickly dashed our hopes declaring it a Semipalmated Sandpiper. Will we ever get this right? We walked down towards some other shorebirds and Steve found us a beautiful Baird’s within minutes. Thanks once again! It was very obviously a Baird’s once we saw it. But will the lesson stick with us until next year when we have to once again hunt for a Baird’s?
Baird’s Sandpiper (definitely NOT a Semipalmated Sandpiper)
Jerry managed to get better pictures of a Wilson’s Phalarope although not in breeding plumage. Google it to see it in breeding plumage – they are such pretty birds! He has also added a number of better pictures to our Gallery so make sure you check that out again.
Wilson’s Phalarope
Next week another sandpiper species should start to arrive, the Buff-breasted Sandpiper. They hang out in sod farms instead of lagoons so a change of destination will be happening. We also will start to do some Lake Watches if the winds co-operate. Stay tuned…
As we closed out July the birding was quiet under very hot conditions and south winds. Baird’s Sandpipers started to show up in five or six places around southern Ontario and we decided to twitch (chase) some local sightings on Friday. The first place we checked was a large sod farm in Kitchener where Baird’s had been seen by a few people on Thursday but there were no birds visible Friday morning. The next stop was Flamborough Downs. Jude had reported one a few days before and after scoping for a bit I thought I had a Baird’s in my scope. Sandpipers are a very difficult group to tell apart and while we are improving we still are not fully confident. We use Jean Iron’s shorebird book and that has helped a great deal. Baird’s are a bit larger than a Least and smaller than a Pectoral, with wings that are longer than the tail, shorter legs and a thick black bill with a bit of a down curve. They generally have a more grey tone back when we see them in the fall. The bird I had in the scope seemed to fit with those characteristics. We took pictures and put it in our checklist as a Baird’s Sandpiper. Jerry added our pictures at home and I started getting a bit worried when I looked at the picture. It did not show all the characteristics that I felt I saw in the field. Bob Curry, birder extraordinaire from Hamilton, sent us a note shortly after seeing the pics and suggested he was not convinced it was a Baird’s and that it was more likely a Semipalmated Sandpiper. So bird #313 went on the list and off the list LOL. We should have just had someone check the pictures before putting in the checklist but we got a bit overconfident and sometimes you just feel bad always asking for assistance. Bottom line is, as good as we are at identifying birds we are still nowhere near being “great” and there is still lots more to learn.
Saturday, we patiently waited at home, itching to bird, but not wanting to make a move in one direction or another. At 10:30 a text from Discord announced a rare Western Kingbird 2.5 hrs west of us and we were in the car by 10:45 heading to the spot between Rondeau and Pelee. We had missed Western Kingbird up in Rainy River where they are most often seen in the summer months so I had been hoping one might end up closer to home. When we arrived, Rick and Mike from Pelee had been looking for a few hours without re-finding the bird. That was not good news. It was hot, humid and Jerry had forgotten his hat in the rush to leave. I gave him mine (he has had skin cancer a few times and needs to keep his face covered) and we looped the short 2km trail a few times hoping to see the bird. As the heat increased I started hanging back in the shade while Jerry, in the hat, moved further along the path. Suddenly a text from him, “I got it”. I ran along the path realizing as I ran that I went the long way to where he was and arrived gasping for breath and tried to get my bins on a bird he was pointing out. The bird was in trees, partially obscured. It had the yellow belly, a grayish head. It looked good. I sent a quick text that we had found it and then we got clearer looks at the bird and realized it was a Great Crested Flycatcher not the Western Kingbird. UGGGGH!
A Western KingbirdThe Great-Crested Flycatcher
Another mis-identification. So frustrating. I try to tell myself that with each mistake you learn and you are less likely to make the same mistake again so it is forward movement although at the time it always feels like backward, rookie mistakes. In the end we stayed for almost 2 hours hoping to find the Kingbird but it was not to be and was not re-found the next day either.
Being so close to Leamington we decided to drive some roads outside of the town in the hopes of spotting a Eurasian-collared Dove that we still need on our list and when that failed we stopped at our favourite Mexican restaurant, Salsa Caliente to cheer us up. The freshest guacamole I have ever tasted! On the way home we stopped at a few sewage lagoons to see if we could turn up a Baird’s Sandpiper to redeem the day but it also, was not to be. And to top off a kinda lousy birding day, Jerry ignored GoogleMaps attempt to take us off the highway to avoid an accident and we ended up sitting for 2 hours because they closed the 401 further along and we eventually had to exit the highway onto narrow country roads with hundreds of other travellers. We got home at 10pm. Sigh!
Undaunted by a bad birding day, early Sunday morning we headed to Rattray Marsh in hopes a Baird’s Sandpiper would still be there. It was a beautiful drive in with no traffic or accidents LOL! It was lovely and cool standing at the shady marsh edge talking with Margaret and the other birders while we waited to see if the Baird’s would return. An Osprey catching snacks kept us amused and we had great scope views of the ducks and shorebirds close by.
Osprey
The Baird’s did not return so we headed off to Colonel Sam Smith Park where the wintering Western Grebe had been sighted close to shore. It seems likely that this is the same Grebe that we first saw back on January 7 at LaSalle Park. A Grebe was reported on and off from January until April 30 at LaSalle and then May 1 was the first report from Colonel Sam Park and it has been sighted there and at Rattray on and off from then until today. I found the Grebe quickly off of West Point but it was closer to the farther shore so we decided to walk over to the other side. It was a bit of a hike and in the punishing heat it felt longer but in the end it was worth it to get better views and picture. I think you would agree too…
Our first Western Grebe pictureThe updated Western Grebe picture
We then headed up to Davos Pond where a Neotropic Cormorant had been hanging out, again, for better pictures. This was one of those perfect birding moments where we parked our car, walked across the street and the Neotropic Cormorant was sitting in a pond a short distance away. We were there for 6 minutes. We are appreciative of these easy gets after all the tough ones. Again, Jerry was happy to get better pictures then the ones we got at Pelee in May.
Our first Neotropic Cormorant pictureThe updated Neotropic Cormorant picture
We also got our first checklist of the year in York County. Only 6 more counties in Ontario to get checklists in for the year. So we added no new birds this week but I’m trying to keep a positive slant on things – we did manage better pictures of some birds and got another county completed so still moving ahead with our challenges.
And we can hope that maybe our mis-identifications are finally behind us…
