Monday instead of birding I stayed with Hannah who was home sick from school and Jerry had a doctor’s appointment. There was a Purple Sandpiper that had been reported in St Catherines and we hoped to try and refind it Tuesday but sadly it became dinner for a Merlin (falcon) on Monday. The winds Monday to Wednesday were from the NE so lake watch was on the agenda again too. Tuesday we decided to head to Niagara and try for the Black Vulture yet again and then head to a Lake Watch. The plan was to get there early so we could catch them leaving the roost but the Blue Jays (the baseball team) had other plans when they played to 18 innings ending at 3:00am. The alarm for 6am got turned off and we slept till almost 8 so we arrived in Niagara at 10. We have made at least 6 previous attempts always checking when visiting friends and making specific trips and we were hopeful that this time we would see them. Within 30 minutes we had 4 lovely Black Vultures flying from the US into Canada airspace giving us lovely scope views. Finally, we can add this bird! Jerry managed a few nice pictures and we enjoyed watching them fly around and down the river and back again.
Black Vultures
We then headed to Port Weller to take a walk out to the lighthouse and check the rocky shoreline for possible Purple Sandpiper. This is the time of year when this sandpiper migrates through and it prefers rocky shorelines along Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. It was a lovely day with temps only around 11 but with the sun and out of the wind I was removing my coat and sweater on the way back to the car. When we arrived at Van Wagners for the lake watch it felt like another country – cold, windy and the sweater, coat and gloves went back on. Standing in the wind I quickly became chilled and we only stayed about an hour before heading home having seen next to nothing over the lake. It is not likely that we will get either species we still need, Long-tailed Jaeger and Sabines Gull, at this late date on a lake watch but sometimes Sabines will show up on the Niagara River in December so we will have to check there a few times in later weeks. I think Long-tailed Jaeger will be a species we miss this year. I had hoped to get it out East in September but that foggy day we didn’t take the ferry across the St. Lawrence was our only good chance.
The ebird taxonomic changes have finally taken place and so my ebird count is the “right” count and I updated my blog list to also reflect this. We are officially at 426 species in Canada. We still expect to get Purple Sandpiper, Redpoll, White-winged Crossbill and Bohemian Waxwing which will take us to 430. Any other rarities and a Boreal Owl or Gyrfalcon are also still possibilities. The birding has definitely slowed down and we are only managing to get out 2-3 times a week to chase or bird. I am still monitoring Quebec to see what is showing up there and a trip into Quebec in late November/December is probably going to happen. I might be switching to blogging every two weeks as we move into these final slower weeks.
I was asked to speak at the December OFO zoom meeting about our consecutive years and so I’m trying to put together a presentation for that. I have used powerpoint before but this is my first time using Keynote for Mac and it is proving a bit challenging to “teach” myself the basics LOL. Lots of google searches starting with “how can I”. The real challenge will be trying to fit 3 years of big year birding into 45 minutes…I could talk for hours!
We didn’t get out to bird again until Sunday for the Annual Alan Wormington Fall Count. It was a late start after the heartbreaking defeat of the Blue Jays Saturday night. We headed out around 8 and birded the trail in Harrisburg. We have done this area for a number of years so we know what birds we expect to see. Every bird we see needs to be counted and so it is challenging to make sure you pay attention to each Robin, each chip of a Sparrow and put in an accurate count. At the beginning of the count a Discord report of a Razorbill in Toronto came in. Normally that would be a bird we would want to see but we did see them out East so it is on our list. It would be a good Ontario bird but I have made the choice not to chase Ontario birds this year if I do not have to.
Monday, we headed to Niagara Falls to try for a Black-legged Kittiwake and make a concentrated effort for a Black Vulture. We have been in the Falls 3-4 times this year to visit friends and family so our time has always been limited to quick stops hoping to catch sight of one. The vulture that is most common in Ontario is the Turkey Vulture and the Black Vulture is a southern species that is very rare in Ontario. It just happens that a very small population reside in Niagara Falls New York and so any birder in Ontario who wants to add Black Vulture to their list heads to Niagara Falls Ontario and hopes to see the US birds in Canadian airspace or some count them for Ontario if they see them in the US but are standing in Ontario. Because this is a Big Year I wanted to make sure the birds themselves were in Canada.
We arrived at 8am and between scoping for the Kittiwake and looking for the Vulture the time passed. By noon I decided we had to stay the whole day and just keep trying different areas and trying back and forth for the two birds. We made 3 attempts for the Kittiwake, scoping about an hour each time and feel confident that we did not miss it. Basically, we were looking through 40 Bonapartes Gulls for one that looked identical but had a black collar on the neck. Not an easy thing to see with waves and wind but by late afternoon it was very calm and we still could not find a Gull with a black collar. We will have other chances for that bird in the fall and winter. While standing at the Queenston Heights overlook for vultures we had our first Osprey fly over but did not get a picture. Bird #168
Everyone knows the key places to see the vultures, at the Overlook and the Locust Picnic Area, but we were not having any luck so we stopped at a picnic area by the Lewiston Bridge and walked along the river as we had seen a few Turkey Vultures in the area. We saw 6 Turkey vultures on the cliffs of the river and then on the way back to the car I saw a smaller black vulture flying downriver with just the silver tips on the wings. We raced back along the path trying to keep up with it and get pictures. The bird was along the river and hard to determine if it was in Canada or the US. We decided to head back to Locust Grove Picnic Area as we know they roost there and see if it might have tucked in again. No vulture but I suggested we sit for a minute and check what other birds were around and it had warmed up. After sitting for a bit, as we got up to go, a man was moving quickly with a camera through the area and as we watched him a Black Vulture appeared in the picnic area – in Canada! Much excitement, the birder had seen it down where we had and was trying to get pics too. Jerry managed some more pics and suddenly a second Black Vulture appeared as well as another local birder who told us they have seen as many as 6-9 Black Vultures at a time. We were very happy to see two.
Black VultureTurkey Vulture
And then Tuesday to Saturday was a combination of bad weather, caregiving, spreading wood chips on our garden areas and some social time with our granddaughters and the family. Few new birds were arriving so I felt comfortable to wait it out knowing these are birds that I will eventually come across. Have you all heard that enough over the last 3-4 weeks? Are you all silently yelling at me, “Get out birding!”?
It cannot always be about birding!
Saturday after brunch with our kids we did a quick drive to Paris Plains Church Road to view the Lapland Longspurs that migrate through each year at this time. We added them to the list a while back but Jerry wanted to get better pics if he could and of the males in breeding colours. There were many birders on the road watching and the birds were not too far away giving nice scope views. Camera pictures were still a challenge as they blend into the corn fields extremely well.
Lapland Longspurs Males in breeding colours
Sunday was a gorgeous day with temps hitting into the high teens and we decided to do a birding blitz before dinner with his mom. We wanted to focus on areas where the birds that have arrived might be. Fields for sparrows, forest for Wrens and Towhees, water for Terns, Egrets and Herons. We started with another trip to Paris Plains Church Road (10 mins from home) for new sparrows and quickly heard a Savannah Sparrow, bird #170, near the spot we had been viewing Lapland Longspurs late Saturday. We searched for a Vesper Sparrow but came up empty again. We know they are there, reports have been coming in, so next time we are by hopefully we see it. We then headed to Dundas Conservation Area on the way to Hamilton and walked the 4km main loop trail that winds up and down the valley giving me 17 floors on my pedometer. It is a gorgeous, strenuous walk. We finally added Winter Wren! It was singing very loudly from some scrub near a stream but we could not see it. Wrens are tiny little birds with big voices and they blend extremely well with the branches they love to sit amongst. Hopefully we will catch up with another one so Jerry can get a picture.
Dundas Valley Conservation Area
After shedding some layers as the day warmed we headed to Windemere Basin, a water area known for Terns, Egrets and Herons but came up empty. Jerry did get some nice pics of the Tree Swallows that have just arrived and were already choosing nesting boxes.
Tree Swallow
Next stop was Princess Point where we walked around the water area and had a Caspian Tern fly past – Jerry got a quick pic and then we noticed some swallows and realized that one of them was not a Tree Swallow but a Barn Swallow with its forked tail and dark underbelly. Another new bird! We walked back into the forest around the Point to an area we often have seen Eastern Towhees but they have not arrived to that spot yet. All in all a pretty good blitz day, adding 4 more birds for a total of 6 for the week. Only two real days of birding, one at the beginning and one at the end – bookends.
Next week is a full on birding week, with local birding of marshes and wetlands, Long Point and maybe even Pelee or Rondeau or both near weeks end or weekend. Things are picking up nicely and we are going to be very busy…
