The Cave Swallows arrived! If you recall last year we saw them at Fifty Point after a few days of strong Southwesterly winds coming up all the way from Texas. This is generally a yearly phenomenon, and it helps that they are now on birders radar in the first week of November to check any swallows carefully. Generally speaking our swallow species are long gone by this time which makes it easier to decide if it is a Cave or a late Cliff. The two species are very similar in colour and shape. On Tuesday the winds were good but I had promised to take my two granddaughters for an afternoon of shopping and then dinner to celebrate their birthdays. There were a few reports of Cave Swallows so Wednesday morning, with good winds again, we headed to Fifty Point first thing in the morning and spent a few hours watching the sky for small birds flying over. No luck.
Staring at the sky looking for a Cave Swallow
We then decided to drive the hour to Port Colborne as a Purple Sandpiper had been seen Tuesday. As you know, chasing as soon as the bird is reported is ideal but we seem to have a lot on our calendar so we are chasing things a day later. No Purple Sandpiper but crazy winds off the Lake made me wish for the summer again.
With a shift in winds again on Thursday if was suggested that they might be seen along the Erie and Ontario shoreline so Thursday we headed to Long Point after yoga to try and catch up with a few that had been reported over the last few days. No luck. It was a lovely sunny day, a bit cool but nice to be out and seeing a number of birds around Long Point.
Saturday there were two reports from Pelee of Cave Swallows around the Marsh Boardwalk first thing in the morning and they were roosting. Finally, a situation where they might be chaseable. Jerry had an ultrasound first thing so we were delayed leaving and would only get to Pelee in the afternoon. When we arrived just around 1:30 we headed out on the boardwalk and met up with a birder who let us know that they had flown from underneath the boardwalk at the pergola about 10 minutes ago and had flown to where we were at the Marsh Tower. They had been seen going back and forth between the two places. We had just looked at the tower and did not see anything so decided to continue to the pergola area. Nothing there after a few minutes so we headed back to the tower and spoke to another birder who had pulled into the parking after us and he saw two swallows by the Marsh tower minutes after we had walked down the boardwalk. Oh boy! Two misses. We decided it might be wise to cover all the bases. We had met up with Robert who saw them right at the parking an hour before us but he wanted to stay and get better pics so we each took a spot and then switched around after 10-15 mins. I sent Jerry out to the pergola where there was the best chance of pictures, I took the tower where I could see out to the pergola with bins and Robert took the parking and wharf area. After a bit I asked if he would check the beach across the road just in case they had headed there to feed. Jerry had wanted to go to the beach because he hates standing around waiting for a bird and I knew he would be pushing to do that but I thought we should stay where they had been seen. A few minutes later I see Jerry walking back towards me from the pergola. Sigh! It was barely 10 minutes! I phone him and tell him that Robert is checking the beach and he needs to stay out there. He says for how long, I tell him I am prepared to stay until dusk, it is 2pm. He tells me he thinks they have left and then wait I see a bird! I hang up and train my bins down at the pergola and there is a beautiful swallow just above the water swooping around. Then I see that Jerry is trying to get a picture in the sky and I quickly call Robert and then head to the pergola. Jerry had managed to get a few flight pics and indeed it is a Cave Swallow. I sat on the bench under the pergola and a minute later a swallow swooped down and disappeared under the boardwalk. Too fast to get a pic but enough to confirm the pale rusty rump of a Cave Swallow. A minute later another swallow, or the same one swooped in again! We all had a laugh after about all the things that lined up to us getting that Swallow. Splitting up the areas, me sending Robert to the beach, me phoning Jerry at that moment so he saw the swallow otherwise he would have walked back and we could have missed it completely. Of course, if he had been patient and just sat on the bench and stayed out there he would have had spectacular looks at the swallow above the water and perhaps a better picture. LOL
We stopped at Erieau on the way home to scan the harbour rocks for a Purple Sandpiper. Most years they can be seen at this spot and where we saw it last year but there was nothing climbing around the rocks. This is the next bird we need to track down.
There were two rarities this week that we did not chase. A Rufous Hummingbird is visiting a yard near Flesherton and inviting birders to visit. We, of course, saw many out in my brother’s yard this summer and we previously saw this species in Oakville one winter so we don’t need it for our Ontario Life list. A Northern Gannet had been seen sporadically along Lake Ontario and again, we saw many out East. We do not have this bird on our Ontario life list but I’m ok with that, it is a difficult bird to track down and I want to concentrate on what we do need.
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.
We are watching reports for Boreal birds that we still need to add to our list and waiting for those numbers to increase so that we can plan a trip up north to see them, or for them to irrupt down here in Southern Ontario. It is difficult not to go and try and chase them now but I am exercising patience so that when we do go we will be successful in adding them. The same with the Black Vulture in Niagara, the leaves are almost off the trees so it should be easier to see them along the river. Another week and we will head down to try and finally add that species.
On Wednesday we just wanted to be out in the woods so we headed to Brant Waterworks Park, one of our favs, and spent 2.5 hours meandering the various trails and just enjoying finding common species still hanging around. We had 36 species on the list and thoroughly enjoyed no pressure to be looking for something specific.
We got home and had some soup and then at 3pm a report of a Western Cattle Egret in Erieau came in. This is a rarity we have been waiting to show up so we were in the car in about 5 minutes to make the 2 hour and 10 minute drive. I drove so Jerry could grab a nap and I like to think I drive more efficiently (faster) than he does. The bird was located in a field with cattle right on the side of the main road to Erieau and as we drove up to the spot we could see a white bird flying across the road from the cattle field over a pond on the other side of the road. I pulled in quickly, we noted it was the Egret and Jerry managed a few pictures as it moved a couple of times and then disappeared into the foliage around the pond. Talk about perfect timing! Whew! A minute later (thank goodness I WAS driving LOL) and we would not have known where to look and with the bird hidden it might not have been re found. Unfortunately, Jerry had seconds to take a few pictures once the car had stopped and only from the window before it went into the foliage so they are blurry. We were able to let others arriving know where to look for it and it did move out a bit where it could be seen with binoculars but not great for pictures. We stayed for 10-15 minutes to see if it would return to the cow field but it did not so we headed back home arriving at 8.
Cattle Egret
Thursday we had to get the grandkids to school and had friends coming for dinner so it was a none birding day and thankfully no rarities were found. Friday at noon a report of a Gray Kingbird near Chatham came in and again we were in the car and making a 2 hour drive to chase another rarity. At least both the rarities this week have not been through Toronto. If you recall we had chased this same species in Hamilton three weeks back but the bird was only seen by the original finder. It is a Florida species that we have seen before but not in Canada. When we arrived there were many birders already there and the Kingbird was catching insects and flying back to sit on a fence, then the wires along the road and finally into some shrubs. We took pictures, chatted with other birders we have not seen for a bit and I managed to get some video when it finally came closer to the road.
Gray Kingbird
We stayed for 1.5 hours and then headed home. We stopped for gas and then Devin called us to discuss some financial questions so we sat at the gas station talking to him for a bit and then just after we started driving again a report of a Little Blue Heron hit Discord just 10 mins from where we were. We saw one in NS but it would be a good bird to add to our Ontario list this year so we turned around since we were so close and made our way back. We were thinking how lucky we had stopped to talk otherwise we would have been on the 401 and would not have turned around. When we arrived though, the bird had just flown up river and it was not accessible because of houses along the river. Well, you cannot get them all.
Ebird is still making the changes to the splits and I suspect that the Western Warbling Vireo will be added to my online list in the next day or so and at that point it will say we have seen 425 species of birds in Canada this year. With the birds still to get I stand a good chance of being over 430, something I did not think possible with just driving across Canada and that one flight. We are also the top birders in Canada with 13 birds between the second place person and us and only one other birder over 400. What will be the next rarity to show up?
I ended last week by including Monday, the holiday, in the week so week 42 started on Tuesday morning. There was a Red Phalarope that had been reported in Hamilton on Saturday but with our family commitments we could not get in to see it. We already saw one out east but Jerry did not get very good pictures from the whale-watching boats so we wanted to go in and get better pictures. It was also an excellent bird to get for the Hamilton Study Area. We have now seen 295 Life birds in the Hamilton Study Area (25km circle with Dundurn Castle at the center). It was still unseasonably warm and sunny when we arrived and we saw the bird out on the mudflats as we walked down the hill to Valley Inn. Jerry took a few pictures and we continued down hoping the bird might fly closer to the path below. While we waited for bird movement we socialized with other birders. A Red Phalarope is an Ontario rarity every year but double rare for Hamilton so a lot of birders were coming to see it over the weekend and also into Tuesday. We chatted with Michael and Angela, our friends that stayed with us at Pelee and Andrew was out hoping for better pictures. We met Mimi, a new birder and exchanged information. The bird never did come closer even though we stayed for almost 2 hours. Total birding time 15 minutes and socializing the rest of the time.LOL The connections are one of the best parts of chasing rarities.
Red Phalarope
Wednesday we had the Lions bottle drive in our driveway but it was smaller than previous ones so the sorting and crushing of cans did not take too long. In the afternoon there was an ebird report of a Purple Gallinule at Tommy Thompson in Toronto. It only had a short description, no photo and a name I did not recognize. It is always hard to judge if a report might be viable or not, in this case I was a bit suspect but the description mentioned a white patch between the bill and head and that seemed pretty definite for Gallinule. I checked back on the report a few times to see if a pic was added. No reports on Discord and then at 5pm a picture and a Discord report came through. It was a Purple Gallinule! Sheesh, we could have left in the afternoon and got out there but now it was too late to try with commute traffic. But we knew where we would be heading on Thursday.
After dropping Hunter and Hannah to school we headed into Tommy Thompson Park at the Leslie Spit. Google maps relayed it would take us 2.5 hours to get there from Brantford. UGGGHHH! That traffic into Toronto is always brutal! We arrived just before 11 making up about 10 minutes LOL. The problem with TTPark, if you recall, is it is a huge area and there is a 30 minute walk to get to any of the birding areas. Many people take their bikes and even rent bikes that are provided. My back was in bad shape from crushing cans the day before so I very much needed to walk to try and loosen it. It was a beautiful day, we met up with other birders coming back from seeing it. Lori from Oakville had seen it, Jude had heard it and seen it a few feet away, Jean had seen it. We kept walking and chatted with other birders heading out to the spot, some on bikes who went ahead. When we arrived the bird was right in the water at the edge of the pond just a few feet from us. It vocalized as it walked and seemed totally oblivious of the 5-6 people standing around with cameras clicking. We stayed for about 1.5 hours enjoying watching it move along the pond and back, chatting with other birders and then at the end making sure new birders arriving got on the bird as it had disappeared for a bit.
Purple Gallinule
The pictures almost look like two different birds because the top picture was taken in the sun and the second was taken later in the shade. How crazy are those feet? I took some video. The Gallinule is out of focus (damn autofocus) but it was vocalizing and I want to share it calling.
But I also got a great video of it feeding right in front of us. Forgive all the camera clicking from all the people around me.
It only took us 2 hours to drive back home where I nursed my back for the rest of the afternoon. As often happens around 5pm (the rarity hour, I call it) a Discord report came in of a Grace’s Warbler in Algonquin Park. That would be a lifer bird for me as I missed one that Jerry saw in Arizona many years ago. And only the second record in Ontario, so a big deal. It is a south-western, Mexico species. It was NW winds so a good night to migrate. Would the Warbler move on overnight or stay? Would it be worth the drive up and back? It is not always easy to refind warblers but it does happen. It was with a lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers that were feeding frenetically which often signals migration will happen soon. I had committed to help my son with painting his living room Friday/Saturday and I hate bailing on plans that I have made. The rule with all of our big years has been “family first”. So, after back and forth discussion we opted to wait and see if the bird was refound in the morning and then we could decide.
Friday morning people were in Algonquin from dawn looking and nothing…until 10:45 and it was refound. We were visiting Babi by then before heading to Devin’s. At that point it made little sense to drive 4-5 hours to Algonquin and then have limited time to find it. There was heavy rain in the forecast for the afternoon. It was seen sporadically throughout the afternoon but not after 3:45 when it was seen flying over some trees near the parking lot. We got the ceiling painted at Dev’s and made plans to go to Algonquin with Barb and Liam Saturday morning.
We left 4:30am, of course, and arrived at Algonquin at 8:00 to join 20-30 other birders who were there looking for the Grace’s Warbler. The trip up went by in a flash with all the conversation with our birder friends. Barb was one of 7 people that had seen the first Grace’s in Ontario back in 2016 but never got a picture. It would be a lifer for Liam and I and Jerry wanted pictures too. The old airfield at Mew Lake campground is open with few trees where the birds had been seen Friday.
Old Airfield Algonquin Park
A few walks around the area produced few birds and no large flocks of Yellow-rumped Warblers but it was early and it had been found later on Friday. We walked around, we chatted and shared info with other birders we passed. We scanned with bins, we listened. By noontime the hope was fading, the heat was building and instead of more birds appearing it seemed there were less around. People were starting to talk about heading home and some gave up the search. We had some lunch and then we expanded our search when Mourad showed up and walked through the campground checking pine trees and listening intently for Yellow-rumps. Nothing. Mourad has a reputation of always getting the bird and we were happy for his arrival but he was not getting the bird this time. We gave up at 2 being close to the last people leaving. The ride home was a bit quieter with naps but because of the great weather and good conversation it did not feel terrible to have missed such a fantastic rarity. Any time spent birding and with birders is fun. Lesson for the future big-year birders – always, always go right away for a rarity. This will likely be the miss of the year for me but I’ll eventually get my Grace’s Warbler in Mexico or Arizona if we ever travel back that way.
Northern ShrikeCommon RavenEastern Bluebird
Sunday we finished up the painting, planted garlic for next year and enjoyed an afternoon to catch up on pics and the blog.
Week 42 means we have only 10 weeks left in our year. It seems like such a long time ago that we were starting our year up north to get the Gray-crowned Rosy Finch and now we are almost finished.
Just after I published my blog last Sunday Jerry suggested that maybe we should just go and get the Caracara. We discussed, checked the forecast, not great, but decided to chance it anyway. If we did not go on the Monday it would not be possible to go until Oct 16. So we packed hastily for an overnight trip and Monday morning at 3:45am we set off for Foleyet and the Crested Caracara twitch (chase). It was an 8 hour drive with the first three in the dark and the last hour in rain but as we neared the town the rain stopped. The bird had been reported that morning so we first drove to the area it had been seen in but no large raptor present. We checked the school yard, another of its favourite haunts but again no bird. I then insisted we head to the rail yards as there have been many sightings at that spot. We got out of the car and Jerry walked over to check the tree line. There were crows and a raven calling and he thought perhaps they would be on the Caracara. I walked over and saw a white flash at the top of a tree quite a distance away but raising my bins I was pretty sure it would be THE BIRD! And it was! Jerry took a few distant pics and then we got back in the car to get closer to where it was sitting. It stayed at the top of the tree for about 5 minutes and then as we were turning our car around it took off and flew back into the other side of the town.
Crested Caracara
We drove back and checked some of the favourite spots but could not refind it. Stopped for gas at the store and took our time hoping it would reappear but it did not. What perfect timing with our arrival and finding the bird 15 minutes after we got there. We then had to decide what to do next. We had packed for a two day trip assuming we might need to find the bird the next morning but we really did not need to do that now. We has talked of driving towards Hilliardton to see some Redpolls but it seemed silly to spend the money on a hotel, if we could even find one with it being hunting season, when they are likely to show up around home this winter. We ended up just driving back home, another 8 hours and arrived at 9pm. A 17 hour twitch in one day!
The rest of the week was quiet from a birding point of view. Except for watching the Blue Jays! The baseball ones, not our yard birds. We spent time catching up on house chores, spending time with Babi and getting ready to host Thanksgiving for 21 family members and friends. We are still waiting for more NE or E winds to get some more lake watches in.
On Saturday Nelson’s Sparrows were found again at the Green Gate Pond in Cambridge. I was in the middle of baking for Thanksgiving so I told Jerry to go up and see if he could get a picture. We had a family gathering in the afternoon so we could not go later. Jerry went up and had two very co-operative Nelson’s kind of sit out for him and he took some nice pictures of them. Sunday morning we went back up so I could try and see them. Brett and Barb were there early and saw 3 and then kindly waited until we arrived to help me see them. It took about 30 minutes before I had a nice view, one came right out to the edge of the path and sat unobstructed for about 30 seconds allowing me great views without bins. It then flew to the other side of the path, we alerted a few other people and then it flew further into the grasses. That is textbook Nelson’s, the skulky sparrow.
Nelson’s Sparrow
Monday we had family and friends join us for a traditional turkey and ham dinner and we all watched the Blue Jays of course. Heartbreaking losses!
Week 41 1 species added 421 ebird 422 my list for J&E
