Featherfriendly | The Ovenbird Blog

Week 15 Spring has Sprung!

by Ellen Horak | Apr 14, 2024 | Ontario Birds 2024

Reminder! Keep checking the 2024 Gallery as we are continually adding and updating pictures as Jerry takes better shots of birds we had in the winter and finally gets pics of birds he missed earlier.

With the eclipse on Monday we birded locally in the morning before heading to watch our grandkids so their mom could go to work. We did another drive past Paris Plains Church Road and saw and heard a Vesper Sparrow but no chance for a picture. Then we walked the TH&B Rail Trail off D’Aubigny Rd, one of our favourite spots in Brant County. We quickly added an Eastern Towhee that we heard and then after some effort, found singing away in the shrubs. We had super views of a local Peregrine Falcon cruising over us doing lazy circles and Jerry managed a few pics of it in flight.

The clouds moved aside so that we had great views of the eclipse with our grandkids and then after the sun came back out we headed to Safari Road Marsh in the evening to see if we could hear American Bittern and Common Gallinule that had been heard that morning. This marsh area along Safari Road near Valens has been flooding across the road for a few years now so the city blocks the section of road from traffic which, we the birders, absolutely LOVE! It used to be you took your lives into your hands to see the speciality marsh birds there when traffic was still allowed. Now it is a birders paradise to get the marsh species. We met up with Mourad, an excellent Hamilton birder, and we passed the time talking birds, waiting for dusk and listening for either of the species. And nothing! Maybe the eclipse messed their schedule but we ended up “dipping” (birder slang for missing a bird) on them. Just as it was getting dark a large number of swallows appeared and among them was a larger, all dark bird giving us our FOY (first of year) Purple Martin. Some consolation. All three of us also saw what we all believe was a River Otter in the marsh!

Tuesday morning we headed to Long Point. The forecast was sun and heat and with south winds during the night I felt it might be a decent day to pick up some early common migrants and hoping for some cool rarity. The Long Point Bird Observatory has been banding and studying birds since the 1960’s and is a spring ritual for most birders. At the Old Cut Research Station you can watch birds being banded. If you have not been, it is worth a trip, the station bands spring and fall from 9-12 each day.

We walked the paths and quickly saw birds that while not new for the year were giving Jerry the opportunity for pictures, numerous Eastern Towhees were scratching at the ground, Winter Wrens were moving low, Kinglets were flying past and we soon added Ruby-crowned Kinglet for the year. From Old Cut we checked out the nearby neighbourhood and saw our first Pine Warbler. Not in full breeding colours but a welcome sight anyway.

We then checked out the campground and saw numerous Thrush, Towhees and Sapsuckers offering us great views and photo opportunities. This Golden-crowned Kinglet was only interested in finding sustenance and ignored me walking beside.

A bit further along we found a FOY Brown Thrasher. Didn’t get great pictures as they can be a skulky bird but Jerry did get his eye!LOL

At the end of our walk we were standing in a campground when a tiny brown bird flew in front of me and behind Jerry just a foot off the ground. It was a Winter Wren, a bird we went weeks without seeing and had just heard on Sunday. At 4″ long and weighing only 0.3 oz these tiny birds have huge voices with a wonderful song. I managed a video (audio muted as we were talking) as it moved along and then it curled up on a branch for a bit of a rest. I suspect that it was exhausted from its flight across the lake as they generally are not that still around people.

While we were birding a report came in that a Black-necked Stilt was at the Strathroy Sewage Lagoons. The Stilts are a southern species that are rare to Ontario but nested at the lagoons last year and had a successful brood. It was only 1.5 hrs away so we headed to get the rarity even though it and others perhaps will be there all summer. The rule for a Big Year is always get the bird as quickly as you can.

The wind was picking up when we arrived but Trish, a London birder, (thanks!) gave us quick directions where to go and we found the Stilt without too much difficulty. It is a bird that is difficult to mistake with its long bright pink legs! It was a distance away so not a great picture but a record shot at least. We also saw a Spotted Sandpiper (the first reported in Ontario) and then heard a Sora on the way out.

Trying to be efficient as possible we decided to stop on the way home for pictures of a Great Horned Owl family that is nesting at a cemetery we were going past. Normally, we do not worry about getting pics of all the birds and especially bothering nesting birds but we are trying to get a pic of every bird seen this year so we stopped and spent all of 7 minutes at the site just before dusk.

We arrived home at 7:10 and were eating dinner at 7:45 and in bed by 10. I was tired having only managed to sleep 4 hours the night before and suffering from acute allergies. But we were back up at 6am Wednesday to head to Safari Road determined to hear the Bittern. This time we also remembered our rubber boots so we could wade down the road. We heard and saw Common Gallinules right away and then walked back and forth until we heard the strange oong-KA-chunk sounds of the Bittern. Google that call – it is one of the weirder bird calls. With not many other species around and the temps hitting 20C we headed home to do a house chore – putting more Feather Friendly dots on the rest of our windows.

We live in a solar passive house with lots of southern windows and we have had our share of bird hits and deaths – in the early years we used those big decals with limited success but a few years ago we found out about the dots and we did all the major south windows that got the most bird hits. With the dots up not one bird has hit those windows. Last year Jerry drew lines of soap on the other windows and that worked reasonably well. Most hits come during migration time as it seems our resident birds have figured out the perimeter of the house. Last week we were devastated to have two birds chasing each other hit our bedroom window and both died. One was a Junco and the other was a Purple Finch that Jerry had just photographed. We ordered more dots the next day.

After completing the windows we headed out in the evening to our local marsh, Grass Lake to see if any rails had returned but all was quiet. This is the spot where Sandhill Cranes nest too. It will be a regular spot for us to check over the next few weeks to try and see and hear the marsh birds and it is only 5 minutes from our house.

Thursday was a rain day and gave me time to start on this blog, hence the length of this blog, lots of time on my hands!

Friday was another rainy, windy day and we were in Hamilton to watch our grandson play in his hockey championships so in between games we walked along the lake at Confederation Park and added Northern Rough-winged Swallow and then we HAD to stop at Hutch’s for fish and chips! Then we headed to Valley Inn and found a Great Egret had arrived before heading back to another hockey game.

Sunday morning, prime time to bird found us yet again at the hockey rink as Benson’s team played the final and won their Division Championship! Go Bulldogs!!! We then headed west to Backus Woods near Long Point. It is a new spot for us and hosts Louisiana Waterthrushes every year. A few have been reported in the last few days around Ontario so we took a chance that an early one might be visible or heard at their prime territory. NOPE! But it was a lovely hike through beautiful scenery and we now know where to go in the next weeks when they will surely arrive. We then checked out Long Point again to see if any new migrants had arrived but again dipped on adding any new bird. On the way home we stopped at Port Rowan Wetlands and saw 2 Bank Swallows, finally a new bird and a quick stop at Turkey Point gave us our FOY Dunlin so we managed to add two more birds in the last hour of our birding day. A good week for mid April! the 15th week and 15 birds added.

Week 15 1 new rarity for a total of 16 rarities 15 new species 188 species seen J&E

Week 13

by Ellen Horak | Mar 31, 2024 | Ontario Birds 2024

The forecast for Monday was sunny and warm so we headed to Rondeau for the day and finally added 6 birds to our list! Blue-winged Teals were the last common duck species needed on the year list. We also had our first Eastern Phoebe and Field Sparrow along the Marsh Trail at Erieau. We then stopped to see the Black-billed Magpies that appear to be nesting close by. Black-billed Magpies are a beautiful bird not usually found in Southern Ontario. There is a population north of Thunder Bay that is countable on lists and they are a common bird out west but they are a non-migratory bird so any birds seen in Southern Ontario are often presumed to be escaped birds and not countable. This is another record that will be heading to the OBRC for a decision. I am not worried about this sighting as I know that I will see a Magpie up north in June that will count if this record is not accepted. Last April I was shocked to see a Black-billed Magpie on Governors Road in Dundas while driving to Jerry’s mom’s. I posted to Discord and many local birder’s came out to see that bird. We are still waiting to hear if the record is accepted. A few other Magpies were seen in the same week last year and then two nested outside of St. Thomas and had at least 2 successful young fledge from the nest. This pair near Rondeau is building a nest and it may mean this is the start to a population of Magpies in Southern Ontario!

A Red-headed Woodpecker over-wintered at Rondeau and we have missed it on each of our other visits so we took some time to again walk around the area where it has been seen. We didn’t see the bird in the morning but stopped again on our way out of the park. Minutes later I saw it fly into a tree at the corner where we got some great shots and video of this stunning bird.

We finished the day adding a Chipping Sparrow for a total of 6 new birds and hoped the trend would continue. The best part of the day was the fact that we were out walking! for 11.8km! It felt so good to be out of the car and enjoying the trails and forest.

The trend sadly did not continue for the rest of the week but we did get out and walk another 10km on Wednesday and 4km on Thursday without adding any new birds. It was a frustrating week as I read my hourly “needs alert” for Ontario each day and could see reports for Osprey, Towhees, Winter Wrens, Purple Martin, and Black-crowned Night Heron but when we went out we found none of those birds. I KNOW I will see all those birds but it is SO tempting to want to get them on my list NOW that you start to consider “chasing” them. And my mantra is not to chase common species! So I had to put up with feeling a bit of “birder envy” LOL. And Jerry has had to put up with some whining this week. I lost my “zen” a bit.

On Saturday, with renewed optimism, we headed down to Long Point hoping to catch a few more early migrants. We added Forster’s Tern at Turkey Point and then Pectoral Sandpiper at Long Point but the other species that were being seen did not show up for us, a few hours later other birders reported them again! That is the fickleness of birding, sometimes they move, fly, are quiet and what one birder sees, the next birder does not, sometimes by minutes.

On the way home we stopped at some local flooded fields where Lesser Yellowlegs were reported yesterday and yes, there were 5 in a pond way back in the field. Whew! At least the day ended on a high note. I only need to see 42 more common species out of 143 and we have started adding to my spring migrant list. While the floodgates have not opened wide there are new birds slowly trickling in. Next week is supposed to remain cool so I imagine it will still be a bit slow but the birds are coming…and I will re-find my Zen.

UPDATE: Western Tanager – the lovely Western Tanager that caused us so much grief at the beginning of the year sadly died this week after striking a window in the area it was wintering in. The bird was first found in November and has been fed by Ottawa birders since January. Sadly, window strikes kill over a million birds in Ontario each year and likely a billion in North America. The group FLAP has a bevy of volunteers whose job it is to collect all the birds at the base of buildings in Toronto during migration. Toronto is considered one of the deadliest cities for bird strikes. Check out their website for more information at flap.org.

Window strikes in Toronto photo by FLAP/Kenneth Hrdy

We use Feather Friendly dots on our windows and since installation we have not had one bird die on those windows. We still have some windows not covered and we have been drawing lines with soap on those windows in spring and fall migration to prevent the birds hitting those windows. Eventually, all will have the dots. Lee Valley sells the tape with the dots and you can also buy them from their website featherfriendly.com. Please consider putting them on your windows if you have birds around.

Week 13 9 birds added 167 species seen J&E