We headed to Grimsby Wetlands early Monday morning hoping the Cinnamon Teal remained and after 30 mins or so of scanning the bulrushes it was re-found! Finally our #320! The duck remained partially obscured for quite a while but eventually moved closer so that pictures could be taken. This is a Western species commonly seen in Alberta or British Columbia and it is quite rare to have them in Ontario so many birders will make the trip to see this duck.
There are over 200 checklists from that hotspot this week and it still remains there and birders keep arriving. There will likely be a few hundred more that will attempt to see this duck. Robert Baumander and Dave Archbell sent me these group shots from our visit. Jerry is shooting from up on a bench for a clearer picture.
taken by Robert Baumandertaken by Dave Archbell
Tuesday we birded Hamilton again mainly because we have had to visit Jerry’s mom almost daily as her dementia symptoms increase. We took another look at Princess Point for the Yellow-crowned Night Heron but again only saw Black-crowned. The winds were right for lake watching but we had our community Lions dinner meeting (we are both members) so we reluctantly headed home. Just past 5:00 a few birders at the lake had 3 Common Eiders fly past! That would be a great bird to add to my list and I was super sad that I missed them. They may be on the lake for a while so we will be looking for these ducks over the next few weeks.
Wednesday we headed to Jerry’s mom’s again and then on to lake watch. Just before we arrived Cheryl and Rob had seen a Pomarine Jaeger, the only Jaeger I have left to see, and shortly after we arrived we had it flying with a Parasitic Jaeger for bird #321. I had to rely on the expert birders to confirm that sighting as I am still learning about Jaegers and the subtle differences between them. This is the first year where I am actually able to tell them apart from the gulls and other birds flying around out on the lake. The day got better as we had a Juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger cruise right by the viewing deck and then an adult with streamers fly past later as well as watching 5-7 Parasitic Jaegers chasing down gulls trying to get food. We also saw distant views of Sabine’s Gulls. A great day on the lake to get all 3 Jaeger species and the Gull as well. I only need Black-legged Kittiwake now but there is always the chance for rarities, like the Eiders, so we will get down there as often as we can with NE winds.
The new viewing deck is finally finished at Van Wagners Beach and while it does not meet all our birding needs it is an improvement on the old deck.
We celebrated the weeks new birds with some yummy appetizers at Oh Bombay in Burlington.
Delicious!
Thursday the winds were again from the NE so we headed down to the lake again, this time we brought his Mom with us and it was nice to see her happy to spend some time outside and watching the goings on at the lake. It was a quiet day for birds, but we had the usual questions from passers-by about what we were looking for. I am happy to explain as long as I am not missing something flying by and there is always the hope that I turn someone new onto birding. We almost always have good conversations and experiences with the people who stop and I am happy to be one of the faces of birding at Van Wagners beach. I even met someone who knows someone from our tiny village of Glen Morris.
Friday morning with NE winds yet again we decided to drive and bird along the lake from Grimsby back to Van Wagners. We were hoping to run across the Common Eiders that had been briefly seen and that area of the lake is a hangout for ducks in the winter months so we thought we would check it out. There were few birds along the lake and we ended up at Van Wagners by 1:30. There were more birders than the previous day including a couple from California that were trying to see their first Jaegers. They ended up seeing a Parasitic and also lifer Sabines Gulls so we were happy to have helped them a bit. We had more activity than the previous day and got onto jaegers fairly quickly then had a lull for a few hours and then things picked up between 4 and 5 with chances to watch a number of jaegers going after gulls and each other. I am getting much better at picking them out even far out in the lake. The amount of time on lake watches has been well worth it.
The winds changed a bit on Saturday and we welcomed a day off to catch up on laundry and household chores. We had 8 cords of firewood delivered this week and we got all that stacked and ready for winter. I started putting some of the porch furniture away as we are not likely to be needing it in the next few weeks. People were still down at the Lake Watch and had Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaegers and at some point they saw some ducks way off in the distance and took some camera shots that look to be Eiders. The two days I did not do lake watches and eiders were seen! Why is this sooooo hard! LOL!
Sunday we headed back into Hamilton and scoped the lake from all the spots in Burlington where the Eiders had been seen and then back to Van Wagners for the afternoon Lake Watch. The winds were not really good but we saw Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaegers. I was hoping for Eiders. None were seen even though we hung in there until after 6 when it started to rain a bit. Rain and south winds are in the forecast for the next few days so there might be a bit of a lull in lake watching while we turn our attention to a sparrow – Nelson’s Sparrows should start arriving next week in Southern Ontario. We also have the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) conference next weekend and we will be heading to the northern one instead of Pelee.
Monday we headed to Fort Erie because the wind was NW and Sabine’s Gulls had been reported on Sunday. We didn’t get there until afternoon because we needed to finally get an oil change done on our car in the morning. Fort Erie is at the east end of Lake Erie and the river entrance is a good spot to view gulls when the winds are from the NW. Buffalo is directly across the river but most of the water is on the Canadian side at that point. Barb and Jean were near the parking lot and having a great time following the Sabine’s and Little Gulls flying into the headwinds again and again. We got our scope on them and had distant but easily identifiable views of Sabine’s Gull for bird #318. While we had nice views with the scope, getting a picture was much more difficult. It was overcast, the gulls move quickly, they are quite a distance away but Jerry managed to get something that is identifiable as Sabine’s. The “M” pattern across the wings and back with the wide black on the wings is a text book juvenile Sabine’s Gull.
Sabine’s Gull
Here is the video view we had looking across to Buffalo and watching gulls flying into the winds. As you can see Jerry had a challenge getting that picture. You cannot even see the gulls flying above the water with the naked eye.
We also had some Little Gulls come in very close so we had lovely views as they played in the wind. These were the best looks we have had of Little Gulls and their distinct jet black underwings.
Little Gull
Jean and Barb have both been a huge help this year, sharing information and cheering us on. Jean is an expert on shorebirds and gulls and we have her Shorebird ID book in the car all the time. I’m not sure how many years she has birded but she still is always enthusiastic and thrilled to watch any and every bird she comes across. I hope I can retain that same joy for many years to come. Barb, an excellent birder too, regales us with stories of past chases and fantastic rarities we dream about seeing. It is always a lovely, fun time birding with these two!
Jerry, Jean, Barb and Marcie enjoying the show!
We watched the show for a few hours until heavy back clouds appeared and it started to rain. As we headed home tornado warnings came up on our phones for the Niagara area but we managed to navigate our way out of the worst of the rain and heavy winds.
On Tuesday we caught up with some household tasks and late afternoon I got an ebird report that a Goshawk had been seen in Cambridge 20 minutes from us. Jerry was out getting groceries and I texted him to hurry home as this hawk might be chaseable. I didn’t really expect it to still be there but hawks do tend to rest for long periods after they have had a successful hunt so we had to give it a try. This was the closest report we have had that wasn’t a flyover and from a reliable birder. We arrived at Shades Mill Conservation Area at 6:10 and spent a few minutes driving around, having not been there for many years and trying to figure out the location of the main building. The hawk had been sitting in a tree behind the building at 4:15. We found the building and slowly walked up the road and then stood in front of the building and suddenly a hawk burst up from behind the building flew up almost over top of me and then higher over a large tree and then was gone. I had a good look as it flew over but Jerry had been looking the other way so only got on it about halfway. We don’t have much experience with American Goshawk having only seen it a few times but I have been studying pictures and the fact that it came from the exact spot the birder reported it made for a pretty definitive ID. Unfortunately, no picture. BUT bird #319! Two new birds two days in a row! things were looking up!
Wednesday morning we headed back up to Shade Mills with Jude and Margaret to see if we could refind the American Goshawk and get some pictures. We spent an hour checking the main building again and the area around it but could not find the hawk. We did have some nice warbler activity that kept us amused. We headed down to the Lake for a bit of a watch in the afternoon even though the winds were fairly weak from the SE. The good birders will tell you that sometimes these winds can still bring in rarities, so we sat. Birders had had Sabine’s the day before late in the afternoon but we did not see anything close enough for us to identify. To be honest, it was more social than watching. We chatted with each other and people who walk along the Waterfront Trail and are curious as to what we are looking for. Birds is not always the first guess by the way, we have had aircraft, whales (yes, whales), boats etc. We educate and point them to the large signs complete with pictures of the birds we are looking for.
That night a report on Discord detailed a possible Curlew Sandpiper (a Eurasian species) that had been seen around 5 at the Exeter Sewage Lagoons. It was a fairly detailed report but the birder was not sure about the ID. We decided with nothing else to work on we would go and see if we could refind the bird and maybe get a huge rarity. Thursday was my birthday and what better way to spend it than walking around a sewage lagoon!
Exeter Sewage Lagoon
There were many shorebirds to go through and we tried to be slow and methodical so we did not miss anything that might be close to what we were looking for. We have never seen a Curlew Sandpiper so we were relying on pictures from ebird and that Barb sent us to help with our search. We were looking for a bird with a long down-curved bill so we could eliminate any bird with a straight bill. We never found the bird but we did have great fun looking at all the shorebirds fairly close to us. Jerry had fun taking lots of pictures even getting down on his belly in the grass so he didn’t spook the birds. In the process of getting up his phone dropped out but thankfully he noticed it missing just a few minutes later and a quick look on my phone of “his” location guided us back to it easily enough. Whew!
Greater and Lesser YellowlegsAmerican Golden PloversPectoral SandpipersWilson’s Snipe Stilt Sandpiper
Late Thursday a report came in that the American Goshawk was back in the same tree behind the building but just briefly so we still might have a chance at a picture. Then a report of a possible juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron in Hamilton came in and I was very happy. I had missed one in the spring because it was up in Thunder Bay so we were excited that there might be one in Hamilton. The description sounded accurate but they are similar to a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron and the bird was quite a distance from the birder who posted it. Below you can see the difference in shape, posture, bills and head shape. There are also differences in plumage if you are close enough.
We were in Hamilton around 9:00 with Grandkids, who had a PD day, and Margaret had been watching a Heron for about an hour with Angela and Michael. It was across the small bay at Princess Point and there was no way to get closer to the bird so scoping and poor camera pictures was all we had. The posture of the bird seemed right – tall upright, long neck and it walked quite upright. It flew minutes after we got there so we only had those bried looks through the scope and the pictures Margaret had taken. We sent a couple of back of camera pictures to “What’s this Bird” on our Discord channel and got back a pretty quick reply that it looked good for Yellow-crowned! I got another positive for Yellow-crowned from another birder too. We were super excited, high 5’s exchanged, pictures taken. We had bird #320! BUT, I felt a bit concerned and wanted better looks and, of course, pictures. I also got a couple of skeptical texts a bit later that confirmed that I needed to see that bird again. We decided to stay around Princess Point trying to refind the bird for better looks. Another report came in an hour later that the bird was seen by a very good birder so we felt better. At lunch time we dropped our Grandkids off and returned to Princess Point to scope the area it had been last seen. There were many juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons to go through and watch carefully for a bit to eliminate. Bob Curry joined us and with his superior knowledge we went through the herons we could see once again. There was one bird we thought had a very good chance of being THE bird, long legged and thin with what appeared to be a long neck but in the end when it came out in the open it was determined to be Black-crowned. The picture below gives you an idea of what we were dealing with in trying to determine ID’s. Our scope view was a bit better than that but it still was short what you would want to be able to ID a bird correctly. I kept wanting to zoom my scope in just a few more turns to see more detail on the birds.
The Yellow-crowned Night Heron look-a-like
Margaret had looked at her pictures on her computer late afternoon and it was apparent that the bird in the morning was also a Black-crowned Night Heron. WE DID NOT HAVE #320! I had to include the picture we took when we THOUGHT we did though because how cute and happy we all looked and the kids were super excited for us!
We left having spent a total of about 7 hours searching along with other birders and despite a couple of reports there were no confirmed pictures or a bird that others could get on and be able to confirm as a group that the bird was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron. Could there still be one around? We will keep checking and hoping. On the way home we decided to make one last quick stop at Valley Inn where a Wilson’s Phalarope was giving great photo opportunities.
Wilson’s PhalaropeSemi-palmated Plover
When we got home I sent a public retraction to the Discord server about my morning report so that others would be aware the Yellow-crowned Night Heron was not seen by me. I’m ok with making mistakes, and making them publicly, I figure it is the best way to learn LOL. Public humiliation is a good teacher! I spoke with other birders and they also thought they had a Yellow-crowned only to realize it was Black-crowned when they viewed their pictures so in the scheme of things this was not a huge mistake. If I had not reported it and the bird was really there then people would be upset too so there is no right answer. Hopefully there is another one found and more accessible.
Saturday was supposed to be a lake watch with NE winds in Hamilton but while we were at Jerry’s mom’s in the morning for caregiving we got a complete flat tire. We tried the compressor and sealant they supply you with now (no tire or donut anymore) and it did not work so we had to call for a tow truck and waited almost 4 hours to then find out that the tire could not be repaired and they had no tires for our car until Sunday or Monday. Thankfully our best friends Marg and Lawson came to our rescue and lent us one of their cars. We owe you big time! And so no lake watch happened but we did not miss anything we needed.
Sunday was a day with family so we spent the afternoon at the pool and out for dinner with our kids and grandkids. Late afternoon a report came in of a rare Cinnamon Teal (western species) at the Grimsby Wetlands! A very nice rarity and I had to just let it go because the first rule is “family always comes first”. Hoping the Teal is still there tomorrow morning. Whew! what a week!
Last week on our first lake watch Marcus had mentioned that he thought one of the birds we had seen might have been a Long-tailed Jaeger instead of Parasitic. They are difficult birds to ID, especially as juveniles and we often see them under poor viewing conditions. We had taken plenty of pictures but they needed to be seen on a larger screen and when Marcus had a chance he asked some local experts to weigh in. On Tuesday he got responses that our first two birds we had seen were Long-tailed Jaegers! So that becomes bird #315 and then we did see Parasitic Jaegers later in the day so they become bird #316. It is fantastic that we had two Jaeger species in our first few hours of lake watching and didn’t know it for almost a week!
Long-tailed JaegerParasitic Jaeger
Winds were not favourable at either lake this week so we concentrated on that pesky Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Are you tired of hearing about this bird? I used the Buff-breasted as an example in one of my first blogs about the information available on ebird and where and when to see a particular species. Back then, I said I had a 73% chance of seeing this species in the last week of August up near Beeton so that is where I would be. Except the birds were not at Beeton this year. This week the chance dropped to 45% and next week 42% and then little chance. They have shown up at that site consistently for many, many years and for some reason this year they have not…yet. I was feeling frustrated and thinking I should have chased the one that showed up last week in Chatham. People were checking Beeton regularly and on Wednesday after north winds in the night we drove up hoping they would have arrived but no joy for us. Other birders checked Thursday and Friday. We had been checking our local sod farms all week as well and had no birds there.
Finally, on Saturday September 7 a Buff-breasted Sandpiper was found at Beeton Sod Farms. Hallelujah!! Of course we were looking after our grandkids for the day so I gnawed my knuckles all day and hoped it remained until Sunday. We headed up early Sunday and Margaret posted 15 mins before we arrived that there were now 2 at the same spot. We arrived and celebrated seeing both quite close to the road before they flew further back. Bird #317 for us and bird #300 for Margaret! It was only about 8C with gusty north winds so we were cold! but we stuck around for an hour or so talking to other birders and getting better looks at the birds now and again. Sadly, they apparently flew off just after we left and were not seen again but hopefully more show up across the province and many others get a chance to see them. So, ebird does work, the dates are not always for sure, but the birds do eventually come.
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
I have 7 more expected species to still get: Pomarine Jaeger, Sabine’s Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Brant, Purple Sandpiper, American Goshawk and Nelson’s Sparrow. I’ve made extensive notes on all of them as to where and when to see them. IF I get all of them that would get me to 324 species. I am still trying for Boreal Owl before year end and a few other rarer species. That will just leave any other rarities that show up and are chaseable to the end of the year. At 317 we remain in the top spot in Ontario having seen 88% of the 359 species reported so far. Ideally, I would like to end up seeing 90% or better.
I face the daily dilemma now of whether to stay local where I am in the middle of the province so when a rarity is found I can head in either direction or get out to bird known spots as much as possible on the chance of finding something ourselves. Our caregiving duties have also ramped up to every second day lately so we have less time available to actively get out to bird. Four of the seven remaining birds are on the lake so lake watches will remain a priority when the winds are favourable. Still lots to do and see and birding spots to cover.
Monday and Tuesday I waited for word of Buff-breasted at the Sod Farms but people had checked and still nothing. The new morning and evening ritual is to check the wind forecast for Hamilton and Sarnia. In Hamilton birders want strong NE winds and in Sarnia we want strong NW winds. You can get seabirds with other winds but your chances are much higher with the right winds. It was looking good for NE winds in Hamilton Wednesday and Thursday. In Hamilton, birders gather at the Lakeland tower close to Hutch’s restaurant and set up scopes and chairs to hang out for hours scanning for the three expected species of Jaegers, Parasitic, Long-tailed and Pomarine. Peak time for these birds is September/October when they migrate from their Arctic breeding grounds and a few stop along the Great Lakes before heading to their wintering seas. Jaegers are known as the “pirates of the sea” as they engage in kleptoparasitism meaning they steal food, usually from Ring-billed Gulls or Common Terns by chasing them down and harassing them until they drop any meal they have in their bill or have just swallowed. It is very cool to witness one of these chases close to shore. Lake Watching tends to be in crappy weather; think cold, rainy, and windy so any days in August where it might be a bit warmer is worth trying.
The tower at LakelandHours of the same view!
Wednesday morning was humid and hot and Lake Ontario was like glass but the winds were forecast to pick up around 11 so we first birded through Confederation Park enjoying multiple views of heron species and carefully checking any Juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons for a possible Yellow-crowned. A report of a Buff-breasted Sandpiper came in from the Chatham area but I opted not to chase it so early in the season. Around 11:30 we headed to Lakeland and met up with Markus, a young Hamilton birder who did a Big Year in Hamilton last year, reaching 275 species! We climbed the tower because they were rebuilding the deck at ground level and started scanning. Within 30 minutes Markus spotted 2 Jaegers coming towards the tower and we had great views as they came in on the east side and flew around the back of the tower to the west side. Both Markus and Jerry took a number of pictures and just like that we had bird #315 Parasitic Jaeger added to the list. Thanks Markus!
Parasitic Jaeger
We celebrated and then went back to scanning. Lake watching is hours of scanning the lake and horizon for small black specks that fly differently from gulls, ducks and cormorants. When someone spots a jaeger there is the challenge to describe where you are looking to get all the other birders on it too, and its a moving target. So you will see multiple people looking through scopes and suddenly someone yelling, “I’ve got a jaeger! It’s above the horizon, heading left, crossing past the CN tower now, a gull just flew right below it, now over a white sailboat, coming up to the tallest white building”. You get the idea. It is a skill to try and describe something that is essentially is a tiny black bird in a field of blue water and blue sky. Most sightings are so far out that they have to go in as a Jaeger species rather than identified to type. We wanted them in close enough to shore that we could identify and hopefully add Long-tailed Jaeger as well. Other birders joined us over the afternoon and we had a number of birds far out and another couple of Parasitic come in close. The winds got stronger, the air was colder and I was shivering by 4:00. What a crazy change from the morning. We hung in another hour as it is often very good between 3-6 but nothing else came in. We ended the day having seen 5 Parasitic Jaegers fairly close and 5 jaeger species. Not bad for a first Lake watch in August.
Thursday the winds were a bit stronger in the morning but Jerry had an appointment so we didn’t get there until noon time and Max was sure he had a Long-tailed come in fairly early when he was there first thing. There were a few more birders present and shortly after we arrived Barb got on a Parasitic Jaeger reasonably close. Margaret, from Toronto had joined us and got her Parasitic for the year. We all went back to scanning. When we got bored of scanning we amused ourselves by taking pictures and video of Sanderlings and a Ruddy Turnstone on the beach taking turns so we didn’t miss anything. Marcus and George supplied us with lots of sweet treats and the hours went by quickly.
While I was videoing the Turnstone I looked up and there were 2 Jaegers flying right past me, pretty close. I was so stunned and then tried to get my camera up and going and they were gone! I don’t know how Jerry gets the pictures he does! All the birders got on those birds and they were determined to be Parasitics too. We continued to scan and chat about birding, hearing stories of great gets from Barb. I love hearing these stories as you quickly realize how random events are that lead to great gets or misses. I also like hearing information about other species and where to find certain species. It is always an informative time while you patiently wait for those brief moments of birds flying past. As the afternoon waned the winds dies down and there was less action on the water. We were meeting Marg and Lawson for dinner at Hutch’s so we packed it in again around 5.
The hours I need to devote to Lake watching will increase until I get the Long-tailed and Pomarine Jaeger on my list. Hopefully, I can head to Sarnia for a watch there as they often seem to have more Long-tailed over that way. There are a few people checking the Beeton Sod Farms daily for the Buff-breasted that have chosen this year not to show up on time and there are still no sightings. I am not stressed, but I am a tiny bit concerned that they might not show up there and I should have chased the one in Chatham. Oh, it is never the right decision it seems. On Saturday a Yellow-crowned Night Heron was reported but could only be seen by a boat in the St. Lawrence near the Thousand Islands. Another bird that was not chaseable. Although, I did look up where and when the 1,000 Islands cruises go just in case. It was not near the island the bird had been seen or we might have added that to our weekend plans. On Sunday late in the day a report came in that a Mississippi Kite had gone over the Holiday Beach Hawk Watch the first day it was running so I guess that is where I should have been LOL.
Yes, I’m talking about Fall, and this week started with a taste of it – cold, rainy and windy. We started the week heading into Eastern Ontario to get checklists in two more Counties and hoping that a Little Blue Heron that had been seen 3 days previously might miraculously be re-found. The Heron was confirmed with a photo and had been near the Thousand Islands last Thursday but not added to ebird until Sunday night. It was likely a non-birder that had to ask someone what kind of bird it was and most likely an American as the ebird list was summited by an American birder but not the person who had seen the bird. Confusing right? and frustrating that another great rarity was not chaseable. I consoled myself with the fact that had it been reported on Thursday I was looking after 4 grandkids and would not have been able to chase it anyway. We started at Presquile Provincial Park, a fantastic birding hotspot for migrating species. There were some warblers and a few shorebirds around but it was pretty quiet and windy! It is in Northumberland County though so it was another County completed. We drove a a bit further east into Hastings County and added another checklist there to leave us with only four more counties to bird in. Two up north and one at each end of the province. There was nothing about the Heron on Discord but we had never birded in that area before so we continued to drive and stop along the Thousand Islands Parkway. Very few birds were around and we had a decision to make. We had originally thought of heading north and staying overnight to drive through Algonquin in hopes of a Goshawk but with the weather it seemed hawks would not be likely. The other choice would be to just head home. We chose home and as always ended up crossing Toronto at the dinner hour and so the trip was 2 hours longer than usual because of a series of accidents. We got home tired and discouraged, a lot of driving with little to show for it.
Tuesday we were not getting back into our car for hours so we birded 10 minutes from home to get back our “zen”. We found some early fall warblers at Cavan Flats and spent a lot of time trying to figure them out from seeing small pieces of the birds high up in the trees and hidden by the full leaves. Fall is a difficult time to bird. Most birds are no longer singing, the leaves are still on the trees, the birds are in their fall plumage which is duller and more difficult to figure out. But, we love trying to decipher the clues, that is, until the neck pain gets too intense! There are lots of curses as you just about get the bird and it is gone, as well as delight when you figure out one of them. One of the things we rely on especially in the fall is the under tail pattern of warblers. Each are unique to the species and combined with the amount of colour on the under view often is all you need for an identification. While the birds below show more than the tail there are instances where we make the ID based on just seeing that tail and underside. Cool huh?
Chestnut-sided WarblerBay-breasted Warbler
Warblers also change their plumage dramatically between the spring and fall with some seeming like totally different birds. I’ve posted a few below with their spring plumage and fall plumage. These first few weeks of seeing the fall plumaged warblers causes us some grief as we get used to their updated looks.
Cape May Warbler Spring PlumageCape May Warbler Fall PlumageMagnolia Warbler Spring PlumageMagnolia Warbler Fall PlumageChestnut-sided Warbler – SpringChestnut-sided Warbler – Fall
Margaret, a birding friend, had been kind enough to check the Beeton Sod Farms a couple of times for Buff-breasted Sandpipers but still none had arrived. With winds coming from the south and more heat arriving it may be a few more days before those birds arrive. Ideally, I would like to get the Buff-breasted before I have to start lake watches but the birds do not care about my plans.
Wednesday and Thursday we had appointments, meetings and caregiving and so our next birding was Friday when we went out again locally because there were still no reports of Buff-breasted Sandpiper or any other rarities. We birded at the Brantford Waterworks Park, one of our favourite places, and saw 55 species over 4 hours of walking almost 8kms. We had ten species of warblers including a Canada and a Wilson’s Warbler. It did not feel like Fall with temperatures back up at 30C but migration is taking place.
Saturday we headed into Hamilton for caregiving but stopped at the Desjardins Canal first and took a short walk along the canal where we had super close encounters with Black-crowned Night Heron and Green Herons. We took Jerry’s mom to Woodland Cemetery as she likes to visit the family grave and we birded the area for a bit, met Mourad who was out birding too and had a nice group of warblers in the trees there, including a Yellow-throated Vireo. Mourad saw a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher too but we didn’t get on it.
Black-crowned Night HeronGreen Heron
I got a nice video of a Green Heron catching an afternoon snack.
We were going to head to the Sod Farms on Sunday but Dorlisa checked on Saturday and there were still no birds so we headed back out to Brant Waterworks Park and met Jason and Jenny so we joined them for a lovely walk along the river stopping at the pockets of warblers and identifying what we could. Sunday afternoon there were a few reports of American Golden Plovers being seen in some sod fields so fingers crossed that darn Buff-breasted will be here this week! I don’t want to rush the end of summer but I am more than ready to move on and get some fall birds added to my list!
