2024 Photo Gallery can now be viewed in larger slides ( just click on the pic) to enjoy the birds we have seen better! Check it out!
It was bound to happen! The birding has been slower with my “needs” list shrinking and few new migrants arriving. We went 6 days without adding a new bird to the list. I don’t want to chase common birds that I know I will see and the few birds I need have just not been co-operating LOL. We headed to Erieau on Monday to try for a Eurasian Wigeon, a duck, that required us to scope through a few thousand other ducks in a “Where’s Waldo” scenario.
Lets find the one Eurasian Wigeon!
Most of the ducks were Redheads with, well red heads and the Eurasian Wigeon also has a red/rust head but with a buff/white flash on the forehead. The scope does give you good views of those black specks in the picture above but it is a challenge to move through all of those ducks looking for the one that is different from all the others. And they often have their heads in the water while they feed. We scoped for 3 hours from 7am until 10, moving down the bay, gave up and did some birding at Rondeau and then headed back in the afternoon for another 2 hours of scoping. There were other birders scoping as well so we are pretty sure we did not miss it and it is for sure still out there as birders found it again a few days later. It will probably be there till April so we will most likely try for it again unless another one is found under better viewing circumstances. I ended up with pretty achy legs and neck from all that scoping so spent some time on the yoga mat for the next few days. We took advantage of the birding slowdown to spend time with family, a rare lunch with our son and daughter, a sleepover with two of the grandkids and we care-give for Jerry’s mom 2-3 times a week in Hamilton. When we go to Hamilton we try to fit in a walk or two of birding but those did not yield anything new. Saturday I wrote the beginning of the blog resigned that this would be the first week with no birds added.
Late Saturday a report came in of a Eurasian Wigeon at Long Point with the potential of not having to scan through thousands of Redheads. The alarm was set.
Sunday morning was quite foggy and arriving at Long Point around 8 yielded us a view into the marsh of fog with glimpses and flashes of potential Wigeons and Pintails. We took a walk and came back just before 10 and scanned for a few minutes and found the rust/red head of a Eurasian Wigeon.! Yes!!! The week of no new birds was broken with a rarity that is one of the more difficult to get. Bird #147. Jerry even managed a picture, a bad picture for sure, because it was quite a ways out. Below you can see the difference between the two ducks, both have a flash of white/buff on their foreheads but the American has a green/brown head and the Eurasian has a rust/red head.
Eurasian WigeonAmerican Wigeon
Because of the unseasonable warm weather I had been seeing reports of American Woodcock over the last few days and we had checked our local spot around the corner on Saturday night but heard nothing. Sunday night we headed out just before dusk to another local spot in Brantford to see if we could hear and see their flight displays. The American Woodcock is a strange looking bird, see the picture below from a few years back, that is difficult to see for most of the year but in the spring the male performs these dazzling arial flights. The male starts by making these “peent” noises on the ground right at dusk and then after a few minutes will quickly fly up 250-300 ft in a spiral where you can hear this twittering sound as the air passes though his wings. Then he will start to descend in a zigzag pattern coming down like a football to land close to a female, if they are around. The “peenting” starts again and then another flight. These displays can go on late into the night.
American Woodcock
In Brantford, just at dusk, the “peenting” started and we decided there were at least 4 birds in the scrubby field. Shortly after they started their flight displays and it was one of the best displays we have seen because it was still quite light so we could easily see the bird way up in the sky and watch it as it came back to the ground. I forgot my camera in the car and taking pics or videos was still quite challenging for Jerry so we have nothing to show for it. The reports are coming in from across Southern Ontario for the Woodcocks displaying and some of these are the earliest records ever. Last year, our local bird started displaying April 2 so this year they are a full month earlier.
And so from 6 days with nothing new we added 2 new birds on the 7th day. We are now two birds away from the half-way mark and this 12th rarity means if I get all the common and migratory birds I will hit the 300. Woohoo!
Week 9 12 rarities 2 new birds added 148 species seen by J&E
We started the week with a full day of birding to finish off the Global Backyard Birding Count. We walked 9.3 km, the most we have on any day this year so far. We didn’t add any new birds but we did spend a delightful 20 minutes watching two Pileated Woodpeckers feed at Pinehurst Park. The male has the red crest all the way to the beak, and a red malar stripe and in this pic seems to be having a bad hair day LOL. The female in the foreground has a crest that only is on the back of her head. See the difference?
Tuesday Jerry opted to stay in waiting for his fixed camera to be delivered so I ventured down to the Trail and managed to see my first Common Grackles of the year. One bird ahead of Jerry!
Wednesday was a warm day and we managed to fit in a few walks between caretaking duties for Jerry’s mom. We added an early or over-wintering Yellow-rumped Warbler and Jerry managed to get better pics of many ducks along the Bay walk. On Thursday we took a drive down to Rondeau and the Glencoe area and managed to add 3 more birds, Swamp Sparrow, a very early Eastern Meadowlark and Killdeer. The Glencoe area is known for Golden Eagles and we have now driven it a few times unsuccessfully, but we did end the day near a site for Short-eared Owls and stopped for a quick few pictures to end our day.
Short-eared Owl
Friday was another beautiful day and with few birds to chase we stayed local and walked some of our favourite trails. We didn’t add anything new but it was nice to be out in the sun and walking. Late Friday reports came in for a possible Bullock’s/Orchard Oriole in Toronto. Bullock’s would be the “western” version of our “eastern” version Orchard Oriole. The expert’s studied pictures, gave opinions, better experts weighed in and the bird was declared a Bullock’s Saturday morning. We were in Niagara Falls for the day for a family gathering but knew we would have to head out first thing Sunday morning. The alarm went off at 5:30 am and we were out of the house by 6 and in Toronto at 7. We saw the bird at 7:30 thanks to Margaret’s keen eye! in a few different trees as it moved around to feed. Rarity #11 and bird #145 The bird had been coming to a jelly feeder since January 7 but never reported. With the secret out, it was quickly decided to set up another feeding station away from the home in nearby High Park that the bird was also frequenting so that birders would not be near the homes. The Ambassador program that the OFO (Ontario Field Ornithologists) started a few years back has been very successful at making these rarities accessible but also keeping impacts on local residents to a minimum and making sure that it is a positive experience for everyone and the bird is also protected. A local birder approaches the homeowner, discusses any issues, whether they even want visitors etc, what times or constraints for visiting and the option to collect fees to offset damage to lawns, seeds/food for the birds, or local charities. Before this program was initiated it was a bit of a free-for-all at a rarity siting and inevitably bad behaviour from a very few visitors would piss off the locals and in one extreme case, led to a farmer killing an owl to stop birders from coming. The program was started to make sure nothing like that happened again. We would have loved to hang with the other birders and chat and enjoy the bird more but we are always cognizant of what the local people are thinking with 20 people suddenly hanging on the street so we had a quick chat and left the area.
Bullock’s Oriole
We also added a Wood Duck and Jerry saw his first Common Grackle to bring us even again and then we stopped at Colonel Sam Smith Park on the way home to add American Pipit which we forgot to look for on the previous two visits. A nice end to week 8! In the past 8 weeks we have driven 10,000kms and walked 174km.
Week 8 11 rarities seen this year 8 more birds added 146 species seen (J&E)
We started the week with a drive into Middlesex (west of London) searching for a Golden Eagle that has been reported a number of times but had no luck, I am pretty sure I will see one during migration but its nice to get as many birds on the list now. We then headed down to Rondeau Provincial Park and searched the bay for a group of Greater White-fronted Geese that was reported the day before. The view was horrible, they were on the other side of the bay but using our scope we could identify the orange/pink bill and when the lighting was right the white patch around the bill. With the naked eye the geese were not visible at all. The first picture shows the geese from Jerry’s camera at full zoom. The second pic is a digiscope picture (our iphone held up to the scope view) where you can kind of see the orange bill with white around it on the goose in the red circle. In this situation, without a clear view you determine first they are bigger than the ducks around them so they are geese, they are not Canada Geese, no black heads, they are not Snow Geese (all white) and Greater White-Fronted were reported yesterday with a similar number so they are likely the GWFG. But we still scoped until we saw that identifying orange bill to clinch the identification. Bird #134. Hopefully we find another one and get a better picture. I’ve added a picture from 2017 so you can see what they look like.
After birding Rondeau for a bit we only added one more new bird, a White-crowned Sparrow and then headed over to Long Point Provincial Park. We found some Sandhill Cranes along the way, expected, as this is a wintering area for them. We have Sandhill Cranes nesting in our community and we often have them in our backyard so not a bird I needed to add to the list but hey, I’ll take them anyway.
Sandhill Cranes
We birded locally for a bit on Tuesday but did not see anything new and on Wednesday made a quick stop in Dundas on our way to Jerry’s mom and picked up a Pied-billed Grebe in the Desjardins Canal. Grebes legs are attached so far to the back of their bodies that it is impossible for them to walk so they remain in the water all the time. If they do land by accident on land they require human help to get back to the water. First picture is Jerry’s picture and the second I found that shows how far back the feet are. Crazy huh!
Pied-billed Grebe
I get daily alerts for what birds I need for my Ontario list that are being seen somewhere in the province and that list is now below 20 with only about 4 being birds that are rare enough to consider chasing. A Prairie Falcon was found twice and would be a fantastic bird to add to the list but it is over 6 hours back up north, as is a Gray-crowned Rosy finch, where I was a week ago so I made the decision not to chase it. The 10 rarities I already have gives me the ability to make those decisions. If I was trying for the record then of course I would have had to go for them. The other 16-18 birds on the alerts are more common birds that have arrived early or over-wintered and I will get them in the coming months so I’m not going to chase down a Common Grackle or Wood Duck. Both will show up in my backyard soon enough.
We took a few days off from birding but it was the Global Big Backyard Bird Count weekend (Feb 16-19) so we had to participate. Saturday we birded some trails locally just to get out into sunshine and for exercise. We found an overwintering, drab Hermit Thrush for bird #138.
Hermit Thrush
Sunday Jerry had to do some things for his Mom so we didn’t get out again as we had planned. I spent the time looking at Canada birds for our Canada 400 year. I’ve already got quite a bit done and am monitoring what birds are around in the winter in neighbouring provinces that we might visit next year. This will be an ongoing process that I have to fit in around this big year so that we are ready for next year. Have to take advantage while things are quiet.
Week 7 10 rarities 5 species added 138 species for the year
We arrived home from our North trip late Monday so I included that day as part of the North Trip rather than day 1 of week 6. A Slaty-back Gull was found in Welland on the Sunday and then seen at the same location on Monday so early Tuesday morning we headed back out on the road for Welland. We arrived around 10 and the bird had been seen around 9 so I was worried it would not be there but a group of people were there and had it in their scope sleeping on the ice in a group of about 70 other gulls. Whew! 132 and a very good rarity to get, giving me 10 rarities seen this year. We had time to watch the gull for a bit, waiting for it to wake and stand a bit then they all flushed and re-landed and I managed to find it again in my scope tucked behind a Herring Gull. We checked out the other gulls and took more pics and then headed into Hamilton to see Jerry’s Mom.
Slaty-backed Gull
On Wednesday we stayed at home for a well deserved rest and caught up on groceries and cleaning. In the evening we decided to try for a Northern Saw-whet Owl that had been reported calling in a neighbourhood in Cambridge. It was not the best situation as there was little room to pull over on a narrow road and the owl had called in the backyard of a home so we were reluctant to hang out front of their house for long. We parked and walked up the road and back and then drove slowly past again and finally heard the Owl with its familiar “toot-toot-toot-toot” call. It called and stopped and then called again and again over a 10 minute period giving us plenty of chances to hear and confirm the call. We now have all the 7 southern species of Owl and just the 3 northern species to see. We hope to see a Saw-whet to get a picture later this year but for now the call lets us add it to the year list as Heard Only. Below is a picture of me holding a Northern Saw-whet Owl at a banding night at Ruthven in Caledonia in 2018. It was awesome to see these little guys up close and to release it after it was banded!
Thrilled to release a Northern Saw-whet Owl in 2018
The rest of the week had temperatures hitting 17C for one day and 12C another so very crazy weather for the second week of February and we took the lull in no rarities reported to socialize with some friends, have two grandkids for a sleepover and watch another play in a hockey tournament. We got out and walked and birded a couple of days but no new birds were added as the temperatures dropped again.
WEEK 6 1 more rarity added for 10 rarities for the year, 1 more owl added, 2 new species 133 total species
We took a few days off at the beginning of the week except for a quick trip to NOTL for a Little Gull. It is a gull that is better identified in flight because it is black under the wings but it can be difficult to pick it out from the hundreds of gulls that fly up and down the Niagara River but once you can lock on one and see a few of them the challenge gets easier. Jerry even managed to get a poor picture as the bird was far away.
We are looking with bins at all the Gulls flying pastLittle Gull with black underwings
On Tuesday morning disaster struck! Jerry knocked his camera off the table and it broke on our concrete floor! The rest of the day was spent calling insurance, camera places, and in the end he shipped it to Sony to see if they could repair it. We have an extra rider on our insurance so if need be it will be covered. Thankfully we have a backup with the Coolpix 900 that I use for video so we will have to take just the one camera on the trip north.
On Thursday we headed to Cochrane to try for a Willow Ptarmigan and to pick up the rest of the boreal species we were missing. I had said that I was not going to go for a Ptarmigan because they are usually farther north around James Bay and Hudson’s Bay and involve a drive on an ice road and sleeping in cars etc., BUT this year is an irruption year for this species and so some have found their way south and a report came in from Cochrane and it was just too tempting. Mind you, it required a drive up a mining road for 170km without cell service and all I could picture was the old logging roads at North Bay that Jerry drove me around years back. I spoke with a couple of birders that went up and they alleviated my fears a bit. We had the chance to get 11 species and then the rarest possibility of a Great Gray and Boreal Owl. The weather forecast was clear and sunny for 5 days and so we booked rooms and set off. We checked 3 spots on the drive up for Northern Hawk Owl but had no luck. We quickly added Pine Grosbeak once we went north of North Bay.
Pine Grosbeak
On Friday morning I wanted to check the mining road so we went up 32 km to a burn where Black-backed and American Three-toed Woodpeckers had been reported. The road was wide and PAVED! and ice covered but sanded extremely well. There was traffic, not a lot, but enough that if you had trouble help was available. We had two trucks stop to ask if we needed help while we were pulled over birding. I was feeling much better about the 170km drive on Saturday. We quickly heard and found 6 Black-backed Woodpeckers and had spectacular views as they worked the burned trees. It took us 2 hours and a few sits in the car to warm up to find the one American Three-toed.
These two species are specialists at eating the wood-boring beetles and larvae that infiltrate burned trees. They flake the burned bark off the trees leaving the orange inner bark exposed and then use their chisel-shaped bills to bore holes to find the beetles. When you see trees like this it is a sure sign of Black-backed or Three-toed Woodpeckers.
In the afternoon we drove some areas close to town with suitable habitat for the Northern Hawk Owl but again had no luck. We checked out the ice bridge going across the Abitibi River but decided not to attempt the crossing even though it was open to light traffic. We would have had to come back across to get back to our hotel and the hills on either side seemed daunting too.
The red line is the ice bridge you drive acrossYou know you are North when your hotel looks like this!
Saturday morning we left at 7am to get as far up the road as early as we could. We tried not to stop much but a Spruce Grouse was needed for our list and a Canada Jay so we stopped for photos and looks.
Spruce Grouse
We were also looking for Ptarmigan tracks from the car so slowing down here and there. We got to the 170 km mark around 10 and got out and walked up from the car for a bit looking for tracks. We found wolf prints on the road but no Ptarmigan tracks.
When we walked down from the car a short distant I found Ptarmigan tracks just off the road. We started following the tracks down the road and Jerry went a few steps further and the birds were THERE! Three of them, all white, black eyes and beaks. They do not have a fear of humans so were content to sit and watch us while we quietly celebrated feet away. It was a LIFER, bird 128, and a fantastic bird to add to my list this year. We watched them for a bit, took lots of photos and some video and then headed back down.
Willow Ptarmigan
We stopped in the afternoon at a trail in South Porcupine and heard a Boreal Chickadee and enjoyed the only walk we had of the trip. We stayed in Timmins Saturday night and then tried for two birds the next day, Eurasian Tree Sparrows near Thessalon and another attempt at a Northern Hawk Owl on St.Joseph’s Island. It was a huge amount of driving and in hindsight we should have changed where we were staying a bit but by the time we thought of it the free cancellation time had passed. And we didn’t get either of the birds. On Monday we headed onto Manitoulin Island and quickly flushed 3 Sharp-tailed Grouse from a road that had a lot of ebird reports last year. Then we headed to the spots where Ring-necked Pheasants are often seen and nothing. We drove a wider area, scanned, nothing. We were tired, a bit discouraged, wanting to leave to head home but also wanting the bird so we wouldn’t have to come back in the summer when the island will have lots more people on it. Manitoulin Island is the only place in Ontario where you can count a Ring-necked Pheasant. I pulled up the ebird reports and we decided to head up to an area that had reports back in 2019/2021 and as we were driving up suddenly I saw a beautiful male in a field. WooHOO! Bird 131!
Ring-necked Pheasant
Time to head home! Out of the 11 birds I expected to get we saw 9. I’ll take those percentages all year! We were away 5 days, drove 2,180km and only walked 14.7km. We are looking forward to spring migration when we can ditch the car birding for the forests and fields.
Week 5 9 Rarities seen for the year 10 species added this week 131 species seen
