No alarm was set for January 1 but I was awake at my usual winter 7:30am time and saw my first bird of the year on my way to make tea – a beautiful male Northern Cardinal. I started a list and saw 11 species over the next 1.5 hours. Jerry opted to stay in bed and so he started his own list later – the horror! separate lists! it had not happened often in the last three years. I had seen a Cooper’s Hawk shortly after I got up so after he added the usual suspects I was AHEAD of him by 1 bird! LOL This is of course all in jest. After being tied to one another for 3 years and sharing almost all our birding moments it was refreshing to not. We trash talked a bit, kibitzing back and forth about competing with each other this year, and of course the Cooper’s Hawk returned and so we were again – even.
We opted to head out and see if we could add two rarer birds to the year’s list but had no luck with the White-winged Crossbill or the Dickcissel that we saw at the end of 2025. And you may ask why were we even “chasing” something on the first day of January? All I can say in our defence is it is a bit of an adjustment and hard to break habits. Over the next few days we discussed what this year would look like and decided that we would not be chasing rarities unless they were lifers or maybe a new bird for Ontario. We would rather just plan birding outings to favourite places to bird and see what we turn up. I do not want to chase the 300 year after year either. We know what kind of driving is involved with getting to that number. We decided we were going to practice “non-urgent birding” for at least this year.
The grandkids came for a sleepover on the weekend and we stopped at F.W. Dickson so they could feed the birds and we could show them the wintering Virginia Rail. We waited patiently for 20 minutes, in the cold, the kids were both really quiet and still feeding birds and waiting but no Rail appeared. At 25 minutes the patience had worn thin, I negotiated 5 more minutes explaining that you had to be patient for bird watching, sometimes for hours, they were not impressed. At 30 minutes we started to walk away and I stopped to chat with a birder when a shout came from behind, “It’s here!” We quickly back-tracked and the kids had good views as it came out to the tiny puddle that remains unfrozen. We happily watched for another 5-10 minutes as it moved about. Hunter saw it flap its wings as a squirrel chased it from the tangle. They were suitably impressed and excited that indeed, their patience had been rewarded.
Virginia Rail
Not a great pic but we opted to give the bird space, you can see some of the meal worms rehydrated that we left for it.
At lunch I asked if it might have been their “spark” bird but they answered in the negative. I remain hopeful that one of my four grandchildren will become a birder but at least they all know bird names and love nature and birds.
On Sunday we participated in the Brantford Christmas Bird Count checking our usual areas. We started a bit later in the morning this year hoping there would be more activity as the day warmed up and it seemed to work as we added more species at each stop than our previous years. A number of the birds were FOY ( First of the Year) birds for us too.
Last year, if you remember I could not find a Brown Creeper for 28 days in January and of course this year I have already seen a dozen. How strange birding can be. We have two Cooper’s Hawks, an adult and a juvenile, using our feeders as an all-you- can-eat buffet. They seem to hunt every 2-3 days and it seems to take them 4-5 attempts before they are successful. Doves are their main prey and we have watched 4 disappear in their talons in the past weeks. We have about 30 Mourning Doves coming to the feeder so they seem to be set for the winter months. When we visited Babi this week and took her for a walk on that one warm day we saw a Cooper’s Hawk catch one of the Rock Pigeons that frequent the gardens there. Everything needs to eat.
Weather and home jobs kept us from birding for the next few days and finally on Thursday the sun shone and the temperature climbed. We opted to go to LaSalle Park and Marina, a favourite spot for wintering ducks and swans. It was lovely to have no agenda, no “must-sees” and I noted to Jerry as we walked the path that in the previous years I would have been constantly thinking about what else we needed to add or where we should go next. It was quite freeing to just be and enjoy the birds.
Horned GrebeMute SwanTundra Swan
Check out that huge Grebe foot! Their feet are at the very back of their bodies making it impossible to walk on land. You can tell a Tundra Swan by the bit of yellow beside its eye. They are also noticeably smaller beside Trumpeter Swans. Below is a video of the bonding ritual head bobbing of the many Trumpeter Swan pairs that spend the winter at LaSalle in Burlington.
We added a few more birds on a local walk Friday at Cavan Flats. The Northern Mockingbird is not often found in Brant County so it was exciting to see one locally.
Northern MockingbirdDowny Woodpecker
I have weaned myself from most of the birding information that was my normal routine for the last few years. Instead of hourly needs and rare bird alert emails I now just get one rare bird email a day. I still get rare alerts on Discord for all the counties in Ontario but I don’t check them as often and as spring ramps up I will likely just subscribe for the local areas that I am in. I still find myself checking the “Top 100” listing every few days, not to see where I am but to see if anyone is attempting a Big Year. We’ve seen 63 species in these first weeks and plan to have an owling adventure and a winter lake watch to see more wintering ducks over the next weeks. We are also planning a trip outside Canada to open the door to world-wide birding – a scary expensive proposition. I also have a first birding spectacle to share with you in an upcoming blog. I know, I know, how dare I leave you hanging in anticipation LOL. Til next time…
NOTE: Some of you might have noticed in my list of birds seen there was a question mark at #158. I can now add that this bird was a Varied Thrush we were invited up to Ottawa to hear because we are doing a Big Year. It was coming to a small yard for a number of weeks and the owners absolutely did not want birders coming to the home as there was no access to their yard. A very few birders were allowed to visit an area close by and hear the bird as it sang at dawn every morning. It will remain a Heard Only bird unless another shows up later.
The strategy has shifted a bit in the last week to trying to get as many common and early migrants as possible off the list before Pelee. I’m still not chasing common species but rather birding in local areas that I likely will see one myself. It’s a bit frustrating because it is just the beginning of migration so most birds are yet to come, but seeing hourly reports from hours away makes it tempting to drive and get it off the list. I’m resisting. We have ramped up our birding considerably and most outings we are walking 10-16km in a day. Unfortunately, that often only nets us one or two species. We also welcome some of the rain days so we can rest up a bit. Unlike the 20 somethings that go all out for their Big Years, us older folks need to consider our aging bodies and energy LOL. I spend quite a bit of time on my yoga mat willing my muscles to stretch so I can get up and do it again the next day.
On Monday we checked our local marsh again for Rails but heard nothing. Then we headed into Burlington/Hamilton to check various parks along the lake hoping to catch some early migrants with limited success. We only added a Gray Catbird, so called because it has a “meow” call.
Gray Catbird
There was a nice movement of Broad-wing Hawks through Hamilton later in the day but we had already headed to Jerry’s mom’s for dinner and missed them. Tuesday we headed down to Rondeau for the day with sun and warm temperatures in the forecast. We hiked far out the Marsh Trail and heard a Marsh Wren near the very end but did not see it tucked in the bullrushes. We will see lots of these in the next months and should be able to get a photo too. I got a text some American Golden Plovers were in a field in Erieau, 10 minutes away from Rondeau, so we headed there and along with another birder re-found the birds in the flooded field. That is a good bird to get as it is not always reliable at Pelee or later in the year. The views were not the best but Jerry managed a few record shots.
Here is the view we saw with the naked eyeHere is the scope or camera view
Wednesday was a bit of a rain day but we we headed out for a quick walk on the trail and watched 100 Tree Swallows feeding just on the top of the river in a steady wind. As they flew upstream into the wind inches above the water the bugs must have been blown into their mouths and then they would swoop up, fly downstream, and then fly upstream again just above the water. It was cool to watch and gave us a great view so that we could pick out the 2 Bank Swallows and the 1 Barn Swallow that were part of their group. In the evening we popped over to our local pond at dusk and heard a Virginia Rail calling with it’s kid-dik, kid-dik call. Listen to the call below…
Thursday we started our day back at the marsh hoping to get a pic of the Rail, we had it fly across the road and back but did not manage a picture. Then we headed into Hamilton for care-giving but stopped for a few hikes along the way. In a flooded field in Flamborough I spotted a Broad-winged Hawk flying over a field so we added another bird for the year. Friday we just checked some local marshes and then called it a day.
I wasn’t sure where we should head on Saturday, we had considered birding in Toronto, or visiting the Hawkwatch at Beamer for their 50th year celebration or we could head to Pelee and hope to re-find some Willets (rarity) that had been reported late Friday. For some reason I was stressed with the decision and feeling like whatever I chose would not be the “right” one. I have been pretty chill so far with the birding decisions made but the decision kept me awake Friday. Because both of us were awake at 4am we opted for Pelee.
It did not feel like a mild southerly climate!Wild West Winds at the Tip of Pelee
We didn’t find any Willets at any beaches or marshes so we went into the Park and enjoyed seeing small groups of migrant warblers making their way up the east side of the park. We added 2 common species and then I heard the Discord ding…Glossy Ibis, Orillia. I wanted to leave right then, Jerry wanted it confirmed. It was confirmed 40 minutes later and we were on the road from Pelee. UGH!, why had we not opted for Toronto? With still 2 hours till we arrived another DING!… it had flown. Now things got a bit heated in the car. What to do? In bumper to bumper traffic, will the bird be found or do we turn around? We were both tired and hungry and our ETA was 5:30. We opted to keep going, once you commit you have to follow it through, the bird could return, or be re-found. Ten minutes later it had been re-found! One hour to go! When we finally pulled up there was a birder, Rick, pulled over at the spot and we could easily see the bird from the road without bins (always the happiest when that happens). We spent about 30 minutes watching, taking pictures and video and just enjoying the dopamine buzz of GETTING THE BIRD!
A country road and a great bird!Glossy Ibis
We had started our day at 4:30am, drove 10 hours, hiked 8.6 kilometers and were back home at 8:30 with only 3 birds added. Not very efficient but the Glossy Ibis is a rare visitor from the south and you gotta do what you have to do. Of course, Sunday morning at 7:57 there was an American Avocet at the Pelee tip! Seems I am always a day early LOL! Not likely to stay in the park but I hope it heads to Hillman Marsh and sticks around a few days and some of its friends also show up as we will be at Pelee soon. At 1:45 a text came in from Barb to check the ‘Whats this Bird” in Discord. Pictures of a Yellowlegs that did not really look like a yellowlegs and could be a Eurasian rarity had been posted for help with the ID and where was this bird? back up in Simcoe County where we had just been yesterday for the Ibis! We got in the car at 2:30 and arrived at 4:30. Many birders were there with scopes trained on a field of grass with 200 Greater Yellowlegs looking for the one that looked paler and not patterned. Most of us did see that paler bird but it never got close enough for definitive looks to positively ID the bird. The thought was it could be a Common Greenshank, a huge rarity and a lifer for us but after 2 hours of scoping, pics taken, experts weighing in, the consensus was maybe just a Yellowlegs. If photos can be found from one of the birders that can change that opinion then at least we have seen it. So for the second night we arrived home late, tired and hungry and this time with no bird to show for it. It happens…
Week 16 1 rarity added 17 total rarities so far 8 birds added 196 for J&E
