Another fairly slow week as we spent the first few days selling things from the condo and donating the rest to various local charities where we know the proceeds or items will help others. Since it was March Break we had 3 of our 4 grandchildren stay with us for 3 days and that doesn’t always translate to birding. We did manage a hike in Brantford on Thursday and ran a checklist but no new species were seen. Finally, on Friday after the last one was dropped home we headed down to Port Rowan where a very obliging Red-throated Loon was still swimming in the narrow channel offering spectacular views! Bird #168 for the year. We likely saw many of these out in BC but because the Pacific Loons were always so far out we decided not to try to find the odd Red-throated that might have been among them. They are very similar in their winter plumage.
One of the ways to distinguish the Red-throated Loon from other North American loons is the bill is almost always pointing upwards at an angle.
Saturday morning we headed back to the condo but stopped enroute for a Red-headed Woodpecker that was found by Flamboro Downs. It was a juvenile so had a brown head instead of red. We found it immediately on the same hydro pole it had been reported on yesterday. It is always nice when birds are so obliging.
We then did a quick stop at Flamboro because a Eurasian Wigeon and Greater White-fronted Geese had been reported the last few days but neither were being seen when we arrived and it started to rain shortly after. We had driven by yesterday with Evie in the car and opted not to stop because we wanted to get to Port Rowan for a year bird over two birds that we already have on our lists. I don’t want to have to see double the birds this year just so I can add species to my Ontario list or my Brant county list. It gets onerous really quickly trying to bird that way.
After work at the condo – will it ever end? we headed home for a quick dinner and a report came in of a Pink-footed Goose in Ottawa! A lifer, a rarity, and a year bird. It took a bit of time but it was refound and many Ottawa birders got out to it before dark. We discussed. We had talked earlier in the day about a trip to Quebec because there are again about 4-5 good birds to add to the list currently being seen in Quebec. Could we add Ottawa at the start and then continue on to Quebec. We figured out logistics and timing and it would mean most of the week, at least 5 days in Quebec. It was very tempting but the condo is hanging over us at this point. We really need to get it ready to rent and rented by May 1 as we are at Pelee and then out west until August. The reality is there has been a Pink-footed Goose in a pond in Newfoundland since 2020 and it remains there as of yesterday. What are the chances it will still be there in September? What is the life-span of a goose? And the birds that are currently in Quebec are likely to be there again in the fall and into the winter. It would be a nice bird for my Ontario Life list but I don’t worry too much about that list.
The advantage to being able to bird the whole country this year means I have these kinds of choices where many rarities are not as crucial to get because they can be seen somewhere else and at another time. I am still taking a chance but I think I will roll the dice on this one and choose to get the condo done first and then worry about those species later in the year. This might be a regret down the road – we will see…
After dinner we headed into Brantford and met up with Robert and Sue for an evening’s entertainment of displaying American Woodcocks. We had 3 “peenting” just after 7:30 and then one zipped past us before they started doing the display flights called a “sky dance” or a “timberdoodle”. Launching themselves as high as 200-300′ in the air they then spiral down while the wind through their wings makes a whirring noise and then land near where they took off. In the video below you can hear the continual “peent” “peent” if you turn your volume up . We tried to take pictures and video of the flights but with the fading light and the speed of the birds we did not manage to get anything.
So two new birds on Saturday takes us to 170 species for the year. Slow and steady. Of the 217 common species in Ontario we have seen 113 so we are half-way there. Warmer weather this week should start to bring shorebirds through and with the rain this weekend there should be plenty of flooded fields to check for them.
Week 11 3 new species added 170 species E&J