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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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