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.
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.
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.
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