Christmas Greetings

I want to wish my nerdy blog readers a Merry Christmas! I want to wish a happy winter solstice (a univeral holiday!) And a Happy New Year as well. 

I have not birded to much lately, but i had a few days off this week and attempted to bird out near Harrow this week. My trip out there gave me looks at Merlin, Eastern Bluebirds, Accipiter Hawks as well as a few other seasonal birds.

I also got lucky by finding a saw whet owl at the Ojibway Park complex area in West Windsor. I think this might be my first self found saw whet owl!

Wishing for peace, health and happiness and a prosperous new year.

Yours in birding, 

Dwayne

 

Jan - Feb 2025 - Birding Highlights

 

Northern Mockingbird was a nice find on March 1st - Seen at Ojibway Park in Windsor !

In SW Ontario - Jan and Feb are the coldest, dreariest months to live through. Cold, lack of sunlight make birding (and living/working) a little bit challenging. But some decent birds have been around (few and far between). 

The listing below shows some of the nicer (seasonal) birds that I was able to see over the last month or two ...

Rough Legged Hawk - Mike S noted this bird out near Harrow and I made an effort to go see it. The bird was flushed by a snowplow driving by. On the way home, I found a raptor perched on a thin branch (see second photo) but I'm not 100% sure it was a Rough Legged. Still always nice to see one.

Northern Shrike - Seen in a lot adjacent to Black Oak Herritage Park. Found by Ian Woodfield.

Eastern Screech Owl - This was interesting --- my brother told me that a warehouse worker at a local car factory had an Owl Sitting on a hood of a car in a warehouse. The warehouse is called "the barn" --- so I was tempted to call this a barn owl. The doors to this warehouse open and close all day so I'm sure it can leave when it feels it needs to do so. I was granted private access to see the bird.

Saw Whet Owl -  I recently was able to see two of these birds within meters of each other. Its always amazing to see this species.

Fox Sparrows - Always nice to see in the winter at Ojibway. 

Eastern Towhee - I feel I have seen a female (early feb) and now a male Towhee at Ojibway Park in Windsor this Feb. Really nice to see this bird with a snowy backdrop.

Northern Mockingbird - Self found at Ojibway this weekend. A pleasant surprise. It flew by me and its white-black wing flashes were diagnostic. 

Spring is just around the corner. The onslaught of migrants will be trickling in soon enough!

Good birding,

Dwayne

Ojibway Birding in February - Surprisingly good birding!

After this week's "polar vortex" of -25C weather - it was nice to go outside today in balmy +4C + sunny weather. My first target was Long tailed Ducks that were seen by many along the Detroit River. It was nice to see a Pied-billed Grebe along with some Golden-eye, merganser and Canvasback ducks. 

Then at Ojibway Park - just a few minutes from that spot several nice birds were seen. In particular - it was nice to see Fox Sparrow, a male and female Eastern Towhee, Song Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Tufted Titmouse and to my absolute amazement - Kit M. had found a Saw Whet Owl!

I am tempted to go up to Guelph to try my luck for the Bohemian Waxwings... That would be a long sought after life bird!

Good birding!

DM

Bonus story : Last week I was driving in Windsor on Dougal Ave and I noticed a raptor flying very agressively while I was waiting at a light. I soon drove by a hotel parking lot and noticed a raptor with a pigeon as prey. I pulled into the parking lot and was able to capture a few cell-phone photos as I flushed the bird. To my surprise --- it was a Peregrine Falcon!

Northern Saw Whet Owl

Last weekend, I got a text from Kit about a Northern Saw Whet Owl he found in east Windsor. It was seen on private property that he had permission to be on but essentially- he really wanted the location to not be disclosed - for the sake of the Owl and the property owner. What a beautiful owl! This is only the third time I've seen this owl in my six years of birding.

One thing I love about the photo above was that you can see its talons. This owl has zygodactyl feet which means it has four talons - two front facing and two rear facing which helps this species catch mice. Another note about this photo is that I took it from 15-20' away. It was 12 feet up in the tree and this was the only angle that I could see it. This photo is pretty heavily cropped.

Ken Kaufman recently wrote an excellent article about Northern saw whet Owls at the link below. I thinks its a great article because it mentions some of the history from Audubon's time to insights made on this species in the last 100 years. Point Pelee and Canadian ornithologist Percy Taverner are mentioned in this article as well as insights made by Great Lakes banding stations such as the one at HBMO. I recommend giving it a read!

http://www.audubon.org/news/how-stealthy-saw-whet-owl-duped-scientists-century


Good Birding!
Dwayne

Evening Grosbeak & Winter Finches at Rondeau

Boardwalk near vistor center

A recent blog posting from a Rondeau Area birder had Evening Grosbeaks and White-winged Crossbills coming to his feeders, so I thought I would go see them for myself. I've seen Evening Grosbeaks (at a great distance) in the Okanagan Valley BC but never in Ontario. White winged Crossbills would be a life bird though.

Upon arrival to Rondeau Park, I walked up to the beach and noticed three Horned Grebes close to the shore. Common Mergansers were very close to shore as well, but further south along the beach. Next was the visitor center feeders, but I soon realized that there was no bird seed there so, I decided to head over to south point trail where I ran into Blake and Steve.

Hermit Thrushes on South Point Trail

Next stop was Ric & Anne's Feeders. We saw many Pine Siskens, Red and White breasted Nuthatches, Purple Finches but no Grosbeaks or Crossbills.

Siskins and Purple Finch

Blake and Steve decided to walk the campground and I followed, as I had never walked that part of the park. Lots of birds around, including: Eastern Bluebirds, Red bellied Woodpeckers, chickadees, both Kinglets and even a Nashville Warbler was seen foraging through dried-out goldenrod plants. Steve soon pointed out a flock of Crossbills that went right over our heads. I snapped a few photos in hopes of verifying them and sure enough...Lifer! White winged Crossbills #309.

White winged Crossbills in flight

Having limited time, I figured I would try out Ric's feeders one more time before I left Rondeau. Sure enough, as I was about to give up on waiting, Evening Grosbeaks showed up!

Red breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmouse and Red bellied Woodpeckers were hanging out!

As I was about to leave Rondeau Park, Blake stopped by Ric's Cottage to see the Grosbeaks and infomed me that he found another Saw-whet Owl!  Seeing this amazing owl was a great way to end off a great morning of birding!

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava

Northern Saw Whet Owl at Point Pelee

Seeing a lifer owl to me is basically a religious experience. This owl absolutely blew my mind today. I was sitting in a 3.5 hour human resources seminar this morning, and at about 11am, I had two people text me, (with images) of this incredible owl. It was found by Paul Pratt and the Ojibway Birding Group on their fall birding walks. Upon arrival to Point Pelee, I met up with Rick & Dan and we found the area quickly as many Yellow rumped Warblers, Cedar Waxwings, and even a Caronlina Wren were very active (mobbing) in the surrounding trees. Even still, it took about 10 minutes for me to find this 'lump' in the trees before me.

 The song of Eastern Bluebirds was heard all morning, and this little beauty was perched over the west beach pathway. Overhead, thousands of Crows, Turkey Vultures and various hawks were seen. Out on the water, huge rafts of thousands of ducks, mainly scaup were seen.

 Of course, many Yellow-rumped warblers were seen, but this Cape May was a nice surprise to see in the tram loop woods. A Carolina Wren was singing his heart out just meters from the owl. He was singing 'breeet, breeet, breeeeeet'.

On friday after work, I went out to Holiday Beach to help observe at the Hawk Tower. Finally met Jeremy Hatt, a great birder and blogger that I've been reading for years. On the way to Holiday Beach, I saw hundreds of Swallows perched on a powerline, and several Horned Larks and American Pipits were hanging out on the road. I stopped to snap a few photos. Its been said that once you lifer a bird, its easy to find it after!

 Great birding!
Dwaynejava

Lifer summary: #308