I went for a drive with Kit this afternoon to try and find some of the Short Eared Owls that haunt some of the agricultural areas in Essex County. We had some good looks! In fact, in my 6 years of birding, I've never seen one perched until today. Amazing birds! Other birds seen were Horned Larks, Song Sparrow, Dark eyed Juncos, American Kestrel, Northern Harrier, and Red tailed Hawks. We had an Owlin' good time!
Here is a pretty cool video from ERCA (Essex Region Conservation Authority) about how they are planning to control the phragmites at Hillman Marsh. Check out the video below:
There is a blog called Nemisis Bird [link to posting] which recently had a posting about a using some of your exported Ebird Data and then generating a map of all your ebird locations. This activity only takes a few minutes if you have a copy of Excel (or Google Sheets , Open Office etc). It was a little sobering to see how poorly I've ebirded over the last few years. For example, I've birded several places in Florida - perhaps 10 different locations (Everglades, Corkscrew Reserve, Titusville, cape canaveral) but only one dot at Fort Myers beach appears. Also, nothing in Michigan (Pointe Mouillee, Grayling, traverse city). Even Ontario has no dots at Algonquin, Bruce Peninsula, Van wagners beach, Niagara, Coln Sam Smith, Long Point ???). Even Ohio with my trips to Columbus and Portsmouth along the southern border has no dots. Lastly - my great birding efforts in British Columbia and Alberta --- No dots! Its sobering to see how many places I've birded but seemingly neglected to ebird. I need to step up my game a little. I might try to go back and update some of my historical records based on the results of the maps I've generated tonight.
I challenge anyone reading this posting - in particular Ontario birders to publish their #myebirdhistory maps!
Good Birding!
Dwayne
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