Feb 2020 Birding

I haven't really blogged much this year so far. I still want to ... but I have not seen much of note this year so far!

Today I brought my son for a walk to Belle River Marina - it was mentioned by a few other birders as of late and I thought I would try my luck at that spot.

I believe that I observed Greater and Lesser Black backed Gulls. I have not confidently identified Lesser black backed Gulls over the years... so its  a pretty good sighting for me!

Of course, with this mild winter we've had, I think many people have had red-winged blackbirds for a while now - but it was nice to hear them singing this weekend at both Belle-Isle and Ojibway Park.

Another neat sighting - perhaps even a first for this blog is a Kentucky Coffee Tree - a rare tree in Canada.

I have driven out for a drive in the "pleasent valley" area of Essex County - out near Harrow.  There is always some nice birds to see in that habitat of open fields, floodplains, forest and even landfill site. Eastern Meadowlarks were seen for weeks on end but I was unable to catch up with them!

One afternoon, I was lucky enough to see a rough-legged hawk out there. It might be the only one I've seen this winter and last winter. 

Its nice to see the days getting longer. The tide of migration is swinging back in our direction - northern hemisphere. Good birding!

Dwayne

October Back Yard Birds and Other Sightings

The last week or two have been a little lack-luster for birding. The weekends have had horrible weather and weekdays are filled with work commitments!

Backyard birds over the last few weeks include:

• Palm Warblers
• White crowned Sparrows
• White throated Sparrows
• Red breasted Woodpecker
• Dark eyed Junco
• Blue Jays
• Cardinals

I had ventured out to Hillman Marsh about two weeks ago since I was out in Essex for a work commitment. I went to Hillman as I heard that some Nelson's Sparrows were being seen there. Unfortunately, there were gail-force winds making birding (and standing outside) difficult. I did see a roadkilled Eastern Fox Snake which was sad to see.

Karen H recently informed me that there was a Blue-Morph Snow Goose at the Volmer Pond in Lasalle and I was able to follow up on that sighting. Overhead, a Bald Eagle soared in the sky... always nice to see. 

It will be interesting to see if this year is a great year for winter finches (See Ron Pittaway's Winter Finch Forecast). I think seeing Common Redpolls or White winged Crossbills will be a nice treat to make the upcoming winter season a little more bearable. I bought a new nyjer seed feeder in hopes of attracting some good northern birds.

Perhaps the same factors that are giving Snowy Owls booming populations in the north will also make sightings of Gyrfalcons and Northern Shrikes a little more abundant as well.

This weekend seems to be a complete washout in terms of rain... It would have been really nice to go to Holiday Beach to do some hawk-watching. Late October always gives some nice views of late migrating raptors such as Red Shouldered and Rough Legged Hawks as well as Golden Eagles.

Maybe next weekend's weather will be a little better? Lets hope....

Good birding,
Dwayne

Seasonal November Birding Observations

Lapland Longspur

Rusty Blackbirds

I've had mediocre birding observations over the last few weeks. I haven't had as much time to bird as I'm taking night school courses at the U of Windsor along with full time work and parenting duties. I've had two or three major highlights though - I had my first Common Redpoll in Essex County yesterday at Point Pelee. Common Redpolls are a great bird for me. I've only seen them on a few rare occasions at Rondeau, never in Essex County.  A female Purple finch, as well as some seasonal raptors were seen at Point Pelee. I also had a Richard C. sighting aka LLB.

I think the photo above is a Franklin's Gull - I could be wrong- (let me down gently if I am).  I photographed it at Wheatley Harbour flying Southwest towards Hike Metal products (Essex Co). I'm quite certain I saw Franklin's Gulls in Calgary Alberta a few summers ago, so this is not a life bird, but its a first for Ontario and now a Chatham-Kent and Essex bird. It was exciting to read about these birds from Allen and Blakes' blogs over the last few days. Hopefully some stick around for more closer observation and study.

Closer to home, I've had some cool nature sightings just from my back porch. I've seen a Fox Sparrow briefly every weekend for the last three or four weeks, but when I grab my camera, its gone! But today, I finally saw this sparrow foraging along my fence line and had my camera close. Along with seeing a Fox Sparrow this morning I had 2-3 Eastern Bluebirds - ***mind blown*** perched on a tree in my back yard! Last weekend, I had an American Kestrel perched in my back yard as well. As I was looking at the bluebirds (couldn't get more than a diagnostic photo) and Fox Sparrow, a male deer walked by- pretty cool! I've also had Coyotes howling and barking after sunset last week, which is kind of scary. Red bellied Woodpeckers have been seen and heard with surprising regularity over the last few weeks as well.

Diagnostic Backyard Bluebird

I've had decent back-yard birds since I moved in this summer and fall migration season. I will need to compile a list of everything. I'm trying to keep an ongoing list with Ebird as well.

Good birding!
Dwayne

Broad winged Hawk Migration at Holiday Beach

A few days ago, (Thursday Sept 18th, 2014) I went to Holiday Beach after work because there was a nice north wind blowing and I had a hunch that it might be a good hawk-watching day. Sure enough, as I was birding and casually walking around at Holiday Beach, I looked up into the sky with my binoculars and saw huge kettles of Broad Winged Hawks (the scene above is barely visible to the naked eye - you need optics and a good zoom lens to appreciate such kettles - especially later in the day when the flight elevation rises). It was a great afternoon - 22, 600 raptors has flown over the hawkwatching tower - a huge day for Broad winged Hawks and a great diversity of raptors as well.

A pair of Snowy Egrets that have been ongoing gave nice views and posed nicely next to Great Egrets in the pond below the tower. Several Common Nighthawks flew overhead as well. Several American Kestrels flew by the tower eating Green Darner Dragonflies.

Nom Nom Nom - Kestrel munching on freshly caught dragonfly

This Peregrine falcon knows he's at the top of the food chain. This bird took a few swoops at other raptors nearby.

More kettles some with 50 to 100, some the 500+ birds went by for the next 2 hours. Amazing to witness. I think every birder should witness this Broad winged Hawk migration ... the problem is timing though. I would suggest keeping an eye out on hawkwatching reports during mid-September, and go within 1-2 days of an increased surge of Broad wings. Another thing to consider is that North / Northwest winds always make for a good day of hawkwatching in Mid-September as well.

More Kettles - I only had my 250mm lens... Not my 400mm

Saturday morning, I went to Point Pelee and it was surprisingly quiet - at least for me. I ended up walking Delaurier/Cactus Trail and noticed a few warblers, my first southbound Ruby crowned Kinglet and a few of the more common warblers.  I took the tram to the tip and met Jeremy Bensette on the way. Josh Vandermeulen, Dave Szmyr, Jeremy Hatt and Blake Mann were doing a lake watch with great results on SE winds. I must admit, I don't have too much patience for lake watching... and I didn't have a scope like the rest of the group but Josh soon called out a nice Parasitic Jaeger that was surprisingly close to the west beach path that we were standing on.

Nice find Josh! My second Parasitic Jaeger and first at Point Pelee

I left Pelee at about noon. I tried to bird the new Juniper Savanah near the parking lot but it was quiet. Lots of Sharped Shinned Hawks flying overhead.  I ended up just looking at some very common butterflies. A single Monarch was present. They had a pretty big flight... earlier in the week.

I've never really confidently identified an Orange Sulphur from a Clouded... Two very common butterflies - But this one seems to be an easy ID - if you have a net or a camera with a fast shutter rate.

Cabbage White on Sky blue Aster?

Good birding!
Dwaynejava


PS:

Did you know that September 6th was World Shorebird Day? Check out this video that Cornell Ornithology posted about Bar tailed Godwit migration research.

American Kestrel with Prey

Just a mini-posting for this week. Not much going on this week bird-wise in Windsor. Some White-fronted Geese are still at Hillman Marsh... I want to go see them, but just don't have the time resources at present.

I'm in absolute awe of the birds in the Toronto/Hamilton area. A Western Grebe, Harlequin Duck and Snowy Owl are visible at one park along Lake Ontario. Can you sense my jealousy??? I want to twitch these, but I just can't afford the 8-hour round trip car drive. :-(   Another excellent blogger from Ottawa was blogging about the wonderful birds up there such as Pine Grosebeaks, Black backed Woodpeckers, and Bohemian Waxwings, again, I want to twitch these but can't afford the 18 hour round-trip car ride. :-(

A little closer to home, a local Northern Shrike is still doing the rounds in the Ojibway Prairie. Jeremy Bensette and myself were birding recently and scoped this bird from the Titcombe turnaround circle off Matchette. This Northern Shrike was 200m away, and Jeremy noted that it was probably only 20m from the road off Matchette. Incredibly, Matchette Road is closed at EC Row, (the road has no traffic), so I just drove up along Matchette and pulled over. The car made an excellent blind, and we just watched the bird at very close range.  This was my absolute best look at a Northern Shrike ever, and it was extra cool because it was oblivious to my presence, in fact, I drove away from it after watching it jump from treetop to treetop to fallen snag branch (see below). Generally, if I see this bird on foot, and it is very skittish, keeping a 100m distance.

Moments later, just 400m down the road, we saw an American Kestrel with a huge mouse (or vole). It struggled to take flight with such a large dinner in its talons. Its good to see these birds are eating well in Windsor!


Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Informally Birding the Holiday Beach CBC

(Note:This is an old posting from Dec 27th that I never got around to publishing until today)

Holiday Beach (in Amherstburg) had its CBC on Dec 27, 2012. I had participated in last's year's CBC but this year, I couldn't commit to the full morning. I still wanted to get out there though in the early afternoon, even just to walk the area on my own and enjoy the nice weather. As I approached Holiday Beach, I noticed a several fields with Snow Buntings and Horned Larks, and got a quick glimpse of at least two Lapland Longspurs (see photo above).

Here are some of the birds I saw while informally birding HBMO-CBC*:

Amherstburg side roads leading to HBMO
75 Snow Buntings
50 Horned Larks
2 Lapland Longspurs

Holiday Beach Memorial Forest
1 Northern Harrier
2 Red tailed Hawks
10 Black capped Chickadees
4 Red breasted Nuthatches
3 Tundra Swans (flyover)

HBMO Main Forest Pathway
6 White throated Sparrows
2 Downy Woodpeckers
1 Red bellied Woodpecker
3 Red breasted Nuthatches
1 Hermit Thrush
3 Northern Cardinals
3 American Goldfinches
1 Carolina Wren

On the way home, I took a detour through Harrow and found the following:

4 American Kestrels
2 Northern Shrikes
1 Short eared Owl
1 Rough legged Hawk
4 Red tailed Hawks
120 Snow Buntings
30 Morning Doves

Northern Shrike !

And another Northern Shrike !

I was really excited about seeing a Northern Shrike again today, and then, another shortly after! I totally missed seeing one in 2011... They are so rare in my opinion but this is my third this month! Hermit Thrush and Fox Sparrow** were pretty nice to see, not mega-rarities, but still good birds to see in the last week of December.

I plan on doing a 2012 year in review as my first posting in 2013.  I will also try to join the Detroit River (Ojibway Park) CBC on Jan 1 2013.  Happy New Year!

Good birding!
Dwayne

*PS:I am going to officially start using Ebird in 2013.

**PSS: On boxing day, we had a really nice snowstorm, so I figured I would head over to Ojibway Park to see if I could get some nice photos in the snow. The usual feeder birds were present, (House Finch, Tufted Titmouse, Cardinals etc) but to my astonishment, a Fox Sparrow perched into a tree next to the feeders where I was standing!