Slaty Surprise

I'm a passionate birder but ----I'm not a gull aficionado - (AKA Laurophile). I was telling a few birding friends lately that I almost find it difficult to scan through large groups of gulls. Perhaps in retirement when I don't have so many commitments - I will come to enjoy scanning through gulls.

With that said - local birding phenom Jeremy H was birding near the Essex County Dump and found a nice variety of gulls - including this mega rare eurasian species - the Slaty-backed Gull.

I  had gone yesterday after work at 4pm to see it and dipped on it. A small flock group of birders had been there scanning the field. They did have a white-winged gull - Glaucous perhaps that I took a poor photo of.

Tonight - I figured I would try my luck after work - heading out again at 4pm and this time I had found it quite easily! Its slaty back is not as dark as a black-backed gull. The bird also has pink legs, white eyes and in flight - distinct "string of pearls" field marks in its primary wingtips. Its a life bird at #411 !

Comparison with Greater black backed Gull

String of Pearls flight shot

Good birding!
Dwayne

Lifer Species 411:

Lifer Summary (Last 10) -
400- Gray Jay
401- Spruce Grouse
402- Ruffed Grouse
403- Pine Grosebeak
404- Northern Gannet
405- Common Eider
406- Razorbill
407- Black Gullimot
408- Nelson's Sparrow
409 - Great Kiskadee (New for 2018!)
410 - Brant (New for 2018!)
411 - Slaty Backed Gull (Jan 2019)

Snowy Owl Mobbed by Crows & Overwintering Red-headed Woodpecker

Snowy Owl being mobbed by a 'murder' of Crows

Snowy Owl trying to lose the Crow mob. (Heavily Cropped)

A recent Ontbirds posting from Paul Pratt mentioned that a Snowy Owl was seen in Chatham. Having some time off (Jan 2nd), I ventured off to see it while checking out some other hotspots. Upon arriving at the intersection described in the posting, I did not see anything. So I got out of the car and really scanned every telephone post/tree etc but no Owl. With a fresh recent snowfall, I realized that there is probably no way I'm going to find this owl if its sitting in a snowy field. As I was about to give up,  I pointed my scope to a  large group of American Crows in the corn-stubble field Paul described and noticed a white creature in the middle of the pack of Crows. I felt bad for the Owl... but - Chatham is like the capital of Winter-roosting Crows in North America (this is un-official and off-the-cuff but I have heard similar statements from media etc). The Owl was distant in the field (200m) and very isolated from any roads allowing only scoped views. Then I noticed the Owl was trying to lose the Crows but they followed close behind. Seconds later, I lost the Owl as it went over a cedar hedge along the southern perimeter of this field.

Can you find a Glaucous Gull in this photo?? *

Prior to seeing the Snowy Owl, I stopped at Lighthouse Cove to try and get better views of Glaucous Gulls, and sure enough, I was able to find one. The lighting was better than on New Year's Eve and one was much closer. The water had really frozen up and there seemed to be fewer birds to look at. Two Great Blue Herons were present, noteworthy considering they were absent from the St Clair NWA CBC.

Later at Wheatley Harbor, I followed up on another recent Ontbirds posting about a long-staying Iceland Gull. Upon arriving at the Harbor, I saw another birder with scope, Richard Carr.  We both made an effort to find "white-winged gulls", and one that we found seemed to have a dual-toned bill, so I 'ignored it' until I found one with with a solid black bill (which is consistent with a first year Iceland Gull). So I believe the leftmost gull in the photo above is an Iceland Gull.  In hindsight, could the other white-winged gull have been a second-year Iceland or a first year Glaucous? I did not really make size comparisons of this second gull we found so I guess its not worth deliberating over. I had to call it a day so I did not have time to re-find the other gull for further study.

Today, the family went out to Colasanti's in Leamington, so after we left, we took a quick detour through the Onion Fields to see a recently reported owl. I dipped on the owl, but found an overwintering Red-headed Woodpecker! Its undulating flight caught my eye as I was driving and it landed in a tree right next to the road. I was in total amazement!

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Lifer Summary:
Iceland Gull #316

Bonus: A few random photos from the last week of 2012...Just for fun...

Purple Sandpiper and Glaucous Gull a Nice Finish to 2012

***Happy New Year!***

Yesterday, I had been birding in the late morning, near Kingsville.  I wanted to see some Snow Buntings and knew of a great field where they tend to be easily seen. I had good luck with them, I had amazing views of Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs when I finally decided to drive home and do some chores. I happened to check my email and read about Blake's posting about all the great birds at Lighthouse Cove, including a potential lifer, a bunch of white-winged Glaucous Gulls! ... But then, I noticed on my phone that I had a text from Kory Renaud... "Purple Sandpiper at the tip"...!?!?!? To my dismay, the message was about 3 hours old!  Long story short, I twitched the Purple Sandpiper. I was at some crossroads in the county so I used a GPS to get me to Point Pelee in the least amount of time.

While I was writing this posting, it was funny for me to read two blog posts below share this same story but from two different perspectives, if you have time, check out Kory & Jeremy's take on this  awesome bird!

Upon arriving to the tip, I had brought my camera and a my scope. Nobody was around at the tip so I was going to have to find this amazing sandpiper myself ... if it was even still there! The wind at the tip was brutal, it must have been 50+KM... It was difficult just to stand, even my scope would be blown over if I did not hold onto it. After picking up my sand-encrusted scope off the beach for the second time, BOOM... I had found it, surprisingly close actually on the East Beach.

This was an amazing lifer. To think I've been looking at this bird in my birding field guides for three years, wondering if I would have to travel great distances just to see this bird. Further, I had read about this bird in Ontbirds postings from hotspots around Lake Ontario: Presqu'ile Provincial Park in Brighton, Bronte Beach, Niagara Falls, Kettle Point (Lake Huron)... But finally, Point Pelee hosts this excellent bird if only for an afternoon before it heads off. ... Who knows, it might stay for a while, I was thinking about how the west beach has lots of mossy, wave-washed rocks that is ideal habitat for this bird.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Purple_Sandpiper/lifehistory

The sandpiper was associating with a few Starlings and a few (4) American Pipits. The wind was brutal so I did not linger at the tip. Blake's Ontbirds posting about Lighthouse Cove was on my mind. My GPS calculated a trip from PPNP to LC in less than 30 mins... So I was off!

Upon arriving at Lighthouse Cove on Lake St Clair, it was nice to see Jeremy Bensette as well as a few other familiar faces. Lighthouse Cove had lots of great birds to look at, including Pied-billed and Great- Horned Grebes. I've never seen so many Greater black-backed Gulls... (50+???) they were abundant!

Can you find Glaucous Gulls in this photo? This was the best I could do for an identification shot... It was cool to debate with Kory and Jeremy about the gulls. Some were pure white (from 200+ meters away) and others had light-grey backs ... which caused some debate about what we were looking at, we decided juvenile and adult birds in winter plumage respectively. See Cornell's online bird reference for more info about Glaucous Gulls here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Glaucous_Gull/id

Good birding!
Dwayne

Lifer Summary:
Purple Sandpiper: #314
Glaucous Gull:  #315