Holiday Beach Hawkfest birding

Every year during the second and third weekends in September - the Holiday Beach Migration Oberservatory (HBMO) has a Hawk Festival. This past Saturday - I was eager to go because there was a major drop in temperature and strong North Winds. Thousands of Broadwing Hawks flew overhead along with clouds of Blue Jays. Lots of warblers were present - and the banding station was able to catch and band many warblers such as American Redstart, Blackpoll, Tennessee, and Magnolia. At one point, Bob Hall-Brooks offered to have me release a freshly banded Magnolia Warbler. He placed the bird in my hand and amazingly - I just chilled out for a few minutes!


Today - I went for a walk at Point Pelee - expecting tonnes of warblers to be present but amazingly - it was a little quiet! I did get a few interesting birds that I miss some years - such as Merlin and Lincoln's Sparrow. Lots of Northern Flicker's were present - and at one point - I think I saw 6 or more in a tree! Even though the birding was a little slow this afternoon - it was quite gorgeous out. The sun, cool breeze and 10 km of walking makes for a great afternoon of nature appreciation!

Good birding!

White winged Crossbills & Wilson's Snipe at HBMO

I stopped by the Holiday Beach this afternoon to do a little hawk watching and enjoy the great weather. Not much was flying, perhaps 10 raptors were seen in the distance over the course of two hours. Flocks of American Goldfinch and Horned Larks streamed by. Three Wilson's Snipe were in the little pond next to the tower which is always nice to see.

Feeling that nothing was happening, I tried my luck at the Holiday Beach Memorial Forest across the road from Holiday Beach, and noticed many Red breasted Nuthatches, as well as Black capped Chickadees... Then, I hear a ruckus above from a flock of birds... Nice! White winged Crossbills, only a week or two after lifering them at Rondeau!

A wise birder once told me that as soon as you lifer a bird, you will see it easily after that... and its so true! I've had a few great lifers in the last two months: Virginia Rail, American Pipit, Saw-whet Owl and now White winged Crossbills!

It was cool to see these birds today and hear them and watch them feed on Spruce cones. At one point, the papery spruce cone seed-hulls were raining down from the treetops as I observed the crossbills feeding. They were falling like a ticker-tape in a ticker tape parade.

I wanted to get this posting up quickly, so I'm cutting it short here!

Good birding!

Dwaynejava

PS: These are the Spruce cone seeds that they are eating!

Northern Goshawk & Golden Eagles at Holiday Beach v2

Friday after work, I headed out to Holiday Beach for an hour or so of hawk-watching. For some readers that do not know, Holiday Beach is located in the deepest, Southwestern point of Ontario. Hawks migrating from the northern boreal northward are funnelled between lake erie and lake huron (and lake St Clair) and must cross over to Michigan over this small geographic location, Holiday Beach. Anyway, upon arrival, Sarah from PPNP mentioned that it had been a great day so far with 10 or so Golden Eagles having gone by earlier in the day.

Long story short, the next hour was really good. Coopers Hawks, Northern Harriers, 2 Bald Eagles, 2 Golden Eagles, many TV's and Buteo Jamaicensis (or Red tailed Hawks... if you prefer english to latin names) and a juvenile Northern Goshawk! (Lifer #287). Sarah called out the Goshawk as it travelled at tree level over the beach, about 40m away from the tower. The Goshawk had a huge lump in its gullet, hinting that it may have just eaten something. The photo is poor because it was heavily backlit and well... rushed. This Accipiter looks similar to a Coopers Hawk but Steve & Sarah were confident the ID was correct. I'm not there yet because well, I've never seen a Goshawk with the exception of this brief fly-by. I can tell a Coopers from a Sharp-shinned though. 

Saturday morning, I headed out to Point Pelee in hopes of searching for Saw whet Owls, but no luck. I searched DeLaurier Trail and Sparrow field with no luck. I tried an area near Sanctuary that has been good for Eastern Screech Owls and Great Horned Owls and did find a Screech Owl, although, not a surprise! I continue to be fooled and eluded by the camo of Owls. I recall having a friend show me the location of a Long-eared Owl earlier this year, and even pointing directly at it in a tree, I could not see it... So I imagine the same thing is happening with my search of Saw Whet Owls. I quickly walked out to the tip of Point Pelee while visiting Sparrow Field and noted hundreds (or possibly thousands) of ducks a few hundred meters off the west beach. A scope would have been needed to see them, although, a few Common Mergansers were hanging out just meters off the tip parking lot.

Delaurier trail had the typical mix of birds for right now... Downy Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, Caronlina Wren (heard) White throated Sparrows, and Yellow Rumped Warblers. A few Robins (Nova Scotian?) were hanging out as well. Yet another Golden Eagle flew overhead, but headed back north towards the park entrance. Perhaps it thought it head toward Holiday Beach (taking the land route) rather than heading over Lake Erie considering a light southerly wind.

Good birding!
Dwayneajava.

Lifer summary- Northern Goshawk #287

A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush

This last week has been lackluster with respect to birding. Even with several trips to local hotspots, not much was seen. Fall birding is often like this. It is a 'slower burn' than the spring migration and this means some walks that are less birdy than others.

Saturday morning, my wife and son visited Holiday Beach and had a chance to see some birds up close as some recently banded birds were shown to the crowds. Oddly enough, the three birds shown between 11-12am were a RT Hummingbird, Grey cheeked Thrush, and a Yellow bellied Flycatcher... Three birds featured in my last posting. These birds were in hand, last weeks birds were in the bush.

Its funny how different birds look in hand than in a tree. Last weeks GCT looks bigger somehow.

For $10, I adopted this bird and was able to release it back to the wild. Very cool!

Bad photo... Remind me not to wear black shirts when holding birds.(Note: the black shirt made the camera overexpose the light coloured bird (Yellow Bellied Flycatcher))

 Ojibway Park's Tallgrass Prarie has been the best spot for wablers this last week. Some birds seen there were resident Tufted Titmouse and Northern Flickers as well as Black-and-white, Nashville and Redstart warblers along with Red-eyed and Philadelphia Vireos. Ruby crowned Kinglets have been seen at Ojibway and Holiday Beach this week, along with a few empid flycatchers.

 

I even visited Tilbury last week (mid-week) but was unable to really get good looks at the few shorebirds that were there. I think a scope would be needed to confidently identify the peeps that were out there. White rumped Sandpipers would be tempting to lifer, but I can't confidently make that call with the looks I had of them (see photo below).

Good birding,
Dwaynejava