New Year's Eve Birding & New Year's Greetings

Resident Bald Eagles at Pelee

Happy New Year!  I finally got a chance to get out to Point Pelee to do some birding over my Christmas break. I feel bad about not attending the local CBC's as ambitiously as I have in the past, but my health has been lackluster. I made an attempt to go birding on New Years Eve morning with Jeremy Bensette, with the intention of finding some reported Brewers Blackbirds. This posting is a report on that outing from Yesterday.

Out in the Onion Fields, we got good looks at large flocks of Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs. One flock at the east end of "Road C" must have had well over 150 Lapland Longspurs! At one point, a small gravel parking lot adjacent to the Onion Fields was covered in Longsurs. As we drove up , the majority of them flushed but a few remained. Large mixed flocks of Snow Buntings were nice to see, as I did not see any about 1.5 weeks ago when I participated in the Lakeshore CBC.

 Another highlight from this outing was to finally see a nice (first of season) dark-morph Rough legged Hawk! I have attempted to see some in the Pleasent Valley area near Kingsville/Harrow but have dipped so far in seeing one (this season). The cloudy/windy cold conditions made photography difficult but at one point, this bird was kiting almost directly above our car! I see so many hawks that end up being Red-tailed Hawks, that I really get excited seeing a rough legged hawk!

On Dec 28th, I was going to Colasanti's in Kingsville and stopped by to see the reported Ross's Goose at Jack Miners Bird Sactuary. It seems like they really made some nice habitat in that field across the road!  I found a Cackling Goose while looking for the Ross's Goose. 

Convincing Cackler?

My ebird checklist can be found here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16176366

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Northern Shrike at Ojibway & Ridgetown Geese Diversity V2

Ross's Geese

Happy 12/12/12! Due to an exam I wrote this morning, I took a personal day from work and was lucky enough to enjoy a gorgeous, sunny day today. I figured I would try my luck at Ridgetown Lagoons and wow... three lifers today! Upon arrival to the lagoon, I saw a friendly birder with a scope and he pointed out some of the highlights. Ross's Goose and Great White-fronted Goose made for two lifers in the span of 10 or so minutes. Ken Burrell arrived on the scene a few minutes later and pointed out a few Cackling Geese amongst the Canada Geese (Lifer 311, 312 & 313).

Greater White-fronted was a really nice surprise!

Ridgetown Lagoons is where I saw Snow Geese back in March of this year.
http://dwaynejava.blogspot.ca/2012/03/snow-geese-in-ridgetown.html

Do you see the Cackling Goose in comparison to Canada Geese?

I think the middle goose is a Cackling Goose. Thanks to Ken Burrell for pointing them out to me. 

On the way home, I drove by Ojibway Park and found this Northern Shrike sitting on a telephone wire! This was reported earlier this week, so hopefully it stays around. The last time I saw one was Nov 2010! Read more about this awesome bird here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Shrike/id

Northern Shrike - Lanius excubitor ... Literally means Butcher Watchman!

Cackling Geese were only 'recognized' in 2004 ... Prior to that, they were thought of as a sub-species of Canada Geese. Genetic differences were big enough to warrant a new species! Pretty cool!

Oddly enough, at the time I posted this posting, David Sibley's blog had an entry on indentifying Cackling Geese. Check it out here: http://www.sibleyguides.com/2012/11/can-you-find-the-cackling-goose/ .

Alternative titles for this blog posting could have been:

"What's Good for the Goose is Good For My Life List"
"I'm Grinnin' Like a Snow Goose - Three Lifers at Ridgetown"
"Duck... Duck... Ross's Goose, White Fronted Goose, Cackling Goose"

The birding gods smiled upon me today.

Goose Birding,
Dwaynejava

Lifer Summary:
311 - Ross's Goose,
312 - Great White-fronted Goose
313 - Cackling Geese