Short eared Owl + Hillman Phragmites & #myebirdhistory map

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

Lakeshore CBC and Season's Greetings

This past Saturday, I joined two excellent birders, Kory Renaud and Jeremey Bensette to assist in counting birds for the Lakeshore CBC.  Our group did the South end of the circle (yellow bottom in the picture above). One area of the circle we were happy to bird was the Maidstone Conservation Area. It turns out, the twenty hectare site was a little bit of a dud, but was still interesting to walk. We saw common seasonal species such as Chickadees, Red bellied woodpecker, Morning Doves and Downy Woodpeckers. The site boasts an old Indian Signal Tree (see below).

Indian Signal Tree

Some highlights of our counting was an adult Bald Eagle, and two or three run-ins with major flocks of Snow Buntings. One or two of the fields we stopped by had 120+ Horned Larks. At our post-CBC luncheon, we learned that one of our star birders, Tom Hince found some major rarities near Peche Island, including a Black legged Kittiwake and a Northern Waterthrush. Our final species count for the CBC was 69.

Amazing photo of Snow Buntings and a few Horned Larks

I was hoping to find a Lapland Longspur in this flock, but no dice. Last January, I found a flock of Snow Buntings, Horned Larks and Lapland Longspur while viewing the Mountain Bluebird in Shetland Ontario. Here was a flashback video from that morning:

Last night, I drove out to an area which is reputed for Short Eared Owls, and saw them. Of course, they start to fly at dusk so photographing them is difficult and might require better staging techniques than I am privy to. I noticed a dog-like creature which may have been a Coyote walking through this field as I was observing the Owls. Some photos below have horrible white-balance settings taken as dusk:

Short Eared Owl... Amazing winter specialty. 

I hope to put together a good summary for 2012. I also want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy, Healthy and Birdy New Year to everyone! December 21st of course was the Winter Solstice which marks the shortest amount of daylight in the year. So Happy Winter Solstice as well!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Bonus Photo: Eastern Bluebirds... Just for Karen :-)

An amazing video about Snowy Owls by Cornell's Ornithology Dept.

Amazing 3.5-minute documentary on the Snowy Owl. Amazing photography, videography and information. If you are reading this blog, you will love watching this.




Video: Short eared Owl
A recent video I took of a Short Eared Owl eating a mouse. Sadly, I stopped taking video about 30 seconds before it snapped up the mouse and swallowed the 80% of it remaining! I have uploaded this video and ran an edit to reduce shaky-ness, so hopefully, that anti-shake effect has taken effect by the time you watch this!
**Also, I had my hazard lights on, so I replaced that ticking sound with classical music... Just in case you were wondering!***



Video: Snowy Owl in Kingsville
My first self-discovered Snowy Owl. I drove by this owl at sunrise (7:55am) on Dec 24th, 2011. Location: Kingsville Ontario. 


Video: Great Grey Owl in Kingsville


***Sorry about the hip-hop music... I tried to cover up the original sound which involved camera's clicking and people talking... I think Enigma's "Return to Innocence" which has a nice native-american feel to it would have been more appropriate.


Holiday Beach CBC on Dec 27th, 2011
I joined the Holiday Beach CBC and walked Boblo Island which is located in the Detroit River a few hundred meters west of Amherstburg. It was a pretty good walk with some amazing birders, but sadly, I was not well dressed for the event. In particular, I spent the whole morning with icy-cold, soaked feet! I need to by buy waterproof boots if I want to keep doing this birding hobby!

Some results from our morning walk:
Great horned Owl
Great blue Heron
Belted Kingfisher
Brown Creepers
Northern Flicker

Many other seasonal birds (sparrows and finches etc).




Two blog postings I'm working on:
*Year-End Review
I'm planning on doing a month-by-month re-cap of 2011 and possibly an updated life list.

*Two-Year Blogging Anniversary
I may also create a post in celebration of my two-year blogging anniversary. 

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava

PS: Interested in past CBC results for a count-circle near you?
http://audubon2.org/birds/cbc/hr/count_table.html

Short Eared Owl... Just by Chance

 Are you kidding me??? Last weekend's Owl search came up short, so I figured I would try again today after work. An ont-birds posting this week mentioned Short Eared Owls (on Amherst Island) starting to hunt at 3:30 pm, so that gave me some insight on these diurnal birds. I realized last weeks' trip may have been poorly timed with an early afternoon drive.  So, I left work early and drove out to the county to an area described by a birder I met at the Hawk Festival earlier in the fall.

I didn't think I would see this bird, but a hovering Northern Harrier caught my attention near the edge of the road, so I tried taking some photos. I'm glad I did, because they were initially very blurry. I adjusted the aperture and ISO to deal with the poor, cloudy, late-afternoon light. A few moments after photographing the Harrier, I start to drive away and a second raptor starts flying from the left side of the road to the right. I snapped a few photos, not really knowing what I was looking at, and sure enough, this blunt-faced raptor was what I've been looking for!

Other birds seen were HUGE flocks of Brown headed Cowbirds, one or two American Kestrels, and whispy flocks of birds that I tried photographing. They were almost invisible to the eye, but on occasion, they would be visible for a moment and I tried to photograph them. My best guess (see photo below) might be Snow Buntings?

Well, I have an exam tomorrow afternoon, so I have to get back to studying!!!

May your weekend be birdy!

Dwaynejava

PS: An odd note, this is the fourth Owl species I found/photographed... while sitting in my car!!! Should I start a car list???? :-)

Lifer Summary: #289 Short eared Owl