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!

Evening Grosbeak & Winter Finches at Rondeau

Boardwalk near vistor center

A recent blog posting from a Rondeau Area birder had Evening Grosbeaks and White-winged Crossbills coming to his feeders, so I thought I would go see them for myself. I've seen Evening Grosbeaks (at a great distance) in the Okanagan Valley BC but never in Ontario. White winged Crossbills would be a life bird though.

Upon arrival to Rondeau Park, I walked up to the beach and noticed three Horned Grebes close to the shore. Common Mergansers were very close to shore as well, but further south along the beach. Next was the visitor center feeders, but I soon realized that there was no bird seed there so, I decided to head over to south point trail where I ran into Blake and Steve.

Hermit Thrushes on South Point Trail

Next stop was Ric & Anne's Feeders. We saw many Pine Siskens, Red and White breasted Nuthatches, Purple Finches but no Grosbeaks or Crossbills.

Siskins and Purple Finch

Blake and Steve decided to walk the campground and I followed, as I had never walked that part of the park. Lots of birds around, including: Eastern Bluebirds, Red bellied Woodpeckers, chickadees, both Kinglets and even a Nashville Warbler was seen foraging through dried-out goldenrod plants. Steve soon pointed out a flock of Crossbills that went right over our heads. I snapped a few photos in hopes of verifying them and sure enough...Lifer! White winged Crossbills #309.

White winged Crossbills in flight

Having limited time, I figured I would try out Ric's feeders one more time before I left Rondeau. Sure enough, as I was about to give up on waiting, Evening Grosbeaks showed up!

Red breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmouse and Red bellied Woodpeckers were hanging out!

As I was about to leave Rondeau Park, Blake stopped by Ric's Cottage to see the Grosbeaks and infomed me that he found another Saw-whet Owl!  Seeing this amazing owl was a great way to end off a great morning of birding!

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava