It only gets better from here.

It's no secret that the February-March period is painfully slow (at times) when it comes to birding in Ontario.  The good news, is that things are only getting better from here. 

Ken Burrell and I made an unexpected trip down to the Point Pelee area on March 9, and turned up just about everything you'd expect for the date. Notable were 8 Snow Geese (5 at Pelee, 3 near Erieau) and an early Wilson's Snipe. Not to mention the roughly ~5000 Tundra Swans seen at various places!

2 of 3 Lesser Swans at Erieau

Now i'm looking at the weather for Grimsby, and seeing the following:

Tuesday: Mainly sunny, Wind E 10kmh, 7 C

Wednesday: Isolated Showers, Wind S 20, 8 C

Thursday: Cloudy Periods, Wind SW 20, 11 C

Any one of those days (or all 3) has the potential to be 100-150+ hawk days at Beamer CA hawkwatch. What you're really hoping for is a rather COLD day, when the wind is E or NE off the lake but very light. Often times, the wind will be MUCH warmer and south further inland, so birds migrate in, then ride the NE wind along the escarpment edge, fairly low and close all day long. The end result is some good looks at Red-tails, Red-shoulders and maybe some eagles if you're lucky (also not a bad time for Goshawk). 

I'm probably going to give it a try one of those days. Just keep an eye on what the rain is doing!!!

Things to come at Beamer!