Thursday, January 19, 2012

Birds so close, birds so far: part 4 (Quebec)

A detailed look at the birds Quebec has on their provincial checklist, that Ontario does not have! Not a bad way to be prepared for future CMF's in the province.

Have a look back at the other parts:   New York, Ohio and Michigan \

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Diving right into Quebec, I was really surprised at some of the really crazy birds. They have 38 species you won't find on the Ontario list (37+1).

First off, it's best to deal with some species that really may never make it onto the Ontario list.

The below list is birds I fear would never be assumed wild if seen in Ontario:

Tundra Bean Goose
Tiaga Bean-Goose
Whooper Swan
White-cheeked Pintail
Eurasian Coot
Chaffinch
Eurasian Siskin

I've heard rumours of a possible historic Bean-Goose record for Ontario, but adding it today would be very difficult with all the escaped captive waterfowl running around. The finches have been recorded all over the Great Lakes already, but I guess you need to live on the east coast to count them ;)...

(my recent whoops)


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I'm going to do a separate list for a few species that are more likely to be escapes than wild birds in Ontario, but may find a way to squeak onto the list:

Graylag Goose
American Flamingo
Common Crane

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That leaves us with 28 species (27+1) to deal with. Now lets dive into some of the crazy-cosmic things that would make us all go crazy in Ontario:

Common Pochard
Steller's Eider
Clapper Rail (very unlikley due to range)
European Golden-Plover
Eurasian Curlew
Western Gull
Roseate Tern
Yellow-green Vireo
Stellar's Jay
Song Thrush
Seaside Sparrow (very unlikley due to range)

I feel like the Yellow-green Vireo takes the cake in terms of nutty records, and discovered it was in the 1880's... Wish I could find more info though, does anyone know? The other species are a mix of VERY difficult ID's (Roseate Tern, Western Gull, Common Pochard), Range problems (Seaside Sparrow, Clapper Rail), or just very very crazy vagrants like Song Thrush (European) and the others...

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The meat and potatoes are the remaining members of the list. Birds that we should really know, juts in case one wanders in front of the lens on some future birding adventure. The above birds are still possible, but here's the good stuff:

(17 species left - 16+1):

Mega, but do-able:

Northern Lapwing
Commn-ringed Plover
Common Greenshank
Yellow-legged Gull
Common Murre
Cassin's Vireo
Black-backed Wagtail
Hepatic Tanager


Darn overdue:

Pink-footed Goose
Cory's Shearwater
Bar-tailed Godwit
Red-necked Stint
Little Egret
Gull-billed Tern


The last species is Sooty Shearwater, which I will not really comment on right now..........


So there you have it... There was some crazy species that I wish I had more info on.. (eg,/ Hepatic tanager??) -- Also the Cassin's Vireo reports.. It seems like the 1st record is a "sight record" which I do not like.. Not at all.. Yet it also seems to list a different bird being banded....



Yellow-legged Gull, Newfoundland 

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