Happy Birthday Mom!

It's my Mom's birthday today! Happy Birthday!

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50dor - day 23

Some birding yesterday. Again, I had grand plans that were dashed by a common bird... Some spots:

Hagersville Quarry Ponds - DCCO, RNDU, REDH, LESC (30ish), RUDU (75ish), AMWI, GADW, etc

Townsend SL - Best was maybe 2 Barn Swallows - which also go by the lesser known name of Nottarare Swallow.... A VESP... MUSW, 10 LESA, 2 KILL, 1 LEYE, 5 DUNL, 2 PBRG, most of the expected ducks (AMWI, GADW, GWTE, REDH, RNDU, GRSC, LESC, RUDU (200ish), NSHO) some AMCO's...... Also had 2 Common Ravens behind the lagoon and a Cackling Goose...

Jarvis SL - this is where it all went to heck... 2 AMWI, 2 NOPI, 2 GADW, and 5 teal.... 4 of which were Blue-winged Teal, and 1 was what made me spend 90 minutes trying to learn how to separate Juvenile Garganey from Green-winged Teal... It didn't seem to make much sense that this funny looking teal --- hanging out with Blue-winged Teal --- was "just" a Green-winged...... Probably was, but I studied it for a good 90 minutes.... Took some crappy record photos with my point and shoot (shoulda brought my good lens).................

Not a Garganey, although if I ever DO see a female Garganey in the future, I'm pretty sure I'll nail it... 

MAMBO NUMBER FIVE!!!


After that fiasco, I went to Lake Ontario (Sayer's Park) for a combo Cave Swallow/Gannet watch....... Since they both occur on similar conditions, but I didn't see any...

Highlights after 2 hours of watching was 1 Peregrine Falcon, 4 Pine Siskins and all 3 Scoter species (even adult males) at close range....

OH... AND do you know what ELSE I HAD there?!?!? Can you guess!?!? Maybe!??!?!

A HYBRID GULL!!!

my 5th in the last 20ish days! woot! I juts can't get enough!! (a 3rd winter Herring X Great Black-back) ... Got some record shots, but haven't edited them yet.......

I love hybrid gulls (actually I do, but they aren't exactly the CMF i'm searching for).....

Confederation Park was my next stop for a good hour or two... It was loaded up with Sparrows and Kinglets (including the above Fox)  and a possible CCSP that I didn't nail - but no megas... next time?