wow..... photos of the first Leach's Storm Petrel ... Sandy/Frankenstorm.. wow...

The Northeast Atlantic Ocean came to Lake Ontario today... Not sure what else can be said... Will post the full days highlights later, but wanted to get the photos up. Unbelievable birding... 

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8pm edit: 

Barb "Wire" Charlton did an awesome ontbirds posting from our days sightings.. I was there from 7:20am to 5:40pm ....

I edited it a bit to reflect some of my personal sightings etc... but many thanks to her for putting together the post for us! What a day!!!! 

Ontbirders: 

 Today was, very simply, an unprecedented day of birding at Van Wagner's Beach in Hamilton! The dozen or so birders that spent approximately 10 hours at Hutch's today (some who arrived pre-dawn) felt an Ontbirds post, in summary of such an outstanding day, was warranted. 

Here are the highlights: 

 75 Snow Geese (a single large flock) 

281 Brant (several large flocks as well as a few smaller flocks) 

*1 Wilson's Storm-Petrel (spotted by Rob Dobos)* 

*1 Leach's Storm-Petrel (spotted by Dave Don. Photographed by Brandon Holden and David Bell)* * *

2 Storm-Petrel sp. (not identifiable to species) - (I only saw one of these birds)

2 Purple Sandpipers (flying by) 

*88 Black-legged Kittiwakes ( flocks of 5-8 all morning,18 in view at one time, 2 adults)* This may easily be an under count.. How do you count? It was the Atlantic ocean out there... 

16 Bonaparte's Gulls 

5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls 

1 Glaucous Gull 

 6 Pomarine Jaegers 

7 Parasitic Jaegers 

1 Long-tailed Jaeger   ---- 3 Jaeger day!

2 Peregrine Falcons 

21 Jaeger sp. (distant and unidentifiable) 

 There were also quite a number of birders at Lakeland Centre, further down the beach from Hutch's, who had a similarly exciting day seeing the Storm-Petrels, as well as the staggering number of Kittiwakes, Jaegers etc. All in all, an absolutely amazing day of birding in the Hamilton Study Area that none of us will soon forget! We can only hope that the next few days and weeks hold even more excitement for Ontario's birders!! 

 Cheers, Barb Charlton