Dec 18 --- Hardly watched, but I did pick up a first winter (juv) Nelson's Gull ! early. It was a beauty too.. Kinda like this bird, but with darker wings and tail, and a bit sharper looking overall:
Then I got word that my condo birding pal George Holland had two SWALLOWS fly past while I was down in the exercise room. Second time this December he's done that. A-well, can't win them all!
Dec 20th - east winds again! Had a lot of those indicator species moving in the morning ... Although I didn't get toooo much... Highlights:
Common Loon
King Eider - !!!! The adult Male again. Picked it out in flight with some RB Mergies. Landed with some Goldeneye. Seems to like these two species a lot. Anywhoo... It floated offshore for a while and was a REAL beauty to see for an extended period.
Peregrine Falcon - the adult female shot past my window (on 40-50kmh winds) about 5 feet away and startled me. Sa-weet!
Not sure what else. Some good movement for so late in the year (MALL, ABDU, COME, GRSC etc). But yea. Not exactly the insanity of Dec 15 (under similar conditions), but days like that don't happen very often in the bird world..
From the storm. 2 Great B Backs. Pics aren't too bad (for blog quality only) from inside the condo!
Dec 21 - An abnormal number of Common Goldeneye were present for the day. Maybe 600-800 birds? And 90% adult males? crazy.
Dec 23 - watched passively on SW winds and was rewarded as such, with very little of note. Got a text from Kentucky that the ad male King Eider was present, but I didn't see it. No worries, as hopefully it spends the winter! Mid day 3 balloons floated out into the lake and scared the sh!t out of the ducks... Like major panic educing waves of ducks dispersing around the lake.. Kinda funny..
Lots of gulls moving as well, but no notables. Still waiting on the expected Glauc.
Dec 24 - I got the Glauc!!! Sitting at my desk mid-morning when I noticed an awfully white gull flying along the shore, maybe 100ft up... 2nd winter Glaucous! Species #48 for the patch in month #1 ... I just sort of expected Glauc as a typical Nov/Dec bird on Lake Ontario, and it was a beauty (very white 2nd winter). Now I need a new species to "watch for" ... Any idears??
Actual glauc pic from in the condo! (on a terrible angle through 3 panes of glass, but worth it).
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I actually managed to update the overall list of species and get it online. You can check it out on my "patch page":
More goodies await! Amazingly I've yet to actually walk around outside in my patch, so once I finally get to that, there should be a decent boost in numbers (Chickadee, Blue Jays, Cardinal etc!)... The whole list is pretty much from inside on the 17th floor.... Kind of fun, but for sure my goal is a broader area (eg,/ outside too) just to keep myself entertained and learning more about the birds "near home", how they behave, favourite spots etc!
Hope everyone had a great Christmas
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