Fall 2012 ticks!

Fall 2012 ticks!



There are 3 lists that I’m interested in (personally). My self-found list (Ontario), my birds photographed list (Ontario) and my life list (Ontario).. So just the other day I sat down and updated them (just ticks in an old ofo checklist)... And the new ticks were:



Wilson’s Storm-Petrel – one tick only for the Ontario Life List (the worst kind of checklist ticking - a single! )

Leach’s Storm Petrel – got ticks for all 3 categories! My favourite kind... It’s a long story why I count this on my self-found list ( I had a distant storm petrel later in the day that I’m counting as self found, since I spotted it – and I’m near positive it was a Leach’s)...

Black-headed Gull – new bird for my “photographed” list, completing the 3-tick-sweep for the species

Ross’s Gull - new bird for my “self found” list – still need to photo one though...

Townsend’s Solitaire – new for my “photographed” list – still need to find one...

Orange-crowned Warbler – new for my “photographed list” – scary eh?

Western Meadowlark – new for my “self found” list – still need a photo

A pretty good haul for the season!



So just for fun (and for the sake of making this a blog post ) – I went over some fun facts for my list...

365 species on my life ON list, 333 are self found.

Species I feel like I need to find (that I’ve seen in ON, but not on the self found list) include: Common Eider, Western Grebe, Piping Plover (I’ll only count it if I find a new breeding site or a vagrant), Black-necked Stilt, Curlew Sandpiper, Boreal Owl (easy one), Western Kingbird (I don’t count a sorta-found back in 2009), Townsend’s Solitaire, Kentucky Warbler (another easy one), Lark Sparrow and Smith’s Longspur (up north)

Those are the “easy” ones I can add, that I already have on the list (to close the gap between the lists) – although obviously it’ll be tough to find them.. And obviously I have several others that are a LOT rarer that I have little hope of finding myself J

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Some species I still need to photograph (I don’t really try to update this list, I just sort of keep track, so don’t laugh at the easy ones) – G White-fronted Goose, Black Vulture, Mississippi Kite, Boreal Owl, Three-toed and Black-backed Woodpeckers, Winter Wren, Sedge Wren, Northern AND Louisiana Waterthrush, Henslow’s Sparrow, Western Meadowlark, Yellow-headed and Brewer’s Blackbird, and Red Crossbill rounds it out...

It’s funny cause I’ve actually had the chance to photograph virtually every single one of those species but didn't  Although I’m sure it’ll happen eventually... Several rare’s I need pics of as well...

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Easiest species I’ve yet to see in Ontario – Cinnamon Teal, Gray Partridge, Northern Bobwhite, Willow Ptarmigan, Great Cormorant, Yellow Rail, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, SLATY-BACKED GULL*, Eurasian Collared Dove, White-winged Dove and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher...

* you’d think I could get SBGU on my own sometime, given how much I look at gulls.. Maybe?

As you can see, my general distain for twitching has led to a lower Ontario list... There are several other rarities (that I probably won’t find on my own easily) that I should have twitched... A few samples – Band-tailed Pigeon(2), Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch(sev), Golden-crowned Sparrow(2-3), Snowy & Wilson’s Plovers, Purple Gallinule, Ivory Gull, Northern Wheatear(2+) etc

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Anyways, hopefully that was somewhat interesting...

Got my first "good" pics of CASW this fall, not that it counts for much on my list-system!