Condo Bird-zing update!

Been a while since I got around to putting some notes to the keyboard (doesn't have the same ring as pen to the pad, does it?)

Condo birding update:


Jan 11 - first Northern Cardinal for the condo

Jan 12 - first Belted Kingfisher for the condo

Jan 12b - went for a rollerblade (it was 16+ degrees this day).. Added BC Chickadee and DE Junco to the patch list. Also got a Ring-necked Duck! Which was odd and alone just offshore on the open lake.

Jan 13 - went cold again. Shimmer (for the first time) made it hard to see... Lots of ducks moving about. A wind shift to strong W gave a cool flight of Surf and Black Scoters

Jan 14 - a flock of 20+ Redhead along shore are undoubtedly record early fall migrants for Hamilton (after they "migrated north" two days earlier.

Jan 17 - a distant Loon Sp in flight was cool, given the date. Also a Glaucous Gull

Jan 19 - shimmer on the lake again. Got one of the adult Peregrines and also a sweet adult Kumlien's Iceland Gull along the shore.

Jan 21 - a Mute Swan swam past the condo again... The third(?) time one has done this I think..

Jan 22 - very cold. The lake was steaming!  A cool sight

Jan 25 - the biggest movement of Scaup I had seen all month, including some Redhead mixed in. Also picked out a Common Loon on the water - trying to over winter I guess...

Jan 27 - NEW condo bird - a MERLIN right past the window at light speed. Also another Kingfisher

Late Jan snow squals over the lake

Jan 31 - two flyby Gadwall were the first from the condo in a while

Feb 2 - NEW condo bird - a light morph Juvenile Rough-legged Hawk! Right past the window. Hawks seem to enjoy riding the air currents between the two buildings, so now I'm very excited for spring hawk migration to begin and to see if the migrants do the same. They're often really close.

Feb 3 - Why are Surf scoters the most common species of scoter now? Where did the White-wings go? Heck, I may see more Black Scoters (great numbers for winter) than WW's these days! There was also a big flight of Common Mergansers today - first in a while.. Frozen out of somewhere and moving south... Overall a good day with a/nother Common Loon on the water and singles of Kumlien's Iceland Gull (juv) and a Glaucous Gull (adult). I guess that'll happen when its a Sunday and I can watch for more than 30 mins!

Just a fraction of the SUSC and BLSC hanging about 

Feb 5 - a first winter Kumlein's Iceland Gull early.

Feb 6 - NEW patch bird. On my way to work, I noticed a swan in the creek bed at Confederation Park. Turns out it was a Trumpeter! Sa-weet!

The Trump! Didn't think it'd be very easy at all to get this one for the patch... 

Looking forward to the next few days - forecast E and N winds! Which were awesome back in December.