I watched fairly steady from the condo from 10am-6pm yesterday... This recent low pressure system that passed through did a really good job of bringing some birds with it! The highlights:
2 Osprey
2 Merlin
4 Wood Duck (new)
1 Northern Shoveler (new)
30-40 Red-necked Grebes
15+ Common Loons
5+ Barn Swallows
500-1000?+ Robins
Yet it was the gulls and terns that stole the show! Huge numbers on the move today. I managed to pick out:
4 Glaucous Gulls (2 juv, 2 adult)
4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (1 juv, 2 second ba's, 1 adult)
2 Thayer's Gulls (adult, 2nd ba) (new)
1 Iceland Gull (adult)
50-ish Bonaparte's Gulls (one big flock, then 3-4 times I had single birds)
1 Common Tern (ties record early for Hamilton according to the birds of hammer) (new)
+ 1 freakazoid probable hybrid gull (dark mantle) - that I'm guessing was a Herring X Great black-backed of some sort.. But I'm not sure (pic below)
Freak Gull
Not to mention the "daily" stuff like all 3 Scoters! And other assorted fowl... Patch list is now at 90 species!
Some pic highlights:
Ospr
Thayer's
Lesser B Backed
It's easier for me to post a comment then update the blog --- but I think tomorrow (Monday) could be a VERY birdy day in southern Ontario... VERY birdy indeed...
ReplyDelete(If it happens, I'll write a blog post about why afterwards)