All good things come to an end...

I'm probably going to sit back and marvel at the birding insanity I had from Aug 17-Sep 17 2013.... Some of the notables -

1 Rosy-faced Lovebird (escape, but still sweet) 

1 Red-throated Loon

1 Neotropic Cormorant (first for Hamilton - only 6-7 ever for Canada) 

1 Northern Gannet (first adult for Hamilton and 4th adult for Ontario) 

4 Peregrine Falcons

4 American Golden Plover

1 Whimbrel

3 Red-necked Phalaropes

7 Long-tailed Jaegers

24 Parasitic Jaegers

4 Pomarine Jaegers

4 Sabine's Gulls

7 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

1 Black Tern

1 Brown-chested Martin (first for Canada pending acceptance) 

Utter insanity. Especially when you consider the fact that I saw every last one of them from my balcony...

With that said, all good things must come to an end (yes, I'm listening to the song as I write this)... I had a very strong feeling last Thursday (Sep 19th) that last weekend was going to be some epic birding weather. I knew I had Friday to Sunday off, and could very easily drive down to Pelee and sleep in my vehicle. 

The only problem - I didn't really have the time... Well, maybe I did - but maybe the smart idea was to stay and home and get ready. I'm flying out to BC on Wednesday (25th) for two solid weeks of work... The work is going to be utterly amazing - but it is also going to put an end to my rarity-hunting adventures for a while (as noted above, it already stifled this past weekend). That's the way it goes!

I may end up "missing" over a month of uber-prime birding-time in the condo/patch/southern Ontario in general... Although I think it's actually a pretty good thing overall. Even though I'll be birding (somewhere else) the entire time - I'll actually return home with "the fire" to bird like crazy at my patch again to make up for missed birds!

So what birds DID I end up seeing this weekend? 

I did note 1 Wood Duck from the condo on Sunday (22nd)... And that's all she wrote... 

All good things come to an end - which allows for new freakin awesome things to begin! I'll be away from contact (no email/cell etc for weeks), but will hopefully have some new photos and stories to share upon my return!

(I guess this is my way of saying sorry that the blog is going back into "boring mode")