I've been reporting from the Lake so much, people are going to start thinking I live there...wait... WAIT......
Condo watch (typical on/off from 7am till 2pm ish)
Gadwall 8
American Wigeon 12
Northern Pintail 93
Green-winged Teal 15
Greater Scaup 4
White-winged Scoter 12
Northern Harrier 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Golden-Plover 2
Whimbrel 1
Parasitic Jaeger 1
Sabine's Gull 2
Bonaparte's Gull 1
Lesser Black-backed Gull 2 - adults
Great Black-backed Gull 2
Caspian Tern 4
Interestingly, of all those birds (Golden Plover, Whimbrel, Sabines, Jaeger, etc etc) - the HARRIER was new for the patch... #172.
Pintail numbers were undercounted - as were all other ducks (especially the species I ignored)
I don't mean to get too worked up about this "condo birding stuff" - but I'm seeing unusual birds - EVERY DAY... And I don't mean unusual as in rare, but just plain weird... The Harrier was over 1km up - flying NORTH out over the lake... What was it doing?
Not many loons, lots of Geese, and a few strange flocks of Swallows (including some Tree's - which I haven't seen in weeks here)
I'm not trying to be arrogant here, but based on the number of interesting/strange bird sightings I'm having - it feels like another serious rarity is on the doorstep...
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I then went to Lakeland Centre at Van Wagner's from 3:30pm to 6:30pm ish for the "good light/close birds" phenomenon - it worked again.
The highlights:
Osprey 1
Red-necked/Red Phalarope 2 - probable reds
Pomarine Jaeger 1 - very dark juvenile
Parasitic Jaeger 5 - two were adults
Sabine's Gull 3 - juvs
Lesser Black-backed Gull 2 - both juvs
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Finally- east winds mean I won't be going far tomorrow - but I gotta wonder - Are southern rares lurking around the Great Lakes still?
Strong south winds from Sep 13 -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffskrentny/9753109403/
Little Blue Heron report from Peche Island, Windsor:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/
Least Tern report on Lake MI in MI -
http://utsj.blogspot.ca/2013/09/91113.html
Don't know if you noticed this report from a small trip taken out on southern Lake Michigan (me and 4 others), but we had both a Sabine's and a Long-tailed Jaeger:
ReplyDeletehttp://home.comcast.net/~geoffrey.williamson/lake-michigan-pelagic-2013-09-14.html
http://www.ilbirds.com/index.php?topic=53829.msg90547#new
Hey Nathan - very interesting report!
DeleteI find it odd that the pelagics we get around the west end of Lake Ontario often find their way close to shore - and we (probably) actually have less luck finding them when we go offshore in boats. Whereas it seems like the opposite elsewhere??
Pretty sweet photos! That LTJA is a crazy looking bird.
Huh I really have no idea why that might be, but perhaps it is food source? Thats quite peculiar... And thanks for the comments, nothing like your shots of the Jaegers from your Zodiac, but we tried!
ReplyDeleteNathan