3:30am moonrise!
May 21st -
Worked over the grass at confederation park, hoping for a secretive sparrow. Flushed 1 Song Sparrow and 1 Red-winged Blackbird. Whoops!
Tennessee Warblers singing everywhere....
May 22nd - not much looking (once again). Lots of ducks out there! And large numbers of Chimney Swifts moving along the lake...
More Tennessee's singing like mad!
May 23rd - Today there were Redstarts singing outside my windows... Cooler weather meant lots of Swallows close to the windows...
Calm water gave me a chance to scan:
150ish White-winged Scoter
25ish Surf Scoter
500ish Long-tailed Ducks
1 Greater Scaup
20ish Red-breasted Mergs
Why so many ducks still? Ice?
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I also stopped by edgelake park for a quick mid-afternoon search before I had to finish my work for the day. The highlights were 8 Warbler species and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18533892
Somehow Indigo Bunting was actually new for my patch!
May 24th - A bit of balcony watching today:
6+ Common Loons
1 Blackpoll Warbler (singing)
1 Wilson's Warbler (singing)
1 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Kestrel
Lots of Blue Jays (60-70?)
I didn't really make notes... Which prompted me to keep notes on May 25th (so I didn't forget everything) -
Look! A Blue Jay!
May 25th - FUDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another missed bird.. Around 11:35am my ladyfriend and I heard some strange noises. I thought it was rather "dove-like" - yet also sounded somewhat like a child moaning... The only "doves" that I was unfamiliar with (the calls) were White-winged and Band-tailed Pigeon... I started with White-winged Dove...
The song of WW Dove was wrong... Very wrong, but the quality was the same.... I did some more digging. And it turns out, they have a call as well! In fact, it was VERY CLOSE to what we had just heard from the balcony. Check it out here (the "call" starts around 8-9 seconds):
http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/sounds/mp3/WHWIDO.mp3
We went outside and looked, and found nothing. We then sat on the balcony for the rest of the day - and heard no more... White-winged Dove is easily one of my top 3 "nemesis" birds for Ontario, and this adds to the fun.
I HATE IT when birds "get away".... I would be very very happy to find a pigeon doing the calls, just so I would know what it was. But I HATE it when this happens... So yeah... I'm just going to "continue on" with the day:
May 25th - more balcony watching:
Red-throated Loon - 1 (on water)
Common Loon - 2 (flybys)
Great Blue Heron - 1
Canada Goose - 4 (molt migrants??)
Dunlin - 150
American Redstart - 1 (singing)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 (singing) (late, no?)
There was also some passerines moving along the lake early.. Not many, but it was fun. Most were Blackbirds and Robins, but also:
Eastern Kingbird - 6
Indigo Bunting - 3
Cedar Waxwing - 70
Baltimore Oriole - 1
Blue Jay - 35
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1 (NEW condo/patch bird!) - a spankin male of all things.. An odd sighting.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 1
Lots of Chimney Swifts as well!
2 Broad-winged Hawks mid-day with a group of Turkey Vultures... Hawk migration seems to skirt behind my balcony... I also had 1 Bald Eagle and 1 American Kestrel...
Thee bird
May 26th - I had 15 or 20 minutes before leaving for work. Why can't I just stay home all the time? It's so nice!
Strong (and warm) SW winds gave me nearly 1000 (!!!!!) freakin waxwings. I can only imagine how many were moving along the lake.
As I got in my car, I had a molting PEREGRINE FALCON fly over my head and circle my building for a while! What a send-off!!!
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I've been banished for work for the next 2-ish weeks, so the condo birding is going to dry up! (Maybe even until August)... I'm up to 197 species for my "patch" - so perhaps i'll get some rares this fall to finally hit 200!!!
Eagle + Martin from the 25th
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