PeregrinePrints not dot com ... Blog: August 2014

Sunday, August 31, 2014

RARITY ALERT - more interesting weatha!

Tis the season - and I told ya'll ;)

Let's take a look:

Saturday! (yesterday) - strong south winds pushed into Ontario - and they stretched a long way (fairly long);

Tropical moisture invading on Sunday?! -

Hot pink areas drawn by me: here it shows the tropical moisture at 2pm Saturday

8pm Saturday - moisture moving north

2 am sunday - moisture practically at (or over) Lake Erie already - looks pretty cool!

Then on Monday - fairly large storm over far NW Ontario, that could still bring us a few goodies...

Sub 1000mb

None of these events are really mind-blowing, but it's great weather for unusual birds to show up - and I'm sure a Limpkin or Reddish Egret would really make it all feel worth-while ;)

NOT taken in Napanee! It's not worth making a blog post about - I got a little over-confident and went for the White Ibis for dawn the day after it was reported.. I didn't get it...

Saturday, August 30, 2014

More BC bird photos

Oh god, it's mostly Glaucous-winged Gulls...

http://peregrineprints.com/zz_GWGU.htm

At least they're pretty...

Look, a Murre!

http://peregrineprints.com/zz_COMU.htm

Bald Eagle - http://peregrineprints.com/zz_BAEA.htm

Friday, August 29, 2014

Annnd another bit of BC bird photo goodness

They just keep on coming -

Pacific Loon: http://peregrineprints.com/zz_PALO.htm

Glaucous-winged X Herring hybrid: http://peregrineprints.com/zz_HEGUxGWGU.htm

Mew Gull: http://peregrineprints.com/zz_MEGU.htm

Common Murre: http://peregrineprints.com/zz_COMU.htm

Even more Glaucous-winged Gulls: http://peregrineprints.com/zz_GWGU.htm

"Sooty" Fox Sparrow: http://peregrineprints.com/zz_FOSP_SO.htm

Brandt's Cormorant: http://peregrineprints.com/zz_BRAC.htm

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Fireball over Guelph - 25 August 2014

Wow! There we were (my lovely ladyfriend and I) - swinging on the swings at a local park in Guelph, when she spotted it!

A meteor/fireball streaking across the sky!

She saw it better than I did, but I caught the last second or so as it "broke up" and fizzled out high overhead. The time was 8:35pm... Looking like some sort of oversized (and silent) firework that put on quite the show during the breakup - and reasonably colourful as well...

The next day she sent me a few links that told us we were not the only ones to observe the excitement:

Ontario, Canada Fireball Meteor 25AUG2014:

http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.ca/2014/08/ontario-canada-fireball-meteor-25aug2014.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+LatestWorldwideMeteor/meteoriteNews+(Latest+Worldwide+Meteor/Meteorite+News)

Latest worldwide reports: (check Aug 25) -

http://thelatestworldwidemeteorreports.blogspot.ca/

As you can see by the reports of others - it was darn impressive! A quick wikipedia search on the correct technical terms gave me this passage:

A fireball is a brighter-than-usual meteor. The International Astronomical Union defines a fireball as "a meteor brighter than any of the planets" (magnitude −4 or greater).^[26] The International Meteor Organization (an amateur organization that studies meteors) has a more rigid definition. It defines a fireball as a meteor that would have a magnitude of −3 or brighter if seen at zenith. This definition corrects for the greater distance between an observer and a meteor near the horizon. For example, a meteor of magnitude −1 at 5 degrees above the horizon would be classified as a fireball because if the observer had been directly below the meteor it would have appeared as magnitude −6.^[27] For 2013 there were 3556 fireballs recorded at the American Meteor Society.^[28] There are probably more than 500,000 fireballs a year,^[29] but most will go unnoticed because most will occur over the ocean and half will occur during daytime.

Fireballs reaching magnitude −14 or brighter are called bolides.^[30] The IAU has no official definition of "bolide", and generally considers the term synonymous with "fireball". Astronomers often use "bolide" to identify an exceptionally bright fireball, particularly one that explodes (sometimes called a detonating fireball). It may also be used to mean a fireball which creates audible sounds. In the late twentieth century, bolide has also come to mean any object that hits the Earth and explodes, with no regard to its composition (asteroid or comet).^[31] The word bolide comes from the Greek βολίς (bolis) ^[32] which can mean a missile or to flash. If the magnitude of a bolide reaches −17 or brighter it is known as a superbolide.^[30]^[33]

According to that text, I would say we could be fairly confident in calling our observation a "bolides" - as it was exceptionally bright (considering it was still twilight - no stars yet visible) - and we could see it "break up" as it ended...

Anyways - that's all I can really write! It was freakin cool, although (as you might expect from a swingset observation) - I don't really have any photos or anything to accompany this post.

Never ending excitement in this world!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

BC Birds - new web photo additions

Still plugging along with the B team photos from BC -

Rhinoceros Auklet - http://peregrineprints.com/zz_RHAU.htm

California Gull - http://peregrineprints.com/zz_CAGU.htm

Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid: http://peregrineprints.com/zz_HEGUxGWGU.htm

Thayer's Gull: http://peregrineprints.com/zz_THGU.htm

Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel: http://peregrineprints.com/zz_FTSP.htm

Monday, August 25, 2014

Condo Birding Update - August 14 to August 24

August 14: NW winds! Highlights:

Willow Flycatcher
Hairy Woodpecker (NEW for the patch/condo! Where the HK did it come from?)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Kingbird (1 high flying migrant)
Puddle Duck Sp - 7 (high flying migrants)

Not exactly NW wind lakewatching birds, but I'll take the new patch bird (HAWO=198) - it's also #174 for my condo proper.

August 15:

Great Egret - 1
Bobolink - 1 --- NEW condo/patch bird! (175/199 respectively) - flew over my building (calling) at 11:20am!
Brown-headed Cowbird - (one notable "lost" (?) juvenile - circling around the top of the other condo building and chased by a House Sparrow... I was all excited for nothing!)

August 18:

Home late in the day - 10 Bonaparte's Gulls on light NE winds were my first of the fall (and a good sign!)

August 19: NE winds!!! Yeah!!!! Tis the season - almost?

Common Loon - 5 (all in basic-type garb??)
Baltimore Oriole - 4 (3 high-flying migrants? - all singles)
Green Heron - 1
Osprey - 2
A Kestrel - 1
Bonaparte's Gull - 1
Great Black-backed Gull - 1
Common Tern - 21 (pure flock late)
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1 (1st alt/2nd basic) - at 7:30pm!

A major highlight was one of the flyby Osprey - carrying a very large goldfish! If only I had a camera... No Jaegers though... I'm also not sure when it happens, but at some point - all the Common Terns seemingly vanish (the locals) and we get left with these rare sightings of wandering/migrant flocks. It has happened!

August 20: Not exactly what I wanted - but still fun! Light winds, E, S, SW, rain, sun, - everything

Great Egret - 1
Green Heron - 1
Osprey - 2
A. Kestrel - 2
RT Hummingbird - 1
Belted Kingfisher - 1
Baltimore Oriole - 13 (more high flying migrants)
Common Loon - 3
Mallard - 22
N. Shoveller - 2
Long-tailed Duck - 7
White-winged Scoter - 10

August 21 - didn't watch nearly as much as previous days

3 Green-winged Teal
6 Long-tailed Duck
1 Common Loon
1 American Kestrel

August 23 - birds! weather! winds!

1 Peregrine Falcon
2 Osprey
1 Common Loon
4 Common Terns
1 Red-necked Grebe
1 Bonaparte's Gull

Long-tailed Jaeger!!!!!!! But not at my condo... My lovely ladyfriend and I stopped at Van Wagner's (Lakeland) for 60 seconds before a juv LTJA flew right down the beach and directly over everyones head. Awesome!!! (10-15 feet away!)

August 24- moar east winds!!!!

But first, songbirds were evident from my balcony early. I scored:

1 Gray Catbird
1 Eastern Kingbird
1 Trail's Flycatcher
1 Warbling Vireo
1 Cape May Warbler (new for my condo proper)
1 Yellow Warbler
1 Least Flycatcher

- all darn good things from 160ft in the air!

Then, the "other" stuff! -

10 Common Loons
2 Osprey
1 Bonaparte's Gull
1 Great Egret
1 Belted Kingfisher
1 Common Nighthawk (dusk)
1 Peregrine Falcon
1 Black-legged Kittiwake
1 Forster's Tern

Pretty sweet stuff!!! The Kittiwake was exciting as my first "pelagic" of the season, whereas the Forester's Tern is actually a much rarer bird for Hamilton at the time/year - but lets be honest - the Kittiwake was pretty freakin great.

More to come! Tis the season!