Bohemian Waxwings are still here... No time for Warblers

Blake Mann did a pretty good job of summing up the spring warbler migration so far:

http://burgbirder.blogspot.com/2011/04/late-spring-and-warbler-dates.html

But seriously, while out bir-work-ding yesterday we had 50ish Bohemian Waxwings just north of Lake Ontario. Last Saturday I had 80 fly over the 401 near Coburg. Earlier sightings in Guelph of 100+ birds.... Normally Bohemain's make their "Return flight" from the east in early April.... Yet now I'm seeing 50+ on APRIL 21ST!!!! How long are they going to stick around?

Part of the flock yesterday. Baaahhd picture 

Come to think of it, Kyle Horner did a pretty good job of summing up the spring so far as well: 

http://kylehorner.blogspot.com/2011/04/whats-going-on.html

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A bit of off-topic news, but I've added two new Cackling Goose photos (birds from last week) to my Cackling Goose file on picasa

I've probably seen at least 30 Cacklers this spring! (After 25 at Townsend) -- I sure wish I had my camera that evening.



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Still seriously considering going to Pelee for Saturday and Sunday...

My head tells me the weather doesn't really look THAT good, and I would probably save some time and gas by waiting another 4+ days before heading down there...

My hear tells me I can't wait any longer! And with rarities in Ohio (Eurasian Collared Dove, Black-necked Stilt, Snowy Egret etc), there could very easily be some awesome birds around Pelee. You won't find anything unless you're out looking!

It only gets better from here.

It's no secret that the February-March period is painfully slow (at times) when it comes to birding in Ontario.  The good news, is that things are only getting better from here. 

Ken Burrell and I made an unexpected trip down to the Point Pelee area on March 9, and turned up just about everything you'd expect for the date. Notable were 8 Snow Geese (5 at Pelee, 3 near Erieau) and an early Wilson's Snipe. Not to mention the roughly ~5000 Tundra Swans seen at various places!

2 of 3 Lesser Swans at Erieau

Now i'm looking at the weather for Grimsby, and seeing the following:

Tuesday: Mainly sunny, Wind E 10kmh, 7 C

Wednesday: Isolated Showers, Wind S 20, 8 C

Thursday: Cloudy Periods, Wind SW 20, 11 C

Any one of those days (or all 3) has the potential to be 100-150+ hawk days at Beamer CA hawkwatch. What you're really hoping for is a rather COLD day, when the wind is E or NE off the lake but very light. Often times, the wind will be MUCH warmer and south further inland, so birds migrate in, then ride the NE wind along the escarpment edge, fairly low and close all day long. The end result is some good looks at Red-tails, Red-shoulders and maybe some eagles if you're lucky (also not a bad time for Goshawk). 

I'm probably going to give it a try one of those days. Just keep an eye on what the rain is doing!!!

Things to come at Beamer!

Birding Dec 27

I did another birding day, where I spend WAY too much time driving around, and not enough time looking at birds. I'm not going to go into too much detail as to where I went, but the best bird in the first half of the day was a Snow Goose east of Rock Point on Lake Erie:

I then spent some time looking (and somehow managing to photograph) gulls:

Click for a bigger image. Above: on left, adult Great Black-backed X Herring Gull hybrid. With Ring-billed Gull (middle) and Herring Gull (right). Note the large GBBG-ish size with mantle intermediate between parent species.

Juv. Thayer's Gull on the control gates wall - Niagara Falls, with adult Herrings below. 

View from Adam Beck. Note the gulls in the above photo. At dusk there were 10/15 Iceland, 3+ Glaucous, 2 Thayer's Gulls, 3 Lesser Black-backed, 1 Herring x Great Black-back, and 1 Herring X Lesser Black-backed  gulls hanging around at Adam Beck. 

Earlier in the day I had encountered a strange feeding swarm of Large white-headed Gulls, and mallards. See the Juv. Iceland Gull in the above photo for an example. It was a tight swarm, close to the side of the road, so I watched from the car! Turning up the Iceland, a Lesser Black-back, and a few Glaucous (see below). Strange bunch!

2nd basic Glaucous Gull from the above swarm. Glaucous Gulls had clearly "arrived" recently, with 7 birds seen in my limited stops on the river. 

Presumed Hybrid gull (orange arrow in above photo) at Adam Beck. Note how the mantle is darker than the nearby Ring-billed and Herring gulls, but only a shade or two. It was a large bird, and I can only assume it was mostly a Herring Gull with a grandparent that was probably a Great Black-backed Gull... 

Two photos of the presumed Lesser Black-backed X Herring Gull hybrid (adult). Note in the above photo how the underside of the feet are pink, but above (2nd photo) - the feet look yellowish/pink! Never noticed that on a bird before. Mantle is a little too pale for the average Lesser Black-back, and the bird was a bit smaller than the average Herring Gull... 

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull added for good measure. 

Plan on returning to the river sometime soon... I don't understand why every time I go to the river, I see more hybrid and uncommon gulls than most other people, but rarely seem to find the true rarities like California, Slaty-backed, Mew etc etc ???

Ok, now I have to go do some sort of "real" work!

There Ross's, My Ross's, Their Ross's'

The two Ross's Geese seen yesterday near Erieau by Ken Burrell and myself. Been hanging around the area for a while!

Some of the area near Rondeau, and also western lake Erie - is starting to freeze! Some years we're wondering if there will be any snow for Christmas - not this year!

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The other Ross's news is the two Ross's Gulls that are no longer to be found in Michigan. Copying a posting from the MICH-Listers group below:

J.D. Phillips managed to get a couple of photos of the birds that can be
seen at www.UPBirders.org in the 2010 photo gallery.

Here is a direct link to the photos:
http://www.grovestreet.com/jsp/picview.jsp?album=90028&sort=date_added&ord=desc 
And here a very distant shot of both the birds together on JD's website

http://euclid.nmu.edu/~jophilli/rosss-gull3.1.jpg 


~Skye Haas

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What crazy birds! Not sure what the weekend holds bird-wise for me.... Maybe won't be until after the weekend that I start seeing things again. 

Will end today off with another stellar photo of a Northern Lapwing in Newfoundland. This time by Jared Clarke. Dynamite!

http://www.surfbirds.com/media/gallery_photos/20101215042227.jpg

work work work

Two birds myself and a co-worker found last week. My 2nd CAEG found this fall. So far this week: no birding. Emails, photos and data entry at work. It's 3:30pm, and I've got my "December list"* up to 1 species so far (American Crow). Hopefully some work-birds later in the week, and some real birding this weekend(?)

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A few fun things recently:

presumed Lesser Black-backed X Ring-billed Gull hybrid from Europe:

http://cid-fd6e910e72a9a144.office.live.com/self.aspx/Aves/Gull%20ID/Gaviota%20sp%201i-29-11-2010.jpg

strange hybrid gull from North American. Ring-billed Gull X (Lesser B-backed??) ???

http://www.ilbirds.com/index.php?topic=43378.msg56515#msg56515

Black-headed Gull in Ohio

http://www.jenbrumfield.com/?p=1382

--- do note that the fine drawing of a Little Gull on the top of that page was inspired by a photo of yours truly. Unfortunately, the drawing is a lot better than the picture! :P

http://www.surfbirds.com/media/gallery_photos/20101201114122.jpg

Black-tailed Gull in St. John's, NL today. Found by Dave Brown. Got a message from Bruce Mactavish who was boasting something about getting Wilson's Warbler, Common Gull, Yellow Warbler, Slaty-backed Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, White-winged Dove and Black-tailed Gull for his winter list already this year. Sure beats my crow. 

http://picasaweb.google.com/nal1212/2010RossSGullII#5545075836345748610

2nd basic Ross's Gull in Nebraska. Bird must be SUPER pink, because it's hard to get the pink to show in photos. 

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I've got high hopes of getting the boat onto Lake Ontario for some winter-boating, if the weather ever cooperates. Other than that, I'm keeping my eye on the James/Hudson Bay Ice.

http://www.natice.noaa.gov/ims/ 

I've got plans on finding at least 1 new species for my Ontario list before January 15th. Some suggestions: Ivory Gull, Slaty-backed Gull, Thick-billed Murre, Northern Fulmar, Glaucous-winged Gull..... It IS a la nina year after all. 

ok back to work!

* I don't actually keep a "december list"

Bird of the day - Bohemian Waxwing

taken today

A little unexpected, and another new bird for my work list. Looks like another species to be watching for in southern Ontario. Maybe not as rare (overall) as something like a Cattle Egret, but it wasn't a bird I was expecting to see at all! Pretty fun.

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Another Cackling Goose. This one a pretty typical adult Richardson's. Not much more to add!

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It's November. Lots of cool photos of various rarities around North America are popping up:

http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery10

(tons at surfbirds)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11806338@N03/5144945530/in/pool-437129@N20/

Rather large-looking Pacific Loon in Ohio

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22374475@N07/5146239981/in/pool-437129@N20

Golden-crowned Sparrow in Michigan - not too far from ON. 

http://www.grovestreet.com/PicPage.do?id=1304834

(Anna's Hummingbird recently in MI)

http://lloydspitalnikphotos.com/v/recent_work/common_ground_dove_MG_0430.jpg.html

Common Ground Dove in NY

--- just a sample.. Lots of rare birds lurking out there to be found! 

Something new on the Cackling front:

Cackling Goose news today!!! What the heck is going on here?!:

Left Bird: Todd's Canada Goose

Left Middle: Richardson's Cackling Goose
Right Middle: ? Cackling Goose
Far Right: Todd's Canada Goose

Far left: "Giant" Canada

Far Right: Todd's(?) Canada
Middle birds are the same two Cackling. Midget on the right.

3 of 4 birds from the first photo, better look at the tiny goose (2 CACG, 1 CAGO on R)

Better look at the 2 Cackling Geese

So what the heck is going on here? My best guess is the left bird (bottom photo - the small one) is a poorly-nourished Richardson's Cackler. Apparently large goose colonies in the far north can seriously over-graze their breeding grounds, resulting in abnormally small birds growing up. This bird is an adult, but i'm guessing the smaller developmental is permanent?


Either way - crazy bird... Can't be much (any?) bigger than the average duck. Quack

Moosonee to follow

C - c - c - cacklers!

While I have the material, I'm going to keep the postings happening! The next Moosonee installment will be in a few more hours. I'm also going away again in less than a week - which means another dormant blog phase. But for now...............

Cackling Geese! 3 birds, taken yesterday

Bird A (Left) with a bit of a white neck ring (pretty regular feature)

Middle bird - paler body than the Todd's Canada's (on average, visible here) 

Very pale bodied ADULT Richardon's CACG. I haven't seen a juv CACG yet this fall (reasons unknown)

Michael Butler took some great photos of two Juvenile Richardson's (with two adult Maxima Canada's) a few days ago at his local Canadian Tire. See the great shots here:

http://northshorenature.blogspot.com/2010/10/cackling-geese-stop-over-canadian-tire.html

Recent CACG comment to the blog:

Blake A. Mann said... Good birds!

Cackling Goose again? We don't get many of them in CK it seems!

--- I think I might have a Cackling Goose magnet somewhere in my birding gear! Unfortunately it seems to drive other rare species of Geese away. I have a considerably harder time getting Snow Goose!

--- Many thanks Blake for the comments! If anyone hasn't already seen his blog, take a look here:

http://burgbirder.blogspot.com/ 

One I really enjoy following! Some awesome Cave Swallow photos on there recently.

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Which leads me to my next bird-thought of the day. My lack of Cave Swallows today!

This photo was taken today! In Ontario!

I found at least 250 Tree Swallows today, but not a single unusual species with them. I know i'm not on Lake Erie, but one would think I could have been a bit luckier! Not even a late Barn Swallow!?

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Parting photo: a barely better image of the Cattle Egret I found yesterday. Heat haze was killing me - I wasn't actually that far away! But a bit better look than the one image I posted yesterday

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More Moosonee goodness to follow! 

You know what this means...

The Cackling Goose streak continues! Were you ever worried? Multiple birds today, but this little honker stole the show. TINY bird, but I'm not 100% positive what subspecies of Canada are in the background of the 2nd photo - they could be maxima-like birds, which is why it looks SO small. --- even still, it is a smaller than average Richardson's Cackling Goose.

Other birds on the day were 100+ Pine Siskins, an overdue Snow Goose, lots of passerine migrants, and some lingering shorebirds. Add in the Eurasian Wigeon from yesterday, and it was a pretty solid 24 hours!

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I can't think of much else right now. Going to Moosonee/Moose Factory next week. That will bring some birds - with my lovely lady friend Jenn!

Cackling Streak continues

One of todays CACG

3rd week in a row with Cackling.. How long can it continue? Had multiple birds today, but nothing else. In serious need of some "white ones" to keep things interesting.

My goose article is offline, but has the typical adult Cackling look (Richardson's). Seen here with a Todd's Canada (middle) and an unknown (Giant or big Todd's) on the right. Nice bird. Had a better looking adult earlier today, but no photos.

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After missing out on the Yellow-nosed Albatross and Black-bellied Whistling Duck this year, there's a report of Vermilion Flycatcher on ebird right now...... Would make me very sad if confirmed.

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Keep an eye on the surfbirds euro stop the press photo page for great North American rarities being found in the azores (and some in France) recently:

http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery11

Lincoln's Sparrow, New for Europe a day or two ago!

What da heck is this?!

Seen yesterday in Eastern Ontario -

Goose watchers in Ontario are asked to provide any known information on this, or any other strange goose, to the Goose-watchers Hotline

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A bit short on time, more soon!

Cackling Streak is Alive

Last year I had a streak going. Sept 15 to early December, at least one Cackling Goose per week - often more!

This year the streak didn't start until Sept 30, and barely kept it going today. One adult Richardson's in the last flock of geese. Photo:

Click for large-size. Middle bird. Note how most CACG (adults only) are paler than the Canada Geese they hang around with. This is a large-end CACG, but still has the good bill-shape and long flight feathers. It's also hanging around with Todd's Canada Geese, which is why they look so small!

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And with that being all fine and dandy, it's time to blow your mind. Or maybe raise a mildly interesting point:

- click - middle bird

Shazzam... What the heck is that? Well it's an adult Todd's Canada Goose wearing Richardson's Cackling Goose clothes. Very pale body colour with bold feather edges. A good learning bird. I probably find 25 to 50 Cackling Geese before I find a Canada that looks like this.

Pale body colour - excellent way to find Richardson's Cackler's in Ontario (adults).. Does it work 100% of the time? No... But it's pretty good place to start.


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good day today, in the ever-spinning low pressure system. TONS of sparrows everywhere, pipits, my first Longspurs of the fall, Common AND Caspian Terns (yes, they're still here).. Osprey.. Great day to be birding.

The bedbug summit is happening in Toronto today

Another day at work. Some general observations from the last few days:


American Goldfinch are really on the move, along with expected migrations of Blue Jays and Flickers etc.

Purple Finch are also passing through in numbers....

Some flocks of goldfinch are holding very low numbers of Pine Siskins...

Common Ravens do some dispersal/migration this time of year.

First large kettles of migrant Turkey Vultures...

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Next 4-5 days have lots of north winds forecasted! Friday through Sunday could be the large push of Turkey Vulture migration in Ontario, which is also a great time to look for Swainson's Hawk.. I don't think I'll have a chance to look, but you could! Head to Seacliff near Point Pelee!!!

- Arctic gull migration has started as well.  I had my first "Northern" Juvenile Herring Gull at Port Burwell on the weekend. It's not too early for Thayer's Gull!


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Cackling Geese from yesterday:

Click to enlarge


Can you spot the Cackling Geese? (two classic adult "richardson's") If you'd like to find this species in Ontario, I wrote this article to try and help:

http://peregrineprints.com/zzzzArticle_WCgeese.htm

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Anyone think this style of blog is better than the old? Worse? Anyone want to leave a comment below?