First Visit to Tiny Marsh

Work took me northwards yesterday, and I spent about 10 minutes at Tiny Marsh (mainly just wanted to see the place!) and was very impressed. I had about 40 Black Terns feeding in a condensed area (60-70 total), a family of Common Loons, American Bittern, Virginia Rail, Osprey, Sandhill Cranes, etc. - all in that very short time frame at mid day. Kind of makes me wish I had a place like this right close to home, as it would be a lot of fun to check regularly.

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This spring on Pelee/Pelee Island, I managed a number of "record shots" of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, which were really moving through (multiple birds almost every day I think). 

In the end, I decided to delete most of them, and really only saved these gull "record shots". Above, is a Herring X Great Black-bakced Gull hybrid (about 2 years old), towards the left. On the far right, is a very bleached Thayer's Gull. Take a look at the below image to see some of the dark wing markings that haven't been bleached yet (because they're protected from the elements by the folded feathers when the bird is standing):

Jenn and I had a Lesser Black-backed Gull in Prince Edward County on June 8th, along with a really late "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull at the same spot! Unlike the bleached Thayer's above, that shows lots of brown, this bird had worn to essentially pure white! No photos unfortunately

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I've been spending some time trying to get my old insect photos online, which isn't done yet, but moving along well. 

(one of my favourite bug photos: Mottled Darner at Algonquin Park)

Not that I've had much time to look, but it's prime time for Dragonflying in Ontario right now! I'm always surprised that more birders aren't interested in insects like dragonflies - they're really just an additional "family" of birds to learn, with all the same excitement (eg,/ shorebirds, sparrows, warblers and dragonflies). 

I help look after a google group, dedicated to dragonflies in Ontario (Ont-odes), and if you're interested in seeing a bit more of what Ontario has to offer, it's a good place to start.. Here's the link:

http://groups.google.com/group/Ont-Odes

We're currently at 63 members, and always looking to grow. Some spectacular (and very rare) dragonfly photos have been sent out in just the last few days, including Arrowhead Spiketail, and Spatterdock Darner! -- But, at the same time, the group is open for any manner of sightings (unlike Ontbirds, which is apparently just for rare birds)...  

Be sure to sign up!

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Hopefully more things for the blog soon.. Some things I hope to get done sometime in the next month or so include:

--- Book review of the "Crossley ID Guide"

--- Book Review of "Hawks at a Distance"

--- Equipment review of the new Vortex Viper HD Binoculars (just got my hands on them a few days ago)

--- my thoughts about online Nature photography forums

--- and I still have a good collection of photos taken from spring migration!

And more! So keep checking back. A day or two ago the blog passed 30,000 visits, so I'm glad to see some people are reading these ramblings!  :)

Visions of Point Pelee - in the cold

Work took me back to SW Ontario today, so it was good enough for another rapid-fire tour of the Pelee birding area to get a quick-fix of migrants... No where near as exciting as my last visit a few days ago - colder and less birds. No Phoebes seen after 7/8 last week! Just waiting for the weather to change. Actually waiting for late April to change.

A short one tonight, some migrants/notable birds that I did see:

Tundra Swan     10
White-winged Scoter     5
Ring-necked Pheasant     2
Common Loon     6  -- my first spring migrants
Pied-billed Grebe     4
Horned Grebe     100 - everywhere at the tip
Double-crested Cormorant     4
Turkey Vulture     X
Bald Eagle     3
Northern Harrier     3
Cooper's Hawk     2
Red-tailed Hawk     3
American Coot     80
Sandhill Crane     2
Bonaparte's Gull     1000
Thayer's Gull     1  (2nd basic - tip)
Iceland Gull     1   (juv - wheatley)
Lesser Black-backed Gull     3  (3 different adults, tip)
Tree Swallow     5  (hillman)
American Pipit     1 (tip)
Eastern Meadowlark     2 (tip)


Some photos:

2nd basic Thayer's at the tip

The ever present RB-mergie. Adult male, young male and female.

4 from a flock(!) of 12 Snipe - feeding like real shorebirds in an open field near Erieau. Cold weather bringing them out?

Dark adult LBB Gull from the tip.

migrant looooons!

IT happens at Point Pelee

March may be a slow time for birding, but after a slow winter it sure feels good to go to Pelee and see migrants. I had to work in the area March 21st (first full day of spring, and my first full day of being 24), so I spared some hours early in the morning to poke around the park. It's amazing how they're 10 days ahead of the Hamilton area in terms of migration. Some birds:

All 3 Scoter species
12 migrant Double-crested Cormorants
1 Great Egret of all things
1 migrant Merlin (flew in off the lake at the tip)
1 American Woodcock
3 Thayer's Gulls
2 Iceland Gulls
2 Glaucous Gulls (cold weather birds find me, even on the nice days)
3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
1 migrant Northern Flicker
9+ Eastern Phoebes
25+ Tree Swallows
1 migrant Hermit Thrush (on the sand at the tip)
1 migrant Field Sparrow (very bright)
8+ Fox Sparrows (migrants)
and a very cooperative Rusty Blackbird at the tip! (photos)


Nothing like a Mountain Bluebird, but a very nice selection of migrants. A nice day too, considering the cold and scary weather forecasted for the next few days. I ended up around 80 species for the day.

Some visions of Pelee:

Thayer's Gull

Sand Phoebe and Sand Hermit.. Oh migration

Rusty Blackbird

Great Egret at Hillman Marsh. Sure feels silly to think I saw these birds less than 48 hours ago, now that we have 20cm of snow here in Guelph!

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!