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! 

Moosonee Day 3 - Ship Sands Island!!!!!

Jenn and I woke early, and headed for the docks in Moosonee. We wanted a ride out to Ship Sands, which turned out to be more difficult than we guessed (No one wanted to take us out there)...

To make this short, we found someone who would take us out (and pick us up around 4:30pm) for the low low price of $200. yikes


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We got dropped off, and wandered the edge of the mud/grass for hours as we looked at birds. The first things we saw were numerous Horned Larks, Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings. It was great to see them in this northern habitat, and they allowed for some super-close views!

Below is a complete list of birds recorded throughout the day:


Snow Goose     5     blues and whites
Canada Goose     50
American Black Duck     50
Mallard     50
Northern Pintail     50
Green-winged Teal     500
Long-tailed Duck     10
Red-breasted Merganser     100
Common Loon     1
Bald Eagle     4
Northern Harrier     10
Peregrine Falcon     1     
Black-bellied Plover     20
Sanderling     3
White-rumped Sandpiper     1
Pectoral Sandpiper     25
Dunlin: 1500+?Sabine's Gull     1     adult! on mudflats
Ring-billed Gull     40
Herring Gull     60
Short-eared Owl     1
Northern Shrike     1
Common Raven     X
Horned Lark     500+
Lapland Longspur     100+
Snow Bunting     1000+
Common Redpoll     15






Some notes on the above list:


Snow Geese: 5 "Lesser's" seen flying past. The locals told us that most of the remaining geese (a high number for the date) had moved to the other side of the river mouth, which is why we saw so few).


Green-winged Teal: mainly in one large flock! 500+ birds. 


Common Loon: that we saw on the boat ride out. 


Northern Harrier - 10+ - they were everywhere! This is a low-guess


Peregrine Falcon - one large and VERY dark juv. Female that we watched chase Snow Buntings. An awesome sight!


Black-bellied Plovers, Pectoral Sand's, White-rumped Sand and 3 Sanderling: we were happy to see some lingering shorebirds amongst the huge number of Dunlin. Not bad for late Oct!


Sabine's Gull:  !!! What a strange sighting. An adult on the mudflats. First fall record for the area. 


Short-eared Owl: funny bird.. doing what they do best - flying out over the water. 


Northern Shrike: an adult out in the grass. Sitting on the ground! What's you're guess, Harrier's, Shrikes, Peregrines or all of the above: 

--- we saw little piles of feathers EVERYWHERE

Common Redpoll: we actually had some feeding on the ground with the buntings. 


1000+ Snow Buntings might have been a low guess. A look below at the grasslands of Ship Sands Island!

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Our ride arrived around 4:30, as the tide was getting quite high. Not to mention the 30kmh+ winds that were blowing on shore. Waves? Yes..


The small creeks that we jumped at the start became too large to jump, and I landed with one leg in 2ft of water (filling my boot). The water taxi was getting bashed against shore, and taking on water. The driver couldn't get the boat turned around, and it was stuck on shore. I eventually jumped in the water (both legs now soaked, and rubber boots full), along with Jenn (more soaked boots) to get the boat un-stuck, and we were finally moving!

We tried to bail water as we went back upstream, but it was slow. Once we would get a few buckets bailed, a huge wave would crash over the back (usually hitting me in the face).

Eventually we got rolling properly, and we asked to get dropped off at Tidewater Provincial Park --- which was the next phase of the adventure - and part of tomorrows posting!

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Jenn on the edge of the mud (as the tide came in). It's something like 5-7km of mud at low tide! We couldn't see the water of James Bay anymore!!! Must return someday in late august. 

Two posts, one day!?

The next posting about Moosonee will be in a few hours! But there is just way to much going on right now to ignore...

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While we were away, most probably noticed a rather large storm that blew through... Well it was a record-setting storm. Lowest pressure ever recorded in the centre of the continent. Similar to what one would see in the eye of a Cat 3 Hurricane!!!!

Outside of Long Point, (and Kirk Zufelt's VEGA GULL), most of Ontario seems pretty happy with Cattle Egrets and Cave Swallows, but there are more mega-rare's out there to be found! Head out and look! There have been 2 Common Ground Doves in MI and another in NY!!!

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I sure do enjoy my job. Today's highlight:

Another addition to the "while getting paid" list

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Now it's time for a good old question:

How does one tell a Richardson's (Prairie) Merlin with confidence? (im not confident) Yes these photos were taken in the eastern side of Ontario yesterday!

Any takers? I won't be home to check my books until Friday night! eep!

Home from Moosoneeeee

Back from Moosonee. 1 life bird, 9ish new year birds and lots of cool adventures. Jenn and I had a great time! I've decided to post-date our bird sightings on the blog over the next 4-5 days, just to give me some material while I'm working! (Yes, working on the weekend, but I did have 3 Golden Eagles, Snow Goose, Cackling Geese etc etc at work today).

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Oct 24th:

Jenn drove my tired backside to North Bay in the dark (I was sleeping in the passenger seat), in hopes of giving us lots of daylight to explore our way to Cochrane. The first train wasn't until the 25th (Monday, 9am)! Lots of time for fun.

I forgot to bring my notes for this day with me, but in short, we had lots of fun exploring some cool parks, a 100m fire tower and a few nice towns.

We had our first taste of Northern Birds when a Gray Jay gave us a short roadside visit in Temagami. It wasn't long after that when we had a feeder hosting a few Evening Grosbeaks ... Of course, a Red Squirrel chased them off the feeder before I got my camera out, but I did manage a record shot:

Cobalt was a fun town to drive through, and a flock of Waxwings was probably my bird-highlight of the drive. I was excited to see them, and told Jenn we should chase them down in case there was a Bohemian or two mixed in... We found them in a nearby tree, and were delighted to see that the whole flock of 75 birds was Bohemian Waxwings!

No other noteworthy sightings on the drive. Lake Temiskaming was dead!

Oct 25th Train:


Train rolled out of the station at 9am. We saw some finches etc. in the early going, but it wasn't for a few hours before anything really started to show itself. Jenn spotted an odd looking Grouse-sp. that was flushed by the Train - so we started keeping a keen watch out the window.

After a few more "Grouse sp" sightings, we had good looks at a flock of Sharp-tailed Grouse flying away down a clearing!!! Actually a life bird for me.

The next big excitement came in the form of a Northern Hawk Owl perched on a hydro pole. We had a second NHOW 30 mins later. Pretty enjoyable looks considering the fact we were on a train.

Not much else on the old train. 1 Rough-legged and 2 Red-tailed Hawks. Lots of Snow Buntings, other grouse. We arrived in Moosonee around 2:30 and had some time to look around!


Oct 25th in Moosonee:

We turned up the following species in the few hours of daylight we had left:

Canada Goose     25
American Black Duck     11
Green-winged Teal     2
Common Merganser     1
Bald Eagle     3
Rough-legged Hawk     1
Ring-billed Gull     5
Herring Gull     50
Great Black-backed Gull     1
Mourning Dove     1
European Starling     2
Snow Bunting     --- lots.. everywhere! Houses, parkinglots, on the road, yards, shoreline, 

The G Black-backed Gull was distant on the sandbar. The odd Mourning Dove was only a few feet away from us, walking down the road. Sure hope the crazy bird decides to fly south before the real cold weather arrives.

Spent the night in a hotel room, getting ready for our next days adventure! Which will also be the topic of the next blog post (Oct 26th, Ship Sands Island)!


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I'd love to leave this blog posting with a parting bird-photo, but it only took 15 minutes of us being in Moosonee for my Camera bag to split open, sending my Camera and 100-400mm lens crashing to the pavement. The camera was ok, but the lens was not - connections broken :(

Bird photos will be somewhat lacking in future reports, but I'll make up for it!

Sad :(

On the road again

Jenn and I are on the road in a few hours. There will be no new entries while we are gone!

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It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!

C. Ground Dove at Whitefish Point, MI:

http://wpbosightings.blogspot.com/2010/10/common-ground-dove.html

Green-tailed Towhee, Long Point:

http://www.bsc-eoc.org/longpoint/index.jsp?targetpg=lpbosight

Gray Kingbird - NY

Scissor-tailed Fly - Long Point

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Boreal Chickadees are clearly on the go. A check of the Birds of Hamilton showed that past large-invasions had a strange pattern.

--- 1st birds arrived in Mid November (eg,// the recent sightings)

--- and then some of the highest counts (peak of the push) occurred in late October!!!!

If you want Boreal Chickadee,, the next 2 weeks are PRIME TIME to look!

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Crazy Moosonee bird reports when we get back!!! (Train late Friday) Thanks for the postings on the last blog entry!! I always enjoy the comments, just short on time right now to do much more than this post!

Overly busy

Jenn and I are heading to Moosonee/Moose Factory next week. Weather looks prefect for some songbird vagrants. I won't be posting to the blog while we are away, but daily postings should return around Oct 30/31st - including recaps of the trip!

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It's painfully obvious this is a great time to be looking for Gray Jay, Boreal Chickadee, Black-backed Woodpecker, Evening Grosbeak, Red Crossbill etc. in southern Ontario. Is a very successful breeding season the cause? I didn't see any during the last week, but BC Chickadees and Hairy Woodpeckers were obviously on the move. It looks like it's a record year for Saw-whet Owls too!

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Comment question:

are you getting bored of weekly Cackling Goose sightings and pictures?

Leave an answer!:

A). Yes

B.) No

C.) If i'm reading your blog, I'm bored

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!

Gone for a while, back for a while

Well it's pretty clear that something happened with the weather/birds. I'm still betting it was the stalled low pressure system over the NE days ago - and birds are still being found from it. One of the first in Ontario (Golden-crowned Sparrow) is still around, so other recent rarities could have been present all along too!

My favourite Quebec rarity-news page went missing for a while, but I found it again today:

http://www.quebecoiseaux.org/index.php?option=com_oiseauxrares&Itemid=133

$*&#*! White Wagtail? Note they had several other rarities in a similar area to the Ontario-rares!!!

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This past weekend was the first weekend in a while that I didn't get birding. The good news, I bird when I work too! So there have still been some sightings. Apparently I've been on the very "edge" of the rarity-blanket, turning up a Brewer's Blackbird late last week (female) and a male Eurasian Wigeon today. Not bad! (but not a Vermily-fly or White-wag).

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Saturday was spent at the very exciting book launch: Birds of Niagara by Kayo Roy and John Black.

5.5 years of their work turned up this stunner of a book. Good thing about being a photographer: Donate some photos and you get a free copy - and this one is worth it!

I've got 92 photos in the book, which is all printed in colour and high-quality paper. Christmas present anyone?

The photos look all Vermilionlly and stuff

After a painfully slow day of birding, I couldn't help but think about those photos of an adult male Vermilion Fly that showed up in my email inbox this morning. Painful!!!

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So with McCown's Longspur, Laughing Gull, Golden-crowned Sparrow and Vermilion Flycatcher all seen in a similar time frame, in a similar area (far eastern Ontario, sort of). What happened?

Was it the stationary low pressure system that sat just outside of Ontario for several days last week? I'm guessing it might be - the birds were blown in, but it's taking a few days to find them. The GCSP has been around for 4-5 days now!

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On that note, I need a break! I can't help but notice there is currently more Low Pressure centred over eastern Ontario. More birds on the way?

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!

Top 10 Arctic sea-ice "firsts" for Ontario...

In the pre-blogger blog, I mentioned a bit about how the current La nina episode could mean more storms and more storm-waterbirds this fall/winter. The pattern slightly mirrors recent records of Thick-billed Murre and Northern Fulmar records in Southern Ontario. (66.6% of records in 20% of the years that had La nina conditions).

Well another factor could make "seabirding" good in Ontario this fall (and future falls) - the melting sea ice in the arctic. I first heard about this theory a few years ago (I forget where) - but it was put forth to explain why there has been a HUGE increase in Slaty-backed Gull records:

Sea ice is melting more every year, allowing waterbirds to fly further north. The further north they get, the easier it is to "switch" continents or oceans when they begin to fly south. A few hundred km's in the far north could be 1000's at lower latitudes. Possibly why Newfoundland has had it's first 12 SBGU records from 2006-2009.

2009 brought Tufted Puffins to Greenland and the UK!!!

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A few days ago, another bird was found that could possibly prove that birds are going to be "crossing over" more and more, this apparent Juv. Great Black-backed Gull in Barrow, AK:

http://www.zbirdtours.com/barrow/biggull.htm


So what does this have to do with Ontario? Well we have very large bodies of water on our north coast - James and Hudson Bay. If only someone went up there to find these birds!

Top 10 "Firsts" you could find while seawatching on James/Hudson Bay:

10. Spectacled Eider
9. Tufted Puffin
8. Surfbird (poor habitat?)
7. Steller's Eider
6. Great Skua
5. Short-tailed Shearwater (difficult/impossible from below)
4. Sooty Shearwater (difficult/impossible from above)
3. Great Shearwater (1st "alive" ON)
2. Dovekie (not a 1st "alive"?)
1. Glaucous-winged Gull

With 10 the least, and 1 being the most likley! ..PS there's a Golden-crowned Sparrow in Ottawa.

Oct 10th Zodiac Trip - Long-tailed Jaeger

Floated Jenn out into the boat early on Sunday morning. Short on time (Turkey dinner in the evening), we launched from Van Wagner's. We threw bread for a few hours, but didn't have too much (Bonaparte's, C Loons, 1 Juv. Lesser Black-backed Gull and a Parasitic Jaeger that didn't come in).

Jenn headed for a 3 hour work session around 11am. I went back out, and eventually continued the bread-toss. More distant Parasitic Jaegers, a Red-throated Loon, Another Lesser Black-back and more common birds until a small Jaeger did a quick fly-past .

Snapped some photos, and they confirmed my suspicions - my 11th Long-tailed Jaeger of the fall:

Juv. Long-tailed Jaeger, 

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I think I wanted Pomarine Jaeger, so I continued to throw bread - even when the weather was clearly telling me to look for Red Pharlies and Pacific Loons. Next time I get out, more will happen!

-- Should also mention the huge flocks of White-winged Scoters (and lesser #'s of Long-tailed Ducks, Surf Scoters) - WAY out on the lake. Looking forward to future chances to scan them! 

Everything you thought you didn't want to know about Goshawks

After the weather became un-blocked a few days ago - I had the chance to do a great day of hawkwatching on the strong NW winds. The numbers came through, and I had a few goodies. Most notably, 3 Goshawks! (Also a late Philly vireo and lots of finches). But let's look at the Goshawks!

First Gos of the day - a juv male. Male Goshawks often give the impression of a huge Sharp-shinned Hawk. Young birds lack the gray tones of adults (and lack the pink tones of adult Cooper's, obviously). 

When compared to a young Cooper's, they're often (95%+) coated in thick dark streaks below. Compare it to the thin streaks of this young Coopers (which is also mainly marked on the upper belly, turning to white near the tail):

coopers

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The next gos on the day, was a young female. She flew over really high, so the picture's are pretty bad, but here's one below. Female Gos' give an impression much more like a Red-shouldered Hawk (in their huge size, but also structure), compared to the "Giant Sharpie" look of the male. 

- Compare the massive size with the sharp-shin in the bottom right. Another photo (added in the top left) - show's how Buteo-like they can look when soaring. Difficult to see the streaking in this poor photo. 

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Final gos of the day was a 2 year old male, that came over lower. 

- "Giant Sharpie" structure really obvious in this photo. A strong "shoulders" like a Sharpie (not the t shape of a coop). Also obviously a Goshawk when they get their striking gray pattern on the belly. 

Aged as a 2 year old bird, by the mix of adult-like and juvenile flight feathers. The longer brown feathers are the retained Juv. feathers, giving the bird an un-even, jagged edge to the wing. This works on a lot of raptors! (Often most obvious on eagles). 

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 Yay for Goshawks! 

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!

Anyone not notice the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher banded at Thunder Cape?

Had a really awesome series of events happen to me this morning. I'll try to keep it simple below:

 - Pished in a pocket of birds

- Merlin arrives and does prolonged aerial attack of a Northern Flicker

- Sharp-shinned Hawk crashes through woods, flushing remaining birds

- Sharpie lands 30 ft away for superb views.

- Merlin returns and attacks Sharpie

- fight continues behind me into the woods

- large raptor crashes through the woods, flushing the raptors and all songbirds again.

- large raptor lands 50ft away in good light - it's a Juv. Male Northern Goshawk!

- 1 minute plus of great Goshawk views, sitting on low branch.

- Goshawk takes fligth, Sharp-shin returns and chases Goshawk.

----- All happened in a 5 minute span.. No camera, but a great birding experience.

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Website is no longer listed as dangerous by google, but it's also lacking all content. Not sure if that's an improvement or not?


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One new idea is to use picasa to host the gull and jaeger pages. Below are some working examples:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Peregrine13/LongTailedJaegers#

http://picasaweb.google.com/Peregrine13/PomarineJaegers#

Is it good? Bad? I think it might be good. These pages are designed to help with these difficult to ID birds..... Always looking for feedback! Send me an e-mail and let me know what you think.

You could also leave a comment at the bottom! Never fear, you can leave comments as "anonymous" as well!  Any comments are appreciated.

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.

Arctic Tern!!!! wooo

After spending years at the old lakewatch, I can finally get my name next to an Arctic Tern. A striking Juv! Stu Mackenzie spotted the small sterna heading our way, and it thankfully came within 20/30ft of shore! Pausing to pick at the surface a few times before heading south.

PERFECT views to see all juv ARTE features - what a beauty! A bird I had long searched for... gorgeous

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Other birds seen yesterday:

1-2 Pomarine Jaegers (1 bird I called a light adult (distant), one juv).

6+ Parasitic Jaegers (hard to say how many, but at least 6),,, more adults than juv's.

3+ Jaeger sp's (some stay distant)

Black-legged Kittiwake - 1 - first of fall! - a juv

Short-eared Owl - 1 !!! doing the crazy-SEOW thing of flying way out over the lake...

Peregrine Falcon - 1 .. crossing the lake

Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2 - juv's.. One hung around close to shore for a while.

Pied-billed Grebe - one bird offshore in the huge waves!! Crazy bird...

Brant - 15 close to shore .. another possible large flock waay offshore...

---- also a heavy waterbird movement in the morning.. both Loons, WW and surf scoters, most puddle ducks, most diving ducks, mergs, a few Bonaparte's gulls, etc etc..



What a day!!!!!!

Brant! All birds thanks to 20-25 knot NE winds

Really keep an eye on this weather

Strong NE winds in the forecast for most of next week. If anything unusual DID get blown onto lake Ontario from last weeks storms, the Hamilton lakewatch will be the place to find it.

Just keep an eye on the forecast! It is always changing....


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The Ontario Odes group got an exciting email from Bob Curry a few days ago, who found Canada's first Striped Saddlebags at Point Pelee! (Dragonfly). Awesome find!

It's late in the ode-season, but feel free to join the ont-odes google group. The best way to learn your dragonflies! They're like a whole new family of birds.

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

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Million mile bird:

http://www.birdlife.org/community/2010/09/thirty-years-of-migration-%E2%80%93-a-million-miles-on-the-wing/

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Still working on getting my website running again. What a pain!!! More jaeger photos etc. once it's back online.

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Multiple Hudsonian Godwits and a Laughing Gull around Hamilton after those last few storms. Finally I had a prediction half-right (I think I predicted an atlantic vagrant and godwits).. woo! Even a stopped clock is right twice a day

My sunday plans are lakewatching. Going to see what else has stopped by Lake ON for a visit!

Frigatebird odds for Lake Ontario just went from 0.2% to 2.8% !!!

Yesterday (Sept 30) was just one of those days.

The morning started out very birdy in the woods, turning up some late-ish migrants (13 Warbler Sp's etc). Highlighted by no fewer than 5 Orange-crown's (not late)...

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In the afternoon, I got my beautiful girl out in the boat. From 4:30ish to 6:30ish.. A rather short-lived trip but the results were over the top.

First up was 6 Red-necked Phalaropes just offshore (inside the wave tower). The water was coated in tiny flies, which made the pharlies happy. Unfortunately we were throwing bread, which had the Ring-bills around, and they chased them frequently before we were able to get too close for views.

--- After confirming the ID (was hoping for Reds) were were getting ready to bread-toss again when a juv. female Peregrine Falcon came cruising across the lake. She lined up the poor little pharlies on the water, and gave the flock heck for 30 seconds. She eventually picked one individual out, and chased it upwards to a great height (200+ ft?) before we lost track of them. Was pretty exciting!


-  Bread tossing then resumed, as we traveled out into the lake. First up was juv. Parasitic Jaeger which chased our entire feeding frenzy away. Photos were difficult, and the bird stuck to the distant edges of the group. After 5  minutes of distant passes, it finally headed for the horizon - just as a second juv. Parasitic Jaeger made a fly-by behind us.

After the 2-Parasitic chase, we were left with a small and nervous bunch of gulls. Numbers eventually built back up in time for our 3rd Paraisitc (light adult) to chase them all away again. It was joined by a juv. Parasitic within a few minutes, but again they didn't really come close enough for any really good photos. Not bad for a short visit!

--- The final highlight came in the form of a striking juv. Sabine's Gull which spent a good deal of time in the area, and eventually came right into the boat and ate some bread. This incredible gull was nice enough to pose for some photos, and gave Jenn some over-the-top views for her first SAGU experience.

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Hopefully more pelagic fun this weekend. It's really all I want to do! Still hoping for Red Phalarope, and Arctic Tern. I photographed 11 Terns yesterday from the boat, all of which were Commons.....

taken yesterday

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?

Good day

Curve-billed Thrasher in Manitoba... Would be new for Ontario.. Thunder Cape anyone?

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Black-backed Woodpecker in Ohio... (A.Wormington)- apparently they're on the move early in Northern ON, along with Boreal Chickadee... Could this be the movement year we've all been waiting for?

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Doesn't this weather look great? The next few days could be great. I'm also keeping my eyes peeled for some serious migration this weekend after cold nights (and north winds).. Here's something from today:

from today.. Isn't that a thing of beauty? Direct cause of the VWB Laughing Gull? Who knows? Could be...

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Had a decent day today! First Cackling Geese of the fall. Multiple "3 falcon day" was nice. Moorhen, BB Plovers, really large numbers of migrant ducks.. Things are quackin

pics of the CACG's to come in the future.

Keep an eye on this weather

Why listen to me, when you can read this gem from environment Canada:

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A juicy low pressure system laden with tropical moisture is heading towards Eastern Ontario from the southeastern states. It will bring a large shield of rain and perhaps even a thunderstorm or two tonight and Tuesday. Current indications suggest a general rainfall of 40 to 50 mm across the district before rain tapers off to scattered showers by Tuesday evening. Higher amounts of 50 to 60 mm are quite possible in a few locales which receive persistent heavier rain bands or a thunderstorm. 
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Strange storm coming from a strange location (SE States)... Could blow something southern in, but could also ground high arctic migrants (White-rump Sands, Plovers, Godwits, Jaegers). 

Another thing to remember is, there is a large number of disorientated Terns and Skimmers on the east coast from the NS Hurricane. The winds on the coast aren't horribly strong, but could it be enough to get one of these "lost" birds inland? Maybe? Your odds of finding a Skimmer in ON have gone from 0.3% to 3.3%.. That's a 1000% increase! 

But even then, the centre of low pressure is forecast to pass right over the Hamilton area. All air blows into the centre of the low, possibly bringing a rarity from any direction! 

Something to keep an eye out for, at the very least. Maybe a good few days to check your local spot, just in case. 

Low pressure for everyone! yay!

Pelagic year-count and Google

Well I found out today that google listed my site as dangerous, thanks to my on-going problems... Woo! I think I know how to fix it, but it might take a few days.

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Since I didn't get out birding today.. I decided to do a year-tally of the pelagics I've seen this year (Since it seems to be a huge year)... I've missed the last 2 "boat weather" days, but will hopefully get out for the next ones!

So yeah, year tally so far, mostly from the boat:

Red-necked Phalarope - 45
Sabine's Gull - 17
Jaeger Sp - 5
Parasitic Jaeger - 7
Long-tailed Jaeger - 10!



And those are the ultra-conservative counts. For future trips, I'm expecting to hit the bulk of the Parasitic Jaegers. Kittiwakes should be on their way, and Pomarine's will hopefully be some of the most cooperative boat-birds.

Arctic Tern and Red Phalarope are the target species. I actually think Red Phalarope will be quite easy - just need a "calm as glass" day.

More to come! I have to work Monday-Thursday first though...

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and on that note.. I'm re-adding the photo of the LT Jaeger chasing the G Black-backed Gull from a week or so ago.. Some people didn't get to see it thanks to the virus problems:

- who says LTJA's never chase other birds.

OFO weekend.. Hike etc

Another short blog post! Here's the story.. My website continues to be infected with some sort of trojan virus that I can't get rid of.. And now Google has flagged my site as dangerous.. Great...

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Ken Burrell and I did the OFO hike to Port Burwell on Saturday. The story is - it was pretty slow, but thankfully people were understanding. We did get a hand full of warblers and raptors that posed for the group to see well, which was nice. I think we also got just about everyone on a nice adult Little Gull at the Port Burwell town beach. My beautiful girlfriend Jenn was also a big highlight for me.. She followed me around all day! I sure am lucky :)

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On our way back to the convention dinner, we stopped at the big creek marsh were we turned up most of the expected puddle ducks (Pintail, Wigeon, BW & GW Teal, Gadwall, Wood Duck, A. Black, Shoveller, etc..

14 Sandhill Cranes, 4 Common Moorhen (Family) and 2 Long-billed Dowitchers rounded out the birds here before it was off to dinner!

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Vortex spotting scope (Razor) also worked out great. Vortex has let me borrow the scope in hopes of showing it around, and informing people about how incredible the quality is for the price. The angled eyepiece, and rotating collar worked PERFECTLY for getting everyone to see the birds without adjusting the tripod. Excellent stuff!

September 24: winds are blowing

30+ degrees, 40+kmh SW winds blowing.. Oh the birding...

These are the winds that blow good birds around! And the possibilities abound! One would hope that southern birds (herons?) would get blown in somewhere... It's also a good time to look for birds already around. Some of my favourite places for a strong SW wind in fall:

1. Tip of Point Pelee in the morning.. Can be great for waterbird flights, and passerines flying overhead.

2. Beached birds - Shorebirds, Gulls, Terns etc. will be sitting on beaches (Port Burwell!!!, Port Stanley) today thanks to huge waves. Great way to find a fall Laughing or Franklin's Gull.

3. Lakewatch from Fifty Point CA in Grimsby: birds feeding near shore thanks to upwelling (if you can find the feeding groups). Better in late season for loons, gannets, etc.

4. Niagara River - Again, it might be a bit early, but these winds push numbers of gulls into the river. The mouth at Fort Erie could be darn good.

5. Peregrine migration at hawk cliff: could be the first small push of Peregrines riding the cliff edge today. Probably still 5-7 days early though.

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OFO convention this weekend! I'll be at Port Burwell tomorrow morning to co-lead a hike with Ken Burrell. I'll also have my fancy spotting scope with me (Vortex Razor), so please feel free to ask to take a look at (and through) it!

August - September, 2010 Blog Archive

Blog posts from August and September, 2010 are found here:

http://www.peregrineprints.com/ind__Blog.htm

Topics covered include:

--- New Government Laws that Protect Birders

--- 10 Bird species not likely to re-occur in Ontario

--- World's smallest draw-bridge

--- getting my hands on a Vortex Razor spotting scope

--- getting some photos in: Birds of Quebec by Jean Paquin

--- non-stop pelagic birding in Lake Ontario: A rash of Long-tailed Jaegers

- Long-tailed Jaegers everywhere! Photos from the zodiac.

June-July, 2010 - Blog Archive

Blog posts from June and July, 2010 are found here:

http://www.peregrineprints.com/Blog/Archive/10Jun_Jul.htm

Topics covered include:

--- Why July shorebirding is great

--- Yellow-nosed Albatross in Ontario. We all missed it, but I missed it more.

--- Lots of sewage lagoon reports, but nothing too rare!

- the rarity everyone did see this period!

April - May, 2010 Blog Archive

Blog posts from April and May, 2010 are found here:

http://www.peregrineprints.com/Blog/Archive/10apr_May.htm

Topics covered include:

European Herring Gull in Bermuda

Gyrfalcon at Point Pelee - April 1st - during a heatwave!

Hybrid shorebird pictures from Peter Burke

National Geographic Book Publication - I managed to get some low-paid images in!

Possible "Vagrant" Cardinal at Point Pelee... and more!

- what is this thing.. Why is it so gray, and red..

Blog has moved

Welcome to the new blog format. Let's hope this one works!


Brandon Holden Photography

http://www.peregrineprirnts.com/

Newfoundland - Jan 22

Jan 22nd - pictures taken today - 637
Pictures taken since Jan 9 - 8522

I decided today would be another exploration day. I went west! West I say... I checked several locations, from Portugal Cove to Colliers, stopping in several towns and coves along the way. At a sewer outflow I found the expected birds (Iceland and Black-headed Gulls etc), but it was also holding a handful of Greater Scaup, a Lesser Scaup and a fine drake Tufted Duck. Very few Black Guillemots the whole way (4), and no other alcids (boo)... I found 4 Green-winged Teal (incl 2 fine adult males), in a culvert along the highway with several Black Ducks. Common Loons, 100+ Common Goldeneye, A Lesser Black-backed Gull, Red-breasted and Common Mergansers - It started to feel like I was birding fresh water! I really had high hopes of some sick eider or alcid in close to shore, but constant sightings of the big gulls, Eagles and Ravens made me less and less confident of finding something. I eventually cut my losses and headed back to St. Johns. Hardly any finches around either! And no robins or waxwings......

I checked a few ponds when I returned. Burtons Pond had 24 Tufted Ducks - with several males looking really good - all in a tiny pool of open water. Someone arrived to feed the ducks, which meant all the Mallards & Blacks went up on shore - leaving clear views of the Tufted's. I spent some time taking pictures, until the other ducks returned. Still no sign of any Wigeon - never mind an adult male Eurasian - where did they go?

Back to Quidi Vidi for dusk. There was 3 Tufted Ducks at one end of the lake, and another female at the Virginia River outflow - making for 29 Tufted Ducks on the day. Not a bad count! The Common Gull was still around, but left before I could feed it. To top the day off, the adult Slaty-backed Gull was on the ice until I left for home.

 - hey there, nice tuft.

 - some very hungry ducks in town.

Fun fact of the day: Hamilton birders Bob Curry, Glenda Slessor and Cheryl Edgecombe have descended upon St. John's in a fury of bird-watching extravagance. We are heading down the south shore tomorrow in hopes of goodies!

Newfoundland - Jan 21st

Jan 21st - pictures taken today - 753
Pictures taken since Jan 9 - 7885

 - Lesser Black-backed Gull

 - Glaucous Gull

 - Herring Gull

Well that covers the first 3+ hours of my day. With a steady snow falling, I went to the "water hole" at Quidi Vidi lake in hopes of photographing the darn Yellow-legged Gull. It was snowing steady, and blowing pretty good as well. There were 2 Bald Eagles eating a dead gull on the ice, but the other gulls continued to visit the water. Several Lesser Black-backs and several hybrids made visits (no Great Black-backed X Glaucous though, where are they?), but neither of the "rarities" showed themselves - until the Yellow-legged Gull finally stopped by for 30-45 seconds (a quick drink before leaving):

 - Yellow-legged Gull

Then another 1 to 1.5 hours passed without much excitement. I continued to photograph the various gulls arriving to drink and bathe. Finally the Yellow-legged Gull came back for 1-2 minutes for a splash around the water, which allowed for more pictures. It then flew a fair distance away to do a few seconds of preening (where I got the below image), before going back and disappearing into the group. Another hour or more passed before I noticed the Slaty-backed Gull had appeared to bathe. It stayed near the back of the pool, and was surrounded by other gulls - before quickly flying out onto the ice to finish preening. It wasn't very cooperative for pictures today, but I can't complain after the shots I got 2 days ago!

 - Yellow-legged Gull

So yeah! 6.5 hours of sitting in the snow for 3-4 mins of Yellow-legged Gull, and a minute of Slaty-backed Gull. Actually it was pretty fun. I brought 2 loaves of bread, and would feed the tame gulls/ducks/pigeons when I needed something to entertain me. The adult Common Gull was around as well, and ate some bread! (4th day in a row of feeding it, I think I like it). If the roads are clear in the morning, I might be going in search of non-gulls again! A Greenland Hoary Redpoll is also coming to a feeder well south of St. John's. If it sticks around, it will be a big target for photography as well!



Fun fact of the day: The Great Black-backed Gulls here are sissies. All day, lots of fighting and posturing by the gulls at the small water hole. The Great Black-backs here take a lot of guff from the Glaucous Gulls. That sure isn't the case back home. Let loose a few "Lake Ontario" Great Black-backs around here, and these birds wouldn't know what hit them. The winter flock of Tufted Ducks would be gone in days! I didn't see a single Great Black-back grab another gull by the back of the head, and hold it under water - all day! Disappointing.


 - ahhh the good old days back home...

Newfoundland - Jan 20

Jan 20th - pictures taken today - 68
Pictures taken since Jan 9 - 7132

Operation GBPOTTRGITWMECPOTYLG (Get better pictures of those two rare gulls in town with more emphasis currently placed on the Yellow-legged Gull) was put on hold today. I awoke to brilliantly blue skies, which are really nice - but create poor lighting conditions on Quidi Vidi lake for photography. I quickly decided that I would do some traveling today, heading north out of St. John's in search of whatever might show itself.

I visited Torbay, drove past Bauline without making it to the coast (whoops), Pouch Cove, Shoe Cove, Flat Rock, then back through Torbay.

It was boreal birding at its finest. Hardly anything to look at, but when you find birds - the quality is high. Pockets of Boreal and Black-capped Chickadees kept me entertained. I really wanted pictures of the Boreals, but they really weren't cooperating. After several pockets of birds, I finally decided to do some citizen science instead. For the fist time, I left my camera gear in the car - got out, pished twice and 4 Boreal Chickadee's hopped out low and in the open. Buggers! I threw my camera gear together, and thankfully 2 more eventually posed for a few pictures. They're pretty fast - so not a lot of time to worry about composition etc. But I managed a few:

Other highlights while driving around were the finches; a few Purple Finch, Pine Grosbeaks and several flocks of White-winged Crossbills (are they finally arriving?!). Perhaps the most exciting discovery was a flock of Robins (about 200) in Pouch Cove. This town is on the far NE corner of the peninsula, the perfect place for a euro-turd to show up - and here I had the largest flock of Robin's seen in Newfoundland all winter... And all to myself! I probably searched through them for close to 2 hours, in hopes that some Fieldfare, Redwing or sulking Song Thrush would magically appear. Alas it didn't. A Northern Shrike flew over, carrying a small mammal - probably the most unusual sighting I had while there.

There was an abundance of Black Guillemots in the coves today. In Torbay, I had great views of the two subspecies together, and adult "atlantic" Black Guillemot and a snowy-white "Arctic" Black Guillemot. Really pretty birds! Now only if they'd come close to shore for pictures... I finished the day at Quidi Vidi where activity was pretty low. A dead gull lay on the ice, tempting the eagles downwards.



Fun fact of the day: is that I'm tired enough to not think of one right now! zzzzz