50dor - day 26

Teamed up with the rarity finding machine known only as Kentucky  yesterday...... Some spots:


Erb St. Landfill in Waterloo - did a 5 minute look - nothing (not even a hybrid)

Feeble attempt at a Waterspout at Port Burwell 

Port Burwell - gulls and geese on the beach, not much else... Lots of Waxwings.. LOTS of waxwings...

PB Provincial Park - beach was dead... Some Warblers -- Cape May, Blackpoll, Orange-crowned...

LOTS of passerines to look at again, maybe not as many as recent weeks, but still good. Highlights were a Catbird and a Philly Vireo! -- we wondered how late it was getting for PHVI.... The bird was very bright.. I managed a terrible record photo:

Long Point - did a quick "drive around" - most unexpected were these Caspian Terns on Hastings Drive... Another bird where I feel like it's getting fairly late, but we somehow managed to see multiple birds:

Port Rowan SL had my first STILT SANDPIPERS of the year! Yearbird! woo! (As you may have noticed, I didn't really look at shorebirds this summer...) Some teal that I didn't look at carefully as well....

Lots of gulls on the Inner Bay at LP - along with thousands of American Wigeon and American Coots... Did a quick scan, but no Euros... Want a bigger rarity anyways....

On the drive home we had an unusual "goose" catch out attention, until we noticed it was a domestic mallard thing (Ken called it something proper). 

There's always tomorrow for your rarity dreams to come true... 

=======================================

Epic cosmic mega rare from Massachusetts - Gray-tailed Tattler: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pbtrimble/8103987596/in/pool-ebird

Awesome rare from VA:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10349159@N08/8105293033/in/pool-ebird

========================================

A bit of "long-range" weather fun - an extremely powerful storm making landfall in the USA on  Oct 29th ish, then travelling into eastern Lake Ontario where it would no doubt drop dozens of rarities........ 

Equivalent pressure to a Category 3 Hurricane here...... 

This is just bordering on our "long range" abilities methinks, and perhaps the proper term would be "fantasy land forecast" or "wish-casting" - but hey, it sure looks like it would be FANTASTIC rarity weather (eg,/ some of the best ever.. that is an unbelievably strong storm) 

50dor: day 25

Day 25 has come and gone..... Here's what I did (in case you're wondering, I work most of these days, which is why I have odd locations and visits to these places - before and after work)



Binbrook Conservation Area - nothing... Water levels higher than I thought...

Haldibrook Rd - jump to the chase - Cattle Egret 500m away from where I grew up! Rarer than anything I personally found nearby that house when I lived there for 10-ish years... (Although my Neighbours once found a CAEG, and my dad found a Hud-wit in the backyard!)

a pic:

I have a habit of finding the same rarities over and over.. My 5th "self found" in 10 years, and 10th individual seen  (without intentionally twitching) ... Now it's time for a mega!

Grand River at York - 1 Tree and 1 Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Grand River - River Rd... 1 Lesser, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 3 Killdeer, 1 Wilson's Snipe and 1 Great Egret to complete the "2 egret sp day" 

Grand River Mouth - nothing....

Lake Erie shore - did a very short bit... Had 50 Horned Grebes at one location.. Lots of Canada Geese...

Mosaic Ponds - not much... Waterfowl were around, but low numbers... Not much really..

I thought about doing Rock Point, but I decided to head towards home to get ready for the evenings festivities... Stopped at Van Wagner's when I noticed there was a NE wind blowing... But when I got close, the fog was thick as pea soup...

Went to the Burlington Canal in hopes of getting out in the fog to see if any Phalaropes etc had come close to the walls with limited visibility... The answer? No good birds!

25 days left for someone to find a mega... Josh Vand gets 5+ straight days of NW winds when they arrive at Netitishi tomorrow (today) ... I've only managed 1.5 to 2 -ish days in my 23 days I've spent up there in Oct/Nov.................

Pea soup I tell ya!

You know that it would be untrue....

If I was to say to you..

So yeah... Gotta be something rare out there, right?

===========

50dor: yesterday was the "maybe I can not go rarity hunting, but find a rarity by luck" trial (Mom's birthday hike!) Lots of fun, no rares..

Some pics:

Ma with WBNU!

Paying their respects

Red!

I spotted a huge wasp right in front of this fella... I said (out loud) - "There's a huge Wasp! Eat it!" - and 0.5 seconds later the squirrel gave a huge open palm "smack" to the wasp.. It squirmed for a second, then he picked it up and ate the whole thing! Who knew squirrels know English??

Dad using his magical powers to levitate a WBNU

Mom with WBNU! One of the stars of the "hand feeding" birds. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

It's my Mom's birthday today! Happy Birthday!

===========================================

50dor - day 23

Some birding yesterday. Again, I had grand plans that were dashed by a common bird... Some spots:

Hagersville Quarry Ponds - DCCO, RNDU, REDH, LESC (30ish), RUDU (75ish), AMWI, GADW, etc

Townsend SL - Best was maybe 2 Barn Swallows - which also go by the lesser known name of Nottarare Swallow.... A VESP... MUSW, 10 LESA, 2 KILL, 1 LEYE, 5 DUNL, 2 PBRG, most of the expected ducks (AMWI, GADW, GWTE, REDH, RNDU, GRSC, LESC, RUDU (200ish), NSHO) some AMCO's...... Also had 2 Common Ravens behind the lagoon and a Cackling Goose...

Jarvis SL - this is where it all went to heck... 2 AMWI, 2 NOPI, 2 GADW, and 5 teal.... 4 of which were Blue-winged Teal, and 1 was what made me spend 90 minutes trying to learn how to separate Juvenile Garganey from Green-winged Teal... It didn't seem to make much sense that this funny looking teal --- hanging out with Blue-winged Teal --- was "just" a Green-winged...... Probably was, but I studied it for a good 90 minutes.... Took some crappy record photos with my point and shoot (shoulda brought my good lens).................

Not a Garganey, although if I ever DO see a female Garganey in the future, I'm pretty sure I'll nail it... 

MAMBO NUMBER FIVE!!!


After that fiasco, I went to Lake Ontario (Sayer's Park) for a combo Cave Swallow/Gannet watch....... Since they both occur on similar conditions, but I didn't see any...

Highlights after 2 hours of watching was 1 Peregrine Falcon, 4 Pine Siskins and all 3 Scoter species (even adult males) at close range....

OH... AND do you know what ELSE I HAD there?!?!? Can you guess!?!? Maybe!??!?!

A HYBRID GULL!!!

my 5th in the last 20ish days! woot! I juts can't get enough!! (a 3rd winter Herring X Great Black-back) ... Got some record shots, but haven't edited them yet.......

I love hybrid gulls (actually I do, but they aren't exactly the CMF i'm searching for).....

Confederation Park was my next stop for a good hour or two... It was loaded up with Sparrows and Kinglets (including the above Fox)  and a possible CCSP that I didn't nail - but no megas... next time? 

late short post

Sorry for no post today, so I'll do a short/quick one on the weather... It looks crazy...

Probably best down at Pelee right now, where the winds are forecast ot be SE @ 50kmh tomorrow (Thursday) morning........ We'll have to see how the cold part of the low "wraps" around into Ontario through tomorrow, but it could be pretty interesting! Where are the rares?

bird-ding yesterday

dad

I managed to get my Dad out birding yesterday! - actually wait, he managed to get me out! I'm not going to lie, I'm still not feeling the motivation to really get out and bird... Maybe I'll post more about that soon...... Or maybe not...... Anyways here's what we saw:



Port Burwell: (yes I was at PB again...) Dad had to go to Tillsonburg, so we continued onwards..


At the public beach: smattering of gulls -- highlight was a 3rd ba Herring X Lesser Black-backed Gull .... This is the FOURTH hybrid gull I've found in 20 days (2 HEGU X GBBG and 2 LBBG X HEGU)... You know what the rarest gull I've found at Niagara River over the past 10 years is? California Gull... No Mew, Slaty-backed, no ivory, no ross's, no black-headed, no laughing, no franklin's... I'm not sure if I've ever found a Kittiwake there.. You know how many hybrids I've found? 40? 50? ..... enough hybrids! Oh, and a Semi-plover was nearby..



Anyways.. then we walked most of the provincial park through the woods/road... Into the dunes... flushed a bunch of Song and Field Sparrows from the dunes... Checked the beach..... Long story short: LOTS of birds... Man did it ever feel like a rarity, but we couldn't find anything even remotely uncommon.....



Then we hit up Port Stanley (again) ... No sign of my dark-mantled freako-gull.... No hybrids, but there was a 3rd/4th basic Lesser Black-backed Gull with a darker (than average) mantle and pink legs... 3 Dunlin were there as well (1 that I photographed with the "good" camera gear... but will probably edit the photos sometime in 2013 or 2014)... here's one with my point and shoot:

Sounds pretty boring eh? Hard to explain how we could look at superb numbers of birds in great habitat and not even see something uncommon - but that's the way it has been in Ontario for a few weeks now... We're just waiting for our turn on something epic to arrive (Prairie Falcon in OH)... We ran into the Norfolk Naturalist at Port Burwell who echoed our feelings on the lack of unusual birds to be seen...... (He had also had the LBBGxHEGU days earlier)...

==========================

On a different note, yesterday was probably the best day of 2012 for Netitishi point on James Bay (better than any future day too, is my guess)... It kind of snuck up on me, as they never really called for winds this storng, and it hit on a Monday, so I didn't even bother to make plans to travel up there (last train for the week is Friday, next is late Monday).... 

Here's some wind readings from yesterday at the Moosonee Airport (10km inland!) 

7am - NE 13 gust 32

10am - NNE 18 gust 28

1pm - N 24 gust 46

2pm - N 24 gust 41

3pm - N 28 gust 42

4pm - N 28 gust 39

5pm - N 22 gust 48

6pm - NNW 26 gust 39

Anyways you get the point! Some very rare birds flew past that spot yesterday........ Given that those measurements are from an inland station, I would guess that it was at least 40 Gusting to 60 (or 70)kmh at the coast.... damn.... The wind forecasts was saying 15-20knots leading up to it, and only switched to 15 to 25 knots the day of the event... 15 knots doesn't really do 70kmh N wind gusts justice..... 

Next time! 

Townsend's Solitaire record pics +epic weather this week

Going to post this early, as I'm getting more and more excited about this weather forecast... This is serious rarity weather... Not the best I've ever seen or anything, but SERIOUS rarity weather....


===========

Threw together some record photos of the TOSO in Hamilton on Oct 11, 2012 -

Uploaded  them to my flickr page, that I just updated a few days ago:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bhbirds/

Pretty sweet bird! Watched it fly away over the QEW after about 20-30 minutes of having it around....

=========================

Weather maps from Sunday the 14th:

Get ready to twitch! ......... As always, a storm can look "perfect" - but not really bring any birds... But with that said, a huge number of our mega rarities also occur after such "perfect" looking storms.... This one is looking pretty damn sweet.... Huge southerly flow, with a "wrap around" cold front at the bottom... Here's the radar:

Makes me feel like I should get out birding! And I probably will! (hopefully the day this auto-posts - monday) ...... 

beauty! 

get out and bird! 

=============================

Late day update: MOTHER of god, look at that next low that's headed for the Great Lakes... 

Thursday.... Time to get out and bird, people! 

50dor: current situation..

Some 50dor bloggers! I'm sure most followers already know of these things, but its funny to put them all together (and I didn't go birding yesterday, so I need something):

From people who have been updating: 

The nomadic naturalist decided to startle himself by spotting a stupidly late "date rare" Eastern Kingbird at a prime vagrant spot:

http://mikeburrell.blogspot.ca/


Alvan goes all "age rare" on us with an adult Dowticher... Long-billed? right? maybe?

http://alvanbuckley.blogspot.ca/


Tiscornia Tim goes all "local mega" with a Brant + Long-tailed Jaeger duo...

http://utsj.blogspot.ca/


David Bell gets a bit "twitch rare" with a Western Grebe, but also goes "local rare" with some great waterfowl (EUWI!) :

http://ssmbirding.blogspot.ca/

Jen Brumfield goes all ammodramus on us, and also goes to see a Rufous:

http://www.northnw.wordpress.com

Ken-tucky tried to cheat his way to winning, by going all the way to Rainy River.. Didn't work though.. (update your blog, ken!)

http://kenburrell.blogspot.ca/

Adam is looking for... Tiger Beetles?? ;) 

http://adamtimpf.blogspot.ca/

Josh "big year" vander probably has some of the best finds so far, with a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that almost counts, a "range" rare with Carolina Wren (north rare?) and a "mega subspecies" with Harlan's Hawk - but nothing that really takes the cake yet... Which probably isn't of concern to him, since he needs those big year tick, and needs to keep looking!

http://joshvandermeulen.blogspot.ca/


And I've got some "kinda rare" things piling up myself... In total, I've had 3 different hybrid gulls, twitched the Vega, Long-billed Dow, Western Meadowlark, Cackling Geese, etc etc etc...

In short: nothing cosmic... yet...



You know what all of this adds up to?! It means we're paying out dues... Last year in September I came to a rather profound realization, which I think I posted on the blog at the time, but it still stands true now:



Rare birds are rare



The above list is a pretty awesome collection of bird records and the mega can't be far off! Question is, what is it? And who finds it?

50dor: Day 16 - WEAK SAUCE !

Not much to report on the 50dor from Day 16... I went looking for the kelpish thing and didn't see it (Port Stanley) and was pretty much bored out of my mind... I eventually threw an entire garbage bag worth of bread into the harbour (at once) and watched the gulls go crazy... But once it was over (didn't take long) - I was bored again..

I did see some things (Barn Swallow) but not enough.... Not enough...



===========================

So how is 50dor looking?

Thursday: - strong SW winds AGAIN! This weather is rarity weather... Not epic rarity weather, but rarity weather indeed...  Not sure how much time I'll have to bird, but maybe get somewhere (river? local?)

Friday - north winds caused by high pressure - perfect weather for a vulture fight... And vulture flights (big ones) can bring Swainson's... Instead of going to seacliffe to see one, I'll be intoxicated... Which is why I'm not doing a big year ;)

Saturday - south winds again!? I'll be recovering in  order to go out again Saturday night... whoops.. probably won't find much on day 18/19 of 50dor..

Sunday - STRONG south winds again!? wow.. might as well just go birding anywhere.. Lakewatch somewhere, pelee, Niagara river.. check the woods for something funky! Tis the season..

Monday/Tuesday - too far in advance to really tell the weather....

===========================


Current sea Ice -- -where's the ice??

2012:

2011:

2010:

Who really knows, but maybe the lack of Ice can bring the James Bay watchers some Short-tailed Shearwaters and Ross's Gulls?!

50dor: Day 15

Boy I'm tired... I wish I could get paid to not work...


Some spots visited today (yesterday):

Port Dover - squat

Port Burwell - the walk to the beach was surprising with a female Pintail in the canal, then at least 35 Blackpoll Warblers feeding on some sort of berry (they out numbered the Myrtles)

--- the beach was largely void of gulls, but picked up 4 Cackling Geese for my efforts

--- Walked through a lot of the sand dunes looking for Burrowing Owl.. Didn't find any... Flushed 2 sparrows that looked exciting (at different times), but couldn't get a decent look at them... Made me angry

--- Walked the woods a bit as well.. very birdy (everywhere in ON has been birdy for a few weeks now eh?) No megas... 2 BT Green, 4 Nashville, Tennessee, 3+ Orange-crowned's were the best warbs  

Port Bruce - nada

Port Stanley:

I loves me some gulls.... At least 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 1 adult Great Black-backed X Herring Gull hybrid.... 

Highlight was a bird I couldn't ID --- very very dark mantled gull (adult) sitting on the water beyond the east breakwall... Very dark, and not a Great Black-backed Gull... Wouldn't come closer (into the harb) for a better look! (Grr ... stayed until sundown)... 

Going to go back tomorrow (today) to see if I can re find it and get better looks! 

One of the LBBG - a great looking juv... Other than the fact it was sick... Flies all the way from Europe (apparently) just to eventually croak at Port Stanley eh? 

ebird checklist from Pelee - Oct 6, 2012

Ken and I birded the tip briefly, then decided to do a mega-hike along the east beach.. We parked 2 Concessions north of the park (at the start of the road for Marentette Beach), and parked another car at the Visitors Centre.. Probably about 9km of walking when it was all said and done... Birding was fantastic, although we couldn't produce the mega...

eBird time! ---->


Point Pelee NP--NE Beach & Marshes, Essex, CA-ON
Oct 6, 2012 8:30 AM - 2:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
25.0 kilometer(s)
Comments: Went to the tip first thing, then walked from Marentette Beach south along the east beach to the VC in the park. Activity was pretty good, particularly in the north 2/3 of the park.
67 species

Canada Goose 75
Wood Duck 2
Double-crested Cormorant 2500
Great Blue Heron 10
Turkey Vulture 45
Northern Harrier 10
Sharp-shinned Hawk 35
Red-tailed Hawk 2

Sora 1--     Flushed from the grasses along the beach!

Black-bellied Plover 1
Killdeer 45
Sanderling 5
Bonaparte's Gull X
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Herring Gull (Vega) 1 --  Continuing bird from previous days. Seen well first thing at the tip.
Great Black-backed Gull X
Mourning Dove 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Northern Flicker 8
American Kestrel 1
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 4 --  Good numbers this weekend
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Eastern Phoebe 2
Blue Jay 120
American Crow X
Horned Lark X

Purple Martin 1 --  Female-type seen well.

Tree Swallow 650 --  Large numbers taking shelter along the east beach
Barn Swallow 4

Red-breasted Nuthatch 4
Brown Creeper 10
House Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 20
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Eastern Bluebird 1
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 5
Gray Catbird 1
European Starling X

Nashville Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Cape May Warbler 2 1 --  drab female and a rather bright male
Blackpoll Warbler 32 --  Good numbers for the date
Palm Warbler 85
Pine Warbler 2 2 females
Yellow-rumped Warbler 665 --  Large numbers present everywhere!

Chipping Sparrow 10
Clay-colored Sparrow 1 --  Adult seen well. 

Song Sparrow 5
Lincoln's Sparrow 1
Swamp Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 30
White-crowned Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird X
Rusty Blackbird 2
Common Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird X
Purple Finch 5
House Finch X
Pine Siskin 60
American Goldfinch 10
House Sparrow X

Some record pics

Not a Brewer's

PIWA

No mega's yet for 50 days of rare, but I feel like I'm starting to get in the groove! 

=======

Burrowing Owl in IL on Lake Mich (Chi) - 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jengel5230/8060416106/in/photostream

=======

The 7 day rarity outlook:

Could be some vagrants still from this last system, but it didn't produce all that much...

Today (auto post to Tuesday) - SW winds = Port Burwell/Stanley for me

Wed: W winds... Maybe I'll try the Niagara River and Fort Erie

Thursday: More SW winds! not sure what I'll do..  Maybe just something local.. Confederation Park?

Friday: north winds! If I have my work done for the week, maybe I'll take the day to do some serious hawkwatching...

Saturday: transition day? Dunno... too far to plan.. unless:

Sunday: the models are starting to lock onto a well formed low pressure system travelling through the Great Lakes next Sunday and Monday (rather rapidly)... 50+ kmh S winds leading into it.... Looks pretty fun for mid October...

Very much something I'm going to keep an eye on.. Although at 6-7 days out, things change... Case in point is the "north winds on James Bay" that were appearing in the forecast but never materialized as the storms passed... Hopefully its not another year of "bust" systems for southern James Bay - or maybe it just means things will start to switch for late Oct and November up there... But for now, there is nothing inspirational in the 16 day forecast by the GFS... No worries though, if we start getting mega's here in the south! 

Pelee yesterday + cool stuff

Spent the day yesterday hawkwatching at Seacliffe in Leamington  (well, 9:30 to 2:45ish) until the showers started.. Not nearly as much as I would have liked, but still fun. Some "migrants" -


Double-crested Cormorant 700

Turkey Vulture 1021
Northern Harrier 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk 42
Cooper's Hawk 5
Bald Eagle 11
Red-shouldered Hawk 3
Broad-winged Hawk 3
Red-tailed Hawk 38 one bird was a dark morph adult

American Golden-Plover 40 flock flying E, later refound behind the days inn

Chimney Swift 16 single flock of 10, then a few others

Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1

American Kestrel 7

Western Meadowlark 1 heard funny call notes, saw sitting in nearby field with an EAME

Purple Finch 10
Pine Siskin 50


Not much else afterwards, although the photography was really good at times - got my first pics ever of an Orange-crowned Warbler!

Dark adult RTHA

This light adult RTHA struck me as pretty odd looking... 

Will try to post some stuff from previous days at Pelee when I have a bit more time.


==============

Now the cool stuff:

Snow X Canada hybrid from the weather network?? --

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/your_weather/details/20461/7905090/Ontario/upload/0?ref=ugc_yourweather_search

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/your_weather/details/20461/7905102/Ontario/upload/0?ref=ugc_yourweather_search


===============

INSANE record (older) - but just insane in my opinion.. :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32706210@N05/5060126287/in/pool-wisconsinebird/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32706210@N05/5060126237/in/pool-wisconsinebird/

===============

There are a LOT of Western Grebes being seen around the Great Lakes recently (and this fall)

Vega photos

Sorry for the limited action... Didn't auto-post anything before I left, and can't write anything.. Anyways, a bit of internet here, so I'll post the pics of this sweet bird that Kevin McLaughlin found at Pelee on Sep 29th! (Still around today)

50 days of rare: Day 8 - Jaegers B migrating

Got out yesterday afternoon to Van Wagner's Beach - I checked the lift bridge wind reading around noon - NE 19kmh! Good enough for me... Got down to the lake, and it was calm as glass....... WT..heck?

You could clearly see there was a wind "above us" from the NE, but it wasn't until 4pm that we even had ripples... Thankfully something about the weather was "stirring" the Jaegers up, and we had quite a number.. Some birds:

11 Dunlin (out over the lake.. Not the wanted Red Phalaropes)
1 Common Tern (ID made via the good old technique of using field marks that aren't actually field marks)
2 Red-necked Grebes
3 Common Loons
1 Horned Grebe
1 juv. Lesser Black-backed Gull
2 Wood Ducks (floating on the lake, well offshore late in the day)
1 Coopers Hawk
1 American Kestrel

and a healthy smattering of duck (puddle and divers) - along with good #'s of White-winged and Surf Scoters

============


Jaegers - in 2-ish hours, we had at least 10 different Jaegers... Somewhat in order of occurence:

The first 2 were pretty close, but flew at a funny angle and didn't really show much... I was thinking Pom's, but left them as Poms/Para's since I didn't really have a clue...

We then had numerous distant sightings and a few Parasitic's

Max # was 5 together that were pretty distant

1 adult Parasitic gave chase to some gulls (also quite distant)

1 sub adult and 2 Juvenile Parasitics gave excellent views (scope distance) but in spectacular light...

Then an adult went past at a similar distance

very pale Juvenile PAJA behind the wave tower was definitely a new bird (blondie)

-- then an adult and a dark juvenile went for a cruise around.. These and most of the others were making attempts at "migrating" by climbing up quite high and investigating the idea of leaving the lake for good. Quite a number actually left!

- Then another adult cruised past..


Anyways you get the point.. Lots of Parasitic Jaegers on the move... I know for a FACT that the zodiac is CURSED this year, given that I left it at home (expecting it to be windy), when I could have been out ALL afternoon/evening with the calmer conditions.. A-well... At least we had good looks..

We'll see what happens over the next few days.. I'm digging the weather forecast for the first time in a while.. Not too strong of winds, but it seems to be lining up properly for some good days... Probably do some more serious birding starting Thursday!

Some old PAJA pics, since I don't have any from yesterday to show..... 

50 days of rare: day 7

Apparently I'm a sucker for punishment... After work, I decided to go and bird the area around the buildings where I want to buy a Condo...

I birded: West of Millen Road to Green Road, breifly around Edgelake Park, then the extreme end of Confederation park...

In short, I birded exactly where I want my "Home Patch" to be in the future... If I ever actually get a condo... And wouldn't you know it, I had some pretty sweet birds (but nothing rare) Highlights:

Best bird was the above Northern Saw Whet Owl at Confederation Park...  Also:

1 adult Peregrine Falcon

1 Osprey

3 Black-crowned Night Herons

2 Greater Yellowlegs

1 Nashville Warb (lots of warbs have moved out I guess)

Linc's Sparrows

+ awesome numbers of expected migrants... Confederation Park has awesome habitat.. Kept seeing Eastern Phoebes and had one of these in mind, but it never happened:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgalick/8041709501/in/pool-ebird

-- Not totally motivated for crazy birding, but it looks like low pressure is moving in.... This is the spawn of a tropical disturbance in the Pacific Ocean from a few days ago, so even though its not terribly strong, it should produce some more good birds! 

We'll see if I can get out anywhere today or tomorrow, and maybe the weekend will hold some more serious rarity hunting

==========

Calling for pretty good north winds Friday and Saturday on James Bay - but I think its too close to call for an impromptu trip up there... Will continue keeping an eye on it though... Figures that the year I decide to go "for" a storm, there haven't really been any standouts... 

To be honest, the weather has been pretty boring everywhere for months now... I need exciting weather!

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/marine/forecast_e.html?mapID=08&siteID=06705

==============

Just for fun,  a look at the forecast for Tropical Storm Nadine from a few days ago... This storm has been wandering around the open Atlantic for 20+ days already, and has been kind of funny..

The GFS even got into the fun, when their OFFICIAL forecast track for the system drew a giant question mark............ 

This is an auto-post, for all intensive purposes, I'm birding right now!

Current birding plan:

Monday (today) - work (like most days), and check some sewage lagoons! Maybe watch the skies at dusk near home, just for fun.

Tuesday - VWB maybe? Light east winds don't inspire tooo much in October... Although there have been some good E winds in the St. Lawrence recently.. Kittiwake time? Better?

Wednesday: see above? I dunno... Shorebirds grounded by the rain? Uninspiring weather..

Thursday - hawks if the N wind is anything useful? (Swainson's?)

Friday - south winds = lake erie gulls/terns etc?


=====================

Went through the GFS (Global Forecast System) for the next while (long range = unreliable, but worth watching)...  Here's the wind forecast for southern James Bay on the corresponding dates:


Oct 4th: NNW 30kmh late in the day

Oct 5th: NNE 20kmh early turning to ENE 40kmh late

Oct 6th: S 20kmh

Oct 7th: NW 75kmh

Oct 8th: S 30kmh

Oct 9th: SE 30kmh

Oct 10th: NNW 75kmh

Oct 11th - WSW 30kmh

Oct 12th: N 30kmh


Who wants to go to Netitishi? I'm going to keep a very close eye on this ....

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50 days of rare judging... God I said I wasn't going to talk about this! We'll follow the Hamilton "Bird of the year" award for judging

10 points - for overall rarity in the broad sense

5 points - for local rarity

5 points - for the # of people who get to see it...

Puts a bit of a handicap on really inaccessible spots, and besides, it's always more fun to share your rarities, right?

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1 month temperature outlook:

Below normal?! What is that good for?! Probably not southern vagrants???