A few more new edits, and a bit of news

A few more B-sides from the archives online, most of which were only 1 new photo:


Chipping Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Lapland Longspur (and Snow Buntings)
Song Sparrow - 2

Vesper Sparrow
Leucistic American Robin
American Robin
Swainson's Thrush
Veery
Leucistic Black-capped Chickadee
Thayer's Gull - 3
California Gull - 4- (the gulls aren't the best, but they're all I have,,, for now!  ,, Must go west)

Leucistic American Crow - 2
Leucistic Forster's Tern - 2


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It seems to happen slowly, but the slow and steady increase in rarities has begun for Ontario:

Eurasian Wigeon in Waterloo:

http://www.naturesbestcreations.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6245

Western Grebe:

http://www.ofo.ca/photoalbums/current/April/slides/WesternGrebebm.html

(same bird visiting this end of Lake Ontario for the past 3-4 years?!)

--- the wagtail

--- Swainson's Hawks near Grimsby (ON) and Conneaut (OH)

--- Yellow-headed Blackbird near Port Burwell

There is also apparently an American White Pelican (photographed Apr 8) in the Brantford Newspaper! Not (yet?) seen by any "serious" birders (if I can use the term)... Although maybe the bird seen in St. Catherines a few days earlier.
(posted by Bill Lamond on the ham-birds google group)



----------------------

Also a great photo of a Lewis's Woodpecker that spent the winter in NY:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffamy/5585730041/

Pics and Video of the MI White Wagtail

Check out that video!!!!

Straight from Mich-Listers:



Subject: White Wagtail @ Pt. Mouillee - 09 Apr 2011 - pics and video
From: Jerry Jourdan <jourdaj AT gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2011 19:35:39 -0400

As reported earlier today, Adam Byrne, et. al. found a White Wagtail in Cell
3  and Vermet Unit of Pt. Mouillee SGA in Monroe Co.

http://www.pbase.com/jourdaj/image/133786542

Bob Arthurs and I were able to relocate the bird along the SE corner of Cell
3.  I miraculously put my scope down and found the bird in
my field of view.  I was able to get some long-distance shots w/ the 400mm
lens:

http://www.pbase.com/jourdaj/image/133786271

The following are 200% zoomed images:

http://www.pbase.com/jourdaj/image/133786272
http://www.pbase.com/jourdaj/image/133786273
http://www.pbase.com/jourdaj/image/133786274

I was able to get a long-distance digiscoped video.  Wind gusts were high,
so apologies for the shake.  But the bird
appears to be identifiable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_04SEByTGU

This represents the 3rd (?) record in MI for this species and 1st (?) for
Monroe Co.

For those hoping to look for this bird, it is extremely spooky and very
difficult to see in the mudflats.  Patience is key, and a scope will
be required.

Good luck!

Jerry

White Wagtail in Michigan.. Minutes from Ontario?

Just read this on the Mich-listers forum:



Subject: White Wagtail Monroe Co saturday 9 april
From: "Caleb Putnam " <larus10 AT hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2011 13:43:59 +0000

All

Adam Byrne just called. He found a White Wagtail at Pte Mouillee at 8:30am this 
morning. saturday 9 April. The bird was initially in Cell 3. He lost it and 
then refound it in the south central portion of Vermet around 9:30 AM at last 
word. 


This is all the info i have at this time.

Good Birding
Caleb Putnam

----------
Sent from my Verizon Wireless mobile phone
_______________________________________________

------------------

If i'm not mistaken, this is the 3rd provincial record for "White Wagtail" (Black-backed Wagtail has recently been lumped back with White Wagtail)... And its only minutes from Ontario!!! (Where we have no records)

What a bird !!!!

Some photos of Michigans first two records:

http://www.michiganaudubon.org/research/recordscommittee/photo_gallery.html/title/white-wagtail

Odd that all 3 recors are now in April???

Here's a link to a map, showing how close that bird is to Ontario:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?rlz=1C1SKPL_enCA398CA398&q=Point+Mouille,+Berlin,+Monroe,+Michigan+48173,+United+States&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

5km away?!

Things are starting to happen!!! We will be on the verge of all-heck breaking loose in 2 weeks!

Beamer on Apr 7, and a spring warm-up

Jenn and I spent half a day at Beamer C.A. on Apr 7th... We arrived in an unbelievable mass of fog, and couldn't see a hawk to save our lives. Thankfully (after a walk in the woods) the fog lifted and we had ~100+ birds in the next few hours! The best part was having the birds low and close, allowing for great looks at Red-shouldered Hawks (including my first Juvenile of the year), "Northern" Red-tailed Hawks, a few Rough-legged Hawks and a handfull of Harriers.  A Merlin also zipped east earlier in the day.

Not bad! The most fun was had sitting in the sun (when the wind wasn't blowing) and a fun hike down below the escarpment edge!

---------

I seriously considered heading to Beamer today (Apr 9), as it is probably going to be a pretty good day, but decided to stay home and get some work done.

Black Vultures continue to make news everywhere but here... Ripley hawkwatch in NY had it's first BLVU of the year, and Braddock Bay picked up it's 6th!!! Black Vulture of the spring yesterday. It's reaching a point now where you've got to wonder if there is a BLVU or two setting up shop nearby their hawkwatch.


----------


The only other news I have for today is a bit of fun. Spent a few minutes putting this image together (for future use), but decided to post a copy early. A collection of Warblers (and friends) to get you excited for the glory of spring migration at its peak... We are only a few weeks away!

Its currently the background of my computer, and makes me feel good when I see it, so I figured I would share.

---------

Hopefully some more b-side photos tomorrow.  I'm off to Toronto (the ROM) for the OBRC annual meeting all day on Sunday. Followed by 6 days of surveys (work) to make some money and pass the time until I travel off to Pelee!

More edits from the archives

Progress on the archive update is going well... More new (b-sides) photos are online here:

Burrowing Owl - 5

Eastern Meadowlark
Brown-headed Cowbird
Sandwich Tern 
Royal Tern - 5
Common Tern
Black Tern
Northern Cardinal - 3

Long-tailed Jaeger - 5
Pomarine Jaeger - 3

Laughing Gull - 2
Sabine's Gull - 5

Black Skimmer - 6
Bohemian Waxwing - 4
Cedar Waxwing - 2
Gray Catbird




----------------




Also check out some really spectacular photography from Norway:

http://kjetilschjolberg.blogspot.com/2011/04/arctic-norway.html

B sides and rarities - straight from the archives

To keep myself motivated and busy, I began project 7 of 12 that I wanted to complete before Pelee this spring....

--- Go through my photo collection, and pull out the "decent" images I have -- that aren't online.. convert, fix/edit, re-size and get them on the website!

This change of task kept me motivated and a brand new (old) set of photos gets to see the light for the first time ever. Some links:

Great Egret

Roseate Spoonbill
Snowy Egret

American Coot
Wood Stork - 3
Purple Gallinule - 6 (first time I have this species online)

Sandhill Crane - 3
Bald Eagle
Osprey - 15 (overdue florida pictures!)

Red-shouldered Hawk - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk 
Swallow-tailed Kite
House Sparrow - 3
American Goldfinch - 4

Trumpeter Swan
Mute Swan

Red-breasted Merganser - 2
Mallard
Long-tailed Duck -3
Common Goldeneye - 2 (females, like a lot of these photos)
Blue-winged Teal
American Wigeon
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Reddish Egret

(and link without a number means 1 new picture added)

So yeah... 60 new photos on the website. And more to come

More website updates.. just getting it presentable

Old Article back online:

Photo Salon: Pine Grosbeaks!  --- in 2007 I put together a collection of Pine Grosbeak pictures to illustrate the variation in the species, (due to a discussion on ID frontiers) and Peter Pyle was kind enough to comment (and let me add those comments) to make the article about 860% more useful and interesting. Have a read:

http://peregrineprints.com/zzz_Article_PineGrosbeaks.htm


When getting it back online,  I found a really neat photo from the same time (Dec 2007, Guelph) showing what 150 PIGR's can do to some crab apple trees. Talk about obvious signs of foraging:

-----


Notes and Articles page:

http://peregrineprints.com/ind__Articles.htm

Now has some links to the main highlights of the blog, rather than the daily junk (like this) that makes it hard to sort.

-----


Quick Gallery Links.

I put together some rapid-fire galleries to make it easier to see a diverse collection of images on the Bird Species index page:

Some Point Pelee Favourites : http://peregrineprints.com/ind__gal_pelee.htm

Some Florida Favourites: http://peregrineprints.com/ind__gal_Florida09.htm

Newfoundland Trip Favourites: http://peregrineprints.com/ind__gal_Nfld10.htm

Misc Favourites:  http://peregrineprints.com/ind__gal_misc.htm


Nothing special, just an easy way to showcase some images that I think stand out compared to most.of the others on the site. As mentioned, they appear above the "bird index" page:

http://peregrineprints.com/ind__birds.htm

------------

Oh, and I finally put some of my Peregrine pictures online on their species pages:

http://peregrineprints.com/zz_PEFA.htm

No real reason why they we left out when doing the mass creation of the website, but they're here now, so no worries

No Beamer Hawkwatch Reports from me

It's probably been my slowest year for visiting  Beamer CA in Grimsby, to observe the spring hawk migration. After seeing today's weather (poor), I decided to compare last years totals to this years totals at the same time. So how are we doing?


Turkey Vulture - ~200 less this year
Osprey - 8 less this year
Bald Eagle - ~9 less this year
N. Harrier - 33 less this year
Sharp-shinned Hawk - ~1100 less so far this year!!!!
Cooper's Hawk - 20 less
N. Goshawk - 7 less (0 this year!)
Red-shouldered Hawk - +20 this year!!!!!! The only plus species
Red-tailed Hawk - 600 less this year!
Rough-legged Hawk - 12 less this year
Golden Eagle - 6 less (0 so far this year as well)
American Kestrel - 11 less
Merlin - 8 less
Peregrine - 4 less


For a grand total of roughly 2000 less birds from the same time last year... A great reason to stay inside and get this website stuff done! (and occasionally have my mind wander, and end up working on stuff like this) - but oh-well!

Overdue at a Hawkwatch near you

Phase 3 of the revoloution

There is still some "behind the scenes" work going on with the website/photography, but I made the executive decision to simplify things by streamlining my efforts to synergize the update process involved with the web and photography experience...

What?

I'm going to post updated to my website on the blog.

(Male House Sparrow - Monarch Landing - Port Burwell)

No more "what's new" page... It won't be as easy to track updates, but oh-well. New photos will probably be previewed here, and I'll post the links to the updated pages from time to time:

(Ps - there isn't really anything "new" on the below links, if you check the blog frequently)

Pine Siskin 

House Sparrow
Eastern Phoebe
Rusty Blackbird
American Robin 

Pine Siskin - Monarch Landing - Port Burwell 

(Same day as the Robin photos)

My first Siskin photo that i'm really happy with. I really like trying to get birds on black backgrounds, but (as Jenn reminded me) - I don't think many other people really like it. 

So yeah!

Picture updates! On the blog! 

----

I've also just uploaded a page of my personal favourite photos. Most photographers websites have some sort of "favourite gallery" so I decided to bend to peer pressure and do the same. Please forgive me

http://peregrineprints.com/ind__gallery.htm

----

As I finish this up, I'm watching the temps soar to 15 degrees in Leamington (7am) with 40+kmh S to SW winds. It was 30 degrees in St. Louis yesterday afternoon... And then the radar was on fire with birds last night. Fallout at the tip of Pelee this morning??? 

The good news, is it's still early April, so hopefully there isn't really anything too unusual to miss. Just lots of kinglets and Fox Sparrows... Hopefully

The day that wasn't.. Or was? It was, but shouldn't have.. Or not expected to. But was

So, 3 trips to Pelee area, nothing terribly noteworthy. A few thousand geese to find a Snow and Some Cackling. Hundreds of Horned Grebes at Pelee, 2 at Blenheim SL and 3 at Townsend SL, but no Eared Grebe. Thayer's, Little, Iceland, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, but nothing "big time".

Anyways you get the point. Defeated, I was happy to turn my attention to my darling Jennifer; who was scheduled to lead a GFN* hike at Mounstberg C.A. The day started innocently enough, Jenn bounding out of bed at first light, then spending the rest of the morning trying to get me out of bed to make sure we weren't late.

---

At the University of Guelph Arboretum, things were progressing like hikes usually do. Chatting well past the expected "start time" - as 50% of hike attendees usually arrive late. ;)

Then a dull trill enters my ears, it grows louder, what is it? Birds? A large flock of songbirds races overhead. I know that noise! 100+ Bohemian Waxwings zoom overhead! One of the most exciting bird sightings I've had in weeks! Maybe it's not all terrible news when trying to get out of bed in the mornings.


So yeah... Off we went to mountsberg. I could write some sort of long and melodramatic build up, but to cut it short, we soon found a Ross's Goose (adult white) on the lake with a number of Canada Geese and expected ducks. Boom! Apparently rare birds aren't found until you're not really birding. (see: Mountain Bluebird) but that may just make them better .

(Phone + Scope at big distance) - Yes, that white lump is the Ross's Goose
A bit scary how technology makes it easier to take terrible pictures eh?

Next up was my first Compton's Tortoiseshell of the season. (Well, first Butterfly of the season) in the woods. Neato!

Finishing the day was yet another Cackling Goose , this time in the "Bison field" at mountsberg... Actually at pretty close range, and a good binocular view for those who saw it.


---

so, in March/April - Don't go birding and you have an ok shot at finding something!




*http://www.guelphfieldnaturalists.org/

Ross's Goose from December 2010 - just so you can see what they actually look like.

3rd time wasn't really a charm!

A final survey to SW Ontario meant maybe a final trip to Pelee for a while. I didn't have very much time, and there wasn't anything too crazy, but still fun birds:

Ruddy Duck     80
Common Loon     1
Pied-billed Grebe     2
Horned Grebe     450  -- calm as glass water allowed for a mega count near the tip!
Double-crested Cormorant     55 - more and more everday
Great Blue Heron     8
Turkey Vulture     15 - at the tip early, with 15 wild turkeys!
Greater Yellowlegs     1 - my first real shorebird of the spring, near the marina at sturgeon creek
Wilson's Snipe     21 - behaving like real shorebirds at hillman
Tree Swallow     8
Brown Creeper     4 - migrants at the tip
Carolina Wren     2 - 1 was singing at the shorebird cell at hillman!? Odd place
Golden-crowned Kinglet     20 

annnddddd yeah? Can you find the yellowlegs?


That's all I've got from Pelee


------------------------


I then ended the day at Townsend Sewage Lagoons. Not many people realize, but if you visit places like this as the sun is setting, a massive number of birds will sometimes arrive at dusk to roost.... There's just one problem! It's DARK! 


I stayed well after sundown, and watched 4000 geese and 600+ Swans arrive to roost. There is always a huge variety of waterfowl at Townsend, and today was the same. Nothing too unusual though (at first). 3 Horned Grebes were a bit odd for a sewage lagoon!


As the flocks of Geese arrived, I did pick out a single blue morph Snow Goose (adult), but the real story was the Cackling Geese ... First it was a flock of 5, then 8, then several more, then another flock of 4... By the end of the night, I had seen a minimum of 25 Cackling Geese! Possibly more, as the poor lighting and huge numbers of birds kept me too busy. Two of the Cacklers appeared to be leucistic, with paler than normal plumage. 


It was a really exciting time watching the birds come in, but in the end of it all I was a bit dissapointed. No White-fronted or Ross's Geese arrived, and yet I didnt' really get a chance to study the Cackling Geese to see how many there really were. 


Anyways, not a bad day! But it sure has me itching for late April ... Or heck, just a decent migration. Maybe Monday? Where are the kinglets and phoebes and tree swallows!?










By the end of the day, I was at 27 species of waterfowl! A trip to Hamilton would have put it above 30 since I missed some "easy" ones (Black Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Trumpeter Swan etc)....

Phase 2 of the revoloution - American Robin photoshoot

American Robin - Port Burwell - Mar 24, 2011 - full frame

 I told you there would be new photos. After the large and unexpected snowstorm on Mar 23, 2011 - I decided to head to Port Burwell to search for rarities and photo-op's. The sightings from that day have already been covered. Now it's time for some photos.

I was hanging out in Aaron Allensen's yard, famous for producing some of the rarest birds in Ontario over the past few years. (Monarch Landing - spectacular habitat). When Robins were busy squabbling for food, I set my tripod up near a popular sumac, and waited for the birds to return. The morning light was great, and a few birds were eventually cooperative. 

Continuing on the new photography style of "take them where they land", I'm also going to work on getting excessive depth-of-field with these photos. A good example is the above photo, where there is pretty good focus right from the bill to the tip of the tail. In the past, I was always worried about trying to get the bird more parallel to the lens - but that makes your photos more limited. 

The extra added dept-of-field also means that branches etc. in the background will not be "blurred out" as much, but I'm starting to wonder if it truly makes a difference. Sometimes, no matter how "blurred" a branch in the background is - it's just too ugly to be ignored. Sometimes, like the above photo, it doesnt matter either way!

More photos from Aaron's fabulous yard will hopefully be up soon!

New thoughts on photography

When working on getting my website back online, there was a common theme; I didn't have a lot of passerine photos that I was happy with.

Some serious soul searching, and then it came to me: I hadn't been taking that many passerine photos for 2 reasons:

1.) Work

--- well I need money to to take pictures of gulls etc! So lets look at point #2:

2.) The style of photo I wanted (for passerines).


----

So what does style have to do with it? Well keeping my eye peeled on the ABA's Birding Magazine and some nature photography forums taught me something. The gold standard for passerine photos is to use feeders/tapes/water etc. to bring passerines to a beautifully setup perch. Perhaps the best known photographer who does this type of thing is Alan Murphy (texas)

http://www.alanmurphyphotography.com/favorites.htm


He has a video on the very basic idea on how to get a lot of shots like these (he'll fill in the details if you come on a workshop):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN5voUBv8cA


---

annnddd what does this have to do with me? Well I had convinced myself that if I want to take passerine photos, I should be doing these elaborate setups... Which in turn led me to never really spending the time trying to get them!

Lazy? Procrastination? You bet... But I eventually decided that my birding side enjoys taking photos of the birds in the habitats I find them in. And not only that, but I never really actually thought about what are the photos that I (yes, myself) actually enjoy looking at!!!

Seems crazy to not think like this, but there really seems to be 3 types of photos in this world (from my point of view:)

1.   Photos that people think are "good"

2.   Photos that "sell"

3.   and photos that you (or me, in this case) actually really like for some reason or another....


And you know what? In the end, and in my current phase of life, it really is #3 that I need to be focusing on! And then, I'll have the camera out more, and end up with more of those stinkin passerine photos that I'm missing!

So here's phase 1 of the revolution:

Full frame Eastern Phoebe - the tip of Point Pelee - March 21, 2011 (yes!)

When it comes down to it, I just love photos like this. They look a lot better when you can see the full-sized picture and all the detail, but hey, what can you do. 

Rusty Blackbird - 95% of frame - Point Pelee - March 21, 2011 (yes, again!)

Another example. No, the bird isn't full frame. No, the background isn't "clean", no the perch isn't great --- but it's what you can expect for the next while. I left this bird with a happy feeling about getting as close as I did, rather than a strange mix of feelings I have after trying to lure a bird onto a set perch. 

----

So there we go! Recent photography, and some crazy thoughts. Don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with "perch photography" - the results speak for themselves... I'll probably still do it on rare occasions, but I just need to have more fun with it!

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!

Recent musings

Not a lot of birding from me, given the cool weather. Figured it would be a good time to continue working on little projects that need working! (Before the birding craziness begins in less than a month!)

I have some recent photos that I've yet to edit as well...

One update I've managed to do was a quick one to the Redpoll article. Jim Pawlicki sent some great comments on a few things that weren't right! Rather than update the article, I thought it would be more informative to include the comments at the bottom of the article. Check them out here:

http://peregrineprints.com/zzz_Article_Redpolls.htm


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I'm keeping my eyes peeled on the weather for Wednesday and Thursday.. I'm sure things will change (they always do), but somewhere in that time frame should bring 1000+ birds past the Beamer Hawkwatch, including a healthier dose of more eagles, buteos etc. than they've been seeing in recent days.!

Coming to a hawkwatch near you


----------

A few other fun things recently:

Photos of the adult male King Eider in Toronto:

http://alvanbuckley.blogspot.com/2011/03/king-eider.html

---

Robobird? Something to confuse us in the future while birding?

http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/03/25/woah-this-robobird-really-flies-like-a-bird-like-with-wings/

Thanks to my Dad for that one...

If IT happens at Pelee, what is going on at Port Burwell?

Harris's Sparrow - Port Burwell - Mar 24, 2011

With yet another mega-rarity found at Monarch Landing in Port Burwell, I ventured out in that direction in search of birds and good cheer.  While I didn't see any super-sized grackles, there was still other rarities in the area. I had seen the Spotted Towhee in town a few weeks ago, so I decided to give the Harris's Sparrow a try. Obviously I picked it up, after 5-10 minutes of waiting, as it appeared in a large tangle to the right of the garage. (Sunning itself and preening). A nearby Purple Finch was singing away, which was also my first of the year.

Most of the morning was spent at Monarch Landing. I talked to Aaron Allensen for a while, and we saw a pile of birds at his incredible property/feeders. Redpolls, Siskins, Rusty Blackbirds, Waxwings etc. were present. American Robins eating Sumac kept me busy with the camera (more pictures later this week). Aaron told me the Spotted Towhee was seen the previous day, but I didn't spend much time looking for it (I heard multiple Towhees, but didnt actually see any). 

A quick check of the beach in town yielded a few more birds. My first American Pipits of the year were on the beach (5-6 birds), and there were still a few flocks of Tundra Swans out on the lake. The highlight here was two adult Little Gulls were just offshore. NO Bonaparte's Gulls were anywhere to be seen, which was neat. 

Little Gulls (I had much better looks than this picture suggests)

I was tempted to go to Long Point (which I did), then promptly decided I wasn't in the mood to scan distant ducks (in the cold wind) in hopes of finding a Blue-winged Teal or Eurasian Wigeon. Besides, outside of Port Burwell I hit the waterfowl jackpot* anyways!

* Swan Goose outside of Port Burwell in a mostly frozen puddle. 

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!

Spring weather outlook from Environment Canada

Lingering effects of La nina expected to bring more storms in from the USA this spring! 

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/storm_watch_stories3&stormfile=spring_outlook_2011_280211?ref=ccbox_homepage_topstories

From the article:

OntarioWith normal spring temperatures expected for the entire province, much of Ontario should see above normal precipitation amounts, thanks to an active weather season expected for the U.S., which will see more storms track into the Great Lakes basin than usual.

Yes, things are desperate this time of year, but storm systems are typically the cause of rare birds, shorebird groundings and fallout conditions (depending on how and when they hit). More storm systems = more birds, right? 

We can only hope!!!

Chuck-wills-widow from the Tip of Point Pelee in May!

(where else in Canada would you have a sight like this?!)

I've always been excited when April 24th rolls around. Usually by then, there has either been a blast of warm air already, or one is in sight. Introducing the day counter:

40 

days until April 24th! 

Real life bird sightings

My Dad and I spent the day at the Beamer Hawkwatch! Actual birding! Fun birds today:

Common Merganser: 20+ birds
Northern Pintail: ~20 birds (not bad for no water)
~25 Tundra Swans
Eastern Bluebird: overhead migrant
Great Blue Heron: 2 (together, migrants!)
Common Raven (migrant along the cliff edge).

Raptors:

7 Bald Eagles
10+ Red-shouldered Hawks
Rough-legged Hawk

Plus a steady flow of expected raptors, the most numerous being Red-tails and Turkey Vultures. Not a bad day at Beamer for March 15.


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With that said, there was less birds but more action not far away at the Braddock Bay Hawkwatch in NY. They had less than 100 birds, but nailed Golden Eagle, Northern Goshawk and a BLACK VULTURE before the day was done.

At least I can say I was right about the "early" BLVU post a few days ago... Maybe Thursday will bring one into Ontario.

http://www.blog.peregrineprints.com/2011/03/early-migrant-black-vultures.html

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!