-April 29
There was fairly strong southeast wind overnight, however there was also a large rain system passing over southern Ontario.. which seemed to ground the migrants before they made it to Bruce in numbers.
I got up at 6am and since it wasn't raining, I went out for a some yard birding. I stayed out until 7am, when it started to rain heavily... It was a quiet morning, but I did have my first Pine Warbler of the year fly over.
The rest of the day was dead for birds besides a good sized flock (40) of Rusty Blackbirds that flew over in the evening.
Now on to a non-yard highlight.. in the afternoon my dad had to go out for supplies and he offered to let me do a bit of birding on the way, so of course I tagged along. For my on-route birding destination I picked the Oliphant shoreline, which has been a good rarity magnet in the past. Since it had been raining was hoping that some shorebirds had been grounded on the shoreline. My hunch was right and as we came up to the Oliphant Fen Nature Preserve (the favourite haunt of the 2018 Reddish Egret), I was happy to find a huge flock of yellowlegs foraging in the shallows. After a quick scan, I had turned up 70 Lesser Yellowlegs, 50 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Solitary Sandpipers and.. a Long-billed Dowitcher! The dowitcher was a Bruce lifer for me and only the 5th record for the county, so it was pretty exciting..
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| - yellowlegs & Long-billed Dowitcher |
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| - Long-billed Dowitcher and Greater Yellowlegs |
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| - Long-billed Dowitcher |
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| - Solitary Sandpiper |
I also got my first Pectoral Sandpiper of the year there, although it didn't pose for pictures.
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| - Horrible Pectoral Sandpiper picture |
- Pine Warbler
Yard yearlist total at April 29th - 88
.......
- April 30
I woke up at 6:20am to find a damp, raining morning tempting me to ignore my alarm and go back to sleep. A Hermit Thrush was singing outside my window though, so I figured I should go check my yard for new arrivals.. Of which there was only one, in the form of an Eastern Towhee. It was a yard yearbird, so better than nothing.
The rain stopped around noon, so I biked around my neighbourhood to look for new migrants. It turned out to be surprisingly decent and I picked up a few FOY birds. Highlights were; Peregrine Falcon, Brewer's Blackbird, Brown Thrasher and a foraging flock of warblers containing Pine, Yellow-rumped, Palm, Nashville and Northern Waterthrush. Not bad for a quick outing!
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| - Brewer's Blackbird (male) |
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| - Brewer's Blackbird (female) |
The yard was quiet for the rest of the day besides a flyover Eastern Meadowlark.
New additions to yard yearlist;
- Eastern Meadowlark
- Eastern Towhee
Yard yearlist total at April 30th - 90
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- May 1
May is here!! But the cold north winds don't really make it feel like May. I got up at 6:30am for some yard birding, but there really wasn't anything of note. I guess the highlight was a flyover Sandhill Crane.
I was fairly busy all day and didn't do much birding, but I did see a Black-and-white Warbler in the evening.
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| - Black-and-white Warbler |
- Black-and-white Warbler
Yard yearlist total at May 1st - 91
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- May 2
Finally a day with south wind that wasn't raining in the morning! I got up at 6:00am and went out in the yard for a skywatch. It was a decent morning and I had 40 species by 8:00am. Highlights were;
- 1 Pied-billed Grebe (calling from the marsh down my road)
- 1 Common Loon
- 1 American Bittern (calling from within the forest!?)
- 1 Northern Harrier
- 2 American Kestrals
- 1 Brown Thrasher
The thrasher was driving me nuts as it was singing right beside me, which made it hard to hear. It also did a perfect Blue-headed Vireo note a few times.
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| - Brown Thrasher |
I had a Caspian Tern (3rd yard record) and an Osprey fly over in the afternoon, but besides that it was quiet. .
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| - Osprey |
- Ameican Bittern
- Caspian Tern
- Brown Thrasher
Yard yearlist total at May 2nd - 94
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- May 3
Another early morning, I was up at 6:00am for a skywatch. The weather was nice (6°C and sunny) and when I went inside at 8:00am I was up to a respectable 45 species. Highlights were;
- 1 Wood Duck
- 1 Killdeer
- 1 Wilson's Snipe
- 3 Common Loons
- 1 American Bittern
- 1 Barn Swallow
- 1 Eastern Towhee
- 2 Eastern Meadowlarks
- 5 Rusty Blackbirds
- 1 Ovenbird
- 2 Black-throated Green Warbler
- 1 White-crowned Sparrow
that was it for the day's birding, but I did have one of the local Broad-winged Hawks fly over for photos.
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| - Broad-winged Hawk |
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- Ovenbird
- White-crowned Sparrow
Yard yearlist total at May 3rd - 97
...........
Well the next week doesn't look very promising.. mainly north winds and on Friday it calls to be 2°C! (high of 2!). Anyway we'll just have to wait and see what happens, but yet again I bet things will be late.
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