I've always enjoyed October on the Bruce, the biting insects are gone, the days are a nice and cool and it's one of the better months for overall bird numbers. Most of the warblers are gone, but the massive nunbers of waterfowl, blackbirds and sparrows make up for that.
There have been a lot of finches migrating recently, with Pine Siskin stealing the show by far. Some days I've had over 300 flying south over my yard and I hear their calls almost everywhere I go in Bruce. Weird to think that my first Bruce bird for 2020 wasn't until July.. now they are abundant. I saw a term coined "pismig" on Facebook (short for Pine Siskin Migration).. so if you see that in my posts from now on that's what it means..
Anyway on with the post!
- Oct 1
I only birded the yard for about 25 minutes in the morning (as I had to go out), but it was decent and I ended up with 26 species. Highlights were; Blue-headed Vireo, Lincoln's Sparrow, Rusty Blackbird, Tennessee, Orange-crowned and Magnolia Warblers.
I was back home after lunch, but there were hardly any birds around as it was windy and overcast. Around 3pm the wind shifted to north and the sun came out, so I went out for an impromptu skywatch to see what was around. In the hour I spent in my yard I tallied 35 species, which was way more than I was expecting for this time of day. I had a small burst of raptor activity and saw the following;
- 25 Turkey Vultures
- 1 Osprey
- 3 Northern Harriers
- 3 Sharp-shinned Hawks
- 1 Cooper's Hawk
- 1 Red-tailed Hawk
- 7 Bald Eagles
- 1 Merlin
- 1 Peregrine Falcon
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| - Pine Siskim |
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| - Bald Eagle |
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| - Bald Eagles |
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| - Northern Harrier |
Not a bad afternoon!
- Oct 2
I was up at sunrise and out in the yard to find a chilly (7°C) morning waiting for me. Despite the brisk wind out of the north, it was quite a beautiful morning and was mostly sunny. I ended up spending over 4 hours outside, simply because the birding was so good I didn’t want to go in. I ended up with a respectable 56 spices, not bad for my yard in October!
Vismig (short of visible migration. aka birds actively migrating overhead) was very good, totals listed below..
- 160 Canada Geese
- 80 Mallards
- 1 American Black Duck
- 3 Sandhills Cranes
- 7 Common Loons
- 3 Double-crested Cormorants
- 1 Great Blue Heron
- 8 Turkey Vultures
- 3 Northern Harriers
- 5 Sharp-shinned Hawks
- 2 Cooper’s Hawks
- 4 Bald Eagles
- 2 Red-tailed Hawks
- 1 Yellow-bellies Sapsucker
- 4 Northern Flickers
- 1 American Kestrel
- 35 Blue Jays
- 7 Red-breasted Nuthatches
- 65 American Robins
- 12 Cedar Waxwings
- 35 American Pipits
- 14 Purple Finches
- 65 Pine Siskins
- 1 Lapland Longspur
- 2 Chipping Sparrows
- 5 Red-winged Blackbirds
- 410 (!!) Rusty Blackbirds
- 60 Common Grackles
- 1 Nashville Warbler
- 8 Palm Warblers
- 1 Orange-crowned Warbler
- 85 Yellow-rumped Warblers
- 1 Wilson’s Warbler
- 1,244 birds total
Pretty insane for a morning here, and Wilson’s warb was new for the yard yearlist so that was bonus.. I thought I was going to miss Wilson’s as it was getting late in the season.
Some photos from the morning..
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| - Red-tailed Hawk |
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| - Rusty Blackbird |
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| - Great Blue Heron |
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| - One of the White-throated Sparrows that was hopping around my yard all morning. |
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| - Orange-crowned Warbler |
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| - American Robin |
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| - Red-breasted Nuthatches |
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| - Dark-eyed Junco |
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| - Rusty Blackbirds |
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| - Yellow-rumped Warbler |
- Oct 3
Out of yard all day..
- Oct 4
A wet and rainy morning.. Swamp Sparrow, Blue-headed Vireo, some pipits and a Ruffed Grouse.. nothing crazy.
I successfully chased a Loggerhead Shrike in Bruce that afternoon though, so I can’t complain.
- Oct 5
Up at sunrise to one of those crisp fall mornings I love so much. Marginally warmer than the 3rd at 9 degrees, but I was bundled up so it wasn’t that bad. The sun came out around 9am so that warmed things up. Like the 3rd I put in about 4 hours, and while my species total was lower this time (41 vs 56) the birding was still very productive and it was just a fun morning to be out. Vismig was decent again.. with totals listed below..
- 25 Canada Geese
- 2 Common Loons
- 45 Turkey Vultures
- 3 Sharp-shinned Hawks
- 1 Cooper’s Hawk
- 1 Bald Eagle
- 1 Red-shouldered Hawk
- 2 Red-tailed Hawks
- 1 Peregrine Falcon
- 80 European Starlings
- 16 American Robins
- 135 American Pipits
- 22 Purple Finches
- 1 White-winged Crossbill
- 160 Pine Siskins (lots of pismig!)
- 5 Lapland Longspurs
- 1 Eastern Meadowlark (rare for the yard)
- 5 Red-winged Blackbirds
- 25 Rusty Blackbirds
- 90 Common Grackles
- 2 Palm Warblers
- 118 Yellow-rumped Warblers
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| - Red-tailed Hawk |
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| - Bald Eagle |
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| - Peregrine Falcon |
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| - TVs |
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| - Yellow-rumped warb |
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| - Red-shouldered Hawk |
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| - bad Lapland Longspur photo |
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| - Common Loon |
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| - even peregrines gotta poop! |
- Oct 6/7
Not really sure what happened, but I didn’t really bird the yard these days.
- Oct 8
I was up at sunrise, but the sun sure wasn’t! It was overcast all morning with a few brief bands of rain passing overhead, which made for a rather wet and uncomfortable hour of birding. There was still some vismig action though, so that helped me take my mind off the lack of feeling in my fingers. Totals listed below;
- 6 Green-winged Teal
- 3 Sandhill Cranes
- 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
- 1 Horned Lark
- 1 Eastern Bluebird
- 45 American Robins
- 35 American Pipits
- 5 Purple Finches
- 80 Pine Siskins
- 4 Lapland Longspurs
- 140 Red-winged Balckbirds
- 15 Rusty Blackbirds
- 5 Common Grackles
- 3 Palm Warblers
- 120 Yellow-rumped Warbler
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| - Lapland Longspur |
On my way inside a nice rainbow came out, so that was cool..
- Oct 9
Out of yard again..
- Oct 10
An absolutely terrible morning.. rainy with VERY strong west winds. I went outside fot 20 minutes that morning and I only saw 7 birds.. that's individuals too, not species..
- Oct 11
Much better than the previous day, although that was a pretty low bar! It was a sunny morning with wind out of the east, and although the species total was low (29 species) the overall movement was decent. Morning flight mainly consisted of Pine Siskins (much pismig), but there were a few other things mixex in. Totals below;
- 11 Sandhill Cranes
- 2 Turkey Vultures
- 2 Eastern Bluebirds
- 60 American Robins
- 1 American Pipit
- 14 Purple Finches
- 260 Pine Siskins
- 3 American Tree Sparrows (my first of the season)
- 60 Red-winged Blackbirds
- 12 Rusty Blackbirds
- 20 Common Grackles
- 17 Yellow-rumped Warblers
Some pismig photos below
New additions to yard yearlist since my last post;
- Wilson's Warbler
Yard yearlist a October 11th -167
That's it for this post :)
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