Peninsula Birding ~ November 17

Black-headed Grosbeak and Tropical Kingbird in Algoma, Variegated Flycatcher in Brooklin, rare geese in Ottawa... rarities all over the province ~ yet nothing in Bruce. I figured there must be at least a few rarities kicking around on the peninsula, so I decided to spend a day hunting for rare passerines.

On the evening of the 16th it started snowing, but I wasn't too concerned as it called to stop in a few hours. But when I headed outside in the morning I was surprised to see a few inches of snow on everything ~ including my car😕. Oh the joys of winter birding...  My yard was fairly quiet bird wise, just the usual characters at the feeder and a lone Common Merganser flying overhead. I then grabbed my gear and some food (apparently that's a necessary thing to take), dusted off the car and headed out.

*A quick note I should probably throw in. The first snow of the year is often a great time to go birding. Often when there is a sudden cold snap and snow after a period of warm weather (like last weeks 20°C temps!) rare birds will be forced to feeders, the sides of highways etc to find food.. thus making them easier to find. So I was actually quite pleased with the weather, I'm just lazy about cleaning off the car!

Anyway first I headed down my road to a neighbour's place, as they have feeders are sometimes there's a good bird or two around. This wasn't the case when I went though.. the only birds I saw were chickadees and a Hairy Woodpecker. I was driving out of their place when a gray bird with white flashes on it's wings flew in front of my car, a Northern Mockingbird! I quickly  grabbed my camera and jumped out to try and refind it ~ which turned out to be an easy task as the bird was perched in a tree beside me just looking at me. I watched it for a few minutes as it checked out several nearby berry bushes. Mockingbirds are fairly rare in Bruce, with 1-3 records annually. This past spring was an exception though, as there seemed to be a mocker invasion in late May, with at least 10 different birds seen around the county. This was the first one in the county since June however and it was a patch lifer for me, so I was pretty happy. Not a Tropical Kingbird, but I'll take it!

- Northern Mockingbird 




As I was on my way out, 2 large raptors glided right overhead ~ Golden Eagles! I whipped my camera up, pressed the shutter button.. and... nothing.. my battery was dead and my spare was in the trunk #$&*!. I enjoyed an eye melting view as they passed directly overhead no more than 20 meters up, without a doubt one of the best views I've had of this species. I'll include one of my golden photos below just because.

- Golden Eagle ~ Spring 2020


Next I headed up to the Lion's Head Harbour to see what I could find. Besides being a great spot to find waterfowl, there are often lingering robins and waxwings in the berry trees beside the harbour. I try to check it frequently in the winter months in case a Varied Thrush or a Townsend's Solitaire shows up. When I arrived I decided to scope the harbour first, before moving on to look for songbirds. There were lots of Canada Geese present (around 1000) and amoung them I picked out the 2 Ross's Geese found by Ethan Meleg yesterday. Always a nice bird to see..

- Ross's and Canada Geese



I spent the next half hour walking the area adjacent to the harbour looking for rares.. unfortunately no Varied Thrushes were around, so I had to settle for 2 Hermit Thrushes and an American Robin. 

- Hermit Thrush 


There were also some Snow Buntings along the beach.. 

- Snow Bunting 




Also this Horned Grebe.

- Horned Grebe



Next I headed up the coast towards Dyer's Bay, making several stops along the way to scan the lake/look for songbirds. At one point a greyish bird flew up from the shoulder of the road and disappeared into a stand of cedars. I slammed on the brakes and spent the next 10 minutes looking.. but no luck. When it flew up I was thinking Townsend's Solitaire.. but it probably wasn't. Doh.

Dyer's Bay was quiet.. some Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a few flocks of Common Redpolls and some American Tree Sparrows. 

- Common Redpoll





A nice Rough-legged Hawk flew over me on Dyer's Bay rd and allowed me to get a few shots off.
- Rough-legged Hawk 


The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet, the only real highlight was a pure (!) flock of 5 Hoary Redpolls. The view was fairly brief and I only got photos of 2 of the birds, but it was still awesome. This fall has been great for hoary polls in Bruce, they've been an almost daily occurrence since late October. 

- Hoary Redpoll 



And that was my day! Nothing insanely rare, but it was a fun day of November birding.


Also had this Northern Flying Squirrel at my feeder in the evening. 




Yardbirding - Oct 28 - Nov 8

 - Oct 28

A snipe on my road was the only highlight of the day



- Oct 29

A fairly quiet morning in the yard, highlights were;  Winter Wren, Evening Grosbeak, Common Redpoll and Northern Cardinal.

- Evening Grosbeak


- Oct 30

North winds were forecasted all day, so my hopes were high for some new birds. I was out in the yard at sunrise.. and at -2°C it certainly felt like late October! As is usual for late fall here, morning flight didn't really get going until after 8am. I spotted a rather late Nashville Warbler flitting around the nearby goldenrod, so that was good start to the day.

Around 8:30 a flock of 5 Red Crossbills zipped over, a new bird for the yard this year and  what I hoped was the start to the morning finch movement. It was just too dark for photos, so I had to settle for crappy backlit views. Then the wet sleet started to come down and forced me inside.. oh the joys of fall. Luckily it only lasted 20 minutes, so I went back out and resumed my watch. I'd only been out for a few minutes when I heard a Pine Grosbeak, another yard FOY. I whipped my camera up and managed to get a few shots off as it flew over. Not the best photos, but you can tell what it is! Common Redpolls and Pine Siskins were moving and I ended up with about 100 of each. I also saw a few whiteish redpolls among the commons, but the views were just too brief to call a Hoary.

Eastern Bluebird, Rusty Blackbirds and an Eastern Meadowlark were also highlights.

Around 11:00 a raptor flight started, with a few Bald Eagles, Rough-legged Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks heading south. The sun decided to come out around 11:30, so that warmed me up a bit. Then I looked up & Bam! Golden Eagle. I had been hoping for a golden for the past week, so I was happy to nail it. I normally get some in March/April, but I totally missed out this past spring. Shortly after that 2 more goldens flew over together, followed by a 4th around 12:30, not a bad count for here! I also had 2 more Red Crossbills go by, which I managed to get horrible record shots of.. 

I ended my watch around 1pm, when activity started to die off. I ended up with 44 species, a solid day here in late Oct. Full morning flight/hawkwatch list below;

- 14 Sandhill Cranes

- 4 Golden Eagles

- 3 Northern Harriers

- 8 Bald Eagles 

- 2 Red-shouldered Hawks

- 10 Red-tailed Hawks 

- 10 Rough-legged Hawks

- 600 American Crows

- 1 Eastern Bluebird

- 16 American Robins

-  1 American Pipit

- 3 Evening Grosbeaks

- 2 Pine Grosbeaks

- 1 Purple Finch

- 79 Common Redpolls

- 7 Red Crossbills 

- 120 Pine Siskins 

- 4 Snow Buntings 

- 1 Eastern Meadowlark 

- 1 Rusty Blackbird

- 8 Red-winged Blackbirds

- 2 Common Grackles


Some photos from the day 



- Red Crossbills

- Golden Eagle in a flurry 
- Pine Grosbeak 

- Golden Eagles

- Golden Eagle 

- Golden Eagles

- Red-shouldered Hawk 


- Rough-legged Hawk and Common Raven

- Nashville Warbler 


I'm sure you're sick of my bad photography, so here's a sharp Pine Siskin..

- Nov 1

A lone Pine Grosbeak was the only real highlight of the day.


- Nov 2

Strong west wind and rain..  a few flyover black ducks were the only cool things.


- Nov 3

Snow Buntings, Evening Grosbeaks, White-winged Crossbills & Common Redpolls were the highlights of the morning. Also 2 Belted Kingfishers in the afternoon ~ definitely a surprise

- Evening Grosbeaks 


- Nov 4

Birding down on the shore on Lake Huron all day. 


- Nov 5

Some more yard finches.. lots of Evening Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls, also Rough-legged Hawk and an actual good view of a White-winged Crossbill (not a backlit flyover like normal).

- White-winged Crossbill 


- Nov 6th-9th

Away from home for a quick visit to Southern ON. A mega rarity was in my yard when I was gone no doubt.


- Nov 10

Crazy warm temperatures, like it's been for the past week here.. 17°C in the mornin... in November! (For comparison, last year it was -18°C in early Nov). Strong south wind really killed the activity here and I only saw 16 species on my morning watch. Quality over quantity however, as one of my first birds of the day was a flyover House Finch! I know, I know.. not a super exciting for most people, but it was a yard lifer for me & one of the most overdue species for my place (surpassed only by my nemesis... dumb Green Heron), so I was quite satisfied. The finch gods were with me I guess, as the next bird I had was a Hoary Redpoll, a new bird for the year.


New additions to yard yearlist since my last post;

- Red Crossbill

- Pine Grosbeak 

- Golden Eagle 

- House Finch

- Hoary Redpoll 

  Yard yearlist at November 10th -179

















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