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!
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| - 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.
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| - 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..
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| - 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.
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| - Hermit Thrush |
There were also some Snow Buntings along the beach..
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| - Snow Bunting |
Also this Horned Grebe.
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| - 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.
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| - Common Redpoll |
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| - 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.
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| - 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.
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