September 16th started out normally, with me heading to work at MacGregor Point... unaware of the great birding day that lay ahead. Heck I only had my backup binoculars in the car, as I really wasn't planning on doing any birding. The morning proceeded without any major excitement, but then around 11:00am I started getting texts from birders I know. They basically all said "chasing the wheatear??", to which I responded with "wait, what wheatear!?". A quick look on the eBird alerts showed me that a Northern Wheatear had been found by Miriam and Waren Oudejans, in their yard by Owen Sound.
Among species that breed in North America wheatears have a unique range migration route. The species core range is across northern Eurasia, but they also breed in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska and Arctic Canada. Breeders from Alaska and the Yukon (of the subspecies oenanthe) reach Africa by migrating westward across the whole of Asia and the Middle East, whereas the leucorhoa subspecies (the ones we get here in Ontario) from eastern Canada make epic trans-Atlantic flights eastward. They are one of the few songbird species that breed in North America but winter in the Old World. They are quite rare in southern Ontario, as we only get the occasional wayward wheatear that for some reason or another flys south instead of east. There is normally one every few years in the province, but often they are in far northern Ontario or are only one-day-wonders. Last year was quite sensational, with 3 wheatears seen in the province in the span of a few weeks. I didn't manange to see any of them as I was busy at the time, so I wasn't going to pass up the chance for redemption, especially since it was only an hours drive away.
Obviously I was fairly distracted for the remainder of the day, as I was trying to calculate just how fast I could get over there... without speeding of course : )
Long story short, shift ended and I drove up to Sauble, where I met my mom who decided to come along for the chase. She brought my binoculars and camera, as it would have sucked going for such a cool bird and not getting photos. An hour later we had arrived at the destination, which was devoid of other birders and the homeowners, but luckily not the bird (I couldn't leave you in suspense any longer). It was basically that fast though, stepped out of the car and under 20 seconds later it popped up on a fence post. I found a spot to watch it, a nice shady patch of grass hidden under a tree, and settled in for the next 45 minutes. Definitely one of the more cooperative rarities I have seen, it spent the entire time hunting insects along the fenceline beside me, sometimes coming as close as 15 feet away. It's foraging style reminded me a lot of a bluebird, sitting waiting for insects, then diving after one before returning to the fence again. A small flock of Palm Warblers kept it company, which was cool to watch as they were hunting in a similair manner. Just a magical experience, not much else to say about it!
And now the photos!
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| The bird of the day, the mighty Palm Warbler! |
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| While I watching the warblers I also saw this thing |
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| Northern Wheatear |
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| One of my favorite photos at the moment |
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| Lookin' cute |
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| Another Palm |
On my way home I stopped at Oliphant to have a quick scan for shorebirds. It was fairly quiet at first then... wham! Juvie Long-billed Dowitcher hanging out with a few yellowlegs. Long-bills are rare in Bruce (12ish records I think?) and this was only my 2nd, so I was quite pleased. A great way to end a unexpected and exciting day of birding! It cooperated very well for photos too, and I managed my best yet photos of the species.
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| Long-billed Dowitcher - Oliphant Fen |
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