Last Friday (November 5) a birder in Tobermory thought they may have seen a Vermillion Flycatcher in the townsite area. Word got out to the local birding community on Sunday, and a search team consisting of Ethan Meleg and Arni Stinnissen raced up with hopes of refinding it. Unfortunately I was working all day, and due to the time change sunset is now just after 5pm... which did not give me time to get there. In the afternoon received a text that they had refound the bird... However it was not a flycatcher... It was an immature male Summer Tanager. This was a relief for me, as I already have Summer Tanager for Bruce (in my yard no less!) so I didn't feel as bad about missing it. Summers have been seen in the county 5 times before, so it is by no means a common bird, however it's a bird that will definitely show up again one day. I wasn't really sure if I would go for it another day or not... I'm not trying for a yearlist this year and its a bit of a drive to get up there... but on the other hand its a gorgeous bird and I didn't have any good photos of the species. The decision was made easy for me when my workday ended an hour early on Monday, leaving me with plenty of time to drive up before darkness. It was quite an easy chase really, I located the said bird in less than 5 minutes after arriving. It looked quite content in its new home, a row of fruit trees (mainly apples) in a nice sheltered area of the town. A very photogenic bird too, it barely acknowledged my presence during the 15 minutes I spent there.
In other news you can subscribe to my blog again! the previous subscription service shut down back in the summer, and I finally set up a replacement today. It's on the upper right hand side of the screen if you want it : )
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| - First year male Summer Tanager |
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