The start of my Ontario Big Year is only 2 days away now, pretty crazy! We’ve been lucky with this very mild December, which has no doubt encouraged some of the current rarities to stick around. And what a list of rarities it is!
Currently these are the rares being seen
- Razorbill(s)
- Black-bellied Whistling-duck
- Golden-crowned Sparrow
- Harris’s Sparrow
- Mountain Bluebird
- Varied Thrush
- Townsend’s Solitaire
On top of that there was a Prairie Falcon found in the Durham Region on Tuesday, and while it was seen briefly Wednesday it hasn’t been found since. Fingers crossed it sticks around, but hard to say with a bird like that. Also an apparent Ontario first Arctic Loon was seen in Sault St. Marie on the 26th!! The bird was seen the following day, but after that the bay iced over and it hasn’t been found since. Hopes aren’t high honestly, but definitely something to keep an eye on…
There’s also the Barrie Glaucous-winged Gull, however that hasn’t been seen in over 10 days now despite a lot of people looking…
Anyways to start things off on January first, I’ll be meeting up with Ezra pre dawn and trying for an ambitious plan of attack. The idea is to begin in Niagara and pick up the whistling-duck, Razorbill and maybe King Eider if it’s around. After that we will be making our way towards Toronto to try for the Golden-crowned Sparrow (maybe the Harris’s too if there’s time).
The following day will likely focus on the Mountain Bluebird and whatever else is around. After that we will go for tough wintering birds like Purple Sandpiper and uncommon owls/waterfowl. It will be a whirlwind of a few days for sure! I’m going to try my best for keeping the blog updated… we’ll see how that goes : )
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