Algonquin Park & Home

This post is coming a bit late, but I was quite tired last night and didn't have the energy haha. 

Yesterday we drove back to Hamilton from Ottawa, stopping "on the way" at Algonquin Provincial Park to look for boreal specialties. On our way to Algonquin we picked up Pine Siskins and a pair Red Crossbill that were foraging on the side of the road. There don't seem to be a ton of reds around this winter, so it was nice to pick it up early. 

- Male Red Crossbill

- Female Red Crossbill

- The same male

Our first stop in the park was the trail system around the logging museum near the east gate. Here we were joined by our friend Quinten Wiegersma, who is currently working in the park and has all the hot leads on local birds there (His blog Here). Our main target here was Black-backed Woodpecker, as there were multiple recent reports and Quinten had had them there in the past week. After walking around for over a half hour we hadn't seen any woodpeckers besides hairy... although we did see 2 Canada Jays and White-winged Crossbills, which were yearbirds and our first "Algonquin specialty".

- Canada Jay

- Canada Jay

- White-winged Crossbill

Next we went to the Visitor Centre, where Evening and Pine Grosbeaks were meant to be a sure thing. We walked out to the viewing platform on the back of the building and looked down at the feeders... and saw a single Dark-eyed Junco and lots of Blue Jays, but not a single finch. 

The rest of the day was spent around the Mizzy Lake area, where a 7km walk produced nothing new besides Ruffed Grouse. Quinten thought he heard a black-backed briefly, then we saw a woodpecker fly off in the distance, however we never were able to find it again. At this point we got a message that the Black-throated Gray Warbler that was seen in Durham Region in December was refound earlier in the day. Unfortunately it was too late in the day for us to go for it. There were some nice mammals on the walk though, we enjoyed good views of moose and beaver.

- Ruffed Grouse

After that we made our way back towards Hamilton with not much else to note. Not as productive as the previous days, but not every day can be great.

Today I drove back to the Bruce as I am the compiler for the Saugeen Shores Christmas Bird Count. It was a snowy and windy most of the day and there weren't many birds to speak of. The Razorbills reappeared back in Niagara while I was doing the count.... Not the best timing ever : (

Tomorrow I am leaving the Bruce at 4am to be at Niagara for sunrise, where I will hopefully get Razorbill fairly quickly. After that I will zip over to Durham and hopefully cross paths with the Black-throated Gray Warbler. 

Tomorrow night I leave for a 5 day whirlwind northern Ontario Trip with Ezra and William Konze, during which we hope to pick up a number of uncommon boreal birds and some lingering rarities. I will say more about that in my next post, stay tuned!

Also if you haven’t heard of them check out the Huron Fringe Birding Festival! The festival runs field trips and bird talks during the last two weeks of May around Bruce County and is always a blast : )

Link here