On the last day of March, the winds were forecasted to be very strong out of the southwest, with temperatures in the double digits. I was planning on leaving the Bruce for some southern Ontario anyways that day, so I decided to go to The Bluff in Huron County on the way down and spend a few hours doing a vismig (visible migration) watch on the shoreline there. I didn't have very high hopes, I just wanted to see some migration honestly so I wasn't being picky. Last year I was there on March 30th with some friends and we had 50 species, so I was curious to see how close I could come to that number.
I awoke at 5am that morning, much to the horror of my body, which selfishly wanted to forget about the birds and sleep in until late morning. In May I will have to be up at this time almost every day to bird at Point Pelee, so I guess you could call this practice. Though I'm not sure if one should ever strive to be a master of being awake while sleep deprived. Anyways I arrived at the Bluff shortly after sunrise, and did it ever feel like spring! I think saying it was t-shirt weather would be a bit of an exaggeration, but at 15 degrees it was a welcome change from the cold weather on the weekend. I was joined for the morning watch by local Huron County birder (yes, birders actually live there!) Dana Latour, as well as Brandon Holden. The wind picked up as the morning went on, but jeez it was STRONG. The majority of the time it was at least 30pkh, but as the morning progressed it gusted close to 90kph! This made holding the scope stable very difficult, and ear birding was next to impossible unless the birds were right beside us. Despite the challenging conditions we saw 45 species, which is honestly more than I was expecting. We called it quits around 1pm, as the activity was dying off and the temperature was falling... making it less enjoyable to stand out in the wind. You can see the whole eBird list here, but the highlights were;
- 9 Tundra Swans
- 18 Blue-winged Teal
- 178 Northern Pintails
- 52 Green-winged Teal
- 1 Canvasback
- 1 White-winged Scoter
- 4 Bonaparte's Gulls
- 2 Glaucous Gulls
- 2 Common Loons
- 3 Merlins
- 2 Eastern Meadowlarks
Some photos...
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| - Northern Pintails |
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| - Bonaparte's Gull |
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| - Tundra Swans |
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| - Blue-winged Teal |
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| - Merlin |
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| - Glaucous Gull |
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| - Northern Pintails |
After The Bluff, I went birding around Huron for a bit with Dana in search of waterfowl. We visited several sewage lagoons... But it was pretty quiet except for some Ruddy Ducks and Canvasbacks.
On the way to Hamilton (where I was staying at Ezra's), I stopped briefly to pick up a Wilson's Snipe that had been reported earlier. Before I even got out of the car I heard it calling from the wetland beside the car. Now yes, I know I will see tons of snipe this year... But I didn't want to end March 1 bird behind Josh Vandermeulen's 2012 record setting pace... silly I know : )
April Fools Day was spent driving around southwestern Ontario with Ezra, conducting a "sewage lagoon blitz" in hopes of finding a rarity. Oh the lovely, scenic places we birders end up at. It was a cold day with scattered flurries throughout, making birding a rather unpleasant activity. Long story short we didn't find too much besides the usual ducks, though not for lack of trying. A few Northern Shrikes were the main highlights, but otherwise it was pretty darn quiet.
In the evening I dropped Ezra off in Hamilton and drove to Queenston Heights in Niagara, where I hoped to cross paths with those cursed Black Vultures. For the past few days they had been roosting on the Canada side of the river and has been relatively easy to see, so my hopes were high. Ezra had been the previous day and saw them, so it seemed like the curse of the big year Black Vultures may have finally been lifted. Almost immediately after pulling up, I saw around 70 vultures sitting in the trees alongside the river on the Ontario side, so I whipped out my scope and started looking through them. Wham, two Black Vultures... Oh, redemption is sweet. I knew I would cross paths with one eventually, but frankly it was getting a bit annoying driving back to Niagara to keep trying for them. As I was watching the vultures I got a notification on my phone that Vincent Fyson had just found a Pink-footed Goose in Ottawa... But I shall save that story for my next post (coming in the next day or two... whenever I find the time/energy)
My Ontario Yearlist @ April 1st - 166
Josh Vandermeulen's yearlist at the end of March, 2012 - 166
Jeremy Bensette's yearlist at the end of March, 2017 - 160
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