This past weekend I spent over 17 hours at Van Wagner's Beach in Hamilton, staring out at the lake in search of yearbirds. Long story short... I didn't add anything new! However, it was still a fun couple of days spent with a bunch of friends who I haven't in ages.
On Saturday the winds were decently strong out of the east (around 25kph), making it a promising day for lakewatching. Being a weekend, there were well over 50 birders gathered behind the Lakeland Centre, which always piques the curiosity of passing walkers and cyclists. It must be interesting for those not in the know, seeing a massive crowd of people bundled up in cold weather gear and looking out as the seemingly empty lake with an array of expensive scopes and cameras. Most of them mistake the scopes for cameras and ask what we are taking photos of, one person asked if we were taking photos of whales....
Anyways the day was quite active for birds, with some highlights including;
- 45 Surf Scoters
- 4 Long-tailed Ducks
- 8 Parasitic Jaegers
- 5 unidentified jaeger sp. (One was likely a LTJA but was just out of reach)
- 2 juvenile Black-legged Kittiwakes
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
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| - Lesser Black-backed Gull |
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| - Food acquired |
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| - Black-legged Kittiwake |
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| - Black-legged Kittiwake |
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| - Another, just in case you needed more |
The following day the wind was quite a bit stronger (gusting over 50kph), and when I arrived with Alessandra just after 7:30am there were only a few birders hunkered beside the building. Things started off very active, with a juv Black-legged Kittiwake and a Parasitic Jaeger close to shore. Shortly after that 2 adult Black-legged Kittiwakes shot by together! It is very rare to get adult birds here in Ontario, so having 2 at once was quite a treat. I got a brief glace at a phalarope out over the water, but then it disappeared behind a wave and wasn't seen again...
After around 11am the activity died down, and the rest of the morning/afternoon passed without any major highlights. A bunch of my friends were there though, so we just hung out and goofed around a bit... lakewatching makes you crazy sometimes.
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| - Hamilton Lakewatching |
Peak rarity season in the fall tends to be from mid-late October to mid-November, so hopefully things pick up soon!
In rarity news there was a one observer wonder Couch's/Tropical Kingbird in Ottawa and a Say's Pheobe in Thunder Bay this week.... Grrr...
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| - Peregrine Falcons |
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