On February 8th, a Harris's Sparrow was seen by a feederwatcher on the northern part of the peninsula. This is a pretty good bird for the county (and Ontario in general) and I was really hoping to see it. There was no exact location, which made twitching it challenging. Lucky Arni Stinnissen contacted the homeowner and arranged for a group of birders (Arni, Michael Butler & I) to go see it the following day. I zipped up with my mom on the morning of the 9th and saw the bird just after arriving. I wasn't really expecting to get a county lifer this month, so this was a welcome surprise!
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| - Harris's Sparrow |
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On a non-rairty note, I finally caught up with what had turned into a bit of a yearlist nemisis in Lion's Head.. American Robin. I guess spring is here now 🤔.
Now on to my current highlight of 2020.. On February 18th I heard a commotion in my yard and went to investigate. It seemed like all of the chickadees in my neighbourhood were freaking out in a nearby stand of Cedar Trees. In the past I've found Northern Saw-whet and Eastern Screech Owls & a few hawk species by listening for mobbing songbirds, so I thought it would be worth a look. After spending a few minutes searching my eyes landed on a small, sleeping owl trying to blend into a tree trunk... a Boreal Owl!! I quickly ran home and got my camera (faceplanted in the snow on the way of course) and returned to get a few shots. The owl woke up after 20ish minutes and cleaned it's talons/preened for awhile, then glided off into the forest (maybe tired of being harassed by Blue Jays!). This is one of the rarest birds I've had in my yard and it was also a lifer for me! Pretty amazing experience.
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| - Sleepy Boreal Owl being mobbed by Blue Jay |
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| - Sleepy Boreal Owl |
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| - Awake Boreal Owl |
The next day I was on a walk down my road and saw a dark shape crossing the road ahead of me.. a Fisher. This was very exciting, as it's rare to see Fishers around my area and even more uncommon to get a good view of them. But then the sighting was about to go to epic level.. the Fisher looked up into a nearby tree, where I followed it's gaze and saw a adult Northern Goshawk! The Fisher-goshawk stareoff only last a few seconds, as they both saw me & ran/flew off. You never know what you'll see on a winter walk!
Anyway that's basically it for recent birds.. off to Arizona for a week of birding tomorrow, I'll write a post about my trip after I return.
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