Chronicles of an Ontario Birder: Yardbirding

Yardbirding - September review

I haven't updated the blog in a bit, so I'm going to try and get a few new posts out in the next couple days before I get backlogged. My last yardbirding post was on the 6th of September, so I'll go from there.

Since this post is covering a month instead of a few days, I'm only going to mention the noteworthy days.

- Sept 11

I got up at sunrise to a nice sunny morning, even though it was a bit on the chilly side (9°C). The birding was fairly quiet until around 8am, when a few warblers started to trickle overhead in morning flight. The predominant warb of the morning was Tennessee, with about 15 seen. A lone Blackpoll Warbler cruised over, which was actually my first one of 2020! A few other highlights included of the morning flight were; Blackburnian Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Bobolink, Indigo Bunting and a White-winged Crossbill.

- Blackpoll warbler

The best bird of the morning came a bit later though, when I heard a weird honk and looked up to see 3 Snow Geese Fly over. This was another yearbird and only the 2nd time I've had these white geese in the yard.

- Snow Geese

- Sept 12

Another sunny morning, but a bit warmer than the previous day (13°C) and winds out of the southeast this time. A Solitary Sandpiper flew over just after I stepped outside, so that was a nice way to start the day. Morning flight was decent, with a solid flight of warblers passed overhead heading east. Bay-breasted was the most abundant warbler this time, followed by Tennessee. I also had my first Palm Warblers of the fall.

Morning flight Totals below;

- 25 Purple Finches

- 1 Ovenbird

- 11 Tennessee Warblers

- 4 Nashville Warblers

- 4 American Redstarts

- 9 Cape May Warblers

- 30 Bay-breasted Warblers

- 1 Magnolia Warbler

- 1 Blackburnian Warbler

- 3 Blackpoll Warblers

- 2 Black-throated Blue Warblers

- 2 Palm Warblers

- 3 Yellow-rumped Warblers

- 4 Black-throated Green Warblers

- Tennessee Warbler

- Black-throated Green Warbler

- Blackburnian Warbler

- Palm Warbler

- Sept 17

Fairly quiet besides a Solitary Sandpiper (my 6th of the fall) and my first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the season. I also had a late Bobolink fly over making it's "bink" call..

- Bobolink

Also 2 Eastern Screech-owls calling that evening.

- Sept 18

A rather frigid morning with wind from the north, which although is good for birding ~ it isn't really my favourite weather for skywatching (aka standing in one spot waiting for the sun to finally crest the treeline and warm me up). The birding was pretty good and I managed to see 49 species in a few hours. Highlights listed below;

- 1 American Wigeon

- 4 Northern Pintails

- 5 American Black Ducks

- 1 Common Nighthawk

- 3 Common Loons

- 1 Sharp-shinned Hawks

- 5 Bald Eagles

- 2 Broad-Winged Hawks

- 1 Red-tailed Hawk

- 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker (only my 2nd one this year)

- 5 American Kestrals

- 45 Purple Finches

- 1 White-winged Crossbill

- 1 Rusty Blackbird (first of season)

- 1 Ovenbird (singing!)

- a Scarlet Tanager that was chilling in the yard

- Red-bellied Woodpecker

- Sept 26

It was a rather quiet day for morning flight/general activity - but I did see my first Orange-crowned Warbler of the year, as well as some American Pipits and a Northern Parula.

- Orange-crowned Warbler

- Sept 28

The first birds I saw after I stepped outside were some Ring-necked Ducks flying over... not a bad way to start the day. Morning flight was comprised of Yellow-rumped Warblers and American Pipits (about 80 of each), but little else. There was a lingering Least Flycatcher in the yard though, plus 3 vireo species.. Red-eyed, Philadelphia and Blue-headed.

Later that afternoon I saw an adult Peregrine Falcon cruise over, which is always a highlight!

- Sept 30

It rained heavily all night and into the morning, so I actually slept in for once. The rain ceased around noon and the sun came out, so I slipped outside to take advantage of the good weather before another band of rain rolled in. In the past I've found these cold, rainy fall days can make for excellent birding in my yard, as migrating species are sometimes forced down by the rain into less than ideal habitat (examples from previous years include meadowlarks, Savannah and Clay-colored Sprarrows. Those 3 species are all rarities in my yard, as they prefer more open habitats like fields).

Anyway almost immediately after I stepped outside I noticed a brown bird hopping among the grass in my front yard.. a Lapland Longspur. I've had longspurs here before, but they have all been brief views of birds flying over so I was stoked to have such good views of one. It even put on a show for me and started hunting some insects.

- Lapland Longspur

After I had taken way too many longspur photos (is that even possible?..), I took a walk around my yard to see what else was around. There were some sparrows feeding under a stand of apple trees, including a Lincoln's and my first Swamp Sparrow for the yard this year. Another highlight was a first year Indigo Bunting that I flushed from a stand of goldenrod, perhaps my latest record of this species in Bruce. Just before it started raining again I saw 2 Peregrine Falcons and an Osprey glide overhead.. not a bad hour of birding!