Day Two

​We didn’t see quite as many yearbirds today as we did on day one, but that was a pretty crazy day to follow up!

We (myself and Ezra Campanelli) began at the location the Harris’s Sparrow was being seen at just outside of Hamilton. It was snowy and rather blustery when we arrived, but the sparrows didn’t seem to care and there were certainly a lot of them! I think the salt was attracting everything to the side of the road, and at least 100 American Tree Sparrows were hanging around on the shoulder. They only stayed a few seconds before flushing into the adjacent shrubs, so picking through them was difficult. We soon had seen a White-crowned Sparrow, a Song Sparrow and two White-throated Sparrows that were mixed in with them, but no Harris’s. Then a Cooper’s Hawk flew in and did what they do best, scare small birds completely out of their minds. After it flew off and things started reappearing, I noticed the Harris’s Sparrow pop up in a tree right beside us! Ezra was smart and had his camera with him, so he got a few photos. I had left mine in the back seat though, and as I was scrambling to get it the bird took off and didn’t reappear… so here’s one of Ezra’s photos..

- Harris’s Sparrow (credit ~ Ezra)

After that we tried several locations in Hamilton for Harlequin Duck, but no dice. I did add some common birds like Glaucous Gull and Greater Scaup to my list. 

We cut our losses with the duck and headed to the Queenston Docks in Niagara to try for Black-legged Kittiwake. It was still snowing when we arrived, which made viewing a bit harder, but luckily it wasn’t tooo bad and we were able to see a fair number of the gulls that were flying around. Over an hour of scanning produced 5 Little Gulls, close to 1000 Bonaparte’s but no kittiwakes. We then headed up and had a look off of Adam Beck, Whirlpool and the control gates above the falls. Highlights including;  6 Iceland Gulls, 16 Greater Black-backed Gulls, and yearbirds Lesser Black-backed Gull and Canvasback. I didn’t take any photos today as it was snowing and I just was more focused on seeing birds, so you’ll have to use your imagination for this post : )

I think checked the Discord rare bird alert and saw that the kittiwake was seen again in Queenston… Grr… anyways we drove back and started scanning again. This time we were in luck, after 40 minutes of standing in the cold beside the crowd of fishermen (who are always present at the docks there) Ezra spotted the kittiwake floating down the river in a group of bonaparte’s. Our main targets for the day were the gull & the sparrow, so 2/2! 

We briefly tried chasing some Greater White-fronted Geese that were found in the area, but we dipped after spending an hour searching. A bird we will definitely have more chances at, so not a big deal.

The day ended with watching the gull flyby at Niagara-On-The-Lake, which is always an enjoyable, albeit cold, experience. We estimated around 8000 Bonaparte’s Gulls flying by, and among them we saw 24 Little Gulls (my highest personal count) and a Black-legged Kittiwake.. which was likely the same juvenile that we saw at Queenston earlier in the day.

- Black-legged Kittiwake (photo credit- Ezra)

- Me scoping gulls at Niagara-on-The-Lake 

The year list is now sitting at 68, not a bad count for day 2!

While scrolling through photos on eBird today Nathan Hood stopped a Tufted Duck that had been labeled as a Lesser Scaup. The report was from December 31st Kingston, and when Nathan found it (around noon) it was too late to try for it today. So anyways that’s tomorrow’s plan! We leave Ezra’s place in Hamilton at 4am to arrive there at sunrise, then we’ll spend the day searching for the duck. If we see it early we will try for Ottawa specialties like Grey Partridge and Barrow’s Goldeneye. Spending tomorrow night in Ottawa before returning on Tuesday…. Hopefully will be a successful trip!