Falling behind here with keeping my content up to date! My last post summarized the northern Ontario trip from Jan 7-10, but I didn't mention anything after that. Just so I don't get ever more behind, I am going to briefly go over the highlights of this past week.
- Jan 11
Originally Ezra and I were thinking of searching for the Burrowing Owl in Toronto again for the day, however the weather forecast wasn't exactly enticing us to spend a long day beside the lake. As an alternative, we decided to drive down towards Essex and Chatham-kent, two counties in extreme southwestern Ontario which are among the best birding regions in the province. There weren't any particularly rare birds being seen, and from a big year perspective it may not have been the best way to spend the day (vs freezing in the cold looking for the previously mentioned rare owl)...but when we pulled up to the Jack Miner's Bird Sanctuary in Essex just after sunrise, and were greeted by a calm, sunny day and the excited calls of the flocks of Canada Geese that passed overhead, it felt like the right decision. Our target bird here, a Greater White-fronted Goose, had been seen consistently at this location for over a week. Finding it was made slightly more difficult by flocks of Canada Geese that were arriving from all directions and landing in the field in front of us, which meant there were constantly new birds to look through. Around ten minutes later I found it near the back of the flock with my spotting scope, a slightly smaller goose, with a brownish-grey body, an orange bill and a large white area of feathering on its face, the characteristic that gives this species its name. My phone died just as I was about to take a photo through my scope, so I'll include one of my older photos of one.
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| - View from Jack Miners |
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| - GWFG, Owen Sound, 2019 |
The remainder of the morning was spent touring the onion fields area around Point Pelee National Park, where despite our best efforts we couldn't turn up a Ring-necked Pheasant. Pheasant would probably make the top of my list for annoying birds that you have to see on a big year. Native to Europe, they were introduced to North America primarily for the reason of giving hunters something to shoot. In Ontario they were historically (mid 1900s) quite common across the province, however in the last few decades they have almost disappeared. I've seen pheasants in Bruce, however the issue with this species is its "countability", especially for big years. There is quite a large grey area here though, as what's wild is rather subjective in this case. however for a big year you should really see a pheasant from one of the remaining "wild" populations, of which there is one located by Point Pelee and another on Manitoulin Island. These populations are seemingly sustainable, meaning that they will continue breeding successfully without new birds being released each season. Anyways we drove all of the Mersea Rd concessions around the onion fields, but ultimately failed in finding our target. We did see a few FOY (First Of Year) birds however, including Brown-headed Cowbird and Horned Lark (real exciting eh?). There were also Northern Harriers and a Snowy Owl hanging around in the fields.
Next we drove to Kieth McLean Conservation Area, a small field with a wetland area located directly outside of Rondeau Provincal Park. There had been a Nelson's Sparrow seen here fairly consistently since back in December, quite an impressive winter bird as they are normally gone by late October. Nelson's isn't a bird I'll miss this year, however it's an uncommon species in southern Ontario and since we were already in the area it made sense to try for it. The following hour we spent walking alongside the frozen ponds, watching sparrows flush out of the dead grasses and reads beside the ice. I was pretty impressed with the number of Savanah Sparrows that were there, well over 20 birds. This is another sparrow that is rare in the province during the winter months, but for some reason they like this spot enough to stick around. While we didn't end up finding the Nelson's, however I did pick up a FOY birds (the previously mentioned Savannah Sparrow, plus Swamp Sparrow and Rough-legged Hawk). It was FRESH out there though, even though the car only registered it being -8°C, the windchill made it feel much colder.
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| - Rough-legged Hawk |
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| - Savannah Sparrow |
We were already right beside the park, so a quick drive into Rondeau seemed like a thing to do. The park was fairly quiet, but my FOY Tufted Titmouse was nice to see, a bird I rarely see back home in the Bruce. Another new bird, Ruddy Duck, drove in the waves offshore of the park.
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| - Tufted Titmouse |
It was getting late at this point so we returned to home base (Ezra's place in Hamilton).
- Jan 12
On the 12th we spent almost the whole day searching for the Toronto Burrowing Owl. It was a nicer day than the previous few, and the tempature actually climbed above freezing for a bit. The area was fairly quiet for birds though, and after 6 hours of searching we hadn't even seen any yearbirds, let alone the owl. I was heading back to Bruce after we left, so around 3pm we called it quits... which came back to bite us as the owl was seen right after dusk...
There were a few new birds on the way out, Lesser Scaup and Northern Pintail.
- Jan 13
Back home! My first full day in the Bruce this year, nice to be home. I took a drive up to Tobermory and spent a few hours searching for the Townsend's Solitaire that had been around the area for a few weeks in December. Unfortunately many of berry trees in the area the bird had originally been seen around were depleted, and unlike during my December visit, the ground was carpeted with a thick layer of snow. I expanded my search radius and spent the next 2 hours walking around the Tobermory townsite. Tobermory is one of those small lakeside towns that sees it's activity peak in the summer months, when the area is chalk full of tourists and travelers waiting for the Chi Cheemaun (the ferry that travels from Tobermory to Manitoulin Island during the warm months). In the winter almost all of the small businesses and restaurants shut for a few months, save for a few essentials used by the local residents. A lot of the houses around town are only lived in seasonally, as many summer residents migrate to warmer areas of Ontario for the winter. During this time, from December to March, Tobermory can seem like a ghost town, and it certainly felt that way as I walked in silence through the streets, disturbed only occasionally by a passing car or the high pitched call of a Pine Grosbeak. The solitaire never did show itself, but I expected that honestly, I just figured I may as well check since I was nearby. A Northern Shrike that was perched in a tall coniferous tree downtown was new for the yearlist though, a welcome addition as I always enjoy seeing shrikes.
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| - Northern Shrike |
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| - House Sparrow, Tobermory is one of very few reliable spots for them on the peninsula |
On my way back down the peninsula I stopped at the Lion's Head Harbour, one of my favourite birding hotspots in the area and always worth checking. The actual harbour area was empty besides some Herring Gulls, but a quick scan of Georgian Bay netted me two additions to the yearlist, Horned and Red-necked Grebes.
On my home through the Ferndale area on my way home I couldn't help but stop for a few Snowy Owl photo ops. I also spotted a Merlin perched atop a tree in the distance, a good winter bird on the peninsula.
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| - Snowy Owl |
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| - Merlin |
That was basically it for my birding that day, although a bit of owling around my place in the evening produced my 7th owl species of the year, an Eastern Screech-owl.
- Jan 14
I didn't end up doing much birding, as I actually tried to catch up on some life things. I did take a drive around South Bruce with my dad though, and while we didn't see the hoped for Golden Eagles, 5 Tundra Swans and an overwintering Eastern Meadowlark were nice consolations (both FOY). It was a gorgeous sunny day to be out, however as soon as I stepped out of the vehicle I realized it was -20! The barren expanses of frozen fields were seemingly devoid of life, and besides the meadowlark, some ravens and Wild Turkeys ~ there really wasn’t much around. Regardless it was nice to be birding around my home county
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| - Eastern Meadowlark |
Today (the 15th) was a quite day around home, the -20°C weather didn't really lure me to go birding.... also no new birds today!! The horror... it was bound to happen sometime though.
That's all I got for now
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