Northern Ontario Trip - Part 1

 

On Saturday night I returned home from a week long trip to the snow covered lands of northern Ontario. It was a highly productive and enjoyable trip.. and also a very tiring one :) The trip was basically double pronged, so to make it more of a digestible read I am breaking it into two parts. This post will cover the first 4 days of the trip, which were spent birding around the Cochrane/Timmins area with a larger group of birders. The next one will be about the crazier part of the trip, when we drove the Wetum winter road to Attawapiskat.

The trip began with a three hour drive down to Nathan's place in Cambridge, where I was spending the night before an early departure the following day. Originally I was planning on leaving at 3am, however the impending snowstorm, along with my general dislike of rising early made leaving the night before seem like the more appealing option. At -10 degrees it wasn't an overly cold evening, however it was not very pleasant unloading my gear (of which there seemed to be a crazy amount) and packing it into our trip vehicle. Nathan's parents had generously loaned us their Honda Pilot, a larger SUV that had my sedan beat in the ground clearance, storage, comfort, drive quality and winter road readiness departments. The only important area where my car wins out is fuel economy, something that is quite noticeable on a long trip with todays gas prices. 

Ezra arrived shortly after me and when we finished packing all the food, camping gear, optics and tow ropes we retreated to the hot tub in Nathan's backyard... as it's important to enjoy all comforts of southern Ontario & start off a trip like this the right way. As the wind howled overhead, whipping snow off trees and freezing it into my hair, we discussed the game plan for the trip, which went something like this - Wake up early and drive to Huntsville to look for Bohemian Waxwings (Ezra needed it for the year), then continue north to Hillardton Marsh where we would meet the other birders and search for Hoary Redpolls and whatever else was in the area. We hoped to finish the day with a Great Gray Owl, a bird that would be a lifer for me. The following 3 days were to be spent pursuing the rest of our target species around Timmins and Cochrane, where we would meet up with several local birders. This was arguably the sane part of the trip. The next phase involved driving up the Wee-tum winter road to Moosonee and ultimately Attawapiskat in search of Willow Ptarmigan... winter camping on the roadsides for two nights.

We may have stayed up a bit later than intended, and all too soon the alarm blared at 6am. It turned out to be a good decision that I opted to drive down the night before, as all the roads in Grey/Bruce were closed due to whiteouts and drifting. Starting off on our journey it was sunny and clear, but as we rolled on towards Simcoe County the roads became increasingly snow covered and the visibility rapidly deteriorated. Luckily by the time we got to Huntsville the conditions had improved, so we hoped this would bode well for our waxwing search. At the first location we visited we bumped into some local birders and after a brief chat they recommended a few spots to try. Slowly we crisscrossed the streets of the town, scanning treetops and finding a good amount of empty berry bushes. After about an hour and a half the only thing we had found that resembled waxwings were two distant birds that we saw from the car flying away, they were definitely waxwings however cedars couldn't be ruled out. Around noon we were debating calling it quits we spotted a dense flock of birds in a treetop beside the road... Bohemian Waxwings, check. They weren't overly cooperative for photos, however my shots were far better that the ones I got earlier this year.

- Bohemian Waxwing

Target bird acquired we pushed on the remaining few hours to Hillardton Marsh. The drive was quiet bird wise, with the one highlight being a Snowy Owl beside the road. We pulled up to to Hillardton just before 4pm and walked up to the banding station area, where there were supposedly Hoary Redpolls visiting the feeders. I had heard a lot about this location, but this was my first time visiting. The banding station itself was a tiny wooden building in a small clearing surrounded by a mixed aspen/conifer forest, located in the middle of an extensive area of farm fields and small patches of forest. It was drastically different than the other banding stations I've been too, which are situated directly beside Great Lakes in migration hotspots. Hillardton is prehaps best known for their owl banding program, run annually during the fall months. During peak nights they have recorded double digit Boreal and Northern Saw-whet Owls, as well as smaller Long-eared Owl numbers. In the winter the only activity is Snow Bunting banding that occurs in the adjacent fields.

No owls were present during our visit, though we did see a flock of Snow Buntings on the road coming in. At this point we met up with the rest of the birders who were joining us for the trip. Two Subarus hailing from Guelph contained Erik Van Den Kieboom, William Konze, Isabel Apkarin, Andy Nguyen, Simon Boudreault and Alessandra Wilcox. They would be joining us until Wednesday, at which point they would head into Quebec to look for Willow Ptarmigan and Brambling. The other vehicle, coming from Ottawa held Jeff Skevington, who was crazy enough to be joining us for the whole trip. The others had arrived before us and had already enjoyed great views of Hoary Redpolls, so we walked up to the feeders assuming the redpolls would be a sure thing. Around 35 Common Redpolls flitted around the feeders, however the hoary they photographed was nowhere to be found. We did see a rather intermediate redpoll, which likely was a hoary, however several features appeared more common-like.

  

??

- Hoary(ish) Redpoll

- Same beast

- Common Redpolls

As it would be a yearbird, I decided to play it safe and wait for a better hoary... some redpolls are just messy (I mean they are one species really.... so). We then continued on with the group in search of a Great Gray Owl that had been seen recently in the area. Apparently it had been moving around a lot, so we split up to cover more ground. A few more flocks of Snow Buntings provided some entertainment, but outside of that there wasn't much activity. Soon it was only a few minutes before sunset and our hopes of seeing the owl were fading with the dwindling light. Then a text from Isabel popped up saying the she had found the bird.  The vibe in the car was relief, followed by panic as Google Maps informed us that the location was 18 minutes away. Luckily this was an error and we were a mere 4 minutes from the owl. Shortly after we rolled up, followed closely by the other vehicles and spotted a large, dark shape halfway up a tree in a small field beside the road. Scopes were set up and I enjoyed amazing views of my first ever Great Gray Owl. A truly magnificent bird, with muted gray plumage, a large head and yellow eyes centered in a round, defined facial disc. It didn't seem concerned at all with its crowd of admirers and even put on a show, diving feet first into the snow and coming up with a mouse. Great grays are deceptively large due to their feathering, even though they are our tallest owl species, Great Horned and Snowy Owls are both considerably heavier. Unlike those species, great grays feed almost entirely on small rodents. We watched it until the bird was only a silhouette against the orange sky, before reluctantly pulling away and driving to Timmins, where we spent the night at a motel.

- Great Gray Owl

- Great Gray Owl

Sunday we awoke at a very reasonable (for birders) 7:30am to a chilly northern Ontario day, grabbed a healthy breakfast at the Tim Horton's across the street...  Then proceeded to get lost in Timmins. The plan for the morning was to meet up with local birder Roxane Filion and go for a walk around a promising birding trail. Somehow we inputted the address incorrectly and arrived at what we thought was the meeting spot... but was actually the wrong side of town. We thought it was weird none of the others were there yet, when they called asking where we were. Once we arrived we talked to Roxane for a bit, Nathan and Ezra knew her but she was a "birder lifer for me"... nice to finally put a face to a name. There are very few birders in the area, so she was happy to have some company and show us around her local patch. This was almost certainly the biggest gathering of birders that has occurred in Timmins. It was beginning to snow lightly as we headed out, and since I'm a suck when it comes to getting my camera wet, I left it in the car.

- The gang in Timmins

The first birds of note we encountered were Boreal Chickadees, the northern, more elusive cousin of the familiar Black-capped Chickadee, and a new bird for the year. The first ones gave us only fleeting views, but a little further down the trail we enjoyed amazing views of one at a birdfeeder right beside us. Yes, at this point I regretted not bringing my camera. Some other highlights of the walk included several Canada Jays, Pine Grosbeaks and a lone White-winged Crossbill. As we walked back to the vehicles a flock of redpolls landed briefly in some shrubs beside us, around 45 Common Redpolls. Among them were the first Hoary Redpolls of the trip, one of them being the Greenland Hornemann's subspecies. This was my first time seeing one of these birds, it dwarfed the commons... a good 20% larger and almost entirely devoid of streaking, resembling a large, frosted snowball with wings. I heard it calling as it flew over and it sounded very different from any redpoll I've heard before, pretty interesting! This was another point where I regretted not bringing my camera.

We bid farewell to Roxane just before 11am and drove for a forest burn site about an hour east of Cochrane. These swatches of dead trees are the preferred habitat of Black-backed and American Three-toed Woodpeckers, so we were hoping this location would be productive for them. Ezra had found the burn on a government forest fire website, so it was a bit of a gamble since we would be the first people birding there. The current theory is that these burns are most productive for woodpeckers in their first year, then gradually worse each of the following years. The fire that killed these trees was in 2021, so our hopes were high. After driving 20 kilometers down the snow covered logging road, we strapped on our snowshoes and headed into the forest. Almost immediately I encountered several Black-backed Woodpeckers, a promising start for sure. We organized ourselves in a line, with each person staggered around 200 meters apart, and made several passes along the edge of the burn. The number of Black-backed Woodpeckers was impressive, I found around 20 in under an hour, with the groups tally nearing 80. I heard excited voices yelling in the distance "Three-toed!!" and started booking it in that direction... well as much as one can book it wearing snowshoes. At several points I sunk up to my waist in snow, making progress quite slow indeed. The first time this happened my camera fell and was completely covered in snow. I hastily brushed it off before continuing on. I arrived at the spot the others were gathered a few minutes later, out of breath and really hoping the woodpecker was still there. Much to my relief it was, scaling the side of a large dead spruce tree right in front of us. I whipped out my camera, then proceeded to trip over my own snowshoes and drop it in the snow again... &(%$! I frantically cleaned my lens off and then enjoyed 20 minutes of amazing views of my lifer American Three-toed Woodpecker. Ironically, after all that walking it was right beside where we had parked on the road... birding is like that!

- Black-backed Woodpeckeer

- Black-backed Woodpecker

- American Three-toed Woodpecker

- American Three-toed Woodpecker

- Woodpecker success

Target bird secured, we headed to Smooth Rock Falls, our destination for the night. Ken and Angie Williams had very graciously offered us Nathan, Ezra, Jeff and myself) a place to stay for a few nights, which ended up working out perfectly as they were located an ideal location for our trip. After unloading our stuff at their place, we enjoyed a dinner out in Smooth Rock with the Williams and the rest of the gang (who were staying in a motel nearby).

The following day found us birding up towards Fraserdale with Ken & Angie in search of grouse... sharp-tailed and spruce in particular. The car thermometer read -37 degrees in the morning, the coldest temperature I've encountered this year for sure. Even though the majority of the day was spent car birding, my feet were cold almost the entire time. It's the continued getting into and out of the car, changing temperatures resulting in sweaty feet damp socks. My hands started off quite cold as well, I ended up putting little heating packs in my gloves as my fingers were getting numb. Nathan was humming this song, a catchy tune that slowly became stuck in my head. None of us could find the song, somehow making it even more intriguing. Eventually I found it online, "Tom's Diner" by Susanne Vega. This song remained lodged in my mind for the rest of the trip, becoming an unofficial theme song of our northern journey.   We came across several groups of Sharp-tailed Grouse sitting in trees beside the highway,. Several were close enough for decent photos. 

- Sharp-tailed Grouse

- Sharp-tailed Grouse

The rest of the day we spent driving up towards Otter Rapids, stopping whenever we saw birds. Boreal Chickadees turned out to be one of the most common birds of the day, with several flocks containing up to five. I haven't seen many boreal chickadees before, so it was fun being somewhere where they outnumbered black-capped. Besides a few Black-backed Woodpeckers, Ruffed Grouse and Common Ravens, it was a fairly quiet birding day. I always enjoy exploring northern Ontario though, and it was fun hanging out with everyone.

- Boreal Chickadee

- Boreal Chickadee

On Tuesday the crew (plus Ken & Angie) spent the day birding Road 652 towards Detour Lake Gold Mine. Right off the bat we found a pair of Spruce Grouse beside the road, which was my last reasonable target of the trip (Willow Ptarmigan was the only remaining one).

- Male Spruce Grouse

- female Spruce Grouse

 Again the day was very quiet for birds, even more so then Otter Rapids actually! I think we went 100km and only saw a lone raven. A Pine Martin ran across the road at one point, which turned out to be the only one we saw for the whole trip. We stopped and showshoed the area where Jeff and Vincent Fyson found Willow Ptarmigans last winter. Not surprisingly we didn't find any, but it gorgeous up there.

- Ezra trying to creep up on a Snowshoe Hare

- Goofing

At this point the group went its separate ways, with the Guelph folks headed east into Quebec and Ezra, Nathan, Jeff & me heading back to Smooth Rock Falls for the night. Ken had cooked an amazing Black Bear roast for us, a nice treat before we began the more northern part of our trip. 

That's it for part 1! Stayed tuned for the second installation