Last week I spent 5 days birding southern Ontario, with the primary goal of finding a Eurasian Wigeon. I think you can imagine that I was slightly annoyed then, when I returned home to Bruce... only to get an Discord alert on Sunday for a Eurasian Wigeon found at Hillman Marsh by Jeremy Hatt. It's a bird that I wasn't overly worried about missing this year, as a number of them show up every year in southern Ontario. If you're doing a big year though, waiting to chase a bird is usually a mistake. It was with a sigh that I repacked my bags and equipment into my car and began the 4.5 hour drive towards extreme southwestern Ontario.
When I arrived shortly after 3pm, I quickly made my way out to the shorebird cell at Hillman Marsh, where I discovered a concerning lack of Eurasian Wigeons, and any waterfowl at all for that matter. What I did find was a kid with a remote control speed boat, which was whipping back and forth across the surface of the water. Grr....
I spent the next two hours walking the entirety of Hillman Marsh, which produced my first Blue-winged Teal of the year but not much else. The walk was a slog as all of the pathways were thick with mud, which would have been totally worth it if the wigeon were present! At this point I got an eBird alert for a Black Vulture that had been spotted at Point Pelee earlier that afternoon, a mere ten minutes away. Ezra was already in the park looking for the wigeon, so I drove over to help him search. I found local birders Jeremy Bensette and Kate Derbyshire, but no Black Vultures. It was just turning out to be one of those days! There was about an hour of daylight left at this point, so I went back to Hillman Marsh with Ezra for a final search. Honestly hopes were not high. After half an hour of scanning, nothing... then 6 wigeon flew in... and one of them had a grey back and a reddish head. Wham, Eurasian Wigeon. A relief for sure.
I'll give the Essex birders credit for their response time, in half an hour close to 10 birders had arrived to see the bird.
 |
| - Euro Wigeon… back left. Not even sure you can call this a record photo |
An unexpected turn of events, but no complaints here :)
Today (Or yesterday.... if this goes out tomorrow/today) I didn't have any birding plans, so I decided to spend the day hawkwatching at Beamer Conservation Area. I didn't expect any new year birds there, but I always enjoy a day spent looking at the sky and I haven't hawkwatched at Beamer before. I arrived shortly after 11am and spent the next hour & a half watching birds migrate past. It was just starting to pick up when Ezra called me... that stupid Eurasian Collared-Dove in Shrewsbury had just been seen. After it had been MIA for over a week, I almost thought it had left. Even though I wasn't enthused at the possibility of missing it a fifth time, I knew that I should go and try for it... It's "big year mentality" as we say. I was rather disappointed to leave Beamer and the raptors, but I managed to pull myself away. In the hour I spent, this was the haul;
- 120 Turkey Vultures
- 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks
- 2 Cooper's Hawks
- 1 Northern Harrier
- 16 Red-tailed Hawks
- 6 Red-shouldered Hawks
- 1 American Kestrel
 |
| - Northern Harrier |
 |
| - Turkey Vulture |
 |
| - Turkey Vulture |
 |
| - Red-tailed Hawk |
 |
| - Red-shouldered Hawk |
 |
| - Red-shouldered Hawk |
After picking up Ezra and his gal pal en route, I drove to Shrewsbury and began the search. Ezra had already seen the collared-dove, but there was also another Eurasian Wigeon found in Rondeau Bay in the morning so he was hoping for some better photos. After looking around the area the dove was seen for a few minutes, a bird flushed from beside the road and landed in a nearby tree. It had taken 5 visits, but I had finally found the Eurasian Collared-Dove. I still was rather annoyed that the dove gave me such a hard time, but I suppose I will forgive it since it finally showed itself...
 |
| - Eurasian Collared-Dove |
We then moved on to Rondeau Bay and began scanning through waterfowl, which were unfortunately very distant and backlit. Long story short, no wigeon. We had seen on the previous day though, so no big deal.
Tomorrow's plan is going back to Queenston to look for Black Vultures... third time is the charm?
Ontario yearlist @ March 21st - 166
No comments:
Post a Comment