Chronicles of an Ontario Birder

Early Fall migration on the Bruce

Fall migration is upon us now and new migrants are passing through in numbers. Around my neighbourhood the quantity of warblers I see on my morning walks is increasing by the day. Since it's fall migration and I have just mentioned warblers, I realize that half the people reading this are about to run away.. but fear not blog readers, "fall warblers" are not THAT terrifying😉. Have a look at this American Redstart to help you calm you down.. looking very bold and colourful in his black & orange plumage.

- American Redstart

I don't have a lot of photos, as it's usaully dark & wet when I go outisde in the morning (I am truly a coward when it comes to taking my camera outside in bad weather). Below I have included some pictures of songbirds that I saw around my yard one (sunny) morning last week.

- Ovenbird

- ID challenge, post your awnser in comments

- Black-throated Green Warbler

- Blackburnian Warbler

- Nashville Warbler

- American Redstart

- Indigo Bunting

- Red-breasted Nuthatch

In late August I made a trip down to Huron county and met up with Dana Latour & her dad Tony for a morning of birding. I got to the Bluff (a great lakewatch/skywatch spot by Grand Bend) just after sunrise, with hopes of seeing birds migrating past. Some birders have had great days at the Bluff, observing things including over 200 migrating warblers & 20000 Broad-winged Hawks in morning. Wind direction really effects how productive The Bluff is on any given day & winds with an easterly component are better. Almost all birds are flybys and in some instances, especially with songbirds, you only have a few seconds to identify them. This makes the birding challenging and for me.also makes it more fun. Some days can be insane there, but other days can be completely dead. The day I went was closer to the latter, which was probably becasue the wind was from the S/SE (it called for NE the day before). It wasn't totally dead however and there were still some birds around to see.

- Eastern Kingbird

- Bald Eagle

- Barn Swallow

- Purple Martin

- Bank Swallow

After birding the Bluff for a few hours, we headed to the Exeter Sewage Lagoons to see what was kicking around there. It was fairly productive, with 13 species of shorebirds seen. highlights included; Black-bellied Plover, White-rumped Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Solitary Sandpiper and Red-necked Phalarope. Not a bad morning of birding!

- Red-necked Phalarope

On the Bruce shorebird front things have been pretty quiet besides for this Baird's Sandpiper...

- Bairds Sandpiper (pic by Bob Taylor)

I have tried a few lakewatches along Lake Huron in the last few weeks, either at Port Elgin or Sauble Beach. I have yet to have a very successful day, which is mainly due to poor lakewatching weather.. The "best" birds I've seen so far have probably been Common Loon, Sanderling, Sandhill Crane, Bald Eagle, Bonaparte's Gull and Common Tern. While lakewatching during ths past 2 weeks I've noticed large numbers of Monarchs flying by, with my best day tallying over 4000 butterflies (in a few locations along the shore). I'm sure it will pick up as the season progresses. I am Hoping for some Little Gulls, Pacific Loons, Cave Swallows and jaegers.. not too much to ask for!

- Bonaparte's Gull

- Monarchs

- Sanderling
This bird landed on Sauble Beach briefly, allowing me to snap a few pictures.

- Sandy with a Ring-billed Gull

Currently I'm outside listening for nocturnal flight calls (NFCs), which are given by flying songbirds as they migrate overhead. NFCs are pretty tricky to identify by ear and some are almost impossible without equipment (like a lot of warblers). The "easier " group is the thrushes, as they are fairly distint after some practice. So far tonight I've had Veery, Swainson's Thrush, Wood Thrush & a bunch of unIDed warblers. Some other night birds have been calling while I've been outside, Eastern Whip-poor-will & Eastern Screech-owl and Great Horned Owl.

I'm going to try to update my blog every week or two during fall migration, as this will force me to get outside and get more photos. Let's see how long I can keep it up!

Also I wrote this at 11pm and I was slightly sleep deprived.. so there may be some mistakes☺

Summer birding in Bruce County

Listed below is a brief overview of my birding highlights since my last update.

On June 24th I was at my house when I got an email from Zane Shantz informing me that he had found a Western Kingbird in North Bruce. Western Kingbird is a great bird anywhere in southern Ontario and this bird represented only the 2nd record for Bruce County (the other being in the 1990s). After getting over the initial shock that comes to any birder after hearing about a rarity, my mind turned to the dilemma of how I was going to get to Zane’s place. My parents were in town and both of the birders that live in my area were out of county, so that left 3 options; A) walking, B) biking & C) begging birders in South Bruce for a ride. Walking was obviously out, as Zane lives almost 40km from my house. I’m not a big fan of biking on hwy 6 at the best of times, plus it was already after 4pm, so that left option C. I sent Bob Taylor a text to tell him about the kingbird and asked if he was coming up for it ~ luckily for me he was. An hour later I was in the car with him & Anna-marie (Their blog here ) heading north . After arriving Zane’s, we started looking and in under 2 minutes saw a yellowish bird with a black tail perched beside the highway. We enjoyed great views of the Western Kingbird as it flew down after insects. The bird wasn't close enough for great photos, but I still got record shots.

- Western Kingbird

- Kingbird of the west

Since birding Isn't as fast paced in the summer, I've started to focus more on non-avian lifeforms like moths & butterflies. On a few nights each week I set up a white bedsheet behind my house and put a bright light in front of it, with the goal of attracting moths. So far I have had around 200 species, with some highlights being;

- Hickory Tussock Moth

- Basswood Leafroller Moth

- Io Moth

- Luna Moth

- Rosy Maple Moth

- One-eyed Sphinx

- Modest Sphinx

A few thousand species of moths occur in Northeastern North America, which makes learning them more of a challenge compared to birds (500 species of birds have occured in Ontario, but some people have seen that many moth species in one night!)

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On July 17th I talked my dad into taking me to South Bruce, finding some county yearbirds. My first stop was the berm trail in Paisley, where I got my target bird just after I stepped out of the car ~ Orchard Oriole. I got good views of 2 males flying around while I was there, which was cool because I don't see this species often in Bruce.

- Orchard Oriole

The next stop was Greenock Swamp Wetland Complex, where I hoped to pick up Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Greenock Swamp is a really interesting place to bird, as there are mature deciduous forests in some areas, which makes it a good spot for some Carolinian species that are reaching the northern limit of their range. After arriving I walked part of Concession rd 10 (which cuts through Greenock) and picked up a few species including; Black-billed Cuckoo Eastern Wood-pewee, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-throated Vireo and Wood Thrush. After birding the road for about 45 minutes, I decided to call it quits, accepting that the cuckoo had escaped me yet again. While were driving along the road on the way out, I heard a up slurred buzzy song coming from the adjacent forest ~ a Cerulean Warbler (CERW)!. CERW are quite rare in Bruce county, as they are hard to detect (gotta know their song) and we are near the northern edge of their Range . They are hard warblers to see, which is mainly due to their annoying habit of singing from the top of the canopy behind leaves. I tried to find it for a few minutes, but didn't have luck and settled for an audio recording (link to that Here..). Numerous Bruce birders went for it over the next week and while they were there, found another singing male and a female.
After that we headed home, but the birds weren't done with me yet and a Peregrine Falcon flew over the highway, not a bad way to end a day!

- Black-billed Cuckoo

I was back in South Bruce on the 22nd for a day of birding with Dana Latour & her dad Tony. It was a great day to be out looking for birds, as it was good weather and a comfortable 20°C which was pleasant since the last week had been around 30°C😓. First we hit Greenock Swamp and got the CERW, then spent the morning birding around the some of the nearby hotspots including the J/I Line and the Independent Pond. Some of the highlights included; Mourning Warbler, Sedge Wren, Yellow-throated Vireo, Red-shouldered Hawk, Grasshopper Sparrow, Clay-coloured Sparrow and Baltimore Checkerspot (a butterfly).

- Cerulean Warbler

- Grasshopper Sparrow

- Baltimore Checkerspot

After a successful morning of birding, we were eating lunch in Port Elgin, just thinking of a plan for the afternoon when I got a text from Abby Collins.. informing me that a Cattle Egret had been found at Chalmers Pond by Kincardine (I don't have data on my phone, so I rely on friends texting me about rarities. Thx Abby) . Needless to say, we were promptly off on our way to chase this rare cow-loving-tractor-following bird. 25 minutes later we arrived at the pond, where we saw..... no egret. In a desperate attempt to refind it, we drove around nearby concessions to check a few fields.. again no luck. Back to the pond for one last look, where we found the egret sitting out in the open ~ obviously mocking us. As we were watching it, a Great Blue Heron (that was previously just chilling on the shore opposite to the egret) decided that it didn't want to share the pond and took a run at the Cattle Egret. The egret then flew over to an adjacent field that was being plowed, where it remained for the rest of our observation. Cattle Egret is a rare visitor to Bruce County, with this bird representing only the 5th record (according to eBird), which made seeing it a nice & unexpected treat.

- Cattle Egret

After that we drove north towards Wiarton, picking up a some interesting birds like Black Tern and American Bittern. We then finished our day of birding in Sauble Beach, where we encountered a Bonaparte's Gull and Caspian Terns. We saw 89 species in total during our jaunt around south Bruce, not bad for a sunny July Day.

Southbound shorebirds have already started arriving in southern Ontario and will continue to grow in numbers until they peak in late August. Always something to look forward to in the world of birding. Still waiting for my whistling-ducks😕

Birding Festival & Recent Sightings

The last month has been a busy one for me and finding time to update this blog has been difficult, however I had an free hour today & decided to stop procrastinating. I wrote a brief overview of my recent birding adventures below.

From May 24-27 and May 30-June 2 I participated in the Huron Fringe Birding Festival, which is based out of MacGregor Point Provincial Park (Here is the link for the HFBF blog).
During the festival I enjoyed birding with knowledgeable hike leaders, attending presentations about nature and of course, seeing a lot of birds. Highlights for me included; Lesser Black-backed Gull, Black Tern, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Black-billed Cuckoo, Grasshopper Sparrow, Clay-colored Sparrow along with Golden-Winged, Canada and Mourning Warblers. I didn't get a photograph of a lot of these birds, but some posed for pictures.

- Lesser Black-backed Gull

- Black Tern

- Grasshopper Sparrow

- Canada Warbler

A few more photos from the fest..

- Wilson's Snipe

- Eastern Wood-pewee

- Spotted Sandpiper

- Blue-winged Teal

I saw around 155+ species during the festival and met a lot of new people, so as usual, the HFBF was an enjoyable experience

In early June I went to see a Common Gallinule that was found by Michael Bulter at the Tobermory Sewage Lagoons. This is a rare species for the Bruce, with one bird seen per year on average. The bird was distant when I observed it, so my photo didn't turn out that good. I didn't remain at the lagoons long because It was a damp, rainy day with wind from the South, which was blowing a sewage water mist in my direction... not very inviting weather to be outside in😅

- Common (and smelly) Gallinule

While in Tobermory I had a decent birding walk at Cape Hurd Road (my list), with the highlight being a good view of a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.

- Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

On June 15th and 16th I co-lead an OFO trip with Alfred Raab around the peninsula. I already wrote a summary of the trip for the OFO email listserve, so I'll just paste it here.
On Saturday June 15th, 10 birders met in Hepworth for the Bruce Peninsula OFO trip, despite the grim weather forecast. The morning and early afternoon were dominated by temperatures around 10°C and periods of heavy rain, which made the birding rather wet and uncomfortable. Despite this, the group made the most of it and were able to find a good variety of species
The sun finally came out at 3pm, which gave us two hours to find some more birds and dry out before calling it a day.
We visited numerous hotspots between Sauble Beach and Ferndale during the day, ending up with a total of 84 species.. not bad considering the weather. Some highlights for the group included; Green-winged Teal, Greater Yellowlegs, Piping Plover, Common Loon, Least Bittern, American Bittern, Grasshopper Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Brewer's Blackbird and Mourning Warbler.

On Sunday, June 16th, 12 birders met at the Tobermory Airport for a day of birding around the northern Bruce Peninsula. We birded around the airport for a bit and then spent the day working our way south towards Ferndale. The weather was sunny and the temperature hovered around 16°C for most of the outing, which was a nice treat after Saturday. The group netted a total of 87 species during the day, with some of the highlights being; Upland Sandpiper, Sora, Sandhill Crane, Green Heron, Northern Harrier, Broad-winged Hawk, Bald Eagle, Cliff Swallow, Pileated Woodpecker, Bank Swallow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Golden-winged Warbler, Mourning Warbler and Northern Parula.
A combined total of 108 species were recorded over weekend, making it a pretty successful trip.

Spring migration is basically over now, with only a few species still passing through the peninsula. It was a different spring this year, as the timing of most migrants seemed to be late by at least a week in my area. The end of May was cold in comparison to previous years, which also affected migration in a few ways. The lack of insects overall due to this chilly weather created large concentrations of migrants along the lakeshore, where hatching midges and other insects were plentiful. On a few days I saw 100s of warblers and 1000s of swallows flying south along the shore of Lake Huron, quite good numbers for Bruce.
Fall migration will begin in mid July (yes, fall migration is a deceiving name), when southbound shorebirds will start arriving in Bruce county. Until then I'll switch gears and focus more on butterflies, odes, botany etc. Some of my recent butterfly sightings include; American Lady, Lucia Azure, Silvery Blue and Dreamy Duskywing.