Chronicles of an Ontario Birder

The blog, it still exists!

Yikes... I have neglected the blog so much this year, I honestly forgot it was here for awhile! I have been pretty busy these past few months with work, and free time goes mainly to other things (including a new weather birding channel I started on twitter... check it out).

Anyways... As we are now getting into fall migration and I will be out birding more (hopefully), I figured I will try to blog more again. I plan on using this page a lot during my big year, so I should probably get back in to the swing of things. I had a lot of directions I wanted to go with this post, but at the end decided to list some birding highlights since my last post in April.

From a birding perspective in Bruce County May of 2021 was many things, though I think perplexing and at times frustrating sums it up well. The waves of migrants came in brief periods of one or two days, followed be a week or more of lull. The weather really did us no favors... after a long spell of poor migration weather (cold temps, north winds), the winds shifted and there was no rain in the way for songbirds. A few things happened then. 1) With no rain in the way to stop them, the boreal breeding species that were behind schedule basically jumped over us and in a span of a few days it seemed like they were gone. 2) The way the wind patterns played out in May were very favorable for migration in the midwest, which makes me wonder if some northern Ontario breeders took the way of least resistance and went that way instead. I could go on more, but you get the idea. For a comparison there were days in May 2019 when I was seeing 60 plus Cape May Warblers in a day. This spring I don't think I ever got higher than 5. Some May photos below...

There were still birds around though! I missed a lot of the rarities seen in Bruce, but did manage to get a few decent things. I spent most of May around my "patch', which includes Sky Lake, Isaac Lake and Oliphant. So here are them birds.

Blackburnian Warbler - My yard

Black-and-white Warbler - Isaac Lake

Yellow-rumped Warbler - My yard

Snowy Owl - Mar

Rose-breasted Grosbeak - My Yard

American Bittern - Isaac Lake

Caspian Tern - Isaac Lake

Black-crowned Night-Heron - Isaac Lake

Orchard Oriole - My yard (3rd yard record)

On May 14th I got a text from Ethan Meleg informing me that he had just found a Wilson's Phalarope about 10 minutes away from my place. Needless to say I raced over, and luckily the little fella was still there. It was a bit far for photos, but it was an overdue county bird for me so no complaints! Thanks Ethan : )

Wilson's Phalarope - Purple Valley Road

A worse photo of it that I am including for no reason

Continuing on with the shorebird theme, the Oliphant Coast was actually decent this spring. After a few years with the water being too high, it was a nice change to actually have some shorebird habitat near me. I didn't have anything crazy, but the Black-bellied Plovers, Short-billed Dowitchers and Pectoral Sandpipers were a welcome sight.

Black-bellied Plover - Oliphant

Black-bellied Plovers - Oliphant

Short-billed Dowitchers - Oliphant

On May 16th I decided to repeat the yard big sit that I had so much success on in 2021. I spent a solid 17 hours on & around my tower and shattered last years number by 2, ending at a solid 96 species. I really wanted to get 100, but it just wasn't in the cards (big shoutout to Zane Shantz for breaking the 100 species barrier in his yard a few days later... To my knowledge the first time that's been done at a single location in Bruce County). There were some nice highlights during the day, including;

- Dowitcher species (saw a backlit, distant bird... need both for the yard list argh)

- Eastern Whip-poor-will

- Solitary Sandpiper

- American Bittern

- Red-shouldered Hawk

- Red-headed Woodpecker

- Peregrine Falcon

- Yellow-throated Vireo

- Evening Grosbeak

- heavy Pine Siskin migration (260)

- Rusty Blackbird

- 16 warbler species

Full checklist here

On May 23rd I did a big day in my 5MR (5-mile-radius) to raise money for bird conservation. The day was horrible for weather, (very cold and rainy for most of the morning) but I still managed to see 123 species and raise a few thousand dollars so again, not complaining! There were a few standout birds from the day, including; Least Bittern, Black-bellied Plover, Black Tern, Black-crowned Night-Heron Mourning Warbler, Clay-colored Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow and House Sparrow (major highlight, a tough bird for my area LOL).

Black Tern - Isaac Lake

There were other highlights in May including the observation of my mortal yard nemesis bird... The Green Heron. It has taken years, but alas the heron is finally mine mwhahah. A singing Golden-winged Warbler was also a nice surprise one morning. 156 for the yard this year, not too shabby.

Golden-winged Warbler - My yard

A few interesting things happened during the month of June. I tracked down some birds that I hadn't crossed paths with in May (lack of effort mainly) including Piping Plover, Sedge Wren, Upland Sandpiper and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. I also bought a new lens (Nikkor 300mm F4), so obviously I had to track down the quintisential Bruce species to test it out on.... Results below.

Brewer's Blackbird - Mar

Same bird

Brewer's Blackbird - Mar

Common Grackle... not

Piping Plover - Sauble Beach

Upland Sandpiper - J/I line

Glorified Field Chicken

Testing out the lens for flight shots.. it works!

The biggest highlight of June was one of my most unexpected lifers so far this year... The Henslow's Sparrow. In my own county to boot. The birds exact location was ~~redacted,~~ it stayed for ~~Redacted,~~ was found by ~~Redacted~~, what else is there to say!?

Herre is a recording I took of it singing, play at full volume as it is very faint!

July was pretty quiet from a birding perspective. I was busy with work, birds were busy nesting and. The Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas did provide me with some motivation to get out birding in the summer, which in the past is not something I have done too much. In mid July a few Dickcissels started popping up around the county, and after a few attempts I managed to catch up with one in Zanes yard. Photos were obtained and I'll leave it up to you if there's a bird in here or not ;)

Dickcissel - Miller Lake Area

The other summer highlight happened during work, when I was walking down a road at MacGregor Point Provincial Park (my place of employment) one late July morning. I was just listening to birds while walking... "red-eyed vireo...american redstart... here's a prairie warbler...... wait a sec...". Something I really wasn't expecting to encounter in the park! Prairie Warblers are barely annual in Bruce, some years they aren't here at all and others there are one or two. This bird was a new Bruce bird for me, so of course I was quite excited.

Now on to August!

Not much birding, a few cool things, weather that was was too hot. That basically was the month in a nutshell, but I'll elaborate a bit.

During the summer I often switch gears and focus more on odes, leps and herps, and this year was no exception. I have way too many photos to put up, so I'll go with herps for this post..

Ring-necked Snake - My yard

Dekay’s Brownsnake - MacGregor Point Provincial Park

Smooth Greensnake - MacGregor Point Provincial Park

Northern Watersnake - MacGregor Point Provincial Park

I made two trips down to Exeter Lagoons, West Perth Wetlands and Wildwood reservoir in search of shorebirds. One with Erik Van Den Kiboom (aka "boomer") and the other with the some folks from the Bruce Birding Club. I was hoping to find a Western Sandpiper, but the birding gods were not on my side. On my first trip I focused on West Perth and Exeter... and the next day a western was found at wildwood.... this is just the way things go sometimes! There were some nice shorebirds around though, notably a pair of Long-billed Dowitchers and a Red-necked Phalarope

Purple Martin - Exeter Sewage Lagoons

Red-necked Phalarope - Exeter Sewage Lagoons

Long-billed Dowitchers (ones with long bills) - Exeter Sewage Lagoons

Fall migration has been progressing quite well so far, the songbird numbers are more than making up for the disappointment in May. On one particularly intense migration day occurred on a day I was working at MacGregor Point. Honestly one of the best visible migration days I have witnessed... Constant northbound warblers from sunrise all the way until the afternoon. Unfortunately I couldn't give it my full attention as I had to work, but it was still pretty crazy. I will let the eBird checklist speak for itself.

Some other random things

Kettle of Sandhill Cranes - My yard

In late June I was birding by Tobermory and watched a group of 70+ Broad-winged Hawks coming in off the lake. Pretty unexpected!

Broad-winged Hawk - Tobermory

This Peregrine Falcon was hanging out in the Lion's Head area for a lot of the summer

Black Bear - Dyers Bay

Wacky stormfront - Oliphant

Approaching front - Mar

Another one - Sauble Beach area

That's all I've got for now, but hopefully I will be posting more often in the near future!

March and April birding on the Bruce

Yikes, I haven't updated the blog in two months!! Horrible... My main excuse is my New weather blog, I've put most of my effort into writings posts on there recently.

I plan on posting more yardbirding posts like I did last year, as I'll be around home for most of May. Just so I don't jump into it though, I'll give a quick update on my spring.

Early March was great this year. Unlike some birds that arrive around the same time each year (species that migrate based on the length of daylight) , the early migrants like dabbling ducks, robins, woodcocks will migrate north depending on the weather. This can be very drastic year to year... take American Woodcock for example. My earliest arrival was March 2nd, and my latest was March 28th! That's almost a difference of a whole month, which can be agonizing for a birder anxious for spring if it's on the later side. Luckily the spring of 2021 decided not to be too cruel to us bird people, on March 10th we got a massive surge of warm air and most of the snow in Bruce melted. I made several trips down to South Bruce that week and got a lot of First Of Year (FOY) birds including; Killdeer, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Snow Goose, Cackling Goose (39 of them!), Tundra Swan, Song Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark and Turkey Vulture.

Turkey Vulture

Tundra Swans

Song Sparrow

After that there was a bit of a lull, as southern Ontario was hit with a week of cold weather and even a bit of snow. The next big push came around the 25th, but it was pretty quiet for a week.

Then we got another surge ot warm air and new migrants. Birding around my patch started to improve, with FOY birds including; Fox Sparrow, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Flicker, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Eastern Pheobe, Pied-billed Grebe, Canvasback and Double-crested Cormorant.

Pied-billed Grebe

Northern Flicker

Canvasback

The first 10 days of April were spectacular here, with numerous highlights. For 5 days Ontario was blasted with south winds, and the temperatures were reminiscent of mid July. Even at my place, the daily highs exceeded 20°C, with the warmest day closing in on 28°C. Although it was nice seeing new birds, it was too much too fast. A lot of trees started coming out, also I spent way too much time outside and ended up getting a mild heat stroke. Anway the birding was great. I'll go day by day for highlights;

- April 4

6 FOY. Purple Finch and Eastern Towhee in the yard. A quick check at Isaac Lake turned up other new birds.. Blue-winged Teal, Wilson's Snipe, American Bittern and Rusty Blackbird.

Blue-winged Teal

Wilson's Snipe

- April 5

3 FOY. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the yard, then Tree Swallow and Great Blue Heron at Isaac Lake.

Tree Swallow

Great Blue Heron

- April 6

2 FOY. A flock of Evening Grosbeaks flew over the yard, then later in the day I had a Bonaparte's Gull at Oliphant.

Evening Grosbeak

- April 7

4 FOY. I had Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Common Loon and Pine Siskin in the yard during my morning watch. Also a big highlight was yard lifers Trumpeter Swan and Cackling Goose (188, 189). I've looked at 1000s of Canada Geese, so finally getting a cackling was sweet. That evening I went out and tried for owls in my yard.. wham! Lifer Long-eared Owl! Obviously it was also a yard lifer (190).

Common Loon

Cacklers with CANGs

Long-eared Owl

- April 8

3 FOY. The day started off fairly quiet, just the usual characters around the yard.. then as I was eating dinner I got a alert about a Eurasian Wigeon at Isaac Lake! I flew out the door... without my keys! Long story short, I got the bird, a beautiful male hanging out with some American Wigeon. This was a lifer for me, and a milestone one at that ~ my 300th Ontario bird. After that I saw Vesper Sparrow and Swamp Sparrow in the marsh.

Eurasian Wigeon

Vesper Sparrow

- April 9

3 FOY. During my morning watch I picked up Osprey, Yellow-rumped Warbler and Greater Yellowlegs.

Osprey

Yellow-rumped Warbler

- April 10

4 FOY. Chipping Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow and Hermit Thush in the yard, then a Pine Warbler down the coast from my place in the afternoon. Notably my first day of the year with a yard eBird list over 50 (link Here)

Chipping Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow and juncos

After the 10th there was another lull in migration that lasted 14 days, as the tempature cooled and the wind shifted north again. There were still highlights during this time though. The best was on April 14th, when I received a text from Jarmo Jalava informing me that he was watching a Short-eared Owl just down the road from my place. I raced down and enjoyed watching it catching thermals over a field for a few minutes. This was a yearbird, and also the 8th owl species I've seen in my patch (what will be 9?!). After the owl had left, I picked up my first Brewer's Blackbirds of the year on Red Bay Road.

Short-eared Owl

Male Brewer's Blackbird

Female Brewer's Blackbird

Migration picked up again on April 24th, so again I'll do a list day by day of my sightings.

- April 24

3 FOY. In the morning I saw a Broad-winged Hawk circling above a marsh on my road. Later in the day I picked up Virginia Rail and Sora at Isaac Lake.

Broad-winged Hawk

- April 25/26

The calm before the storm.

- April 27

6 FOY. A low pressure system brought strong south winds all the way from the gulf coast... and with it.. birds! I got a Palm Warbler and Black-throated Green Warbler in my yard as soon as I went outside, then headed over to Petrel Point and saw Brown Thrasher and House Wren (among other things). Later in the day I got Lesser Yellowlegs at Oliphant, Barn Swallow at Isaac Lake and Caspian Tern at Sky Lake.

Brown Thrasher

- April 28

2 FOY. Black-and-white Warbler in the yard, then a Northern Waterthrush singing down my road.

- April 29

1 FOY. Northern Rough-winged Swallow over my yard (#100 for the yard this year).

Back to the present, April 30th. As I'm writing this it's cold and windy outside and there are relativity few birds around. Things are meant to pick up on Sunday though.

For those interested in donating to help birdlife, I'll be participating in the Great Canadian Birdathon this year. I will be doing a big day in my 5MR this May to raise money for Birds Canada and the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory. Click on the link below to find out more!

~ Link to click ~

Oh yeah, I'm also doing a semi-serious hawkwatch in my yard & have been keeping everything on an excel spreadsheet. This post is already long enough, so I'll save all the details for a future one. I'm up around 450 raptors for the season though, which I think isn't too shabby! I'll put a bunch of photos below.