Chronicles of an Ontario Birder

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.

- American Lady

- Lucia Azure

- Silvery Blue

- Dreamy Duskywing

I'm currently waiting for my county Black-bellied Whistling-ducks to show up... any day now👀

Rondeau in Mid-May Then Home For a Big Day

It has been a busy 2 weeks for me, so I haven't had time to update the blog until now. Here are some highlights since my last post.

On the morning of May 14th I headed down to Rondeau Provincial Park with Dana Latour and her dad Tony for a few days of birding.

We stopped at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons on the way to the park, where we saw the continuing Eared Grebe. The grebe wasn't being too cooperative for photos, but I managed to get a few shots.

- Eared Grebe

After that we went to Keith Mclean Conservation Area (which is right outside of Rondeau), there we got Virginia Rail, Sora and Forester's Tern.

- Virginia Rail

- Forester's Tern

We then headed into the park, where we spent the rest of the day birding. We saw 93 species before leaving for the night, with the Highlights behing Summer Tanager, Common Nighthawk, Eastern Whip-poor-will, American Bittern, Rusty Blackbird and 19 warbler species.

- Common Nighthawk

- Eastern Kingbird

On day 2 we got up at 5am and headed to Rondeau to see what migrants had arrived overnight. During our 15 hours at the park we recorded 119 species, with highlights being the following; White-winged Dove, Black Vulture, White-eyed Vireo, Northern Mockingbird, Yellow-breasted Chat and 23 warbler species (highlights were Blue-winged, Mourning and Wilson's). I'll include some of my pictures below.

- White-winged Dove

- Black Vulture

- Northern Mockingbird

The Black Vulture and Yellow-breasted Chat were both lifers for me, so that was sweet.

- Prothonotary Warbler

- Blue-winged Warbler

- Golden-winged Warbler

- Black-throated Green Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

- Ovenbird

- Black-throated Blue Warbler

- Cape May Warbler

- Bay-breasted Warbler

- Chestnut-sided Warbler

- Blackburnian Warbler

- Baltimore Oriole

- Solitary Sandpiper

- Scarlet Tanager

- Common Nighthawk

On our 3rd day in the park we had been birding for about an hour when a passing birder asked "did you hear about the Black-necked Stilts that are right outside the park?". I was rather tired, as we had been out late birding/herping the night before, but that sentence woke me up more then the coffee that I just had😅. We quickly got back to the car and drove out to Keith Mclean CA (where the birds had been spotted) and were greeted with the horrible news that the birds had just flown off. Just as despair was setting in, two dark shorebird-sized shapes flew across the field in front of us. It was the stilts! They then landed, giving us awesome views for over half an hour. It was such an unexpected lifer, which always makes it more exciting in my opinion. The birds weren't close enough for awesome pictures, but I got a few record shots.

- Black-necked Stilts

- Black-necked Stilt

Some non-bird highlights at Rondeau included; Eastern Ribbonsnake, Dekay's Brownsnake, White-tailed Deer, Virginia Opposum and Five-lined Skink.

- Five-lined Skink

- Eastern Ribbonsnake

- DeKay's Brownsnake

- White-tailed Deer

- Virginia Opossum

Our trip list was around 160 by the time we returned on Friday, quite good for a few days. It was an awesome trip, as the weather cooperated nicely for us and birds were everywhere.

Bruce Big Day

On Sunday, May 19th, Michael Butler, Erik Van Den Kieboom, Abigail Collins and myself attempted a big day in Bruce county. Michael picked me up at 4:30am at my place, where we got our first birds of the day.. American Woodcock and Eastern Whip-poor-will. We then drove down to McGregor Provincial Park, where our day officially started. After we met up with our other 2 team members (Erik and Abigail) we birded the park for a bit before working our way up the west coast of the Bruce up to Pike Bay. Highlights of MPPP/Lake Huron coast included ; American Bittern, Upland Sandpiper Sora, Virginia Rail, Dunlin, Purple Martin, Black-billed Cuckoo, Board-winged Hawk, Pileated Woodpecker, Lincoln's Sparrow, Clay-colored Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Golden-winged Warbler, Canada Warbler.

- Upland Sandpiper

- Grasshopper Sparrow

- Purple Martin

- Lincoln's Sparrow

When we got to Pike Bay around noon and were greeted by large numbers of warblers reverse migrating along the coast. There were about 300 warblers, with a good spread of species. Among the flock there were a few new birds for the day, including Blackpoll Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler and Tennessee Warbler. It's a rare treat to get decent reverse migration on the Bruce, so seeing this was quite exciting. After lunch (aka snacking on junk food) we headed over to the east side of the peninsula, where we picked up a few new birds including Veery and Mourning Warbler.
It started to rain around 3:30, which didn't make the birding easier, but we pushed on in hope of picking up some more birds. At Boat lake we saw Black Terns and Osprey out flying in the rain, which was neat. After that we headed down to the Tara area, with hopes of seeing some shorebirds. On the way there the rain and wind were torrential, making viewing conditions... poor (ok horrible). Despite the weather we managed to pick up a 4 new birds; Lesser Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper and Bank Swallow. After that we headed north again, adding our final bird of the day as a group ~ Hairy Woodpecker. I then added a few birds on my own, including Chimney Swift and Barred Owl. That brought my total up to 150 (148 for the group), pretty good for a day in Bruce!

On to local news...
Some recent birds in my neighbourhood include; Broad-winged Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Black-crowned Night Heron, Blue-winged Teal, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Barred Owl and 18 warbler species.