The blog... It's... Alive?!?

 It’s been months since my last post, perhaps the biggest span I’ve gone without writing since I started my blog. It was so hectic trying to keep up with posts during 2022, so I think I had a bit of writing fatigue after the year was over haha. Also, life has been pretty busy recently! 

In early April I moved down to Long Point with Alessandra, where we are both working for Birds Canada on the Forest Birds At Risk program. The field season so far has been tiring, yet rewarding, and the free time I have after work is normally spent birding/sleeping. The average day here involves waking up around dawn, then driving to a forest tract around the Norfolk/Elgin region with Alessandra and our two other coworkers. We then split up and survey the area, keeping track of all the birds we encounter, but mainly focusing on one species… the Louisiana Waterthrush. Later in the season our other 4 target species (Red-headed Woodpecker, Acadian Flycatcher, Cerulean and Prothonotary Warblers) will take up most of our time, but for now the waterthrush is the only one back on territory. Louisiana’s are unique as far as Ontario warblers go, arriving back in the province in early April and setting up territories shortly after that. Their preferred habitat in this region is deep ravines with fast flowing water, where they teeter along the banks in a state of constant tail bobbing hunting for prey. They occasionally nest on sloughs in Carolinian forests too, though this doesn’t seem to be as common. They remind me of dippers, as much as one who hasn’t seen a dipper can be reminded of one… as they sit on logs and rock in the centre of rapidly moving water, plunging their heads in to grab microscopic invertebrates. This past week has been a busy one, as several of the pairs we are monitoring have nests with eggs, and one even has chicks now! It seems like the season has only just begun, but this will be my 6th week conducting Waterthrush surveys. Soon I’ll be getting even busier, as next week point count season begins… a grueling month of predawn bird surveys around Norfolk County, with other species at risk surveys in the afternoon. I’m looking forward to the Huron Fringe Birding Festival, because this year I’m leading 4 hikes and also giving a presentation on my big year. I am not looking forward to driving to Bruce and back during my only days off, doing a big day hike, and then returning to Norfolk for predawn the next day… life of a working birder though : )

Since we arrived here, we have had plenty of time to bird as we have weekends off, and the work day normally ends in the early afternoon (though on most days a midday nap is required before heading out again). It’s been an… interesting… spring for migration down here, with several surges of birds and also long periods of limited movement. It’s kind of funny, growing up in Bruce I was used to the counties around Lake Erie getting all the migrants first, and then having to wait a week or two until they reached me. This year though, it seems a lot of species are showing up on the peninsula before I’m getting them here!! Almost like the birds are avoiding me😅. There have definitely been some highlights so far though, and it’s still only mid May so spring migration is just getting good now.

All of the rarities I’ve crossed paths with so far were in April, with nothing tooo rare for a few weeks now.

A few days after starting work, Alessandra and I found a Fish Crow at the “New” Provincial Park here at Long Point. While it’s not that big of a rarity (1-3 a year around the area), it was still a new self found bird for me… so I was happy with the find. During that same week there was also a female Ruff on the Long Point Causeway. This bird was very distant, shown well by this record shot(?), but scope views were still nice enough. There would later on be a 2nd (possibility 3rd) Ruff found here, but we only saw the 1. I still haven’t seen a adult male Ruff in Ontario, though I’m sure I’ll cross paths with one someday.

On April 14th a rather strange bird appeared near Long Point... A Black-billed Magpie. In Ontario normally these birds are only found East of Thunder Bay near Rainy River, so one in the southern part of the province is very unusual. To make things even more interesting, this was the 4th magpie reported in the southwest in the span of a week! The first showed up near London, followed by another just outside of Guelph and one by Hamilton. There wasn't any overlap between the reports, so it could just be one or two birds involved... Hard to say though. Magpies are rarely kept in captivity, but I guess anything is possible. We drove over to chase it since it was only a few minutes, and within a few minutes of waiting a Black-billed Magpie called and flew down beside the road. I am leaning towards a wild bird, since magpie movement is poorly known and the timing fits with other sightings around the south (there was one a few years ago at Pelee during May). Oh yeah, I was recently voted onto OBRC! So I guess I will be dealing with these records next year...

- Black-billed Magpie

The biggest highlight so far was on April 24th, in the form of a Swallow-tailed Kite. On April 22nd a kite was reported to eBird late in the day, with the comments saying it was just circling over the road. I thought it was probably a legit report, but given the one-observer-wonder nature of most raptor sightings, I figured it wouldn’t be seen again. Then, the next day another birder reported the kite in almost exactly the same spot, again just circling over the road. At the same time, a Henslow’s Sparrow was reported at the provincial park. Alessandra and I quickly drove up to the kite spot, arriving only around 40 minutes after the initial report. Searched for 2 hours… nothing, but seemingly every other species or raptor was flying over! We then went to look for the Henslow’s, but the wind had picked up a bit and we came up empty. A bit dejected, we headed back to the cottage for a meal, figuring we wouldn’t see either rarity. Then guess what? They are both seen at the same time again at 4pm! Though reports didn’t surface for another two hours… frustration… drove back to the kite spot again and stayed until dusk… Nada. Ironically I think I would have seen one of these birds if the other wasn’t also found, because ping-ponging back and forth between them caused me to miss both. The following day we had to work, but as soon as we were done we drove back to look for the kite again. It hasn’t been seen so far that day, but migration conditions were quite poor so I was pretty sure it was still hanging around. We parked beside the road and began the stakeout, and no more than 20 minutes later, wham… Swallow-tailed Kite circles over the field beside us! We watched it for over two hours as other birders came and left, the kite looking a bit miserable in the cold weather. Since the bird had arrived temperatures had been under 10 degrees, getting close to 0 at night, and it was rainy with hardly any insects around. When we were observing it a brief snow flurry passed by, probably the first the kite had ever seen… a strange combination for sure… snow and a kite. It remained cold for the rest of that week, and the bird was observed hunkering down and not being too active. A few days later, it was gone for good, never to be seen again. Fingers crossed it managed to survive and get out of Ontario! Truly a magnificent bird, it was my 2nd time seeing this species in Ontario, and the first for Alessandra.

- Swallow-tailed Kite

Overall though, I have found this to be one of the quieter spring migrations I have experienced. The lack of morning flight birding (due to work) may be hurting my impression of this spring too, as I haven't hit a single big day for movement. Hoping things pick up later this month...

In other news, Alessandra and I are doing a Birdathon big day around the Long Point area next week! The original plan was to do it this weekend, but there simply aren't enough breeding birds back yet. We are trying for a really high total (ideally 170s or higher), so hopefully things pan out. I'll write a post about how it goes. Donations appreciated!  

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/Birds_Canada/p2p/birdathon23/team/gyrkite/

Winter birding back at home

I haven’t posted on here for some time now, with the big year being over things are just less frantic these days and my urge to write has dwindled slightly.

It’s been interesting birding “normally” again and experiencing a quiet winter around my local patch on the Bruce Peninsula. A part of me misses the chaos of it all, the feeling that I always have to ready to go, driven by the all encompassing pursuit of a record. Overall though I enjoy the feeling of peace, and being able to pause and opportunity nature at a slower pace. 

This winter has been rather uneventful for birds in the area, aside from a few county rarities like Little Gull and Harlequin Duck (neither seen by me). Due to an apparent  crash in rodent populations in the open habitats around the peninsula, there area virtually no raptors wintering here. A day long drive around Ferndale in January only produced a single Rough-legged Hawk, and I’ve only seen two Snowy Owls since the new year. The irruptive northern finches are also lacking, aside from Pine Grosbeaks which are around in low numbers. I’ve seen a single redpoll this year, and no crossbills or Evening Grosbeaks. The other main irruptive species we get here is Red-breasted Nuthatch, and similar to the finches, they’re around in very low numbers too (I’ve had 1 in my 5MR, a far cry from 2021, when I had 150 on a single road!!).

- Snowy Owl

This may sound rather bleak, especially considering the majority of year the sky has been an unrelenting shade of winter grey. In some ways it has been too, but there are always exciting moments if you look close enough. An adult Northern Goshawk has been wintering around my area and it has appeared briefly in a flash of power and speed a few times, the classic way to encounter this mysterious forester hunter. Last week it gave me and Alessandra a rare, prolonged view as it circled over the yard. 

- Northern Goshawk

There have also been a fair number of Golden Eagles around this year, I’ve chanced into 4 so far while driving backroads of the county. This may be an annual winter bird here, but spotting a large, long tailed eagle flying in horizon with its wings held in a dihedral position never fails to get the heart racing. 

- Golden Eagle

Birding with Alessandra around the Bruce has been quite rewarding as well. Since she’s not very familiar with the county I’m able to introduce her to all of my favourite haunts, in a way it’s like rediscovering all the places that sparked my interest in birding years ago.

Come February I am always at high risk for getting pre-migration anticipation, and I begin to search desperately for signs of movement in the sky. This year the weather has been rather fluid, fluctuating back and forth between winter and spring conditions and never landing on one for very long before flipping to the other again. Last week we were treated to some unseasonably warm weather, with temperatures above freezing for over a week and even closing in on 12 degrees some days. On February 12th, a push of warm air and a sunny day (a rarity it seems) lured my out into the yard to try an impromptu skywatch. While not exciting by the standards of most southern Ontario birders, I was pleased with my day spent staring up into the blue. The 15 species I saw were highlighted by a flyover Horned Lark (my earliest by two weeks in the yard), 8 Bald Eagles and over 30 American Crows. Normally I get large flights of eagles here in mid March, but I’ve never had this many in a single day in February. Crows may not seem like a sign of spring for many, but they’ve always been one of my first spring birds here. Low numbers winter on the peninsula, though in my neighbourhood I hardly see any in December or January. Come mid February I begin seeing one or two flying over, heading north well above the trees and remaining uncharacteristically silent. As the weeks pass the crows increase in numbers, peaking with a few hundred in a single day over my property. They generally pass by in loosely formed groups, and they seem to be heading north with a purpose, silent as to not evoke the ire of the local crows (at least that’s my best guess at this).

- Horned Lark

 A few days ago I went on a Bruce Birding Club field trip around the southern part of the county, where we came across some more early migrants in the form of American Wigeon, Canvasback, Ring-billed Gulls and Horned Lark. The ducks will push northward with the first warm fronts in February, then retreat only as far as they have to when the weather sours. It seems like an interesting strategy, as most winters they are forced to bounce back and forth several times before conditions improve for good. Ducks are strong fliers though, so travelling a few hundred kilometers probably doesn’t faze them much.

As I’m writing this we appear to be approaching the end of the warm weather for a bit, the forecast saying we’ll be experiencing more seasonal temperatures for the next several weeks. I’m hoping for another early spring, and I can’t wait to get back into the excitement of spring migration. Late March has always been one of my favourite times of the year, right when the American Woodcock, Killdeer and Eastern Meadowlarks are appearing, the fields and forests melting and the mild evenings dominated by the song of American Robin and Red-winged Blackbird, after months of silence. Only another few weeks of waiting…

- Not spring quite yet...

Looking Back at 2022

It’s been a few weeks since my last post about big year stats… I was planning on following that up with several other updates, but there’s certainly less incentive now! During 2022 blogging was always a rush, most of the time I felt behind and there was a strong urge to pump out new content for people following along with my year. 

December 31st was filled with a mix of emotions. Relief that the frantic chasing was over, and that I could now disable eBird/discord alerts and not have a constant sense of anxiety about where my car would be headed next. Nostalgia and a tad of sadness that the wild ride was actually over, because for the past 12 months I had such a driven purpose that I never really had to question what to do just, next bird, next trip, and so on. I spent the last day of the year birding through southwestern Ontario looking mainly for geese and waterfowl along the shoreline. It wasn’t exactly a picturesque winter day, with dense fog, a light drizzle, and temperatures refusing to drop below the freezing mark (8 degrees actually); it felt more like late March than December. There was still that winter greyness to the landscape though and the lack of singing robins, budding trees, and an overall sense of hope made it clear that winter was far from over. The Middlesex dump had a few hundred gulls roosting in the field beside it, though seeing them through the fog was a bit of a challenge. A single first year Glaucous Gull was the main highlight. 

- Glaucous Gull

I wasn’t really planning on being in Ontario at that point. The idea was to visit Alessandra’s family in Ohio for a week after Christmas, but, like many plans laid during a big year, things can change quickly. First southern Ontario was blasted with an intense winter storm during the days around Christmas, with extensive road closures and 4 feet of snow shutting down travel. Second, during the last week of the year William and Ezra got a Gyrfalcon for their yearlist bringing them both to 357, only two birds behind me. Since February I had been up by a few, but around July I had established a 4 bird lead, which held through most of the fall. Ezra needed Ring-necked Pheasant, which are present year round on Manitoulin Island, so it was only a matter of a trip for him to gain one back on me. Once he got that in mid December it was down to 3, which was still decently comfortable though definitely not impossible to get back! I was very impressed with William who, despite being over 12 birds behind in September, managed to close the gap and be tied with Ezra by December. Then they got gyr so I only had a lead of two. Unfortunately, William had missed some birds earlier in the year so he would need two real rarities to catch up. Ezra on the other hand needed goshawk, which meant if he got that he’d only need one rarity to catch me. Mainly because of this (and weather), we decided not to leave Ontario until the 31st. That way if something did show up I could *probably* still get it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that that I was that competitive with the other guys… both Ezra and William had successfully broken the old record too and we’d taken numerous trips together during the year, and at the end of it a big year is really a personal challenge. There was some aspect of competition though, but I feel like that’s just unavoidable at a certain point. If I lacked motivation for chases, or just getting out birding, having the others so close behind would light a fire in me to keep going and give it 110%. I wasn’t just going to back down at the end of the year and hand it over ; )

Of course I couldn’t leave the province, and my big year, without a bit of last minute stress when a possible Ivory Gull was reported in Ottawa on December 30th. As much as I wanted 360, I really did not want to drive 7 hours all the way across the province on the final day of the year. Luckily, it wasn’t refound in the morning and after 10am it would have been too late for me to get there from the south regardless, so I continued towards the border. A few final stops in Erieau and Wheatley turned up a soggy Great Horned Owl, a variety of gulls, and a cursed domestic duck that I swear gave Steller’s Eider vibes until I got it in my scope. 

- Great Horned Owl, Erieau 

- Wheatley, December 31st

Coming up to the border in Windsor, I looked out the window and spotted a Blue Jay flying over the highway, my last Ontario bird of 2022. My first of 2022 was a Great Horned Owl in Niagara, not a bad starting and ending bird! 

As we drove south over the Ambassador Bridge, and down through Detroit to join up with I-75, the sun set on the final day of the year. Ironically, as soon as we had crossed over into the US the skies had cleared and it was a gorgeous day for the remainder of the drive, of course. Listening to my music playlist, which was carefully edited during my many long road trips around the province, I was hit by a flood of memories from the year. Camping on the Wetum Road in -45 in the deadly silence of the north, snarfing down cliff bars and other dried food and watching the northern lights shimmering above. Spending long days in Ottawa in March and April, watching tens of thousands of geese fly through the air, searching for that one that was a little bit different. Living at Point Pelee for a whole month in May, birding dawn ‘til dusk every day, exhausted, but full of excitement to see what migrants the next day would bring. That was actually my first time visiting Pelee during the spring, something I’d been meaning to do for years. Watching reverse migration off of the tip was without a doubt the most fun birding I did all year, and I can’t wait to go back! The spring also brought me Alessandra, who on top of being an amazing girlfriend, also turned out to be my perfect travelling companion for the rest of the year. She did such a fantastic job of keeping me motivated and going on chases with me, which really shows how supportive she is because, although she’s obsessed with birds, she doesn’t really like twitching.

There were definitely low points in the year too, like chasing Townsend’s Warbler 4 times and spending a whole 28 hours sitting in that cold back yard (finally got it though), getting covid in February and a bad flu in the fall. 

Exploring the province so thoroughly is something that I think often isn’t highlighted as much as it should be during big years. Going into 2022, I had a decent familiarity with southern Ontario, but anywhere north of Sudbury and east of Toronto were unknown to me. Seeing Ontario, from the steep winding hills of northern Ontario, to the frozen Arctic Ocean in Kenora District, and the valleys of Ottawa were experiences I’ll remember for the rest of my life. There are many spots that I only visited briefly and want to return to in the future. Being constantly on the go is the nature of a big year, usually only spending as much time as is necessary at any one spot; see the target bird and move on.

- Walking by Attawapiskat 

- Thunder Bay area

- Lake Superior 

- Dinner, big year style

On a whole, I’m very pleased with how it went, the most exciting year of my life thus far! I’m almost tempted to write a book about it honestly, I just have so much that I want to say about my adventure with the birds... A big year is a numbers game, but ultimately it was the experience, birding for a whole year and seeing amazing places and species that stuck with me the most.

 Will I do it again? Probably not, though I did enjoy it and couldn’t rule anything out for sure. Maybe I’ll come back in Sandy Komito fashion (The real life, less jerkish version of Bostick from “The Big Year” movie) if my record were to be broken : )

 There are so many people that deserve to be thanked for helping me last year, be that emotional support or generous gifts of gas cards and other things. A huge shoutout to my parents of course, who were so encouraging throughout all big year. The Bruce Birding Club folks too, Fred, Marilyn, Bob, Anne-Marie, Susan, Bruce, Liz and many others! Thanks for being some of my most loyal blog followers during the year and constantly pumping me up. A huge shoutout too for all the folks who allowed me to stay in their homes during my journeys around the province, that saved me so many nights in my car. The Huron Fringe Birding Festival was a big supporter of my big year as well, and this year I’ll be leading numerous hikes for them (see that Here)

I’ll do another post soon with my photography highlights from 2022! 

Also I’m doing a webinar for OFO on February 7th for those who want to tune in!

- Dovekie, Toronto

My 2022 Big Year From a Stats perspective

 

I'm going to write several wrap up posts about my big year, I just have so much that I want to talk about! First off I want to talk about some statistics and stuff from 2022. As some of you may have noticed from reading along for these past 12 months, I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to numbers and stuff ; )

So as you may know, all Ontario birds are broken down into a code system from 1 to 6, with 1 being the easiest and 6 being the hardest. For a recap on that check out this post. Here is a breakdown of the how many birds I saw in each code:

Code 1s - 203/203, 100% of Code 1s

Code 2s - 73/73, 100% of the Code 2s

Code 3s - 43/46, 93% of Code 3s

Code 4s - 25/41, 60.1% of Code 4s

Code 5s - 12  (kinda pointless including % for 5s and 6s, they’re just too rare).

Code 6s - 3 

I ended up seeing every code 1 and 2 bird, though this was pretty expected because missing even 1 of those would be terrible. I had all but two of these birds by late August, then I added Parasitic Jaeger and Brant in the fall.

Code 3s are the swing species on a big year, and the number you see will seriously effect how well your year turns out. I did very well with 3s, and I only ended up missing 3 of them! Those 3 were Black Guillemot, Smith's Longspur and Western Kingbird. The former two I never really had a shot at, because I didn't go to Hudson/James Bay during the right time. The kingbird hurts a bit, but it was really a tough year for them! 

I managed to track down over half of the code 4s, which I'm quite happy about because these are all tough rarities. I also saw 15 code 5 and 6 birds, this also really helped my total for the year. As far as I know there were 375 species seen in the province in 2022, so I saw 95.7% of them!! Not too bad!!

What about self found birds? I mentioned in January that I was going to keep track of that, and ideed I did. My original goal was to get to 300 for self found, however I didn't go to James Bay so that became pretty tough. Also there was no good hurricane this year, so that hurt my chances as well. I could have done better for sure if I targeted some of the birds I needed, but with more pressing big year birding to do I never really did that! As such I missed dumb things like Brant, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Purple Sandpiper and Sabine's Gull. I seemed to be the only one who didn't find a chat at Point Pelee... I still hit 288 though, which I'm quite pleased with : ) I mean that's still 18 higher than my previous highest Ontario yearlist (with chasing). This also brings my all time self found list over 300. What about highlights? I didn't find as many OBRC birds (2) as I had hoped, but I found a lot of code 3/4 birds, including some that were just removed from the review list...

Here were some of the rarer ones ones! Favourites highlighted

- King Eider, Barrow's Goldeneye (female),Willow Ptarmigan, American Avocet, Marbled Godwit, Willet, Western Sandpiper, All 3 Jaegers, Razorbill, Black-legged Kittiwake x 8, Franklin's Gull (in Ottawa), Arctic Tern, Pacific Loon, Little Blue Heron, Swainson's Hawk, Cave Swallow, Lark Sparrow, Worm-eating Warbler, Summer Tanager, Blue Grosbeak x2, Dickcissel x2...

Not too shabby!

Now lets talk about missed birds for a bit, just because why not? The list of missed birds is as follows;

Curlew Sandpiper - One observer wonder in Ottawa, reported late and not seen the next day

Painted Bunting - One seen in morning flight at Long Point, 2 others at feeders and not shared

Chuck-Wills-Widow - One of the more annoying ones. For the last decade the Prince Edward birds had returned, but 2022 they were absent. Also there was only one at Point Pelee, heard a few times at night and then never again.

Western Kingbird - A few were seen in Rainy River in June, but 2 weeks before I went there. Then one unchaseable bird in eastern Ontario. I was hoping I could get it in the fall, but the only two fall birds were morning flight flybys...

Least Tern - Seen only once in Lambton on a lakewatch, not chaseable.

Wood Stork - 12 birds were seen flying over Point Pelee in early September, then a few were seen by another observer the next day. Also on that same day one was seen beside a river in Stratford! I was working during the first day, but I don't really think it would have made a difference because they were slippery...

Cassin's Kingbird - 2 Birds were seen by single observers in Algoma and Thunder Bay. Again, not chaseable.

Say's Phoebe - One in Thunder Bay in early May, then William found his own in Sudbury in June! Unfortunately his was just before sunset and wasn't seen the following day. 

Northern Wheatear - One observer wonder in Algoma

Smith's Longspur - None were seen out of range in 2022, but lots were on breeding territory on Hudson Bay... So I could have had this bird for a several thousand dollar plane flight...

Swainson's Warbler - Long Point (inaccessible area) and Pelee Island (one day wonder) in May...

Gray Flycatcher - An annoying bird in Brant. Misidentified as a Willow Flycatcher and reported after sunset... not seen the following day... annoying. This would have been an easy chase if posted same day.

Atlantic Puffin - Several people had flybys in Ottawa, but they were never seen on the water and thus, not chaseable.

Black Guillemot  - William, Ezra and the other folks who went to James Bay in October got a guillemot, so I could have seen this bird if I went on the trip.

Barn Owl - A suppressed bird in January, rip. No others were seen this year as far as I know.

Burrowing Owl - My most annoying miss of the year... This bird was refound at TTP in Toronto in early January, while I was up by Thunder Bay. I tried the next day and dipped. Then after that I spent a whole day and it was seen an hour and a half after we left. A big snowstorm hit later that week and most people assumed it was dead, but apparently it was seen in April by a TRC employee?!?

Anyways yeah, I don't dwell on my missed birds, it's just not possible to see everything during a big year and there will always be ones that got away. Overall I'm thrilled with the way things went. As I said above, almost all of the species I missed weren't chaseable. For arguments sake though, I'll calculate how I would have ended up if I did things "perfect". 

To start, let’s say I delayed my first northern Ontario trip and connected with the Toronto Burrowing Owl (360). Then I went to Rainy River in early June and saw Western Kingbird (361). Then if I had an unlimited budget I could have flown to Hudson Bay and got Smith’s Longspur in the summer (362).  If I wasn’t working in early September I could have spent more time on Wood Stork, although honestly I likely would have still missed it. But let’s say I got super lucky and got one of them (363). I really felt like going to James Bay in mid October was the wrong call because the weather was promising for rarities in the south, of which there didn’t turn out to be any. To clarify I’m still ok with this decision, but if I did go I would have scored Black Guillemot (364). I’m not comfortable giving myself any other species on the list, because the rest weren’t chaseable in my opinion. So yeah, IF I was at Long Point on the right day I would have seen a Painted Bunting fly by, and IF I was on the right trail at night in Pelee I could have heard a Chuck-Wills-Widow, but that’s just fantasy land. So yeah, the best that I could have possibly gotten is 364, 5 more than my actual list… but that’s the way the cookie crumbled. The way it went I smashed the old record of 346, so definitely not complaining! On my budget too some of those things weren’t really attainable. I mainly just wrote that to show what was possible, not what I would have done differently.

Favourite eBird list of 2022? This one

Anyways those are the stats! I'll do another post sometime soon with a less number orientated look back on 2022. If anyone has questions about other list stuff, just message me or ask in comments!

Ontario yearlist @ December 31 - 359

- Cerulean Warbler from May

The end of the line!

 Well folks, it is 11:30pm on December 31 of 2022. The end of my big year has come! I can’t believe this time has come already, it seems like just the other day I was starting my big year, chasing Mountain Bluebirds, Boreal Owls and other winter rarities…

359 is now officially the new Ontario big year record! Woot!! Hell of a ride…

Right now I’m down in Ohio celebrating New Years with Alessandra’s family… was planning on doing a year end post, but the evening got away from me! Today I birded along Lake Erie for my last day of the year, which I’ll go into more detail on tomorrow. I’ll do more posts on big year stuff in the coming days and weeks!

Thanks for following along this year! It’s been a blast blogging this year : )

eBird alerts off, discord notifications silenced… time for a much needed nap : )

Ontario Yearlist @ December 31 - 359