Birding in...

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

May Pictures

Ok, so here are my pics from just after Pelee until just before I headed south, hope you enjoy! I decided my southern adventure is worthy of its own post.

Tree Swallows at Guelph Lake

'Herman' the tame Wood Duck at the Locks

Lincoln's Sparrow at WPBO

Turkey Vulture at WPBO

Sharp-shinned Hawk at WPBO

Spruce Grouse on Vermillion Rd.

Turkey Vulture at Vermillion

Willets on the Tahquamenon

Long-billed Dowitcher in Bruce Mines

Bald Eagle pair at Pumpkin point

American White Pelicans with the International Bridge

Mallard babies at the Locks

American Coot at the Locks

Solitary Sandpiper at the Locks

Great Egret at the Locks

My first-ever shot of an American Crow - and yes I have pics of Fish and Northwestern already which makes this very sad...

Canadian Common Tern at Bellevue

Canada Goose babies at Bellevue

Green-winged Teal at Bellevue

Black Bear near Bruce Mines on my Big Day

Common Terns at Pumpkin Point

Broad-winged Hawk at the Locks

Herman and his mate

Alright, so I decided it's been far too long since my last post, and I have quite a bit to catch up on so here goes.

May 15 I led my now annual Sault Naturalists outing to the Locks for a pretty good morning of birding. We managed almost 70 species in the few hours, compared to around 50 in the past 2 years. The highlights were my first American Coot for the Locks, and a Clay-colored Sparrow along with 15 species of warblers and a few other year birds. Gray Catbird finally showed up, only 3 weeks later than usual. Afterwards I went down to Bellevue and found a pair of Forster's Terns.

May 18 I did my 10th annual Big Day, ended up with 139 species (9 less than last year) due mostly to a lack of migration. My alarm clock managed to break, so I ended up starting at 4am instead of the planned 2. Out the door and the first bird of the day was a Robin in full song. I got in some owling despite the late start, managing to get Barred and Saw-whet Owl, along with several Whip-poor-wills. Then I ran my usual route around town, ending up with over 100 species by noon, almost all on breeding territory. Out east of town I filled in some spots, but missed out on a few ducks, shorebirds and hawks that I was counting on. Then it was back for a quick look around the waterfront and then home, and for the first time I made it past 10pm, probably because it wasn't raining and I'd had a bit of a sleep-in. So, I decided to sit out on the back deck until my day was up, adding Long-tailed Duck to the list as the last bird of the day. Some other highlights of the day were Forster's Tern, Eastern Towhee, Northern Goshawk and House Finch, along with 20 species of warblers and quite a few year birds.

May 21 I started the journey south, to start work doing Forest Bird Monitoring plots for the CFS, stopping in Sudbury and Guelph before doing my first plot on the 24th. This job took me from Watford - Rondeau area - Newbury area - Port Stanley, and everywhere in between. Lots of cool birds, and lots of pictures, I'll put up a more detailed post in a bit.

June 6th I did my Kirtland's Warbler survey in Chippewa County, after getting home on the 4th from Southern Ontario. Evan Timusk, another birder in the area, came with me and we had a pretty good day despite a lot of rain at the start, managing to get killer views of a Kirtland's at around 4 feet away! Unfortunately no pics due to rain. Also got Olive-sided Flycatcher, Connecticut Warbler, Red Crossbill, Piping Plover, LeConte's Sparrow, and several other good birds. Kirtland's was #275 for my SSM area list!

Now I am just working on photos, blog, my website, and visiting with friends before I have to head back to southern Ontario for the second part of my job on the 11th. My next post will contain a more detailed summary of my southern excursion along with pics from late April until now.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

More Migration!

Well, if you're a birder, you have to love the month of May. All the birds coming back through on their way north, as well as a few rarities here and there make it the most birdy month of the year. Since I have most of the month off, I've been out birding as much as possible! Since my last post, I have added 23 birds to the year list, and should add many more before I head off to work. Some highlights:

May 5 I went to WPBO and birded the whole day with Jason Bojczyk. On the way over, I found 9 Willets at the Tahquamenon Rivermouth, which we went back for later in the day so Jason could get them as a lifer! The point was fairly productive, with my year Red-throated Loon, White-winged Scoter, Lincoln's Sparrow and a few others. A little after noon we decided to head out and bird some other areas. At the WPBO staff house we got the Lark Sparrow that had been hanging out since the previous day, and we found a nice male Spruce Grouse on Vermillion Rd. that allowed close approach. Out at Vermillion Beach, Jason spotted a Northern Mockingbird that wasn't very cooperative. We also found quite a few shorebirds, mostly Yellowlegs but with one Least Sandpiper. After that and the rivermouth, it was pretty late in the day so I had to head home. I finished the day with 90 species - fairly good for this early in the season!

After that, I biked around town once or twice, once to chase a Summer Tanager and once just to see what was around. Didn't end up seeing the Tanager, and didn't find anything else of interest really - the arrival of Common Terns was the highlight.

May 8 I went down to the locks in the middle of a snowstorm, and had 6 species of warbler along with several other birds that I think should be added to the winter list (there was snow on the ground!). Not as many shorebirds as I'd hoped for, but did have the first Spotted Sandpipers for the area this year. After that, I headed to Bellevue and met up with Ken, where there were 9 Lesser Yellowlegs and a Solitary Sandpiper on one of the mudflats, not much else of note. After that, we went on the Sault Naturalists hike to the Desbarats bat cave, and birded out east of town after. Highlights of the trip were an extremely early Great Crested Flycatcher, some lingering Tundra Swans that I added to the yearlist, 20 species of waterfowl including a Ruddy Duck that Ken found, and a Long-billed Dowitcher that I found at the Bruce Mines lagoons. It was pretty skittish, but allowed good scope views and was heard calling. There are only two records from the Sault area that I know of, both at WPBO, however this species should be close to annual - who knows.

Yesterday I got an email about some Pelicans down on the river, so naturally I hopped on the bike and spent a couple hours birding the Locks. The local Wood Duck was still there, along with 8 species of warblers and the two American White Pelicans that Bob found.

So, my year list currently stands at 210 species, and my bigby list is somewhere around 80-85. Lots of work yet to do... Pictures to come soon.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Migration

Migration is well under way here in the Sault, and so far about 10 of the 25 regular warblers have been reported, although not in any sort of numbers yet. White-throated Sparrows had a major push the other day, with around 600 birds down at the Locks. Other passerines are slowly moving in, and the south winds the last few days have helped quite a bit. I'll hopefully be out birding quite a bit in the next two and a half weeks before I head off to Southern Ontario to do bird censusing plots.

With the warm weather and strong south winds yesterday there was a massive movement of Hawks across the U.P., and I got an email from Skye Haas partway through the day that said he'd had a Swainson's Hawk fly over his house, along with a ton of Broad-wings and other hawks. I decided it'd be a good idea to do some hawkwatching of my own, so I went and sat out on the back deck with my binocs. I looked up to the sky, and....HOLY *$#& AN ANHINGA!!!!!! was my only thought as I raced to grab my camera. My brother's only comment was "Rare bird?" Rare bird indeed. It didn't stick around for any pics, but I'd had a good look through the binoculars as it went by about 500 feet overhead. I immediately called around and sent a few emails, along with making a sketch of the bird with field marks. Ken and Kirk went down to scan the waterfront for it on the slim chance that it may have turned around. Kirk eventually gave up and spent a while photographing Herman, an extremely tame Wood Duck that has taken a Mallard as its mate and set up shop at the Locks. He then went to look for the Harlequin Duck that's been hanging around, and amazingly had the Anhinga fly back across the river into the States! This would represent the second Michigan record if accepted. As for the Canadian side, I'm not sure, but Ontario is the only province with Anhinga on its list, so this may have been only the third or fourth record for Canada! I will post an update if I find anything out regarding the record status. Oh, and I submitted the record, as did Kirk, for anyone who was wondering.

Ken, Bob and I spent the morning this morning scanning up and down the river without any luck to see if the Anhinga stuck around. There are so many wetlands in this area that if it did stick around, it'd be pretty hard to find.

Other than that, I added a couple year birds with Black-and-White Warbler and Brewer's Blackbird out at the airport. My two-day hawkwatching tally stands at 39 Broad-wings, 4 Sharp-shinneds, and a Merlin. And an Anhinga. Which was new for the Sault checklist. In my backyard. Woot.

It's always nice finding rare birds!

Point Pelee

As I mentioned in the previous post, my dad took me down to Pelee for the April 24/25 weekend. Despite crappy weather (rain, wind, cold) both days, we managed to find 100 species in the day and a half that we were there, with 77 on April 24 and 85 on April 25 (the half day). 53 of these were year birds for me, showing you how much I've been out this spring. The definite highlight was my lifer Louisiana Waterthrush that provided decent looks at the Tip before disappearing. We also had a Northern Waterthrush along with Black-throated Green, Nashville, Palm, and Myrtle Warblers. Other highlights were some southern birds that we don't get very often up here such as Eastern Towhee, Field Sparrow, Carolina Wren, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Purple Martin, Forster's Tern and Ruddy Duck. Some shorebirds were nice to see, with 28 Pectoral Sandpipers and 24 Dunlin at Hillman Marsh along with a few Yellowlegs and Spotted Sandpipers. Other than that, there wasn't much going on (although things have picked up a lot in the last week there!). On the drive back to the Sault, I added 5 more year birds, being Broad-winged, Red-shouldered, and Sharp-shinned Hawk, Osprey, and Pine Siskin.

Red-winged Blackbird at the Marsh Boardwalk

Forster's Tern at Hillman

Pectoral Sandpipers at Hillman

Common Tern at the Tip

Bonaparte's Gulls at the Tip

Field Sparrow at the Tip

Hermit Thrush

Downy Woodpecker

Chipping Sparrow at the Tip

Some Stuff

Alright, so it's been too long since my last real post, and I have some things to tell you.

First of all, I successfully finished first-year physics, with a fairly decent average no less! It was a fun year, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting out of residence and living in a house next year. Secondly, I bought a Nikon D2Xs off Kirk, and got the 70-300VR lens to go with it, and have already gotten some great results. Still have a lot of experimenting to do though. Thirdly, my dad took me down to Point Pelee for April 24/25 as we had the weekend to kill between my last exam and his meetings on Monday in Guelph. Fourthly (is that a word?), I am back in the Sault, catching up with friends, playing with my new camera, and getting a whole year's worth of birding done, all while trying to catch up on sleep.

Couple more posts to go, stay tuned.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Shameless Plug

I have some other things to post soon, but thought I would take a moment to promote myself!

First, I will be offering guide services in the Sault area, and have posted the info on my site http://ontariobirds.webs.com/guiding.htm. If you have any other questions, please email me using the link on that page!

Second, for those of you who haven't yet, check out David Bell Photography on Facebook (and become a fan!). I will be posting new stuff there regularly over the summer, so keep tabs!

Thirdly, anything on there is for sale! I will try to update my other website to include the pictures and some pricing info, but if you're interested in anything in the meantime, just let me know and we can work something out.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Colorado trip pics

Well, here they are, my long overdue photos from Colorado. I have a few more I still have to edit, so will probably post them sometime in the future.

Day 1:

Denver Airport pano - notice anything odd?