Hawks, Owls and Lights

That pretty much sums up the last few days in the Sault! First, some highlights... Red-bellied Woodpecker, Hoary Redpoll, Boreal Chickadee, Bohemian Waxwing and an early Orange-crowned Warbler, all on the bigby list! Hoary Redpoll is an extremely late bird. Warblers haven't quite shown up yet - there have only been 4 species reported so far which isn't all that surprising given it isn't May.

Now, on to the hawks. Did some hawkwatching from my deck and roof yesterday and today, with quite a bit of success! Totals were:

Broad-winged Hawk - 240

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 8

Turkey Vulture - 6

Red-tailed Hawk - 3

Bald Eagle - 3

Merlin - 2

Singles of Osprey, Northern Harrier, American Kestrel, Northern Goshawk, and Peregrine Falcon. The majority of these were today, ahead of a storm that's moving into the area now. Peregrine and Goshawk were both new for the yard list! Some other yard birds I got while hawkwatching were: Double-crested Cormorant, Bohemian Waxwing, Cliff Swallow and Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

Ken and I did one of his owl routes last night, with some success: 6 Barred, 2 Long-eared, 1 Northern Saw-whet, 1 Short-eared and 1 Boreal Owl were on the route, and part way through we were treated to a display of the Aurora Borealis (northern lights)!!! They were pretty faint with not much colour, but still cool to see. We also had decent numbers of ducks and some Brewer's Blackbirds on the drive out, along with 24 Greater Yellowlegs.

Weekend Adventures

Yesterday I met up with Jason T from southern Michigan for an afternoon of birding south of the Sault. We had a decent day with 34 species - 3 of which were lifers for him! Unfortunately, the Hawk Owls decided it'd be a good time to leave, and we didn't find a single one of the three that were here all winter. We did have an unexpected Gray Jay though, along with most of the finches including 2 very nice Hoary Redpolls.

Today I decided to skip out on Searchmont so I could sleep for an extra hour or two and then work on some things. Turned out to be a good plan as my brother wasn't feeling well so they came back early anyway. It was a beautiful day, with temps up to 8ºC!!! After being outside in the backyard for a bit and finding my first Dark-eyed Junco for the year, I decided to bike down to Bellevue to see what was around. It was so warm I only needed a t-shirt and jeans (although most other people were still wearing jackets for some reason...). Anyway, I managed to add 4 year birds and 16 new Bigby birds today (plus the junco) - year birds were Canada Goose, Ring-necked Duck, Bufflehead, and Red-winged Blackbird, bringing my year list up to 65 and Bigby to 33! Spring is here! (hopefully it'll stay this time)