Birding this morning

Biked down to the Locks this morning, about half an hour after sunrise (I was tired). Most of the warblers from recent days have moved on, although there was still good diversity, with 9 species. Ran into Stan Phippen there who said he'd had 2 more before I got there. The only shorebirds were a Least Sandpiper and a couple Killdeer. Scored one new bird for the year here - Warbling Vireo - as well as added Nashville Warbler to my Bigby list.

Then I continued to Bellevue where I found a Rose-breasted Grosbeak (male), another new bird for the year. The Marbled Godwit from May 6 is still there, somewhat of a surprise given that the Western Tanager has gone and the Tufted Duck hasn't been seen since last night (by my friend and I). I ended up putting a good 14 km on my bike, and I forgot to add to my last post that I did 23.5 km that day.

The Yellow-rumps and Palms have been coming through in good numbers these last few days, hopefully a sign that more numbers of other warblers are close behind!

Locks this morning

Headed down to the locks for an hour before school. It was pretty active when I was there, but Ken was there just after me and said it was mostly dead. I had 42 species in the hour I was there, including 3 new species for my Locks list (Fox Sparrow, Eastern Phoebe, Osprey), and 5 year birds (Belted Kingfisher, Rusty Blackbird, White-throated Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush). The Osprey caught a fish (good sized one too) while I was there, and the sunrise was pretty nice...would have been better without all the buildings in front of it though. No pics as of yet, as the uploader is giving me error messages. Anyway, songbirds are picking up, other warblers should be here soon!

As I said in an earlier post, the Locks are probably the best place here in town for birds, and to prove it, my Locks list is up to about 165 after today. Considering that my total SSM area list is at 255, that's a pretty decent percentage from such a small place...well...relatively small anyway.

More recent birding

Tundra Swans - April 8 - Bar River

Haven't posted for a while, but I have been getting out! On Saturday I went out east of town for a while with Kirk, and found Blue-winged Teal, Redhead, and a Great Black-backed Gull in the way of SSM yearbirds, along with 2 pairs of Canvasbacks at Pumpkin Point - this is the most I've seen in one year in the Sault area! We also went to Kirk's place where his feeders found us Northern Cardinal, Boreal Chickadee, and Hoary Redpoll. Not yearbirds, but good sightings nonetheless.

Sandhill Cranes - April 13 - Bar River

Monday night I did an owl survey route with Ken and Stan, and found Wilson's Snipe and Long-eared Owl (ABA year #100!) for yearbirds, plus quite a few Barred Owls, American Woodcock, and an Eastern Meadowlark, right as Ken was about to say we should be seeing one soon!

After school today I headed down to the Locks, finding Northern Flicker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and some Yellow-rumped Warblers, along with a few migrant hawks and sparrows. Also found the first Garter Snake and Mourning Cloaks for the year, along with the resident Red Fox whom I haven't seen for a while.

Garter Snake - April 16 - Locks

Red Fox

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker pair

Also, the weather is starting to warm up (18ºC today!!!!), and all the snow that fell April 11th and 12th is now melted, along with some of the stuff that was there before that.

Here's my list of recent species (April 13-16).

Canada Goose - 2500+
Tundra Swan - 7
Wood Duck - 10+
American Black Duck - 100+
Mallard - 300+
Blue-winged Teal - 2
Northern Pintail - 4
Green-winged Teal - 2
Canvasback - 4
Redhead - 5
Ring-necked Duck - 40+
Greater Scaup - 30+
Lesser Scaup - 50+
Bufflehead - 10+
Common Goldeneye - 30+
Hooded Merganser - 100+
Common Merganser - 100+
Ruffed Grouse - 1
Double-crested Cormorant - 10+
Great Blue Heron - 5
Turkey Vulture - 9
Osprey - 3
Bald Eagle - 7
Northern Harrier - 5+
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
Rough-legged Hawk - 8 (2 dark phase, 2 intermediate)
American Kestrel - 15+
Merlin - 2
Sandhill Crane - 60+
Killdeer - 4
Wilson's Snipe - 7
American Woodcock - 24
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull - 1
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 4
Hairy Woodpecker - 2
Northern Flicker - 2
Barred Owl - 12
Long-eared Owl - 1
Northern Shrike - 1
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Boreal Chickadee - 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 2
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Brown Creeper - 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 1
American Robin - 100+
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 8
American Tree Sparrow - 30+
Fox Sparrow - 2
Song Sparrow - 30+
Dark-eyed Junco - 50+
Northern Cardinal - 1
Red-winged Blackbird - 30+
Eastern Meadowlark - 2
Common Grackle - 30+
Brown-headed Cowbird - 5+
Common Redpoll - 40+
Hoary Redpoll - 2
American Goldfinch - 4
House Sparrow - 10+

Number of Species: 70