Rarity at Old Cut

So we didn't end up going to the remote stations the other day, but we are leaving in about an hour. It is probably a good thing because myself, Ryan Rea, and Julian Greer heard a very strange bird this morning that none of us had ever heard before. It defiantly sounded like a grassland bird, and we were trying to figure it out and the only similar thing we found was a Western Meadowlark. It sounded almost exact to the call we had on our iPods, and the exact same tone. The three of us realised that European Starling's sometimes imitate Meadowlarks, but they usually aren't exact, especially the tone. I am not sure if I will decided to call it Western Meadowlark, and put it on my Life List, I will probably just wait till I actually see one to confirm a sighting.

Old Cut Banding Day One

So I arrived at Old Cut, Long Point yesterday afternoon, so today was my first day with banding. Over all the day went fairly well for banding, I did get to band about 9 individual's(8species), including a Traill's Flycatcher and a Canada Warbler. For the rest of the day, I was pretty much birding the whole time. Ended up with 51 species in between 2:25 and 6:00pm. Managed to find 7 species of warbler in this time, and one more species from census this morning. (Canada, Yellow-rumped, Magnolia, Black-and-white, Mourning, Chestnut-sided, American Redstart, and from census, Yellow Warbler). There were also a fairly substantial numbler of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers around the area, as well as Least Flycatchers and a fair amount of Black-and-white Warblers also. Throughout the day I also got Common, Forster's, and Caspian Terns, 2 Belted Kingfisher's, Green Herons, and 2 Great Egrets. Over all, my time here has been very good.

The plan for tomorrow is to take a boat out to the Tip, then eventually me and David Bell will be headed out for Breakwater, the middle banding lab. I can't wait because both are very beautiful places to be!
But thats it for now.

Good Birding!

Good Day, Sunshine!

Had a good day in the sunshine through the leaves of our forest today. Not a very high species count, though I was only out for about 50min, but it was a good day for the less common birds. With a total of 7 wablers on the count, 3 were good birds. There were 2 Blue-winged Warblers seen, a fairly uncommon bird in the county even in spring, but they do nest on the property every summer. Their 'Bee-Bzzzz' call can often start to get annoying in early summer bacuase they do it continously.

Not the best picture in the world but not to bad, other then the stick that got right infront of its neck.

Another good warbler on the trip was an early Blackpoll Warbler. This warbler is extremely hard to ID from the Bay-breasted Warbler in fall. The easiest way I find to tell the difference is to look at the feet/legs, if they are solid black, they are bay-breasted, if they have any yellow on them (usually on the feet), it's a blackpoll. The only other time to tell the difference between them if they are first fall birds, is if they have an excess of their colouring, for example, if they have a lot of pink'ish or orange'ish on the flanks, it is probably a bay-breasted, if it has a lot of striping, it is probably a blackpoll. But there are some blackpoll's with a little pink of orange on the flanks, and some bay-breasted with a little striping.
The third good warbler on the walk was a Connecticut Warbler. This is a first for year bird for this year for me. It was flushed up from the undergrowth and landed on a branch about a meter for a brief couple of seconds before it went back down a little further away. This was a fairly exciting bird for me because there are very few migrating through, though in fall you are a lot more likely to find them then spring migration, they still arn't very likely to be found. This is also because they like to stay close to the grown in the undergrowth and the only way to find them typical is by flushing them.
And a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher as I'm walking back to the house is a nice treat as well. They can be somewhat common during migration but I still don't find many on the property most years, Probably an average of about 2-3 a year.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11299207


I also went birding yesterday afternoon to Strathroy Sewage Lagoons looking for the American Avocet reported there the day earlier. Sadly, didn't have any luck with the Avocet, but did get Blue-winged Teal, a juvenile Green Heron, and a juvenile Bonaparte's Gull. There were a lot a shorebirds there as well, including Semipalmated Plovers, lots of Pectoral Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers, and 2 Stilt Sandpipers to bring the day together.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11298061


All in all, a good, sunny, two days of birds.
Good Birding!

Backyard Birding ~~ Early August

So it's early August, and I'm already seeing a fair bit of songbird movement at my house and in my forest. I went for a 2hr walk/birding trip in the forest this afternoon around 14:00, and I was surprised at how much there was back there! My biggest surprise was the 280+ Common Grackle's flying around, some parts of the forest ground was solid black with them! Some other interesting things were the 6 different species of Warbler, even though 4 of these commonly nest in Lambton, only 3 of these nest on the property. The most interesting of them was a somewhat early migrating Adult Male Blackburnian Warbler(in it's fall plumage). Yellow-throated Vireo singing its "3A 3A" song was also a pleasent surprise for they are not super common on the property at any time of year.

Though fall migration is starting up on the property, there are still a number of breeding residence which were nice to see. I was very surprised at how well the Great-crested Flycatcher's did this year, within the first 10min of the walk I had already seen 2 adults with >3 juvenile's with them, and by the end of the walk I had a total of 8 different individuals. Though this type of flycatcher apeares to have done quite well this year, I am sad to say that the Eastern Wood-pewee's on the property don't seem to have had a successful brood this year, only one individual was heard in the entire 2hrs, where in previous years they would not stop calling in every direction. 8 Yellow Warbler's including 2 fledglings indicated a fair-average nesting success this year, as well as the Juvenile Male Amreican Redstart.

Not super exciting but a very fun moment during the walk was my encounter with an American Woodcock, getting accidentaly flushed up meer inches from where I was putting my foot down. Was I ever startled. Another good bird seen, not during the walk but early morning, a Wild Turkey wandering around in my front yard! First one I've seen in at leased a month, they are typically more common in numbers between late fall and early spring around here, but earlier this summer I happened to stumble apon a nest of theirs with 5 eggs in it, very exciting discovery at the time because I had never seen a turkey nest before.

It's also very nice to see an Adult Red-tailed Hawk soaring the 2 of its young, still teaching them to hunt better. They seem to have had a successful brood this year as well, with at leased 3 Juveniles around. They have been nesting in our forest across the road from the house for as long as I can remember, probably 15+ years! Its always so much fun watching the adults teach their young to hunt on thier own.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11276964
(checklist from today)

But that about wraps up todays birding, hope you enjoyed!
Good Birding!

Introduction

Hello Everybody!
I am a young, avid birder of Lambton County, Ontario. I have been interested in nature for as long as I can remember, ever sinse I was a kid I would always go out for walks in the wood with my dad and try to learn as much about nature as possible. As I grew older, I started to narrow my 'proffesion' I guess I could say, about 5 years ago, I started to get really into Birds and Birding. Since then, I have been getting better and better at birding as each year goes by. I am trying to go out and get more and more experience as much as possible so I can continue to get better. I have a life list of 355species, 264 of these from Ontario, and 252 from Lambton County. I do about >90% of my birding in my home county, and a lot in my own yard, we have a forest behind my house and a field beside it so we have a fairly high yard list as well, 172 for life and 150 for this year. But anyways thats all I have to say for now. This is my first time blogging by the way so it might not be very good, if anyone has any suggestions please feel free to leave a message.
Good Birding!