A King-Bird, but not a Flycatcher...

Yes you read right, a King of a bird, but not a Kingbird.....And it wasn't a Penguin either..(haha get it?? King Penguin? How odd would that be!!)

On the 28th of Oct, a female King Eider was reported by one Tom Hince from Port Huron, and was seen a little later off the Ontarian(?) side as well. Unfortunately I didn't see the posting about it till I got home from work that day (nearly sunset), buuutt, figured I had a chance to get it the next day, and I was right! The next day (29th), my dad and I were able to go looking for it because we needed to go to Sarnia anyways! So we got there shortly after 5:00, spent some time going through the (annoyingly) distant scoters in search of the bird.. after a good 10min of scanning, I picked out a brownish bird with a dark bill and a fairly tall forehead.. Got it! King Eider  (#257)! Yes #257 for my Lambton Big Year! Where did the other 6 birds since the last post come from? Well I will tel you.....in the next few paragraphs.
After finding the Eider (which was a LIFER by the way), I spent a good time doing one of 2 things... 1 taking crappy phone-through scope pics of the bird (ended up taking 200+ pics.. only 3 are ID'able'ish) and 2 sorting through Bonaparte's Gulls on the other side of the bay/river, which is where I got my second new bird of the day, Little Gull (#258). There were at least 2 individuals over there.

So the first new bird I got after #250 was #251..(no really!) This bird was seen briefly in flight in Pinery PP. And the identity of the bird wassssss.....wait for it.....a Ruffed Grouse.. Yeah I bet you guys were expecting something a little more exciting then that.. But still new for year none the less! Second bird was at Forest Sewage Lagoons, one bird that I have spent much time looking for at lagoons this fall, a Long-billed Dowitcher (#252) which occured on the 20th of Oct by the way. As well as my next new bird, located at the no long flooded Modland Rd Rain "puddle". Which this day had over a thousand geese! Most were Canadian, but a quick search with bins showed up I believe it was 4 Snow Geese, and a single Ross's Goose (#253). I did not spend the time searching for anything like Cackling Geese, frankly because the sun was going down and I was kinda lazy..
The next three occured during the OFO trip lead by Maris Apse.
On this trip, we started out at Grand Bend beach doing a lake watch.. There must have been at least 50 loons seen from there! Can you guess what 254 is based on that?
Well I think most of you have guessed....WRONG. #254 was a Black Scoter.. Which in all honesty I thought I had this year until I wrote up my eBird Checklist.. #255 was I'm presuming you guessed before.. Red-throated Loon. I was able to pick out at least 2 there over the water, but I'm guessing some flew over un-ID'd by myself. Also at this location were 3 Eagles, most only saw 2, 2 Peregrines, and a Merlin was seen by only 3 of us. Scoter wise, 12 White-winged, 15+ Black, and one Surf flew by soon after I got myself set-up.
Next stop for the trip was Grand Bend Sewage Lagoons. A Sewage lagoon a really dislike, not because how bad it is or anything like that, but because it is about 200m outside Lambton County.. Which means anything I see there can't count for my county list.. The first two cell's at this location were fairly barren, though a small group of Greater Scaup flew from the first cell when we got there. The third cell was quite good for ducks. Shortly into my scan, I spotted a Grebe.. and said to myself "that looks totally Eared!" After quite a bit of research by all of us it turned out to be an Eared Grebe! Also notable at the lagoons a Tree Swallow, a Northern Shrike (first of fall), and a rather curious Red-necked Grebe which came from the opposite side of the lagoon to within 20-30ft of shore for superb looks. That day we also went to Pinery PP and Kettle Point.. Nothing much of note at the Pinery, just the resident titmice and a common merganser. At Kettle Point many of us, excluding me, got their first Snow buntings of fall, also there were a few scoters, Greater Blackbacked Gulls, at least 2 distant Horned Grebes sitting on the water, and I managed a look at a single flying Red-necked Grebe (#256)

King Eider second from left

 

 

Red-necked Grebe through scope

That's all for now!
Good Birding!

New Post, but Old New Birds

So it's been about 2months since I last posted.. I think its time for an update.

So I read in my last post that my last new bird was a Baird's Sandpiper, sitting at #241.. Well here are my most recent since then:

#242 - Stilt Sandpiper - Watford Sewage Lagoons - Aug19

#243 - Western Sandpiper - Watford Sewage Lagoons - Aug19 (LIFER)

#244 - Whimbrel - Kettle Point - Aug24 (County Lifer)

#245 - Long-tailed Jaeger - Sept03 (LIFER) (Adult to boot)

#246 - Red/" "-necked Phalarope    

#247 - Buff-breasted Sandpiper - Confederation Line - Sept13 (LIFER)

#248 - Connecticut Warbler - Forest Sewage Lagoons - Sept18

#249 - Northern Mockingbird - Alvinston - Sept21

#250 - Sabine's Gull - Kettle Point - Sept28


Some very exciting birds for me! 3 Lifers! A County Lifer! Some Awesome birding.

Some other Awesome birding I've done lately is down at Michelle's Bay.. Those of you reading Blake's blog probably already know about that though. I managed to get fairly good looks at both exciting birds this past friday! #1 was the Snowy Egret, which was an ABA Lifer, I have seen them in Costa Rica a few years ago, and #2 my life LIFER Marbled Godwit! We got to the site just in time as if we arrived 10min later it would have been gone because a boat scared it up!

Snowy Egret from my 2009 non-birding trip to Costa Rica

And as for my most recent trip to Forest Sewage Lagoons earlier, for the first time this year there was decent shorebird habitat, here is my eBird Checklist:
Forest Sewage Lagoons eBird Checklist

Quite a good count if you ask me! All 3 Large peeps, Pec, Bairds, and White-rumped sandpipers.. A couple Stilt Sandpipers and almost  every dabbling duck around! Incl an extreme high Green-winged Teal count for this location. Also notable was a Singing Vesper Sparrow, and 3 Rusty Blackbirds..
Unfortunately though no Long-billed Dowitchers to be found...Yet!

I'm hopping to get back into posting more often for the rest of the year also..
I'll end with another photo:

Blue-headed Vireo from one year ago at LPBO

Good Birding!

Whats been going on lately

So lately, and for majority of this summer, I haven't been doing as much birding as I should/could have, unfortunately. But I have been trying to get into dragons and butter flys when I can, which again isn't a lot. But I have realized, I don't even know where my dragonfly book is! It's hard to ID them without a book! So, I have some pictures of some for people to help me out with at the end of this post. Until then, I will write a little on what birding I have been doing lately.

In the past few weeks, I have hit 3 different lagoons, sometimes better then others. First I will talk about my least visited lagoon, Bright's Grove lagoon. Before this year, I had only been to this lagoon once, and so far I've gone twice this year, both times the sprikler cell was running! Anyways, first time I went, the only vaguely interesting bird I found was a single Solitary Sandpiper in the sprinkler cell. Second time I went there was a little more, 2 Solitary, and 2 Least Sandpipers, as well as the most interesting, 2 Blue-winged Teal.

Second lagoon I will talk about is Forest Sewage Lagoons. This along with the 3rd lagoon is my most visited lagoon, and I've had a decent number of fairly good birds there in the past; White-rumped Sandpiper, Baird's Sandpiper, multiple Stilt Sandpiper's. Though the last few times I've been haven't had much to see, first time I had 42 Semipalmated, 3 Least, and 1 Pectoral Sandpiper, plus about 1000 swallows total. Second time wasn't as good though, only 1 Least Sandpiper of minor note. Though in the spring I did get my first Short-billed Dowitcher of the year there.

Lastly, my other most visited lagoon, Watford Lagoons. I have only been there once lately, but it was a fairly good one. I actually biked there from my house (13km) with my scope and everything with me. And on the bike ride I found a nesting colony of Purple Martin just a km away from my house, no wonder I've been hearing them flying around alla time! And also a Vesper Sparrow on the bike as well. At the lagoons I found a total of 45sp. of bird. Of note; 1 Pide-billed Grebe, 1 Sora, 7! Semipalmated Plover, 17 Spotted, 2 Solitary Sandpipers, 3 Greater Yellowlegs, 16 Semipalmated, 19 Least, 1 Baird's (#241), and 9 Pectoral Sandpipers. Another year bird! Baird's Sandpiper! Also of note was my first Tufted Titmouse for a lagoon!
And I forgot to mention the birds I have seen there in past years; Am. Golden-Plover, Hudsonian Godwit (stayed for about a week in October2011), Ruddy Turnstone?, Red Knot (same time as godwit), Sanderling?, White-rumped Sandpiper, Baird's Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, many Wilson's Phalarope, and a surprising Red Phalarope one Sept! The lagoons also have Sora nesting, some years Virginia Rail, and often Hooded Mergansers nest as well. In total I have seen 134sp of bird at these lagoons to date.


Also recently I've been to Dow Wetlands, Canatara, and Wawanosh Wetlands. Of note at Dow was the local Upland Sandpiper, and 2 Orchard Orioles, at Canatara of note there was Blue-winged Teal, Great Egret, Semipalmated Plover, Sanderling (#239), American Redstart, and Blackburnian Warbler (#240...Finally!!). Got to Wawanosh just before dusk, and of note was 9 Great-blue Herons, 1 Great Egret, 5 Black-crowned Night-Herons, and a Clay-coloured Sparrow.


Now some pictures:

Dragon#1

Dragon#2

Dragon#3

Dragon#4 (sorry for crappy pic)

Skipper sp. (I'm not that good with Skippers)

I'm not 100% sure on this, but my best guess is Mustard White, unless I'm completely off which I easily could be.

Until next time, good birding!!

Breeding Birdz part2 - Walpole Island

Yesterday my dad and I finally got the chance to make our way down to Walpole Island looking for some of its breeding birds, and I must say we did have some success.
We got to the island around 7am, and there were still a number of birds calling. While making our way down to the Goose Lake marshes on the south end of the island, we had the windows down and were listening, and at one point was able to pick out a calling Sedge Wren (#232) amongst the many Marsh Wrens and Common Yellowthroats singing. It sounded slightly far off to look for so we didn't try to find it, I still have never seen the species in my life! Once we got down to the lake, I got out of the car, and got attacked by about 150 Deer Fly's... a 'slight' annoyance... But I managed to bare them for a good time period before leaving. While I was down there I managed to add another number of species. First off, Black Terns (#233), I ended up seeing 5 from Walpole, but many more later in the day. Next bird for the year was Least Bittern (#234), one distant individual calling its distinct call.. Surprisingly, this is the first I have ever even heard! And I have never seen a wild one either, but an injured one came into the Bluewater Center for Raptor Rehabilitation (where I volunteer) earlier this year so I saw that one. That was actually in April! Earliest LEBI I've ever known about! Next up was my first Virginia Rail (#235) of the year, which also ended up being the first one I have gotten a picture of! Not a very good pic, but it is ID'able! And lastly for the marsh was a distant pair of Common Gallinules (#236) (used to be know as Com. Moorhen). I ended up with one more species for the island, a singing Yellow-breasted Chat! (#237). Most definitely the most unsuspected species found!
Other notables from the island are as follows:
   -two Redheads
   -two Ring-necked Pheasant
   -four Pied-billed Grebe
   -two American Bittern
   -two Black-crowned Night-Heron
   -two Sandhill Cranes
   -and a singing White-throated Sparrow

My first 2 Virginia Rail pics

For you bander's out there, yes I know its not a 'proper' grip.

Me holding Least Bittern

After we had finished at Walpole, we headed across the ferry into the states, and toured around Harsen's Island. It is a very nice island with lots of good marsh habitat. We managed another number of notable species:
   -six Great Egret
   -35 Black Terns
   -another Sedge Wren
   -and a calling Brewer's Blackbird!
The blackbird was very interesting and unexpected.

Showing left-right, Juvi Black Tern infront of Ringer, Adult B.Tern in breeding plumage, Forester's Tern x2, Adult B.Tern molting into non-breeding plumage.

Adult Black Tern starting to molt

Great-blue Heron, someone should probably tell'm he won't fit in that box hole!

eBird Checklist of the day:
Walpole Island eBird Checklist
Harsen's Island eBird Checklist

Good Birding!

Now Some Breeding Birdz!

Yesterday I managed to head down to the County Line Woods looking for some of the rarer breeding birds. My list from the drive only the road the forest is on, I think was quite impressive if I do say so myself. I was driving about 10-30km/hr for the whole road on my way to the forest, my first birds of interest was a single American Golden-Plover (getting kinda late isn't it?) in a flooded field all by itself...or so I thought, but after a few seconds a Ruddy Turnstone popped out behind the ridge...then another...and two more! That was a nice sight! As soon as I got to the actual forest I got very excited, I'd never been there before and could tell it was a very nice chunk of Carolinian Forest. Among the first birds I heard when I had gotten to the edge (while in the car still), Ovenbird and Veery. Gotta love the carolinian zone! Soon enough, after driving around the whole forest, I had gotten, from my car, two very good birds, both year birds, both species at risk. A Cerulean Warbler (#224) singing up in the tree-tops, and TWO singing Hooded Warblers (#225). And lucky for me, they were both on the Lambton side of the road! I even got a recording of one of the Hooded's singing.
Soon enough I was off into the forest, and 3 more year birds, Orange-crowned Warbler (#226), Alder Flycatcher (#228), and in between those two....a White-eyed Vireo! (#227)! I had heard it singing, reconized the call but couldn't put a name on it. After a little while of searching through the leaves, I managed to get a good enough look at it for an ID.
Other notables from the walk incl:
-Broad-winged Hawk
-Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
-Yellow-throated Vireo
-Mourning Warbler
-Blue-winged Warbler
Also when I got back into the car and started driving away, I had Another Hooded Warbler, but this time calling from the Middlesex side of the road...New Middlesex bird as well!

But I was not done with year birds for the day! On the drive, I visited and stopped at a few places that looked promising. And at one of these locations, I got one more Good Year bird. a Golden-winged Warbler (#229). I heard it call twice in the distance doing its classic "Bee Bz-Bz-Bz" call.
So the last day of May, provides SIX new year birds.. 4 of which are rare breeders in ON, and two of them are Species at Risk.

This was a very good day.

Good Birding!

LIFER Among More Year Birdz

First thing this-morning, my dad and I went to Marthaville Wildlife Management Area for our first of 2-3 Marsh Monitoring days. I was surprised to hear a Blue-winged Warbler singing shortly after we arrived, though I suppose I shouldn't have been, the habitat isn't that strange for them. Also strange was a Green Heron sitting on a wire just outside the park. Anyways here is the checklist of the whole time we were there:
Marthaville eBird Checklist

If you looked at the checklist, I bet you noticed that Acadian Flycatcher was on it. There was one there! Very strange habitat for one though. I remember seeing a checklist last year from I think it was Eric Marcum there that had one as well, and I remember being very confused about it, just like I am now. anyways, Acadian Flycatcher (#211). Also got Marsh Wren there which I was sure I had somewhere else, but apparently not because it is apparently #212 for my eBird list.

When we got backhome, we decided to go to Kettle Point area. Got a few more year birds up there, first off was the Black-bellied Plovers(11) (#213) that my dad picked out while I was scanning a small group of Dunlin. Little did we know, there were another 9 of the plovers around the point, a group of 7 and a pair. But when scanning the distant group of 7, I came across the more slender, smaller-headed molting American Golden-Plover (#214).
As walking further along, I stopped in my tracks as I saw a small shorebird running along the rocks it blended into 20ft in front of us. Pulled up and bins and saw, my LIFER, Piping Plover!! Likely same bird reported by Maris Apse the day previous, and an extremely exciting bird! Piping Plover, (yr#215), (countylife#261), (life#365). Came close for pics too!
We also got a few Caspian Terns (#216) flying around calling before we got back to the car.
Kettle Point eBird Checklist

Last year bird of the day was back in or forest this afternoon. One female type Canada Warbler (#217) foraging near the ground. Also got another new yard bird while driving back over our creek. Common Loon (yard#183).

New Yardbird Common Loon

Lastly, a question for any of you, should I be writing an OBRC report on my Cassin's/Western Kingbird last week or not? I'm not really sure if it is necessary.

And also, I would like to thank Maris Apse fro reporting the Plover yesterday, otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten it.

Good Birding!

2 AMAZING Yard Birdz! Plus Warblers! (Finally)

So thursday evening, I had a Fantastic walk in our woods. shortly after I got in there, I looked up and saw flying low over the leaves, a Common Raven(#186)!! I was obviously a Raven, first off it was huge! Second it was being mobbed by Am. Crows, so size and shape was apparent, and third, it called for me! So that was quite an excitement!! Then in the morning(friday), as I was getting on the bus for school, a interesting flycatcher flew over my yard heading NNW. What type of flycatcher you may ask? Well, still not 100% sure, about 80% sure it was a Western Kingbird!! Not sure it wasn't a Cassin's though.. Still a FANTASTIC bird!! And Very Very Exciting!!

Saturday, was birding for most of the day, and visited Dow Wetlands, Canatara, Wawanosh Wetlands, Bright's Grove Sewage Lagoons, and Forest Sewage Lagoons.
Here are my most recent additions since my last post, other then today:
184-Cape May Warbler-May.16-Back Yard
185-Orchard Oriole-" "
186-Common Raven-" "
187-Indigo Bunting-" "
188-Yellow-throated Vireo-" "
189-Red-eyed Vireo-" "
190-CASSIN'S/WESTERN KINGBIRD-May.17-Back Yard
191-American Bittern-May.18-Dow Wetlands
192-Willow Flycatcher-" "
193-Upland Sandpiper-" "
194-Blackpoll Warbler-May.18-Canatara
195-Red-headded Woodpecker-" "
196-Clay-colored Sparrow(times2)-May.18-Wawanosh Wetlands
197-Bobolink-" "
198-Eastern Wood-Pewee-" "
199-Wilson's Warbler-" "
200!! -Mourning Warbler-" "
201-Solitary Sandpiper-May.18-Bright's Grove Sewage Lagoons
202-Least Sandpiper-May.18-Forest Sewage Lagoons
203-Short-billed Dowitcher-" "

Today I went to Watford Sewage Lagoons. Also got a number of birds!
204-Ruddy Turnstone (two in flock of other shorebirds)
205-Semipalmated Plover
206-Wilson's Phalarope (distant female)
207-White-rumped Sandpiper
208-Semipalmated Sandpiper
209-Sora

Tonight went for a short walk in the woods and got a pair of Black-billed Cuckoos (#210)

Clay-coloured Sparrow

"BOBO"

Mourning Warbler

Northern Parula

Blackpoll Warbler

Cavasback at Forest Lagoons

White-rumped Sandp. and Dunlin

WRSA, DUNL, LESA, and maybe others not sure.

It's been a good weekend so far! I will finish this post with a neat sighting from Canatara on Wednesday.

Good Birding!!

Pelee Island

Just got back today from a wonderful time at Pelee Island with some LWI members. Starting at 12pm friday, was the start of SpringSong, and the Green 24-hr Bird Race for the Botham Cup. I competed once again this year, but with Eric Marcum and Maris Apse. We ended in 3rd place with 119 species. It was great fun birding with these guys, and I wisht I had brought my camera during the race, there were so many great photo-opps!! Some highlights from the race incl: Osprey, Common Nighthawk (only seen by myself and Eric so it didn't count), Red-headed Woodpecker, Yellow-throated, and White-eyed Vireos, N. Mockingbird, 2 Louisiana Waterthrushes (seeing them Everywhere now!), Orange-crowned Warbler, and a female Cerulean Warbler (at about 10-15ft). Also, a nice 1-2-3-BANG starting with Prothonotary Warbler, then Clay-coloured Sparrow, and finally Yellow-throated Warbler, All within about 30min!!
Bird Race eBird Checklist (incl. species not countable due to not all team members getting)

Outside of the competition, the biggest highlight was a nice male Golden-winged Warbler just outside our tent! And also a quick look at my FOY Ruddy Turnstone was a nice addition.

Now for some pics!

Missed this sp. for the count, but got 2 the next day!

its in mid-air!

Dunlins!

Not gonna lie....Solid luck!

Whats that fat spherical thing in the tree? A Siskin.

Until next time....
Good Birding!

Pelee Weekend & the First Day Back

For the most part Point Pelee was very good! I'll start with the first day.
Saturday, got to the tip around 6:50ish, and soon-after noticed my camera battery was dead... After talking to a few people, we left the tip for there wasn't anything around of interest or much of a reverse migration going on. We headed down West Beach Trail and got a couple birds. Best being Northern Mockingbird, but also got all 3 Scoters, and Grasshopper Sparrow. Since most of the day is now somewhat a blur of the past, I'll just go on to the kite story.... I MISSED IT!! When I had heard about it, we were in DeLauriere, so we decided we should book it to the viewing platform on the trail. Once we got there, we waited about 20min hoping it would fly-over. Unfortunately it didn't. It flew over the DeLauriere Parking Lot!!! But not visible from the platform. Probably should have headed to the VisitorCenter like everybody else did! Oh well..... Later we went to Hillman to see what shorebirds were around, a few Back-bellied Plovers were the most interesting. Later at night, walked to the tip hoping to get the Chuck-wills-widow to call, but again...No Success! But worst of all, ended up with a 99sp day! One away from the big 100!! Over-all, somewhat dissappointing day, but I've had worse! I mean 99sp in a day is fairly good!
Point Pelee May04 eBird Checklist

Saturday was much better! Not a ton more species, but I did break 100! ended with 105 if I have counted right. Many Very Nice Birds! Incl, 3 Little Gulls, Merlin, & Many Warblers, and my (long-over-due) LIFER Louisiana Waterthrush. But for the rest you should check out the checklist!:
Point Pelee May05 eBird Checklist

Last place we stopped before leaving the Point Pelee area was Hillman Marsh. Soon after I got there, I got a text from David B. saying there area Black-necked Stilts at Hillman! After a few minutes of searching the shorebird cell with many others, someone read a text say: "BNST's at the bridge.". Almost before they finished ready, everybody was packed up and head to the bridge! Once we got there it took a minute because they were 200m+ away, but we saw them! 2 of them! New ABA bird for me! (I had them in Costa Rica). And little did I know till later, the Stilts were my 100th species for the day!! Which makes them even better! None of the photos I took with my camera are really ID'able, but did get some digiscoped ones that were. But I will post them in another post.
Hillman Marsh May05 eBird Checklist

Here are some other pictures of the day(followed by today's yard birds):

Broad-winged Hawks

Wood Thrush

Photo-worthy Blue-winged Warbler

Again (not cropped), was very close!

"Strut'n ma stuff"

Took like 50 pics of this guy. (not cropped)

Beautiful bird!

Look'at that tail!

Whats that way out there!

Bald Eagle is what it is!

First ever Little Gull pics I think

Numbers around tip of this species

Scoters'n Scaup

I was very happy with how my Hoodi and Blue-winged Warbler photos turned out! They were amazing to see so close up! Especially the Hoodi.

Now for today's story. On the way to my bus stop added two more county big year birds as they were singing, Wood Thrush (#163), and Common Yellowhtroat (#164). Then when I got home, went for a nice walk. During the walk, I saw 5 species of birds. (terrible right?) But I did hear two more year birds, the "kreep" call of the Great-crested Flycatcher (#165), and a distant singing Ovenbird (#166). But one of the birds I saw, was also my lifer from yesterday!! Louisiana Waterthrush (#167) foraging along one of our small streams!! Lifer one day, new yard/county bird the next! Crazy!! With its pink little legs.. Anyways that my story!
Back Yard eBird Checklist

Also just realized, my back yard eBird checklist from today, was my 999th eBird checklist ever!! And what a good one it was!!

Good Birding!