Pretty Slim Pickings

Birding this week has been pretty bad. We went all the way to Brighton, yesterday, to Presqu'ile Provincial Park. We heard some pretty good reports, especially of waterfowl present. It fact, it was week two of their Waterfowl Festival.

Well, there was not a whole lot to be festive about. When we arrived I was happy to see a Great Blue Heron fly over head. Wow, I thought, this augured well for the day. Boy, was I wrong! We saw a lot of Song Sparrows, Robins, 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet,1 Pine Siskin; which I only heard but took off when I approached. Lots of Mute Swans, 2 Turkey Vultures, crows, Mallards, and Bufflehead. Not what I was expecting to see after an hour-and-a-half drive.

I decided to try to enjoy the beauty of this place; and it was beautiful. We went for a walk down one trail that wound through the pines and out to the wetlands. It was incredible. Certainly, worth the trip just to go hiking, and camping. I am going to pretend that I won't go back there for the birds.(Yeah, right! It is a birding hotspot spring, summer, and fall.) We did end up seeing about 100 Ring-necked Ducks in the end, but I was hoping to see Tundra Swans, and Snow Geese.

We stopped at Coburg Harbour, but all we saw there, besides the usual Mallards, and Ring-Billed Gulls, were some Trumpeter Swans, and a pair of Kildeer. I took pictures of one duck that was very far off, and I'm certain it's female Harlequin duck, but my husband thought the picture wasn't detailed enough. He says it's probably a Surf Scoter. Hey, I've been wrong before.

We stopped at Newcastle Harbour, and didn't see much of anything at all. Someone had recently seen a Swangoose, but it, apparently, has left.

Finally, we stopped at Humber Bay East. Pickings were pretty slim there too, but we did get to see some Northern Shovelers pretty close up.

When will Spring Migration really start?

It's a Grebe Convention

The day before yesterday, my husband and I went to Colonel Sam Smith Park in the hope of seeing some more spring migrants. There were quite a few robins, red-winged blackbirds, and starlings; and we were happy to see a brown-headed cowbird.

The real action was in the water. We relocated the horned grebes from last time. There were a few more, and at one of them was in spring molt, so it was nice to see some color on these birds. We have seen them in the summer, and they are pretty spectacular, and it would be nice to see that again, of course. It's weird to see their red eyes with the red markings that lead down to their beaks. It is very hard to get a sharp picture of them, for some reason.

There were also quite a few red-necked grebes. A couple of them had those crazy pompoms on their heads. They were a lot more colorful than the horned grebes, and they seemed to be paired off here, and there, busying themselves with vocally harassing their own, as if each needed to have a wide territory.

We took a lot of pictures of both species, and headed over to a calmer bay round the opposite side. There was a small flock of white-winged scoters, and perhaps, one juvenile surf scoter. There was also a spry mink that swam by and hopped onto some ice, before gingerly making its way to another bank. At the end of the bay where it opened up on the lake where some more horned grebe, and I noticed one seemed to be edging closer. We went out to the point and on our return, the horned grebe was were the scoter were. That was great. It was the closest we had ever been to a grebe (in Canada), and we got some really great close up shots.

Checking out the Early Spring Migrants

My husband and I went to Tommy Thompson Park, at the Leslie Street Spit, this afternoon. It is still a little early in the spring migration season, but we were hopeful.

As it turned out, most of the birds we saw there were at the front gate.

There were two male robins, two male red-winged blackbirds, two northern mockingbirds, two grackles, some song sparrows, and one noisy kildeer.

The two mockingbirds seemed to be duking it our for space. One in particular, was really intent on chasing off the other, which would keep landing close by, and start singing. That would set the other one off again in aggressive pursuit. I figured the one kept advertising his charms to all and sundry, and I imagined the other to be saying: 'Quit cramping my style!' or something to that effect.

The red-winged blackbirds weren't much better. The two closest to the entrance, had the same kind of scuffle, which was weird because there were all sorts of males inside the park now, and it seemed that there was one every 25 paces or so. Soon, it will be more like one blackbird per tree, and their calls will start to get on my nerves.

Right now, their three-note song sounds like spring to me, and I hope I will always feel that way; but I am not optimistic.

Return to Algonquin

I finally got a free Saturday again, so my husband and I went back to Algonquin in the hope of seeing the Evening Grosbeaks, and a grouse, or two.

We were in luck. It was a beautiful day, all day, with the sun shining and the temperature a balmy 3 degrees. (It was warmer in Toronto, though). We stopped at the Visitor Centre first, and we lucky enough to see the Evening Grosbeaks. There was a flock of about a dozen of them, which kept flying off and returning. We got some close up views of the several males, and one female. There was also some Blue Jays, a Gray Jay, and some redpolls, mostly Common, and one Hoary.

We went over to Opeongo Road, hoping to see a Boreal Chickadee. We went out pretty far, until I felt like someone, or something, was boring holes into my back with its eyes. I thought it best that we return to the gate. There were plenty of Black-capped Chickadees, Gray Jays, Blue Jays, and one nuthatch. They all fed from my hand, except for the Blue Jays.

Then, we drove to Spruce Bog Boardwalk, again to see a Boreal Chickadee. Nope. Nothing again. We decided to walk on the trail, and it was a gorgeous hike. I got scared at one point, thinking we might see a wolf or a bear. All we saw were a young couple, sitting out in the middle of nowhere, eating apples.

We went back to the Visitor's Centre, and we managed to see a Spruce Grouse, this time. As we drove through to the other end of the park, we saw a Ruffed Grouse just sitting on the bank. Hurray! At the other end of the park, we saw the Pine Grosbeaks, and some more redpolls. What a wonderful trip!

Where Are all the Birds?

The Spring Bird Count is not getting off to a great start. There doesn't seem to be much to report, and we have gone to a few places where we've come back having seen one bird! Yesterday was a little better. Previously, we went to Happy Valley Forest, and saw a Downy Woodpecker- that was it. We also saw Black Bear footprints in the snow, which just made me want to high tail it out of there as soon as possible!

Then, we went to Holland Marsh in hopes of seeing the Gray Gray Owl that was reported there. We missed seeing it for the second time in a row. We thought we might see the Horned Larks we saw there on the first trip. Nope. Gone. So, we went to the Conservation Area nearby. Well, we saw a couple of bluejays, some chickadees, lots of crows, and heard some Pine Siskins. This is not really what we had in mind when we drove out here for 45 minutes.

So, yesterday we went to Humber Bay East. Well, we did see some returning Blackbirds. Good, good. But that was basically it. So, then we went Colonel Sam Smith Park. Hello. The juvenile King Eider male was back. Hurray! We got within 2 meters of this bird, and it didn't mind a bit. After, that we saw one of the Horned Grebes we saw on an earlier visit. Great stuff, but still...

The winter birds are disappearing, and now there is a vacuum. When will the Spring Migration really start?

A Bird in the Hand

Quite often, when we go out birding, we are trying to find some particular bird that has been posted as being at a particular place. It is not unusual for bird lovers to travel great distances in order to get a glimpse of some uncommon visitor.

I found that sometimes we put too much energy into finding these birds, that when we don't get to see them, we also don't get to see too much else. Case in point: when my husband and I traveled for several hours to see a Varied Thrush, which was gone by the time we reached the feeder. We also didn't get a glimpse of the White-winged Crossbills or the Pine Siskins that were there, as well.

Whenever we do go someplace looking for that special bird, and I have just decide to focus on the birds around me, I found that I usually got to see something just as rewarding.

We had gone back to Riverwood Park in the hope of seeing the Pileated Woodpecker pair that was reported there. Well, we didn't happen to see them. However, we were fortunate enough to see a pair of Coopers Hawk close to the nest. We stayed with them, and they seem to want to indulge us in this. When we had moved on, in search of the woodpeckers, the female hawk flew over to where we were, and just sat there looking at us. It was a pretty awesome experience. I think that if we were to ignore the hawks, and had just try to find the woodpeckers, we would have ended with some pretty long faces.