A Bright Sunshiny Day

I spent some quality time outdoors this long weekend.  The sun was out, and it was warm without being too warm-- perfect.

Yesterday I did the rounds at the Guelph Arboretum. Saw a lot of the usual suspects: Chickadees, Mourning Doves, Downy Woodpeckers, various Nuthatches, Cardinals, and about 1.7 million Goldfinches.  Give or take.  Also spotted was a pair of Purple Finches, which was noteworthy to me, at least (I always think of them as winter birds, it was odd to see them only now when it's spring), three Northern Flickers, both Ruby- and Golden-crowned Kinglets, and a single Yellow-rumped Warbler.


(Purple Finch, sadly in the shade - note raspberry-pink colouring, lack of breast streaking, and distinct lines on face)

Today I ventured a little further, out to Snyder's Flats where the resident Osprey pair was back on the nest. The Tree Swallows looked to be setting up shop, too, squabbling over the next boxes and being their usual adorable selves.





Anyone who says they don't like Tree Swallows has got to be lying, because seriously, what's not to love? Still one of my favourites.

There were 11 Caspian Terns out on one of the ponds, also four Blue-winged Teal and some Bufflehead. And at least three Eastern Meadowlarks singing away from near the parking lot.




(Caspian Terns - note heavy orange bill, and size in comparison to the Ring-billed Gull in the second photo)


(Blue-winged Teal and Canada Goose)


(Eastern Meadowlark)

On a non-bird note, the Wood Frogs and Spring Peepers were singing at the Arboretum yesterday, and more Peepers plus Leopard Frogs at Snyder's Flats today. Guess it's finally warmed up enough for them, although I think we're supposed to get minus temperatures at night this week again.  I also saw my first snake of the year today: at least three Common Garters near the riverbank, sunning.  Wonder if there was a hibernaculum nearby?

Checking In

Not much to report from the last couple of weeks.  Not because there is nothing going on (far from it; migration is definitely underway) but because none of it makes for very good storytelling. Still, I wouldn't want you all to think I was slacking off....

The warmer temperatures have brought about the expected shift.  The river sites that the birds (and I) favoured over the winter are now flooded and fast-moving, not terribly appealing, while the forests and ponds that were silent for months are now singing like mad.  I really have missed the obnoxious shrieking of the Red-winged Blackbirds; they are my harbingers of spring.

The exposed ponds have only just started to open up, even though the snow around them is long gone.  In the space of a week Niebaur's Pond on Wellington 32 went from hosting a couple of Mallards to providing a stopover for 30+ Ring-necked Ducks, a Red-necked Grebe, a couple of Blue-winged Teal, and apparently some Ruddy Ducks (although I didn't see those when I stopped by). Most of the forest ponds and sheltered wetlands I think are still a bit iced in, but it shouldn't be long now if the weather holds. Which... it isn't supposed to, but I am determined to remain optimistic.

On my third try, I finally spotted the Horned Grebe that was haunting Riverside Park. It was diving constantly when I found it, only surfacing for a matter of seconds before going under again, so I wonder if I just wasn't patient enough on my previous visits. It certainly would have been easy to miss if I wasn't looking in just the right direction at just the right moment.



I didn't have as much luck with the Greater White-fronted Goose that was reported north of Guelph. I saw some Tundra Swans at that location (I think they were all Tundras, anyway, although admittedly I haven't yet mastered Tundra vs. Trumpeter ID), a few Northern Pintails, and of course a boatload of Canada Geese, but no White-fronted.  Ah, well; next time, maybe.

This weekend, weather permitting, I hope to revisit Niebaur's Pond and maybe the Correctional Ponds in Guelph, and take another walk through the Arboretum in search of early warblers. Fingers crossed tomorrow's cold snap will be the last one of the season!

Making The Best Of A Bad Photograph

Further to my previous post, I thought I'd go through some of the awful photos I mentioned from Windermere Basin.  Even barely-focused, extremely distant shots can sometimes be of use in figuring out what the heck you're looking at, if you get things that can be ID'd by large-scale colour patterns or size relative to other known birds.



This is probably the best of the lot, because it is at least marginally in focus despite the horrific glare. You can see the white blob wrapping around the back of the head of the male Bufflehead in the very center. Around it are multiple Ruddy Ducks, which have a white cheek and black cap (best seen on the one on the far left) and tend to swim with their tail cocked up (as with one of the group of three just right of center).



The white blob on the right is, I'm assuming, a Snow Goose. It's smaller than the Canada Goose beside it, and doesn't look like it has the long neck or dark feet of a swan.



The blurry shadow on the right is a Double-crested Cormorant - note how it's sitting very low in the water, with a long neck and long beak sticking out.



The three on the back left are Scaups, I think (don't know whether Lesser or Greater), based on the white body with black at either end.  A Ring-necked Duck would have a larger black patch on the back, extending down the sides.  Just to the right of those three is something I'm going to call a Northern Shoveler based on that bright chestnut patch surrounded by white.



Here's the size difference in gulls that I was talking about last time. Look at the Canada Goose in the background, then at the little white gull-blob front and center, then look at the monster gull at the front left. Maybe a second-winter Great Black-backed? You can kind of see a dark spot at the end of the bill, and the wings/sides are more brownish than black.

I think there's an American Coot on the front right, too.  Smaller duckish bird, overall black with a white bill. The white speck of the beak could be just a trick of the light, but it showed up in a couple other shots too so I'm willing to give it a pass.



And here's the possible black-headed gull (Laughing?  Franklin's?).  This is extremely distant and the focus is crap, so once again it's possible that it's just a trick of lighting, though it also looked similarly dark-headed in the few other shots it appeared in. So who knows? Maybe I'll have to go back next weekend and take another stab at it.

Not A Good Day To Fly

Let me tell you about Sunday.  Sunday was a glorious +7 degrees.  Sunday was sunny with nary a cloud in sight.  Sunday was... apparently not a great day to go hawk watching, or so I discovered.

Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Some weeks ago I was told that Beamer Conservation Area in Grimsby was basically the spring equivalent of Hawk Cliff in fall, where migrating hawks are sort of funneled over/around the lake in great numbers. Obviously, this was of interest to me, so I and my trusty traveling companion watched the weather and selected this past Sunday as a good day to go out and enjoy the spring sunshine, and perhaps see some hawks in the process.

We stopped at Windermere Basin near the Burlington Skyway on the way, since I had heard tell of waterbirds concentrating there recently, and since it really was on the way. Sadly, it was mostly still iced over, and the few groups of birds that were present were practically out of binocular range. I could have gone and gotten the scope from the car, I suppose, but we were being stared at by a bunch of fishermen (yes, fishermen, on the industrial section of the Hamilton waterfront at the end of March, I don't get it either) and I didn't feel like becoming even more of a spectacle.  Besides, it was supposed to be a short stop, not a prolonged exercise in trying to figure out gulls.

In retrospect, I probably should have put in a little more effort. Looking at my (admittedly terrible) photos after the fact, I identified 10+ Ruddy Ducks, a Snow Goose, Bufflehead, American Coot, scaups, a Northern Shoveler, and three (possibly four) different gulls that I can't really identify except to know that they look different from each other (most are likely Ring-billed, so that makes the huge ones Great Black-backed? Plus one that looked like it had a black head, also likely some Herring in there somewhere).


                 Believe it or not, this is one of the better pics.

Undeterred, we packed ourselves back into the car and headed on to Grimsby. After a quick stop at the conveniently-located service centre right at the appropriate exit, we pulled into Beamer, strapped on our binoculars and our rubber boots, and headed in to see some hawks.

I think we might have seen two Red-tailed.  Oh, and the same four Turkey Vultures that kept circling around the viewing platform area (I'm convinced it was the same four, taunting us). The official hawkwatchers mentioned a Peregrine Falcon that, of course, waited until we had left on a short walk out to the lookout before it deigned to show up, so we missed that one.

The explanation that was offered is that despite the gloriously sunny morning we'd experienced, across the lake the day had started out cloudy. So the hawks had basically all woken up and said "nope!" and stayed put for the day, leaving us watching empty skies.

It was still a nice day for a drive, though, so I don't regret going. If nothing else, it gave me opportunity for my first Timmy's ice capp of the year.  Mmm.