Amherst Island -- Jan 16 2010

On January 16, my girlfriend Abby and I spent the afternoon on Amherst Island. It was the first time that I've been there and I look forward to heading back towards the end of the winter. It was a cold day accentuated by the really strong wind coming in off of the Lake. We found a number of Northern Harriers and Rough-legged Hawks on the ground. It seemed like the wind was keeping them down and making them harder to see.

We saw about sixteen Northern Harriers. They were the most common bird by far. Rough-legged Hawks were around but not quite to the extent of the Harriers. There were a couple of adult Bald Eagles south of Emerald where the majority of the raptors were found. There was a flock of about 50 Snow Buntings near the KFN property. We had a single male Snowy Owl on the 3rd Concession at the "S" bend. Owl Woods had an American Robin near the feeding area. The Black-Capped Chickadees there are pushy. They were landing on us as we walked through the area so of course we had to feed them a few sunflower seeds.

Abby feeds the chickadees

After talking to a few groups of disappointed people who hadn't seen anything, we managed to find a single Long-eared Owl. It was in the only White Spuce in the immediate area.

Long-eared Owl -- Owl Woods, Amherst Island

We didn't see much in the way of waterfowl. The rough conditions combined with us running out of light due to focusing on raptors were to blame. The only thing of note were two Gadwall flying past the KFN property.

Towhee and a Turkey -- January 14 2012

I saw a previously reported Eastern Towhee today that was only about five minutes from my house! It was just hanging out in and around a spuce with a bunch of Dark-eyed Juncos.

What day is complete without a Wild Turkey?

And finally my first American Robin of the new year.

I checked a bunch of other spots but pickings were slim. The nice flock of gulls that had been at Little Lake in Peterborough was gone, probably due to the cold freezing up a lot more of the lake. 

Presqu'ile Provincial Park - Jan 11 2012

I hadn't been to Presqu'ile this year yet so I decided to head down for the day. The trip started off well with a Northern Shrike before I was five minutes into the drive.



Northern Shrike

 It seems like I'm seeing Northern Shrikes more this winter than ever before. A group of deer crossed the road a couple of minutes later. I managed to get a shot before they disappeared into the woods.

White-tailed Deer

Red-tailed Hawks were everywhere during the drive. At one point I saw four in about five minutes near Warkworth.

Red-tailed Hawk #3

I decided to check out Bayshore Drive as my first stop. On the way there from the park gate, an immature Bald Eagle flew over, my first of the year. There was a big raft of Redheads in the bay with some Greater Scaup and Canvasbacks mixed in. The Long-tailed Ducks, Bufflehead and Common Goldeneye were also present.

Redhead and Greater Scaup

Canvasback trying to blend in

A stop at the Government Pier had more of the same including a couple of muskrats hanging out on the ice.

Muskrat

A quick stop to check out the numerous bird feeders at 83 Bayshore Drive yielded some House Finches, Northern Cardinals, American Goldfinches and a flock of about 40 Cedar Waxwings.

The lighthouse was almost devoid of ducks due to the fairly strong wind coming off of the lake. I did have a couple of Brown Creepers in the parking lot though. The Barrow's Goldeneye will have to wait until next time.

Calf Pasture had the expected ducks including a couple of Red-breasted and a single Common Merganser. I could see a gathering of gulls on the ice at the other side of Presqu'ile Bay so I decided to have a look through them after I left the park. There was also yet another Northern Shrike!

Another Northern Shrike

I had a quick walk to the first lookout on the Owen Point trail, having opted to forego the waders experience this time around. There were two Snowy Owls to the right on the beach and one at a distance to the left, right at the base of the point. One on the beach was an almost entirely white male, a bird that wasn't one of the five I saw during my last trip!

Male Snowy

As I left the park to find a better vantage point for the gulls, my first Sharpie of the year flew directly overhead.
The closest spot to the gulls was Gosport. It was horribly backlit and not really that close. On top of that, all the gulls lifted off for no apparent reason and settled really far out about five minutes after I arrived. I did see about a dozen Great Black-backed, 2 Glaucous and an Iceland before they left though.

Just before I got home, I saw one more new bird for the year.

Peterborough Area -- Jan 10 2012

There had been a Common Loon and White-winged Scoter seen at Gannon's Narrows on Pigeon Lake a couple of times during the last week so I started my day off out there. The Common Loon was present on the East side of the Narrows, pretty close to the South shore. There were 63 Common Goldeneye on the West side, very distant. After having a good look through the Common Goldeneye at the limit of my scope, I had one last look at the East side before leaving. Sure enough, the White-winged Scoter was now out in the center of the channel, impossible to miss. A group of three Mallards that kept flying around rounded out the trip.
Next, I went to check out the gulls on Little Lake in Peterborough. While driving through downtown, I noticed a Cooper's Hawk chasing a group of pigeons overhead. I managed to follow it for a couple of blocks and eventually locate it in a Manitoba Maple in someone's front yard on Aylmer Street. I only had a 55mm with me. Of all times not to have a 300mm.


Cooper's Hawk -- still hungry for delicious pigeon

 The flock of gulls on Little Lake moves from day to day, especially with the ice melting due to the warm weather. After finding the best vantage point, I scoped through them, finding three Glaucous Gulls, four Iceland Gulls, seven Great Black-backed Gulls and a single adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. There were about 300 Herring Gulls and a handful of Ring-billeds mixed in as well. The lighting and my position weren't the best, so I'm sure the Iceland/Glaucous count could be higher. There were also five Common Mergansers and a bunch more Common Goldeneye on Little Lake.

Presqu'ile Provincial Park -- Dec 30 2011

Despite the weather I decided to give Presqu'ile one last try for the year. I finally saw a Purple Sandpiper a couple of weeks earlier and figured that at very least the Snowy Owls would be around.

Dec 13 2011 -- Purple Sandpiper

On the drive down, I was happy to find a flock of about 70 Snow Buntings and three Horned Larks.

Snow Buntings

It was the coldest day that I had been there yet, with a nice breeze coming in off of the lake. My first stop was at the lighthouse, where I had a good look for the Barrow's Goldeneye but came up empty handed. On the drive to the lighthouse, I scanned the Long-Tailed Ducks, Buffleheads and Common Goldeneye for anything different and was rewarded with a single White-winged Scoter. There was a lone Brown Creeper at the parking lot.

White-winged Scoter

As I arrived at Owen Point, I noticed a Snowy Owl standing on the ground behind the patch of bushes at the Point.




Female Snowy Owl



Snowy Owl tracks

As I took a couple of pictures of it, I noticed two Northern Harriers flying toward shore from the Islands. Almost immediately afterwards two Snowy Owls flew by, followed by a third a couple of minutes later. A quick scan of Gull Island revealed a fifth Snowy Owl! The last one was just sitting on a duck blind.

Snowy flying past Owen Point

The crossing to Gull Island was starting to become interesting as the ice built up along the shoreline. The current is fairly swift with large chunks of ice flowing through. As I was crossing I watched the Gull Island Snowy make a failed attempt on some Long-Tailed Ducks near the shoreline. It glided right along the ground and then water before the ducks saw it at the last second and dove. Judging by the pairs of duck wings strewn about the island, these attacks are often successful. I found it again sitting on a duck blind on High Bluff Island.

High Bluff Island Snowy

There was a large flock of about 70 American Black Ducks in between High Bluff and Gull Island with a few Mallards mixed in. A third Northern Harrier flew past. Gulls were non-existant in the park with only a couple of distant Ring-Billeds flying by. During the walk back to the car I came across two of the Snowy Owls that had flown past me at Owen Point.

 Female Snowy



Older female Snowy? This bird had large complete bands on the tail
but also an extensive bib. You be the judge.


As I was almost back at the car, I came across a Northern Shrike. A nice way to end the hike.

Northern Shrike -- Not a good picture

That was about it for the day. I did stop and examine a flock of European Starlings on a power line just outside the park and found five Brown-Headed Cowbirds, the first that I've seen this winter.

Smew!

I decided to head out and find some birds on Tuesday December 27th. I had made it through Christmas, so why not? Upon checking the weather, I was re-thinking my plan. Rain makes for tough conditions. Rain in December is downright miserable. Next, I decided to check my e-mail and see if anything interesting had been reported. It turns out that something interesting had indeed been reported. A Smew?? In Whitby Harbour no less??

I made it down within the hour to find the parking lot almost full and a mass of birders along the rail. The Smew was right out in front of the parking lot. After about five minutes, it flew directly towards everyone and landed quite close. I managed to get a couple of pictures, which is lucky because shortly thereafter it flew off and landed outside the harbour before returning about a half hour later, but not nearly as close.



Smew!



It was funny to see the long-staying Snowy Owl almost totally ignored. It was sitting on a breakwall more or less behind where the Smew was the whole time.

Around the harbour there were good numbers of birds that are expected right now, highlighted by thousands of Red-Breasted Mergansers feeding in the harbour as well as streaming to the west out on the lake.

I made a couple of stops during the ride home as the rain steadily worsened without seeing much of interest besides a Northern Shrike near Darlington Provincial Park.



Northern Shrike near Darlington PP