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