The final days at Long Point Bird Observatory

David teaching Marc how to band.

As the weather warmed up, so did some activity throughout the Cold Cut property and at the LPBO station.  Although there wasn't still a large "variety", the abundance was certainly up!  I was really excited that by time time I was trained enough to be able to start doing net checks and some banding on my own.  Although it wasn't until the last day when I really started getting "good" at using and reading Pyle and understanding what it meant.

Throughout the two weeks we had been getting many male Eastern Towees, like you saw in my last post. But I was especially excited to get this female in one of the nets!  

Similar to the last Flicker we got, this one was a regular Yellow-shafted Flicker.  Since this one has no "mustache" on it, we can tell that it is a female!

Another common visitor to our ground and jay traps was the red-winged blackbird! We were able to get all types of Red-wings from females, to all aged males. I do wish I had gotten photos of the different ages as a remind, it was really neat to see!  Instead, I was able to snap a shot of this Second Year bird.  In older birds, the red on it's wing would be incredibly vibrant, as would there be a more yellow band.  The buffy edges around the wing tips would be a solid black if it was an older bird.  Despite having some "history" with this species (one ripped out hair from my scalp once for nesting material...) they are a really pretty bird!

Another Blackbird we saw lots of were Common Grackles!  I had never really taken much notice to grackles before this moment, they were always just dark birds in the front yard to me.  After this trip...I have a little soft spot for them!  Every night I was able to look up into the sky and watch sometimes hundreds of them migrating past.  It was really difficult for me to learn how to differentiate between Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Rusty Blackbirds while flying...but after a long while I managed to get a slight hand on it!   Seeing them up close was also so spectacular, I had no idea how colourful they really were, this photo can't even do it justice. And their eyes...how eerie!   

I think the most exciting bird I was able to see and band (minus the awesome white-eye vireo that flew away before we could take a photo!) was a Tree Swallow!  Somehow one managed to dive down low enough to catch itself in our nets.  Those who know me know that I get incredibly excited, one could even say I revert back to a small child on Christmas morning...and well...this was my Christmas morning!  I am studying Bank Swallows for my Master's Degree so areal insectivores have created a dear place in my heart.  This is the first live one I had seen close, and been able to hold (and band!)...it was...amazing!

Although those were all the exciting birds we had banded and taken photos of, I was pleasantly surprised to also find a Dekay's Brown Snake basking in one of the net lanes.  I almost stepped on the little guy but thankfully my herping instincts kicked in before I did!!  I had seen Dekays before, but they were always SO much smaller than this one I found...what a treat!

On my last night in Long Point I took another walk though the Provincial Park and out onto the Beach.  I had the pleasure of watching Red-breasted Mergansers swimming around the mini iceburgs, huge flocks of Double-created Cormorants flying by, and a couple hundred Bonaparte's Gulls flying and diving around the lake.  I found a log to sit on and watch from; I think it was the most peaceful spots I've been to in a really, really long time.  It might help being the only person on the beach, but it was just so peaceful. I put a few photos below from that little adventure below:

Entering the Park

Cormorants flying across the lake, ice in the background 

Red-breasted Mergansers

Floating past an sandy iceburg

Bonaparte's Gull

Sand Dunes throughout the park

Macro Sand

Everytime I come back to Long Point after having worked out here a little bit, I always had forgotten how much I love this area.  It reminds me also about how much of a treasure this part of Ontario (and even Canada/North America) this is and how lucky we are to be able to be a part of it.   I was so lucky to have been able to get to Long Point these two weeks and learnt so much while there. The banding station is full of fantastic people who are passionate and knowledgable, friendly and hilarious.  I recommend that everyone heads out to Long Point and visit the Old Cut banding station, take a walk throughout the property, check out the provincial park, and visit my personal attachment, Big Creek NWA.   Thanks again LPBO!

Yet another beautiful Long Point sunrise <3

Long Point Banding Part 2

The next week at Long Point Bird Observatory were also fantastic.  The weather was becoming slightly warmer.  It finally began warming earlier in the morning too during the last two days, meaning we could open the nets sooner!  There wasn't too much variety of birds coming through, although there was at least one new one everyday for me! 

There were a few exciting birds that I was able to take a photo of!  One of them was this Swamp Sparrow.  This was a tick for me, both birding and banding.  These little guys are more reddish then most sparrows and have a reddish cap with grey streaking.  

A second bird that we got a lot of were White-throated Sparrows (WTSP).  This one in particular I wanted to take a photo of as he was so incredibly vibrant!  I originally always thought that male WTSPs looked like this one here and females were much more drab looking.  But, alas, I was wrong!  During my time here I learnt that there was instead, a white-morph (like this one) and a tan-morph, both of which you can really only tell their sex based on their wing length.  There were so many of these feisty little buggers, but I never got tired of hearing their "Sweet home Canada, Canada, Canada".

Another new sparrow for me was the Field Sparrow!  It surprisingly reminded me a lot of the Snow Bunting I watched being banded last fall.  As most sparrows I knew were darker and drabber looking, but these ones, certainly look gorgeous up close!

 The first warbler to hit the banding station this spring was a Pine Warbler!  I have seen a few of these before, but it was always in the fall.  Seeing one in spring for the first time was so amazing!  We banded about 2 or 3 in total and up close...wow. They are beautiful!  My favourite moment with this bird was one day when a few of us were waiting for another net check to come along.  Marc-Andre, a volunteer from Quebec, noticed the bird really close to the station and as we watched it, it flew to one of the rain barrels and started taking a drink. I had a hilarious acting session through a window to Dayna (LPBO Coordinator) who was inside the building to look out at it, and when she finally did the excitement on her face was classic!  I can't wait for more warblers to start moving on through!

Another day I was doing a net check with Joe, an Australian visitor who is volunteering with the station for the spring and fall migration. We came around a corner and spotted a bundle of Juncos in a net and then both of us stood shocked to see, in the middle of them, a Sharp-shinned Hawk!  Joe started running like mad to get it out of the net and was like so happy to have his first Canadian raptor in his hand!  These little guys always make the funniest faces.

Along with us at the station there are also a variety of researchers, Kristin and Jordi were two of them!  I was lucky enough one morning (at like 5am!) to see them releasing the first bat they caught of the season!  Kristin is studying silver-haired bats (one of my favourite bat species), and let me take a close up of one!  Previously to this I'd only ever seen dead bats (through windfarm surveys I did) so it was nice to finally experience a live one.  Personally, I think silver-haired ones have the sweetest personalities of the bat family!

Along with bats and birds, I saw my very first herp of the season!  It turned out to be a melanistic gartersnake!  There aren't too many populations of these around, but Long Point is definitely a hot spot for them!

And then....It snowed again!!!

With the cold brought in another lack of birds through the area. Tree swallows stopped flying, as did the bats.  I felt bad for them all, coming this way to only be hit by yet another cold snap.  We did, however, still get some birds through our ground and jay traps that were really exciting to me!  The first one is the Eastern Towee.  If you've ever heard people telling you about "what birds say" when they sing, then you know it's incredibly difficult sometimes to get that out of your head.  I found this especially true of the Towee. Even now when I'm home I sometimes find myself walking around singing "Drink your teaaaaa!"

A second exciting bird we caught during the snow-blast was a Northern Flicker.  BUT!  This wasn't just any Flicker....it was an Integrate! I always knew flickers as being called "Northern Flicker", which they are, but you can also get much more specific.  In eastern Canada they are the subspecies Yellow-shafted Flicker (because the shaft of the feather is yellow!) where as in western Canada they are Red-shafted (you guessed it...because their feather shaft is red).  There are also some other differences between the two.  This one we caught (as seen below) has mostly yellow feathers, but a few of the primaries have an orange tint.  This means that somewhere down the gene pool, a yellow and red-shafted mated, creating a hybrid!





 Walking around the property there were many other birds that could be heard such as red-breasted nuthatch, Canada Geese, Kingfishers, Tree Swallows, American Bitterns, Woodcocks, and more!!  Long Point really is such a magical place!

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Now...there are just a few more photos that I will be going through and posting in a Part 3 section.  Then I've gotten all the Long Point outta me....for now.

Old Cut Lighthouse

A Crazy April...Part 1

I looked at my calendar today and couldn't believe that it was already the end of April!!  I have no idea how this month went by so quickly, but I guess time goes by quick when you are busy and having fun!

Everything is going full gear for field season coming up and starting next week.  It's intimidating (I'd lie if I said I haven't had a panic attack about it yet) but also so exhilarating!  It's amazing with a Masters how you can do so much work and yet it feels like you've done nothing at all when you look at your to-do list!

April 10th I left for 11 days to do some Bird Banding Training at the Long Point Bird Observatory.  The beginning of April had been pretty low bird wise, I imagine because it was so damn cold!  The first two days were pretty slow and cold.  I spent most of the time learning how to scribe data and how to set up and use all the different ground traps.  The sunrise on my first morning was absolutely jaw-dropping.  It was pretty cold, foggy, and the sun was a brilliant yellow.  I'd have to say this is probably one of my favourite photos from the entire trip.

One of the first birds we did manage to catch was a Morning Dove.  I'd never realized how beautiful they really were until this moment, seeing them up close changes everything.  Males have beautiful colours.  What I've always seen was a simple pinkish-tanned colour, when really there are amazing hints of purple and blues.  Below you can kind-of see that in the photo.

Pie-billed Grebe

There are a bunch of ducks flocking into Peterborough, especially now the River is all opened up.  Buffleheads, Goldeneye and Hooded Mergansers are just about everywhere!  All around campus I've seen dozens (maybe hundreds!) of Tree Swallows flying around and feeding over the river.  Today I even think that I spotted some White-winged Scoters and heard some Killdeer!

Yesterday, I was able to spot my first Pie-billed Grebe of the season!  I love these adorable little guys and was lucky enough to have had my camera with me at the time!

Excited to see what other birds come flocking in over the next few weeks!!

Happy Naturing!

An Icy St. Clair

It was a very cold and icy visit out to St. Clair NWA last Saturday!  I brought my Dad out for a hike with me to look for some ducks and tundra swans.  For having worked there, it surprised me that it was his first time out there!

Last year at this time I remember ducks were flying everywhere.  I don't think it was even possible to look in the air or water without seeing a flock of some sort of awesome waddler!  But this year....after a really cold and long winter all of the ponds at St. Clair were still frozen over.  There were quite a few flocks flying around but I'm not too sure where they were landing!  Little patches of water did exist but only 4 pairs of Ring-necked Ducks and 1 Bufflehead were there.  Even though it was a really small number, it was still so nice to see these guys after a year!

Ring-necked Ducks and Bufflehead

Even though there were limited ducks, we saw plenty of Tundra Swans flying over!  These swans I have to say are my favourites.  When the congregate into groups (and even flying) their sound can be heard from so far away.  Opening my patio door to let the dog out I could even hear them flying over the house, I always get so excited when I hear their sound!

Tundra Swans

 We walked all the way to the observation tower which is located in the middle of the Wildlife Area.  Other then the few ducks at the entrance, the area was fairly quiet!  I was surprised at how many red-winged black birds were back in the area.  Other than the RWBB, we saw some crows, starlings, a cardinal, and a muskrat!

St. Clair NWA from the Tower

 Leaving the NWA we were driving back towards Highway 40 and spotted a field of white.  It wasn't a large pack of unmelted snow...it was all swans!   Unfortunately, it had started raining at this point so the photo turned out incredibly blurry, but it was still spectacular. It actually may just be one of my favourite parts of spring.

Tundra Swans in farmers field.

Once pack in Chatham we went over to Paxton's bush to see what we could spot.  It was quiet again in here and even was beginning to snow.  We saw about 30 Goldfinches, a few crow, and that's about it!! My dad did spot a cute little squirrel poking out of a tree cavity!

Back here in Peterborough the Otonabee River is pretty much all open, but I haven't seen anything too new around until yesterday.  I was driving along the river through Trent campus and spotted some Tree Swallows!!  First for the year, so certainly is a sign that spring is on it's way!

Happy Naturing!