Birding can be a saving grace

What an eventful week it has been, bird wise at least!

Being able to bird from our windows and within the local area has been a bit of a saving grace for me the last two weeks.  Having moved to the area and not knowing anyone, much of my time has been spent glaring at my computer screen.  While you can only think so much in one day (thesis wise) and have limited internet access (good ol 5GB/mth router), you are bound to get a bit stir crazy!

White-breasted Nuthatch

So, to try and calm my mind down and curb internet usage, I've begun to take up run-birding (running with binoculars).  While it is more birding than running, it still gets me outside and more active than sitting on a couch does! Thanks to it I have not only inched my way into #1 on the Parry Sound Ebird list, but I've have also been able to start shedding some of this graduate student weight and become more productive with this mind-clearing method. Anyone who has chatted with me in the last few months, or anyone who has been in graduate school at all, will know that it's something I've is greatly needed. While I absolutely love my project and love the work I am doing, you can get a bit overwhelmed and lose yourself in the process. So the last few weeks I've not only been trying to work, but also trying to reset my sleep schedule and getting out to do things for myself too, and birding is my way of doing that.  Being here has been a complete blessing, resetting both my brain and my soul.

Beautiful Sunset over Deep Bay, Georgian Bay

So now onto the birds! Our backyard has been full of birds the last week, causing us to fill our bird feeders at least once a day.  The Pine Siskins, Juncos, Purple Finches and American Tree Sparrows are still around and make up the majority of the birds we see.  Grackles have since moved into our back yard in large numbers and more recently, so have the Brown-headed Cowbirds and Red-wing Blackbirds.

Pine Siskin

Purple Finch

American Tree Sparrow and two Chipping Sparrows

Over the last week we've noticed an increase in the number of White-throated Sparrows and Chipping Sparrows under the feeder!  Every morning I've been able to wake up to the sounds of "sweet home Canada, Canada, Canada" and it's been so pleasant!

White-throated Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Male Downy Woodpecker

Perched White-throated Sparrow

Two more species have made visits to our feeder and were a great surprise to us!  They were both a FOY (first of the year) species for me.  The first was a Fox Sparrow and the second was a Yellow-rumped Warbler!

Fox Sparrow

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Along with birding from my back window, I have also been able to get out a little bit every few days to check out the area.  Georgian Bay area has so far not been a disappointment when it has come to sightings.  We recently inherited a canoe from our neighbour and took it out on Raby Lake.  Here we saw Ring-necked Ducks, Wood Ducks, Lesser Scaup, and Bufflehead.  A few days after this, we noticed a flock of Blackbirds in a tree.  I got Mike to stop the car as recently I've been obsessed with trying to find Rusty Blackbirds. 

Ring-necked Ducks

Rusty Blackbirds

 

Rusty Blackbirds

A little further down the road, we were able to spot Green-winged Teal and Greater Yellowlegs in a flooded field.

Greater Yellowlegs

 Another day we spent an hour doing a loop in Killbear Park.  The day was pretty quiet, however that didn't stop some bird sightings!  The first bird of the day was the Yellow-rumped Warbler.  Two of them were chattering away along the lighthouse trail along with a Pine Warbler, who remained to be unseen!  Along another path we noticed that Great Blue Herons had begun nesting!  No matter how many times I see it, I'm always find it hilarious and baffling to see them high up nesting in a tree! It will never get old.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Great Blue Herons

As we were leaving the park, a beautiful Broad-winged Hawk made an appearance.  Lighting at the time was pretty awful, so I am hoping that either before I leave this week, or sometime throughout the summer I can get a better photo!  

Broad-winged Hawk

Turkey Vulture

Coming home from the park, we were super excited to see Sandhill Cranes so close to the road!  I have never actually seen a crane on the ground (only ever either seen them flying over or heard them) so it was pretty neat watching these dinosaur looking birds walk. 

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane playing Peek-a-boo

 One more week in this beautiful area before I head home for a visit (of course visit Pelee too!) and then back to Peterborough to finish up this degree *fingers crossed*.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

T

Birding from a Window...

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

It's been less than a week since I've moved up to Parry Sound.  The boyfriend got a job (finally and thankfully!) in the area and I will be here off and on throughout the summer as I finish up my thesis.  Since moving my week has been tons of unpacking, reorganizing, and also data analysis and prepping for some conferences coming up.  Our new house has a beautiful little nook where I've set up a desk and it outlooks into our backyard (a maple syrup production forest) and the feeders we've put up in it.   There is no better way to celebrate Earth Day that experiencing it in your own backyard and as I write this I watch about 50 birds joyous over some fresh seed I put out and am listening to the adorable buzzy sounds from Pine Siskins.

Cole Lake, amazing view on my run!

Within the first two days our yard list was at around 40 species, something I would never have gotten at any of my other houses! It makes me so excited to explore the area around here and see some species that I normally don't get the chance to see.  

So here are a few favourite photos that I've taken over the last week...mostly from my desk window!   I can't wait to get out of the house a little bit this weekend and explore 

On the first day, the yard was full of Common Redpolls!  I saw a few of these while living in Peterborough, but none had been as handsome as this one!  It was really nice to get some up close looks.  In the last two days they seem to have moved out of our woods and soon will be up in the Arctic! 

The back woods have also been full of Kinglets, both Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned, and also Brown Creepers!  These little guys have always given me so much trouble when it comes to taking photographs of them.  Luckily with so many around I was able to capture a photo of each. 

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Brown Creeper 

A ridiculous number of woodpeckers have also been around the back woods!  So far we have had Downey, Hairy, Pileated, Northern Flicker, and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers seen.  Almost every time I have stepped outside I can hear one of them pecking away on a distant tree, which has been really helpful in trying to differentiate between pecking sounds and rhythms. The most "eventful" sighting was this morning during breakfast where I noticed two Pileated Woodpeckers mating. I noticed this pair flying around the woods together and it seems like they will be nesting!

Pileated Woodpecker

The other night we put up a series of three feeders around the house and by about 7:00pm today all of the feed was completely gone!!  The first arrival to our feeder was a group of American Tree Sparrows, Goldfinches, and Juncos.  Early yesterday morning, the first Pine Siskin arrived followed a few hours later by a flock of about 30.  I've been trying to see Pine Siskins for the last few years and hadn't been able to pin point one up until this moment, so it was really exciting to get a new lifer (#237!). 

Pine Siskin on bird feeder

The Pine Siskins brought with them the arrival of dozens of Purple Finches.  These were such a nice sight to see as I am so used to seeing House Finches back home in Chatham. My feeders have been FULL of these guys over the last few days, and they assisted in emptying my feeders.  One finch in particular caught my eye (second photo) and after some consulting with banding friends we determined that it is a second-year Male (meaning he was born last year!). 

Male (right) and Female (left) Purple Finch

Second-year Male Purple Finch

Yesterday morning was the first time this year I heard one of my favourite sounds, the White-throated Sparrow.  They are one of my favourite sounds of spring.

White-throated Sparrow

 I hope that everyone has a fantastic Earth Day 2016.  Make sure to head outside and appreciate all that the earth has to offer us.

Pine Siskin (left) and American Goldfinch (right)

Waterfowl Festival at Presqu'ile

March 19th and 20th marked the annual Presqu'ile Provincial Park Waterfowl Festival, the second one that I've had the pleasure of volunteering at.  Unlike last year, this year it was incredibly warm and lacked the vast amount of ice usually at Presqu'ile this time of year. 

Since the entire bay and lake was open water, ducks were not in as concentrated numbers as people were used to seeing the last few years.  Mind you, it didn't mean that they weren't there; they were just not concentrated into tiny patches of open water as usual.

A group of my labmates and I were stationed at Calf Pasture where there was a fairly close group of Lon-tailed Ducks to look at.  Once in a while a Goldeneye or Bufflehead would join the mix, but usually they would fly off just as quickly as they arrived.  It was really nice to be able to give many visitors, young and old, a look at these beautiful ducks before they start to head north again for the summer.  In the far (and I mean far!) distance we could spot some Scaup, Redheads, Canvasback, and a few American Widgeon.  Quite a few times throughout the day boaters would scare all the ducks up creating amazing flying clouds to look at.  It was always fun when this would happen since most people wouldn't believe us when we said there were thousands of ducks out on the lake!

Once the day ended we spend a bit of time birding in the marsh and other nearby areas at Presqu'ile.  I saw my very first Golden-crowned Kinglet of the year and also a Pied-billed Grebe out in the marsh!  Song sparrows all over were also in full singing mode.

Also floating around in the marsh were Mute Swans (what a surprise!) and a few Buffleheads!

April is just a few hours away now and I couldn't be more excited!  Take advantage of all the amazing bird festivals and outings that will be going on in your local areas...there will be plenty to see!

Fishing on Simcoe

The other weekend Mike and I took off to Lake Simcoe to get in a little bit of ice fishing while the season was still "somewhat" on!   With all the warm weather this winter we were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to get out at all.  Really sketchy ice conditions have left us with limited days where it was safe to walk on ice.  By the time we decided to head out, temperatures had been in the negative digits for only a couple of days, this this was enough to thicken the ice and allow for safe (ish) walking!

We ended up walking out from Sibbald's Point Provincial Park.  The original location we had wanted to try had warmed up enough over night that there was a large hole in the ice, stranding some of the huts.  This didn't make us feel too, too safe, however once we arrived at Sibbald's, the ice was perfectly safe for us to walk out on and the ice, once drilled, we saw was about a foot thick.

It was so much fun getting out and getting some fresh air.  Spending a day with my eyes away from the computer was a nice relaxer to the otherwise usually strained vision. There is definitely something about sitting out on the middle of a lake, in the middle of winter that is just so much fun! 

The water was so clear that we were able to see right through to the bottom of the lake. While the fishing was fun, I had almost as good of a time just sitting on the ice and watching the fish swim underneath me, trying to figure out where they were going, and the guessing game of whose hook they would bite. After a full day of fishing, we ended up with about 13 Perch, including a number of them that were jumbo!  

It was such a great day out and I really wish that winter wasn't already coming to a close.  In fact, I wish that we even had a winter! As people who love to ice fish, we were truly spoiled last winter with the amazing deep freeze that we had.  With that said, I am still so excited that the spring is coming, opening the windows once again, and feeling that amazing sunshine.  Oh, and seeing some birds too!  

Sneaking around Shrewsbury

This is quite a late blog post, but it's better late than never!

About two weeks ago now, I went on a little road trip to Shrewsbury, Ontario, while I was at home in Chatham for reading week.   I met up with an old high-school friend, Sean Tilden (Photography Website).  I had heard on ebird about a bundle of Snow Geese, Tundra Swans, and diving ducks in the area and figured it would be an awesome break from some work.

We started out by heading to the Shewsbury waterfront/boat launch.  There was a tiny opening in the ice where hundreds of Tundra Swans, Canada Geese, and Redheads were.  We could spot a few Canvasback ducks too, however anything else was lost in our binocular vision.  I definitely need a scope!  Eating something on the ice was also a Bald Eagle, and we also spotted a Northern Harrier flying above.

We then picked up from this area and drove around nearby cornfields to try and spot the Snow Geese that had been reported earlier.  We eventually located a flock of nearly 400-500 Canada Geese and within them we could see a few Snow Geese, but not nearly the hundreds of them that were reported earlier!  With a scope we may have been able to spot the Ross's Geese that had also been reported or the Greater White-fronted Geese that were reported shortly after we were there. 

Just around the corner from the geese we stopped to watch and take some photos of Snow Buntings and Horned Larks.  These are probably two of my favourite winter birds, so camouflaged and yet so colourful against the snow.  I would love one day to be able to band one!

Horned Lark

Snow Bunting

Just as we were getting ready to leave, we noticed a really dark Snow Bunting fly by and land.  of course, it was not a Snow Bunting, but nothing other than a Lapland Longspur!  It was bird lifer #236 for me!  How adorable are they!  For the rest of the drive I suddenly started noticing more and more of them throughout the area.  It is always funny how after you see something for the first time, suddenly you see them everywhere!  If you are out for a drive and see a flock of Snow Buntings, look for ones that seem just a shade or two darker.  If you look closely with binoculars you will be able to see the darker-rusty colouring, less white on the underside, and a yellowish eye stripe (starts at the brow and curves around to the neck).  They look so beautiful on the wintering grounds, I couldn't even imagine how they would look in their breeding plumage!

Lapland Longspur

We then went to try and spot some Short-eared Owls (with no luck!), but we did get to see a Sharp-shinned Hawk who had recently eaten a Junco! It's always a little fun when you find a bunch of feathers and a predator, and you try and figure out what they had just eaten.  It's very CSI like! 

 We then continued on our way to the Erieau Marina where we were greeted by quite a number of ducks, gulls, swans, and coots!!  Coots have always been one of my favourite birds since I've seen them, just the look of them is so goofy and confusing.  Are they ducks...or are they shorebirds?  What is with that bill!?    We were lucky enough to see about 30-40 of these birds slip and sliding around on the ice.

A final "rarity" that we were able to spot was a Great Black-backed Gull! This beauty was flying around the harbour and generally sitting with a group of Herring Gulls.  

Hope everyone is having a great first day of March!