Week 8 (February 16 - February 22)

Sunday was a great day! Got to do a lot of birding in going to two cemeteries in Burlington, one to find a little Screech-Owl and the other to find the pesky Shrike I missed a few weeks ago!

Starting with the Shrike, I showed up at about 1/4 after 9. I was there for over and hour and tried and tried to find this Shrike. I seen a coyote and a lot of Bluebirds, but still no Shrike! I was just about to give in to the little guy once again and I tried a hail Mary, I went to the building at the front of the property, and there is was, perched at the top of a tree! Finally, Northern Shrike!

Next up was the Screech-Owl, this was the same story. I showed up, and I walked around for what seemed like forever. This time though I had a little help, a guy showed up, probably around the same age as me, and he let me know where the Screech-Owl likes to hide out, and low and behold there it was. Eyes closed, hiding from the world, and the best part; it was right above where some photographers walked and they could not find it! Win for the birds today!

Also visited some spots in Hamilton; Burlington Ship Canal, Bayfront Park, the works. Picked up an Iceland Gull. Great day for birding. Did get some awesome pictures of Trumpeter Swans though!

Northern Shrike - Halton ON

Cooper Hawk - Halton ON

Eastern Screech-Owl - Halton ON

White-breasted Nuthatch - Halton ON

Trumpeter Swan - Hamilton ON

Monday was a big thing, back to banding! That's right Ruthven did a little a little banding on Family Day and what a great time it was! It helped me get the rust off before we start banding in just over a month. We banded 18 new birds and 20 retraps. I myself got to band a quite a few as well as grab the census count, nice to be back! Nothing rare really, however we did get to spot a pair of Trumpeter Swans and a pair of Bald Eagles!

Immature Bald Eagle getting it's adult plumage - Haldimand ON

Adult Bald Eagle - Haldimand ON

Trumpeter Swan (V18) - Haldimand ON

Did a little traveling this past week, Nashville Tennessee, City of Music. What a beautiful place, the only problem, it was still cold! The one morning it snowed and another there was frost. For being close to Georgia you would think it would at least be warm! Anyhow, it was definitely still nicer than southern Ontario this time of year. Racking up some migrants I usually only see in the spring and the infamous Carolina Chickadee that I can't see in Ontario. I was at a work convention and the place where the convention was was amazing! They had 3 rooms of all plants, 3.. that is crazy to think about. And not to mention the explosion of Northern Mockingbird, there was only 1 day I didn't see at least one, they're just crazy common down there. I did not bring my camera however so I didn't get any decent bird pictures but still amazing. Would definitely recommend going!

Week's end totals:
Species: 49
Individuals: 1,205

The convention was at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel - Nashville TN

Gaylord Opryland Hotel - Nashville TN

Week 7 (February 9 - February 15)

February has been pretty slow and very stormy. A lot of snow, it seems like winter has finally caught up to us. Along with these storms comes the low sightings of birds during the week.

Saturday marked the 75th straight day of birding. So, to celebrate I tried to go out and see some new birds for the year, and I did! Headed out along the shores of the lake and managed to round up about 30 Horned Lark and a small flock of Sandhill Crane!

Funny story about the Sandhill Cranes. I was actually not even birding! Definitely cool, I was driving down the road coming back from getting groceries and boom! I look up and 4 Sandhill Crane fly over, necks and legs outstretched, right over the car. It has been almost a year since I have seen Sandhill Crane, and it is definitely awesome to see.

Week's end totals:
Species: 16
Individuals: 111

Hairy Woodpecker - Halton ON

Horned Lark - Haldimand ON

Week 6 (February 2 - February 8)

This week was pretty average. Not a lot going on in the birding world, or in mine to be honest. Did get out to Ruthven on Tuesday since I had the day off work. Couple new birds for the year (Red-breasted Nuthatch and a wintering Wood Duck).

Ruthven was pretty normal, didn't see anything too exciting, 26 species including 5 species of waterfowl and a Bald Eagle flyover. Almost got 25 but then a little brown bird flew past me and gripped a tree, Brown Creeper!

I did visit a new place on Saturday though, Whirlpool in Niagara. Attempted to see a Black-headed Gull and Black-legged Kittiwake but missed out on both after a half hour of searching. It was too bad but what a place to see, gulls everywhere! Lots of your typical Ring-bills and Herrings along with a couple Great Black-backs.

Week's end totals:
Species: 31
Individuals: 740

Downy Woodpecker - Haldimand ON

Week 5 (January 26th - February 1st)

Sorry for the late post!

The beginning of the week was a very typical January week; cold, short and the birds were far from in between. From Sunday to Friday the only species I seen were very common, so I will not bore you with my mundane sightings. The real day was Saturday.

I ran all over the place! Niagara, Hamilton, Burlington and all around Haldimand. I accumulated 12 new species for the year, including a lifer Glaucous Gull! It was a huge runaround but I loved it. Did not find any Sandhill Crane or Snow Bunting but I still have more time this winter for those birds.

En route to find some Snow Bunting (unsuccessfully) but there was a large group of Wild Turkey so I pulled over to see if I could see any other birds feeding along side them but got an amazing view of a Rough-legged Hawk! Flew right over the field about 100m from myself. I went to get a picture of this bird, pulled out my camera and took some shots but, me being me, I left my SD card in the card reader... definitely something I will never do again!

Week's end totals:
Species: 36
Individuals: 1,351

American Black Duck - Burlington, ON