Bassindale Birding : Week 11 (March 9th

This is the week I hit 100 days straight birding, and with that came with an exciting new sighting! Greater White-fronted Goose and Snow Goose! Although I didn't get any pictures the flock of White-fronts was a good size one and very showy and easy to see.

The rest of the week was slow so let's move on to Friday when I had the day off. I didn't drive everywhere but I did drive to the Royal Botanical Gardens and made my way around the boardwalk, lots of Ring-necked Duck and even a Belted Kingfisher made an appearance. Even seen my first Carolina Wren this year. From the boardwalk I headed back homewards to the Hagersville Quarry, caught a couple Hooded Merganser but didn't see much else unfortunately. Then I decided to move on to the bridge not too far from Peacock Point where I spotted a small group of Northern Shoveler in the flooded field.

Saturday was a long day of birding with a friend of mine. He and I drove all over Hamilton starting at Windermere where he and I spotted the Pied-billed Grebe that's been kicking around there and spotted a Green-winged Teal at the back bank. 2 new species for the year on both of our lists. Not to mention a large flock of Ruddy Duck (60)! Next off to the Burlington Ship Canal; nothing too notable, trying to look for the Red-throated Loon I seen earlier in the week, but we missed it! Here is the real kicker, there was a Red-throated Loon spotted a couple of hours later. From there we decided to move on to Stoney Creek (10th Rd and 8th Rd). On 10th we spotted a few Eastern Meadowlark and listened to their amazing calls for a while before moving on to 8th Rd. 8th was great, seen a whole flock of Northern Pintail (35) and a pair of American Wigeon swimming in a large puddle in the middle of the field. We then moved to a little quarry not too far away and seen our second Pied-billed Grebe of the day along with a male Wood Duck. From there he and I took a little drive to the Beamer CA Hawkwatch. Slow day there mostly, nothing too exciting other than an adult Bald Eagle that was migrating.

Sunday seen me heading out to Long Point with the same friend. We took a swing by Lee Brown WMA and seen a massive flock of Redhead (120 at least) and a flock of Sandhill Cranes (28) flew above us as well. We then moved on to the Old Cut Banding Station and "New" Provincial Park. Not too much to note at Old Cut, the typical Swamp Sparrow and Song Sparrow. The "New" Provincial Park drew up another 2 pairs of Sandhill Crane and a surprise Eastern Phoebe! Definitely a good day there's no doubt about that.

Definitely a nice week and I am thinking my best week so far!

Week's End Totals:
Total Species: 77
Total Individuals: 2717