Week 17 (April 20th to April 26th)

This week has been much better than recent weeks!

First lets go into where I've started since the outbreak started, COVID-19. The pandemic seems to be cooling down a little and this week (27th-1st) that Doug Ford will indeed be making a statement about the plan to reopen the economy (this includes parks!). This can be a very good thing for birders left and right as this could mean allowing people to go birding as a small groups again. This being said, he is not rolling out dates on when this will happen and I am certain it won't be until the end of May which squashes any chance of spring banding this year (definitely missing the good times in Ruthven and hoping all my friends from the banding squad are staying healthy and keeping up with the birds!). That being said looking out for our Fall season!

Now, to the birds.

Went out every day this week it did not rain (not too terribly many days), Friday evening and Saturday morning made my week (47 species on Friday and 61 on Saturday making this my high of the year!).

Friday night was pretty good, no warblers but continued to see a large number of Green-winged Teal (20), and a pair of Belted Kingfisher shines a nice light on the world right now with the hope of a nest somewhere close. Also believe there is a Cooper Hawk nest close to my birding area as I've hear the adults making warning calls (keeping my distance since I definitely do not want to piss these birds off). Still haven't heard or seen any American Woodcock yet but lots of time to see one!

Saturday was phenomenal. 61 species any day is by all means an amazing day! Found 5 Yellow-rumped Warblers and 4 Ring-necked Duck back there that morning, just a wonderful view and first of the month for Ring-necked Duck. And 5 year birds; Forster Tern, House Wren, Chipping Sparrow (finally!!), Savannah Sparrow, and a pair of Greater Yellowlegs, this brings my Ontario year list to 124 species and Haldimand County peaking 100 (103). This has been a pretty good year all considered and it has definitely made my local patch birding go up with lots of cool species!

Good birding everyone!

Weekly Totals:
Species: 74
Individuals: 1,251

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Haldimand ON

Brown Thrasher - Haldimand ON

Greater Yellowlegs - Haldimand ON

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Haldimand ON

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Haldimand ON

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Haldimand ON

Savannah Sparrow - Haldimand ON

Swamp Sparrow - Haldimand ON

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Haldimand ON

White-throated Sparrow - Haldimand ON

Week 16 (April 13th to April 19th)

The travel ban continues. With the COVID-19 cases continue to climb even around Haldimand County let alone the remainder province and it does not seem like it'll come to an end anytime soon which is unfortunate. This looks like I will only be banding once this spring unfortunately.

I have been trying to get out as much as I can with the intermittent snow storms and wild wind. This is so typical for April, but it's usually the beginning of April, not the end. This can definitely interrupt my migration monitoring of the private property.

Saturday was definitely a good day, 43 species and seen a personal high of 19 Green-winged Teal in the couple hours I went out. Moved up to 114 species in Ontario this year. I did get out to see the Great Horned Owl nest, the fledgling is getting really big now, almost as big as the mom.

These past few weeks have been quite slow unfortunately, but this will all be better once the outbreak is better which may still be a while yet. It will be better at some point we all just need a little patience!

Good birding everyone!

Weekly Totals:
Species: 44
Individuals: 413

Great Horned Owl - Haldimand ON

American Robin - Haldimand ON

House Finch - Haldimand ON

Field Sparrow - Haldimand ON

Tree Swallow - Haldimand ON

Snow...Again.

This year has been just a roller coaster for Haldimand County with a couple bouts of bad snow storms and immediately afterwards was the epidemic and since that has started we have had a wind storm at speeds of 90 km/h. Now we have set for snow today and the last 2 days before today. 

I can only think about the birds in the wild having to deal with these cold weathers they migrate to avoid (it was -1°C this morning and -5°C yesterday morning). The Hermit Thrush and a lot of other birds can deal with the cold better than other as I have seen Hermit Thrush into November but the Gray Catbird could be in rough shape, I will not be able to get out to look this morning. 

I did get some shots of a Field Sparrow chilling in the bush in front of my parents' place and an American Goldfinch and Downy Woodpecker sitting on the deck behind their place. 

I think I speak for as all (including the birds) when I say I am done with winter and want spring to be back again! 

Female Downy Woodpecker - Haldimand ON

Male American Goldfinch - Haldimand ON

Field Sparrow - Haldimand ON

Week 15 (April 6th to April 12)

This week has been interesting even in our social distancing stage of this pandemic (which for some reason has me feeling about the same as normal...weird).

The same as last week I have been doing a lot of birding on property owned by my family which has been phenomenal! Lots of cool birds kicking around, including a VERY early Gray Catbird.

Monday - I decided to just bird from my apartment. Nothing to special.

Tuesday - Did a little drive through the wetlands but did not going for a walk through. Still seeing lots of Wood Duck around!

Wednesday - Back to the wetlands again! Got some awesome pictures of Green-winged and Blue-winged Teals by sneaking up on them which was a lot harder than I thought with all of the fallen sticks from the wind storms we get around here. The best part of that night was hearing a Ring-necked Pheasant in the field behind the wetlands! Fist wild one I've ever gotten on a census. This is also the first time I've spotted the Gray Catbird kicking around back there. This was my yearly high of 37 species.

Green-winged Teal - Haldimand ON

Blue-winged Teal - Haldimand ON

Hermit Thrush - Haldimand ON

Gray Catbird - Haldimand ON

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - Haldimand ON

Thursday/Friday - I did a lot of birding from my apartment both Thursday and Friday, night peaceful indoors kind of day on the long weekend. With that not a lot of birds kicking around.

Saturday -  Topped Wednesday's high of 37 with 45! What an outing! Long walk (3 hours) and seen the Gray Catbird again along with a pair of Eastern Towhee and Rusty Blackbird. Also seen my first Ruby-crowned Kinglet for Haldimand and a little Winter Wren kicking around in the brush. I also kicked up 3 Tufted Titmouse in the bush not far from a sumac bush patch.

Eastern Towhee - Haldimand ON

Song Sparrow - Haldimand ON

Blue-winged Teal - Haldimand ON

Blue-winged Teal - Haldimand ON

Bald Eagle - Haldimand ON

Sunday - There has been a Northern Mockingbird hanging around my parent's place as of late and I'm excited to see if it makes a nest. These birds are very intriguing when they're nesting, they are quite aggressive towards anything except humans where they are surprisingly more passive aggressive (mainly sitting not too far from you and shouting at you for a good 10-15 minutes). We had a pair here probably 3-4 years ago at least and it would dive bomb the cats. It's safe to say that the cats were not fans of this bird whatsoever. After the rain stopped yesterday I did something very exciting, I put up our first Wood Duck house in the wetlands in the hopes that we could have a mating pair back there this year! This is super exciting with all of the commotion back there I am certain we will have at least a few lookers! Hoping to monitor the progress of the box as it is in a spot I don't walk but I can still check on with my bins from the other side of the little pond. Exciting! Now, I did not think this day could get any better than it had since the Wood Duck box was all installed and the excitement of getting a pair breeding back there was rushing through my head, but, I was most definitely wrong! On a walk through the wetlands that evening I finally spotted my breeding pair of Great Horned Owl! They have moved around a lot over the last couple years but their new spot seems like it could be one they could return to next year as well, and to top it off they have a fledgling in it (at least one I could see). This adds to the breeding birds in this little patch and I'm hoping to keep my eyes not only on the Wood Ducks but the success of the owls and Tree Swallow fighting over some of the local boxes as well. Will keep up with all of the breeding bird updates as promptly as possible!

Wood Duck house - Haldimand ON

Weekly Totals: 
Species: 54 
Individuals: 831

Good birding everyone!

Week 14 (March 30th to April 5th)

 A few things happened this week.

1. I made the decision to only stay home and my parents' place. Keep me from getting COVID and spreading it. This includes work so I have been working from a home set up, which has been good other than doing all of the forms I have to fill out with very little info and just pictures. (For those who don't know I am an Engineering Technologist so all of the bad parts go through me). 
2. All of the parks around me have closed. In Haldimand County the fines are up to $5,000 and I personally have better things to do with that money. 
3. My annual Point Pelee trip is cancelled and my trip to PEI in July is up in the air pending how long this epidemic takes hold. 
4.  Banding at Ruthven has also been closed for the time being, unfortunate but necessary. I am definitely disappointed but it is for the best. This means all of the migrants I find will have to be on the private property my family owns. 

That's all of the updates in the COVID-19 situation for right now. Even this being the case I still have my birding streak up (125 as of Sunday April 5th). I have been doing a lot of birding in the private property surrounding my family. This is a little view of what that has been. 

The weekdays were pretty much the same but Friday was amazing! I seen 29 species including 2 Fox Sparrow and 22 Wood Duck. Should definitely look at putting more boxes up for them since we only have the one. This was just amazing as I haven't been seeing too many ducks there last year but this year seems to be a turn around for ducks there, which is amazing news. Green-winged Teal and Blue-winged Teal have made many good appearances there as well which is just awesome to see with my lack of Green-wings being spotted last year. I've also seen lots of American Wigeon and American Black Duck back there and an almost inordinate amount of Bald Eagle (at least 1 almost every time I'm out there). This has definitely been nicer than having nothing! 

After the wetlands on my way home I was driving past a known Short-eared Owl spot and found 3 of the individuals chasing one another around the field (this pulls my count up to 5 on the year). That was so amazing I have never witnessed that in my entire tenure as a birder and I will never forget it. 

The weekend seen me go to Ruthven on Saturday where I picked up my first Eastern Towhee of the year. Nothing too exciting besides that but it was still nice to see my fellow Ruthven gang before the closure that afternoon. Grabbed a few good pictures of a Blue Jay and American Robin by the Fox Den Trail. Sunday I decided to put my blind back at the wetlands and keep it up. This is hoping I can possibly go back there before dark sometime and wait for the waterfowl and get some amazing shots without scaring the birds away. Fingers crossed! 

Hoping all of you good health and especially good birding! 

Weekly Totals: 

Species: 50

Individuals: 990

Fox Sparrow - Haldimand ON

Fox Sparrow - Haldimand ON

Blue-winged Teal - Haldimand ON

Short-eared Owl - Haldimand ON

American Robin - Haldimand ON

Blue Jay - Haldimand ON

Blue Jay - Haldimand ON 

Week 13 (March 23rd to March 29th)

This week came at me much worse than last for COVID-19. Now all of the non-essential businesses are closed and I am working from home (or my parent's place) so I had a little more access to a sweet birding area! Just awesome for me.

Before that though I did get out to a couple other spots, even got to see my first Blue-winged Teal of the year, and hopefully not my last! That was the Hagersville Quarries where I also picked up the first White-winged Scoter for Haldimand bringing my life list up to 209! I also got out to Ruthven a few times but nothing significant happened there. I also got to peak out at Port Maitland (about 5 mins from where I live currently) and man what a disappointment this year! Nothing notable whatsoever unfortunately. This was all before the banding season starts April 1st. 

The real excitement comes from going to the wetland I mentioned. Racking up 28 species in just a couple hours including 7 species of waterfowl and 5 Bald Eagles! It should be interesting to stay away from people in this self-isolation and see some interesting birds in the process over the next few weeks with the travel limit I have self-inflicted, mostly me trying to avoid the GTHA like the plague! I know I may be missing out on some stuff like Wilson Snipe and Dunlin but all in good time. 

This week should be interesting. 

Week Totals:
Species: 49
Individuals: 1030  

Golden-crowned Kinglet - Haldimand ON

Song Sparrow - Haldimand ON