With September almost over I have some catching up to do, but that is not 100% my fault! The birding has been amazing! I've even immersed myself in a new style of birding - Lakewatching. This is where this story starts.
The date: September 8th, 2020. This was the Tuesday after labour day and I decided to take a vacation day so I could do some Lakewatching and it did not regret it in the slightest! The day had already been phenomenal, 20 Jaegers offshore both Parasitic and Long-tailed, a pile of Sabine Gulls and even some Black Tern! This was exactly what I was hoping for! That's when it happened. I'd been standing with some fellow younger birders when one of them thought they had their eyes on a bird they called a Jaeger close to the Wave Tower (a km out from the lookout) this was closer than most of the birds have been so we all scanned over to it, then he yelled nevermind, Cormorant, but then a few of us were thinking "isn't it a bit too white?" As a matter of fact, it was too white, because it wasn't a cormorant at all, it was a BROWN BOOBY!!!
To give you a little background of why this is such a big, this bird is usually a tropical bird, hunting for flying fish in the Caribbean or along the southeastern coast. Why in the hell is it over 700 kilometres inland??? Well, the best guess is it got pushed this direction after a Hurricane in the south and some real erratic winds. This was only the second time this bird has EVER been reported in Ontario and the first time in Hamilton. And I was there to witness it! This is a moment I will never forget till the day I die!
I hope that stops anyone from asking why I bird a lot, right there, the rush of finding those birds that just wow you, even if they're a common bird. We are onto day 13 now with the bird still coming back, and the whole province has been on the edge of its seat to see how long we get pleasured with it's presence!
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