Switching to Wix

 Hi everyone! 

Just less than 2 years ago I created this blog. For a little while now I've been thinking about switching to Wix and the last few weeks I've been working on getting the new blog up and running. Well, the time is here! You can all find my new blog (under the same name) @ https://bassindalebirding.wixsite.com/mysite. 

I hope to see you all there! 

Alcid Fever

 It was quite the day on Saturday! Friday (October 29) reports started rolling in of Alcids flying around Lake Ontario between Whitby and Niagara all day long! With a major case of FOMO, I decided to check Windy.com and low and behold the forecast had NE winds the next day too, yes! This could mean more migrating pelagic birds! 

So, me being as excited as I was decided to be at Lakeland for 10:00 AM, scope in hand and camera slung around my shoulder just in case. 

When I got there I am not joking there were probably 30-40 people lined up behind The Lakeview scopes/cameras at the ready. According to some reports I had missed out on 2 Black-legged Kittiwakes (DAMN) but the day was still young and I expected at least a little more movement through the day. Man, was I wrong... through the first 2-2.5 hours the best bird I managed to get on was a Common Loon flying strong just above the waves past the wave tower. This was going to be a long, cold day. 

Not long after noon a little bit of action starts to pick up, people yelling out at an Iceland Gull and some Great Black-backs on the horizon, a little more interesting... then all I hear from the large group is "ALCID!" Every person at that stakeout swivelled their scopes and low and behold my first Alcid! The striking difference between the jet black top and the white bottom of the bird was breathtaking even from the distance I was. I swore I got flashes of white from under the wings which suggested Razorbill but I didn't feel confident enough to call it for certain. Bobbing above and below the horizon line I eventually lost it and never saw the bird again. That got my heart pumping! 

Over and over people were calling alcids but I couldn't manage to get my scope on them, the screams were non-descript and muffled with the large group. A lot of others got on a bird that was confirmed as a Razorbill but unfortunately I and a group of others standing by me were lost in their description, "right of the four gulls" they said. But, here's the thing, this is Lake Ontario, WHAT FOUR GULLS? When we finally got on it, we decided the bird was a female Long-tailed Duck (which I know its hard to believe but in our defence, the waves were very high and we didn't get real good looks at the bird until someone snapped a photo). And by the time we had deduced the bird wasn't a Razorbill the actual Razorbill had flown off. 

I stayed for another hour and a half two hours past then but I never managed to get my eyes on another Alcid. Not only alcids but even Black-legged Kittiwakes were non-existent through the remainder of the day (after the 2 juveniles in the morning) and not a single Jaeger was reported that day to my knowledge. 

All in all, even though I was unable to get on any new life/year birds it was still nice to get out and actually lakewatch, it was only the 2nd time I was able to get out there this year. Hopefully, some of you got on the alcids! 

What's up with me? Recent findings and good birds

Ah, gotta love being in your mid-20s and moving a mile a minute! Haven't really had much going on bird-wise in the last little while, just out of my move and work has been busy! Not to mention the weather has been the next level of crap! 

Anyhow, I still got some good sightings September only added 8 species for me and so far October hasn't added a single species to my list. The latest include a Long-billed Dowitcher that I chased with Liam, and it counts as the first for my HSA birds! Was a little hectic of a find. Took a lot of scoping and some real muddy crappy conditions. I finally managed to locate the bird just before it flew, but Liam initially missed it. After another 15-20 mins of searching, he finally relocated the bird and got some decent photos considering the distance! This was a lifer for him and only my 4th individual!  

The others were a pair of Hudsonian Godwit and a White-rumped Sandpiper found along Haldibrook Road, unfortunately, they were not on the Haldimand side of the road! The White-rumped was long-awaited, I could not believe I hadn't seen it yet for the year! 

Now more recently I've started to get some banding done! This nabbed me my FOY Philadelphia Vireo and a Swainson's and Gray-cheeked Thrush in the same day so great comparison! 

Finally, we got ear of a Yellow-throated Warbler in Bronte Bluffs Park, not a big park but it would still be a bit of a search for it! After running into some familiar faces we got on the warbler and counts as my first for Ontario! 

Yellow-throated Warbler (thanks Liam for the picture), it was flitting up in the treetops but was still a great bird! ~Halton ON

Ruby-crowned Kinglet, this little guy was pretty easy to take out of the net, always forget how tiny they really are! ~ Haldimand ON

Lovely Hermit Thrush completed the migrant Catharus thrush trifecta for the fall ~ Haldimand ON

Really bright Philadelphia Vireo, the first one I've ever banded! ~ Haldimand ON

Yellow-rumped Warbler ~ Haldimand ON

Gray-cheeked Thrush ~ Haldimand ON

Blackpoll Warbler ~ Haldimand ON

Juv Male Indigo Bunting ~ Haldimand ON

Swainson's Thrush ~ Haldimand ON

Blackburnian Warbler ~ Haldimand ON

Big Move

 After a brief hiatus from the blog, I am going to get back into it! 

At the start of September, I made a big change to my life. I moved to Hamilton! This not only brings me closer to some of the birdiest areas around but some of the greatest birders I've ever met. With roughly 3 weeks already here I feel great and connected with the birding world around me. 

Some of the highlights since I moved include: 

1. Buff-breasted Sandpiper 
2. American Golden-Plover
3. Hudsonian Godwit
4. White-rumped Sandpiper

All of these species were found on Haldibrook Rd just north of Caledonia and put me within 7 species of last year's total tally of 161 species found in Ontario. With very little lakewatching done so far this year I really hope the winds start to get good again soon! 

Hudsonian Godwit - two were very close! very fun FOY

White-rumped Sandpiper - Another great bird, be it later than I usually get my FOY

Good weekend, including my first Whip-poor-will!

The countdown to my Rondeau trip starts today, 2 more nights! This will give my year list a huge boost! 

But, this weekend was nothing to be shy about, it started Friday by getting a Cerulean Warbler that has been hanging around Dundurn Castle almost all week. This followed an amazing sighting of an Eastern Whip-poor-will in Paletta! My first, putting my Ontario life list at 281! It sat real nice and still and I got some amazing pictures! 

On Saturday I went down to Long Point with a friend of mine. She and I managed to round up about 50 species which is a low count, unfortunately. I did manage to find my first Magnolia Warbler of the year! I also had a flyover Black-bellied Plover! This is actually the earliest black-belly I've seen, was very cool! 

Sunday saw me patch birding, weaving around the rain I started later than I would have liked, but this stopped nothing! I managed 69 species at Selkirk Provincial Park including an early Wilson's Warbler! I also found yet another Vesper Sparrow, this has been a pretty good year for Vespers in my patch. 

The mudflats still persist in Selkirk which managed again 5 Lesser Yellow Legs, 2 Greater Yellowlegs, and my first Solitary Sandpiper of the year! 

My first Eastern Whip-poor-will! 

This male Cerulean Warbler hung around Dundurn for a few days so I decided to get some so-so pics of it! 

First Solitary Sandpiper of the year, and a first for me in Selkirk PP! 

Yet another Vesper Sparrow hanging around Selkirk PP! 

The White-crowned Sparrows are on their way back through, not in huge numbers yet but soon! 

2 Lifers in 3 days

    This past week was the week I was able to get out and go birding outside of my property after my positive result. With mask in hand and bins strapped along my shoulders, I ventured out to chase some rarities for the first time in about 3 weeks. 

    It started with a report out of Bronte Beach Park from a great local birder. Although seemingly annual the last couple of years I have never ventured out to see one, a Western Grebe. This would be a crazy good bird and my 293rd species on my life list if I got it. So, that evening after work I threw the scope in the back of my Escape and headed out to Oakville. 

    I talked to Liam before I got out since he had already been out to see it, he mentioned that if I just wanted to see it that going up the stairs to see it would be the best view over the whole park. He was not joking, a great view of the whole Bronte Harbour! With the help of the original observer, I finally got on it, but this was not satisfying enough to me! It was getting fairly close to the other side of the park beside an accessible Lighthouse. After waiting for my friend Colleen we both headed down there to try to get some photos of the crazy cool bird. We also listened right and left for Fish Crow as they've been reported in the area as well. No luck on that, unfortunately, but after running into a couple other acquaintances and getting so decent photos of the Western Grebe I felt satisfied with my first outing in a while! Not to mention I got my first Red-necked Grebe of the year! 

There were about 9 Red-necked Grebes I could count in the immediate vicinity of the Western which was a long-waiting first of the year for me! 

The bright white neck and yellow bill really stick out on this Western Grebe, just awaiting the next time one pops up around here! 

Couldn't help but take like 30 pics of this guy, definitely a memorable lifer! 

The second lifer of the year came to me on a trip down to Long Point from Saturday. Not going to lie, I'd never really been around Old Cut during their banding season so it was cool to see all the birds they even had around the small property that the banding station sat on! I got 6 FOYs! After missing my target bird there I decided to pop down to Big Creek NWA, definitely worth a look as I happened upon 6 Pied-billed Grebes, this marked the last of the common Southern Ontario grebes for my year list. Also added a few Blue-winged Teal and Forster's Terns along the causeway. After I decided to try one more time for my target at the "New" Provincial Park. I took out the scope and searched around the ducks to find it, and boy did I get it! Eurasian Wigeon, and the hybrid EurasianXAmerican Wigeon that had been hanging around, about 2 scope diameters away from each other. That was so cool! Even though they were so far from one another it was lifer #294! Inching ever so closer to 300! 

Even though it isn't a Eurasian Wigeon (which I could not get pics of) I did see my first Purple Martin of the year! 

Tree Swallows hanging out on the boxes in Old Cut already! 

Birding with COVID-19

     For those unaware, I got a positive result from my COVID-19 test that I took on the 23rd of March. Just for everyone's peace of mind, we are all good now! 

    Let me get into how this worked for my birding. 

    This meant me having to stick to my family property, luckily for me my family has a small wetland across the road from my house. This meant I could still go out and not worry about getting others sick too! To top it off I was still able to grab 3 FOYs! 

The first was a Fox Sparrow, not super rare and definitely expected this time of year, and I almost missed seeing it! I was walking down the first trail to get to the wetland and there is a little trail that looks out over the field to the north (which happens to be great for Savannah Sparrow all summer long) I just happened to hear a Black-capped Chickadee call and by sheer instinct, I looked over, in the small bush beside it I see a rusty coloured sparrow, Fox! That happened to be my 114th species for the year. 

The second happened just a few minutes after the Fox Sparrow. I was walking along the east side which was in a field, I can hear singing Song Sparrow and Golden-crowned Kinglets all around, then I hear an odd call, familiar, but different. This little bird happened to be a Vesper Sparrow! I unfortunately never got eyes on the bird, but will not be the last time I'll see one this year, so maybe that one will be photogenic. 

The third was definitely a complete fluke. I had been feeling like crap all day so I wasn't planning on going out to the wetland that day. I look out to my feeders and I got my yard first Rusty Blackbird! The cool blackbird was getting pestered by a Red-wing for the seeds it was around, I got some good looks and then by the time I thought, grab the camera, it took off. Guess that's how it goes for birding sometimes! 

All in all, I would like to mention, I had it and even though I got through it I was still down and out for a few days, and I am young and healthy otherwise. This definitely is not something to brush off. 

Please everyone stay safe! 

Even though I didn't get any pictures of the birds I saw for FOYs, here are a couple quarantine photos from my yard, including my first (surprisingly) yard Eastern Phoebe! 

Winter Birding Change of Heart

It wasn't too long ago that winter birding seemed like a dead-zone for me. Very little bird activity and the birds I did get were in low numbers and seemed slow and tiresome to search for. Of course, this was a time when I could not travel even to other parts of the province and I was young and restless, wanting the birds to come to me. But, as I have grown so has my patience and my abilities in birding to find these little pockets of birds. 

Well, this year I knew it was going to be different, and not only for the finch irruption in 2020, but this year I felt more motivated to get out birding and count all the birds I can possibly see anywhere I was. With this, I have demolished my counts for a lot of birds last year in 2 months...

January started off slow, the lock-down made it very hard to get out of Haldimand, me airing on the side of caution after hearing people getting fined for not following the guidelines. The one thing that was very good was the number of raptors. I recorded 9 species of birds of prey in 10 days, with lots of Rough-legged Hawks and Kestrels around patrolling the fields. After this I went on my first twitch of the year, for a Townsend's Solitaire in Niagara, which I dipped on really badly, I did, however, find the Red-headed Woodpecker, which knocks my previous FOY record for this species out of the water by 3-4 months. 

I ended the month with 95 species, just short of my goal of 100. I also added 1 lifer in January with spotting my first Hoary Redpoll! With the irruption, more and more finches are being accessible to birders in Southern Ontario, so this was a long-overdue bird for me, and only the 4th record for Haldimand County on eBird. 

February was much easier for me to get around, restrictions dropped and birds still hanging around. Early on I didn't get too many new birds, but the ball rolled with an oddly late Shoveler and moved onto a lot of birds coming out of my few trips to Long Point. A couple field birds in Savannah Sparrow and Eastern Meadowlark, and grabbing a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Hermit Thrush at Old Cut. These are all great winter birds, no doubt, but the best trip was going out to London, Liam Thorne came along with me on this trip and we managed to muster up 5 local rarities, 2 Southern Ontario rarities, and 1 Provincial rarity (Local: Green-winged Teal, Greater Scaup, American Coot, Ruddy Duck, and Savannah Sparrow. S.O: Hoary Redpoll, and Harlequin Duck. Prov: Spotted Towhee). We also swung by Long Point on the way back and I picked up my first American Wigeon for the year, an early Killdeer, and ticked Golden Eagle off early with a scoped view of one flying over Lakeshore Rd. 

Ending the month with 15 new species I ended up county 110 species in just under 60 days and a personal record for me in the first 2 months of the year! I also grabbed 3 lifers this month; Gray Partridge, Spotted Towhee, and Harlequin Duck! 

I got a lot of great responses from my post about summing up my last year, so I'd like to nod to that at the end of March, do kind of a 3 month summary of where the numbers look compared to last year. If you would like to see more specific content including the stats like that just let me know via social media @bassindalebirding on Instagram or you can email me here: bassindalecody@gmail.com. I really appreciate the input of others! 

This clean-rumped, smooshed-faced Redpoll was my first Photographed Hoary! - Elgin, ON

Although not the greatest shot, these were my first Gray Partridge - Brant, ON

Super cool bird on such a small river! - Middlesex, ON

This Hermit Thrush sat nicely on a bunch of sumac - Norfolk, ON

Even the stick in the way can't hide the IDing feature of this woodpecker - Niagara, ON

So many of these little sparrows around this winter - Middlesex, ON

Little ways off course it seems, this Spotted Towhee may need a map...- Middlesex, ON

Almost 275

A few weeks ago was quite interesting for the Niagara Region. Found the week before, a local birder found a Townsend's Solitaire and at least a pair of Red-headed Woodpecker in one spot around Pelham! This is amazing and of course, with me being at 274 species of bird seen in Ontario, I went to look for the Solitaire to make it number 275! 

I decided the Thursday before that I would go and look for the bird on Saturday morning, and from what I was told it was an easy find. I figured I'd be there for 45 mins to an hour max, well, that was not what happened! 

When I got there there were about 15 people there already, including a few familiar faces. That being said, I talked to one of the birders I knew there and he said the bird had not shown up yet. With that being the case, he and I decided to look for the Woodpecker, which did not take long.

With the number of eyes, it took a total of about 15 minutes for someone to find it and me to snap some okay photos. 

Typically not wintering birds, Red-headed Woodpeckers are always a treat! 

After the Red-head not too many birds showed up. A couple of Red-breasted Nuthatches showed themselves which surprisingly was my first of the year, but the remainder of the trip, just one big oof...

At first, I was hopeful, but after about 2 hours, my hope faded into doubt. The Solitaire has not been found since the Friday before I showed up (to my knowledge). The landowner believes it was scared off by all of the birders, which could be possible. Another possibility is that it was eaten by the Cooper's Hawk that was hanging around the area. Both good hypotheses, but I guess we will never know! 

Congrats to all of those who got out for it! Maybe I can get out sooner next time! 

Finalizing 2020

 So as some of you know, last year I kept a tally of the birds I see in one year month by month with totals of species seen and individuals. Well, I decided to do it again in 2020, but this year with eBird making a change to their summarize observations (i.e. removing it altogether) it has taken me a little longer than usual to complete this last year, I also moved it over to Google Docs rather than an excel sheet so there was a little getting used to there! 

This year I decided to do some pie charts as well to visualize the data, and share what birds made it over 1000 birds seen! 

I get asked why I do this from time to time, and it's so I can see my total birds seen and how many I saw of a certain species and when on a quick and easy look instead of the long way of going through every bird in eBird. I also like displaying my sightings with charts to represent the birds I've seen and like going back through the year on what good times I've had in the last year (even this year with COVID).

This data is also going to go into a spreadsheet with my totals for 5 and 10-year intervals to see just how many species and individuals I've seen in that time period, so keep an eye out for that in my 2025 and 2030 year-end posts! 

In 2020 I amassed 262 species and counted 135,454 individual birds! A personal high on both fronts! 

Here are the top 5 species I saw in 2020: 

1. Number 1 at a crazy number was Double-crested Cormorant at a total of 21,307 individual birds! This is mostly due to monitoring the massive colony off the coast of Rock Point PP which can number over 2,000 individuals at 1 time! 
2. Not really a surprise for a Southern Ontario birder like myself, number 2 was Canada Goose at a total of 13,794 birds! I expect to surpass this in 2021. 
3. Number 3 follows suit with the water-bird theme here, a really common bird off the coast of Lake Ontario every winter, Long-tailed Duck at a count of 13,128 birds. 
4. Taking away from the water birds this is the only invasive species on the list, European Starling, with a count of 10,448 birds, which does not seem very big and will probably be bigger in 2021 with the Breeding Bird Atlas keeping more on the look for any breeding birds in my square. 
5. Finally, we dip back into the waterfowl for #5 with Red-breasted Merganser with a count of 7,496 individuals! This is one I never expected to reach the top 5, possibly top 10 but the top 5 is exceptional! 

These birds made up just less than 50% of all the birds I saw in 2020, and 16 other species topped 1000 individual birds seen each which included: 

1. Red-winged Blackbird (6,940)
2. Ring-billed Gull (6,470)
3. Mallard (4,509)
4. Common Grackle (3,412)
5. Greater Scaup (3,313)
6. Redhead (2,743)
7. Bonaparte's Gull (2,449)
8. Common Goldeneye (2,213)
9. Tree Swallow (1,689)
10. American Robin (1,501)
11. Bufflehead (1,349)
12. White-winged Scoter (1,318)
13. Surf Scoter (1,097)
14. American Goldfinch (1,085)
15. Song Sparrow (1,013)
16. Killdeer (1,001)

Some of these birds may change spots in 2021, which I'm excited to see what ones fit in where within the next year!

Chart showing the Total Species I saw for each month in 2020 (p.s. I've already eclipsed January's total from 2020 this year). 

Chart showing the Total Individual birds I saw for each month in 2020 (p.s. I've already eclipsed January's total from 2020 this year). 

Starting the year off Strong!

 Ah COVID-19, the talk of the decade and it's only 2021. Now we are in the second wave, the worst part of any pandemic. And it shows, over 3000 cases a day in Ontario alone, even the numbers in the Haldimand/Norfolk area have reached almost 200 cases, and with this, our world has come to a lockdown, it's been 24 days, and since then I haven't left Haldimand County besides work. It has actually been quite the year all considered. 

Already topping my 2020 January count within less than 2 weeks! This includes my first warbler of the year! If anyone remembers last year, my first warbler did not come until almost 5 months from now! It was a Yellow-rumped Warbler that has been hanging around on the Rotary Riverside Trail in Caledonia. Reported by a few acquaintances of mine (and of course someone I've been birding with for years). 

I have a couple of good birds for the year, including 2 Snowy Owls, 2 Short-eared Owls, and 4 Rough-legged Hawks! 

Northern Mockingbird posing really well for me, always a couple at Taquanyah! 

Found this girl driving around for Snow Buntings, but got this surprise! (thought she was a piece of ice at first)

One of my all-time favourite birds, a Brown Creeper! It was also one of the first birds I've ever banded! 

This far shot nabbed me my first Rough-legged Hawk photo! I don't think it turned out too bad. 

Even though this bird was in low light it's the best time to find them; Short-eared Owl! 

Welcome 2021! Goodbye 2020!

 2020... I don't think I need to tell you it sucked in pretty much every way. I want to emphasize, pretty much. It also set personal records for me with 261 species!!! This consisted of 36 lifers! Here are my top 5 of my favourites: 

1. Worm-eating Warbler - This bird is at the top where it should be! A first county record for Haldimand County and an amazing bird for anywhere in Ontario! Even though it was a one-day-wonder it was still an amazing find by me! 
2. Brown Booby - This rightfully is at #2, seabirds anywhere in Ontario (aside from Jaegers in Hamilton) are an insane bird to find but this bird was amazing and stayed for a long time! I personally went out to see it 4 times, including the second it was found! 
3. Barred Owl - This was a heard-only bird, but one of my all-time favourites from the year, and it could not have come on a better day, our Birdathon! 
4. Piping Plover - What a day that was! I will always remember going up to Wasaga early in the morning and sitting in the sand with little plovers running around by my feet! 
5. Prothonotary Warbler - these little guys were amazing to see! Even though they breed not too far from where I live I've never made the trip out. But, now that I did, I am going to go back every year! 

Now I'm hoping for 2021 to knock 2020 out of the water, and I'm already starting out really well! 

This is one of my all-time favourite shots from 2020, I've always loved shorebirds but Piping Plovers just might take the cake for the most amazing shorebirds I've ever seen! (10-Jul-2020)

Although it's not the best shot, it still shows how bright Prothonotary Warblers really are! They really fit the name Swamp Candle! (31-May-2020)

Definitely a record shot, nothing short of fuzzy, but you can see that this is a Brown Booby! One of the rarest birds to show up in Ontario this year! (only rivalled by the Variegated Flycatcher). (08-Sep-2020)