Week 2 - Limpkin Along!

Just a quick note about the Bird List on the blog:  This is my list of birds seen, Jerry and I already have a few different birds seen as we are not always joined at the hip!  Hopefully, it will all work out as the year goes and we will end up with the same number unless one of those misses is a rarity.  Birds with the asterisk are the rarities.  HO means heard only and those will be taken off as we get other sightings where we see the bird.  

I'm also working on the photo gallery for all the pics of the birds we have seen and will add better photos as we get them. White-out conditions, overcast days do not make for the best photography. I'll add that gallery in the next week or so. It's taking some time to set up.

January 8, 5:00am the alarm went off and we are out of bed and the house by 5:33.  The Limpkin, a species rarely seen north of Florida was re-found in Wheatley Provincial Park after not being seen since December 26. A birder used a thermal imaging scope to find it Jan 7 late in the day and this is one of those mega-rarities that everyone wants for their Big Years.  We were the first to arrive and did not see it in the creek by the road and were not sure how far to walk in - we didn't want to flush the bird, but within minutes birders arrived and Rick (from Pelee) quickly showed us where it had been when he saw it the night before and THERE IT WAS!

It looked in pretty good shape and after a few minutes to take some pics and video we left it, not wanting to over stress it. There were bound to be more birders arriving all day to see this mega rarity. A fantastic start to Week 2!  The rest of the week slowed down with Jerry having some minor surgery and some nasty weather keeping us close to home for a few days.  We managed to add 14 more species this week including our first two owls, a Short-eared Owl seen at dusk hunting a field in Haldimand County, and a Long-eared Owl on a private site in Brant County. 

There are 10 Owl species in Ontario with 7 seen regularly in the south and 3 seen in the North. Most years we will just have Heard Only reports of some of the owls but this year we would like to get pics so we will be trying to see as many of the species as possible.  Owls are much sought after by birders and photographers and there has been much discussion as to how we keep the birds safe from the few unethical people who do not consider the birds when viewing or photographing. Many owls are considered sensitive species now to protect them and the sightings just do not show up publicly for anyone to see, our Discord chat group does not allow owl postings, nor does Ontario Birds FBook Group. Seeing an owl is a fantastic experience but we make sure that we keep a long distance, spend as little time as possible and do not divulge locations especially of nesting owls until after the breeding season. Our focus for the next week is more owls, a few ducks we are missing and then I think the end of the week, weather permitting, we will be heading up north for our first trip to Algonquin. I expect that we will only add 1-2 birds per day going forward until Algonquin. My goal was to get 100 species by the end of February and I should hit that target with the Northern trip and the local owls and ducks.

Week 2   1 rarity, 2 owl species, 14 species added  91(E) 91(J) species seen

UPDATE! On Sunday January 14 a few people captured the Limpkin and took it to a Wildlife Rehab. There are mixed opinions, those birders that believe in "nature taking its course" and those birders that believe we should try to "save" everything. It was no doubt in stress with the extreme cold and its food source (snails) frozen over and would have likely perished in the next day or so but it likely faces a stressful rehab of trying to be force fed and end up having to be euthanized in care.  No easy answers...I'll keep you posted if I hear more.

Started with a whimper and ended with a triumph

 Finally! It has begun...The goal for the first week was to chase any and all rarities. For the last month I have been following rarities in the province and hoping that some of them would remain into the New Year. Most rarities at this time of year end up perishing when snow and cold arrive but the milder weather has meant a few have managed to stick around. We ended up deciding to start our year in Ottawa trying for a Western Tanager that has been here since Dec 15. Then try for 4 other rarities along the route home. The best twitching strategy is to be at the spot at first light. Except the bird wasn't, and after 2 1/2 hrs standing in the cold we  decided to try for the rest of the rarities. The bird showed up 40 minutes later!  Lesson learned - leave more time and stick it out until the bird shows or it gets dark. LOL. We also dipped (missed) our second rarity but knew of a second bird at Pelee so didn't waste too much time but by then we only had time to stop for one more before dark.  At 4:30, with light fading fast and a run/walk down a 2km beach on Lake Ontario I saw a Barrow's Goldeneye in the scope. There was much frivolity! Well, a high five and a frozen smile! Did I mention it was cold?

While it was not the stellar start to the New Year, we took away some lessons and things got better on our second day as we headed to Pelee National Park for a Townsend's Solitaire, which was re-found by a birder so a small group of us enjoyed watching it feed on the blue berries on cedar bushes. After spending some time at the Tip in gale force winds we headed to Erieau for a Harlequin Duck. The wind was stronger and the waves were crashing along the pier but Jerry braved the elements to get as close as he could to get pics of the tiny duck diving beside the concrete pier. Did I mention it was cold?

Day 2 - 2 rarities and one semi-rare and 56 species seen. We next headed to Brampton for a Ross's Goose and then Colonel Sam Smith Park in Toronto for a King Eider and an Eared Grebe. Got 2 of the 3 as the Eared Grebe has not been seen for a few days.

The following day found us at the London Landfill where we played one of these things is not like the other 2,000 and really thought we had found the one Slaty-backed Gull among all those gulls. Maybe lack of sleep, covid, or just our inexperience led us to celebrate instead of grabbing a scope and really looking at the distant gull because once the ebird reviewer looked at our pics he gave us the thumbs down. Ugggg! Classic newbie mistake!  We have promised each other that going forward when we think we have a rarity one of us will say the code word "Slaty" to remind ourselves to check and double check and check again.

We tried for the Pacific Loon and Western Grebe in Hamilton twice more this week and did I mention it was cold? LOL. Both of us felt we saw the loon in very rough water for seconds but just not good enough looks for us to be 100% confident that is what we saw. There is also a Red-throated Loon being seen and they are similar enough at long distances to us that we want to be sure of what we have seen. We even had some time to spend a few hours with our grandkids feeding the birds at LaSalle.

Saturday we decided after 6 days driving and birding we needed a day off. We still added 2 common species, one  at our feeder and the other at a boardwalk nearby, a Tufted Titmouse (that is a bird not a mouse).  The last day of the week we headed into Hamilton again ever hopeful for calm water and IT WAS! LIKE GLASS! Within minutes we had great looks at what was definitely a Western Grebe and close enough to even get pictures. We managed to see a Red-throated Loon but quite a distance out and then on the advice of another birder we headed into Hamilton to look for the Loon from further along the bay. The Pacific Loon was THERE!  We have tried multiple times for this bird so it was great to finally catch up with it and we still had a couple of hours before Benson's hockey game so we chased down a very out of season Orange-crowned Warbler at Princess Point. Both Jerry and I saw it at different times as it flew across the tops of the grass but did not get great views.  Oh and Jerry saw a Brown Creeper that I did not so we end week one with HIM AHEAD OF ME BY ONE BIRD!!!  I'll get a Creeper in the next day or so but SHEESH! LOL. Still, a triumphant end to a long, very cold and windy week.

Week 1  3 rarities, 8 semi-rare and a total of 77(E) 78(J) species seen. 

BREAKING NEWS!!! The Limpkin (a Florida bird) was refound at 4:00.  We will be there at first light to try and refind it!

2023 Brant County Big Year 200

 

Brant County Big Year 209(Ellen) 210(Jerry)

In 2022 I ended the year with 199 species seen in Brant County, and Jerry managed to get 200.  Did I mention I am competitive? and it bothered me, a teeny bit. I could easily have got the extra bird but I was lazy and let him go out birding many times while I sat on the couch. He also managed to be 1 bird ahead of me in Ontario and Canada (a Louisiana Waterthrush he saw at Pelee and it was gone by the time I got bins on it) so I vowed it would not happen again. I would commit to getting out to bird every time he did, become his shadow, and I would get 200 in the County in 2023.  

Normally we would start the new year on Lake Ontario ticking all the wintering ducks but this year we stuck in Brant County and tried to see all the wintering birds we could.  By the end of February we had 70 species, including sightings and pictures of Long-eared, Barred, and Eastern Screech Owls, all seen in an eight day period.

And to be clear, we didn't find the birds, we were told and shown where they were by other birders.  You always will depend on the kindness of other birders to help you out, even if you are actively competing with each other. The birders in Brant always help each other even while we battle for those top spots.

Our 100th species came on April 5, a Vesper Sparrow freshly arrived from the South to set up nesting for the summer. We took two weeks to head to Florida the end of April to mop up some birds we missed on previous trips. May is the height of migration and the birds arrive fast and furious, despite still spending some time at Pelee we managed to be at 184 by the end of May.

The birding slows in the summer, nesting birds are quieter, migration is over, the heat of July means quiet forests. We added only 6 birds in June AND July. August usually brings the shorebirds but this summer was wet and lots of rain meant the ponds that are normally almost dry for the shorebirds still had high water and so only 4 birds were added in August as the usual shorebirds passed by Brant County. Highlights from the summer were a very rare Henslow's Sparrow singing in a Conservation area close by.  Only a few birders were made aware of this bird so as not to disturb it.  A quick evening chase after a text from a fellow birder netted us a Black Tern, seen for only a few minutes before it faded away into the twilight.

By August I had a list of the possible species I could still get and we started to focus on those birds, a few I had missed in the spring and a few would arrive through Fall migration.  We were trying to bird every day for at least a few hours. I was at 194 after the Black Tern. Only 6 to go.  The first two weeks of September yielded 5 more and suddenly I was at 199. I knew there were still many more possible species I would see, but what bird would be 200? On September 27 we headed to Brant Waterworks Park, a lovely trail system that takes hours to loop the 8kms.  And there it was way back off the trail but totally identifiable - Blue-headed Vireo!  Number 200 and, as it happens, one of my favourite species. Jerry could not get a picture but this is a Blue-headed Vireo from another sighting.

Fifteen minutes later Jerry spotted something in the underbrush, had his camera up and he said, Gray-cheeked Thrush. It was the other bird I was hoping to get, I quickly got bins on the area and saw movement after a bit but it was a Swainson's Thrush. These two species are not an easy ID. When we first started birding we spent hours agonizing over which was which. We are much better now and more confident and Jerry is sure he had a Gray-cheeked. I spent many minutes, sifting through numerous birds, there was one that was a possibility but I could not be sure with the bird staying in the shadows. Suddenly we were back in the same situation as last year, despite being his shadow, he was ahead of me by 1 bird, AGAIN. But this time, I was not bothered(as much), I had my 200 birds!  

This is where the honour system in birding plays a role. I could have just added Gray-cheeked too, I was standing right beside him, but I really didn't see it. Each birder has to decide what they are comfortable doing or allowing on their list. I want to see the bird, hopefully enough to ID what it was, or hear it and recognize the song. If I had seen the bird fly away and Jerry said that was a Gray-cheeked I would have probably added it, but not seeing which bird he had seen meant I was not going to add it. Jerry and I birding together is a double-check for most things we see.  We can question each other and we still, both of us, get excited and make wrong ID's but usually with two people the chances are less.

I added another 5 birds in October and one nice rarity, a White-winged Crossbill in November moving the needle to 206 for me and 207 for Jerry. Now there were less possibilities left as November moved to December. I missed a Golden Eagle during their migration, I missed a rare Red Phalarope, kept dipping (missing) on a Northern Shrike although we checked out numerous ebird sightings of them and drove areas multiple times where we have seen them in the past. December 17 and not a bird had been added since November 5.  A birding slump I hoped would not continue into the new year.

A Christmas Miracle occurred and the slump was broken when we added Red Crossbill to our lists on Christmas morning.  It was our 3rd attempt to see the birds, a rarity from the boreal forests north of us.  There were about 20 calling and feeding in the spruce trees at a small Conservation spot just around the corner from home so we did not even have to travel far. Exciting and the slump was over!

On Boxing Day we headed out in the drizzle for what felt like our 20th attempt at a Northern Shrike.  We visited a site 10 minutes from home where there have been a number of reports and where we have looked a few times with no luck.  As we headed into the field Jerry spotted it at the top of a bare tree, its normal behavior as it hunts small birds and mice, and just like that, two birds added in two days! There were a few high fives and woo-hoo's happening!  On December 28 a report of a Little Gull hit the Discord channel for Brant and we went to have a look, we found the birds easily in a field with hundreds of gulls but sadly they were technically in Haldimand County.  We were standing on the road that divides Brant County and Haldimand.  Once again the ethics of birding came into play and we counted them for Haldimand, not Brant County. I thought that might be the end for sightings but on the 29th a Long-tailed Duck was found and we saw it on the 30th to put us finally at 209 and 210.

Brant county had 231 species seen this year with a tie for top birder between Bill Lamond and Jason Pizzey with 221, Jerry in second with 210, and myself and Jenny Pizzey in 3rd with 209. We saw 90% of the birds seen in 2023. I'm well satisfied with that number.  Onto Ontario and 300.

A Trio of Big Years - the numbers

Ovenbird

I have been intrigued with the idea of Big Years since first reading and then seeing the movie The Big Year, starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson way back.  A big year is a personal challenge among birders to identify as many species of birds by sight or sound in a single calendar year and a certain geographic area. It is on the honour system so many birders try to capture a picture of all the birds they see for irrefutable proof.  I'm naturally competitive and it has a crazy kind of appeal BUT I know trying to break records would not be good for my mental and physical health.  The stress I would put myself under would no doubt end in someone's death LOL and not necessarily my own!  Still many birders choose not to try for the records and to just compete against themselves with arbitrary rules. So, early this year I came up with an idea, three consecutive Big Years of 200, 300 and 400.  Two hundred species seen in Brant County in year 1, three hundred species seen in Ontario in year 2 and four hundred species seen in Canada in year 3. Crazy huh?  But cool, right?  They say when you are retired you need to have goals!

White-crowned Sparrow

Back in 2013 when we first started listing, only 187 species of birds were seen in Brant County and the highest ebirder had only 113 species!  There are not a lot of birders in Brant County so those of us here have taken on the mission to bird more in the county. It was not until 2016 that 206 species were seen in the county and the top birder was still only seeing 164.  Finally in 2020 there were 234 species seen with 3 birders over 200 and then in 2021 Bill Lamond saw 226 out of the 237 birds seen!  Since then there are usually 4-5 birders that manage to hit the 200 mark. Not super hard, but it requires a lot of days birding, in a small geographic area and you have to chase rarities in order to hit the 200.  I have seen over 200 species this year and I'll tell that story in another blog...

Eastern Screech Owl

In Ontario there is a large population of birders (thousands) who are super keen and 300 species is the benchmark for many Big Years. In a given year there are around 370 species seen in Ontario and most years 10-12 people hit 300. In 2022 many people decided to do Big Years (COVID ended) so there were a record 21 people over 300 and a new record set of 359 species seen by Kiah Jasper. This year the numbers are back to the norm with 12 birders hitting the 300 mark so far and the top birder seeing 328 species so far. 

You would think that if I can get 300 in Ontario then 400 across all of Canada should be easy but the larger the geographic area the harder to physically get to the birds. Plus, the birds you need, inevitably, are seen in the other provinces at the same time so you have to make decisions about when to hit spring migration in BC without missing too much of spring migration in Ontario. I'm also not planning on getting on planes to chase a rare bird in BC only to hear of another out in Newfoundland so 400 will be a real challenge with just driving across Canada to the east and west.  In Canada, 530 species are usually seen and in most years only 1-4 people manage to cross the 400 mark. Currently an astonishing new record is being set by Bruce DiLabio with 480 species seen this year and he is the only birder over 400. The previous record was 457!  It's a vast territory to cover and will be the most challenging year for sure.

My previous best numbers for these three locations happened in 2022 because we travelled out west and birded along the way.

Brant County 199 species 

Ontario 285 species 

Canada 370 species 

See, I've been close, 200,300,400 are completely doable with lots of planning and good birding karma coming back to us.

Stay tuned...we start January 1!