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!