Winter Gulls

Glaucous Gull

Hannah & I took a drive today around Waterloo Region, looking for gulls in the vicinity of the Erb St. landfill and then further afield to Conestogo Lake Conservation Area, north of Waterloo. We spent a couple of hours examining the gulls in the vicinity of the landfill, and were able to find a number of interesting white-winged gulls mixed in with the more numerous Herring Gulls. Pictured to the right is an adult Glaucous Gull (one of nine Glaucous Gulls we saw, in several age categories).

Also present were two Iceland Gulls (first cycle), one Thayer's Gull (first cycle), and two Great Black-backed Gulls (one second[?] cycle, one adult). Looking at the richness of variation in the many Herring Gulls present was also interesting; different age classes, different sizes, individual variation in plumage and bill colour/shape. Overall it was a nice opportunity to study the gulls.

Rough-legged Hawk (dark morph)

Our drive to Conestogo Lake Conservation Area did not yield an abundance of bird sightings but we did see several Rough-legged Hawks, both dark and light morphs.

It was calm and peaceful out in the countryside. The sun was shining and it was not too cold.

We had a birthday dinner to attend, but on our way back to Waterloo there was a group of 11 Wild Turkeys right next to the side of the road. Most of them darted off when we slowed the car, but one posed nicely for a photo.

Wild Turkey

It is always nice to blend a day of birding with other activities, and since I had a gift certificate from Myriam for a kitchen store in St. Jacob's, we stopped in to see what kitchen tool I could buy. As a result I am the proud owner of a professional grade pepper mill with a lifetime warranty. Now I don't know how I ever lived my life without it.

King Eider - Port Weller

The weather in Ontario in January is rarely as nice as it was today. Sunny skies and above freezing temperatures made the conditions for winter birding extremely pleasant. The plan today was to travel to Niagara with several stops along the waterfront to scope out the waterfowl and whatever else might be around. We saw a nice variety including Trumpeter Swan, American Black Duck, Northern Shoveler, Canvasback, Redhead, Greater Scaup, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser and Red-breasted Merganser.

The plan also involved going after a drake King Eider that has been seen off & on for the last few weeks at Port Weller. This is the same location where Hannah & I got skunked looking for a juvenile Purple Gallinule last fall.

I had assumed that we would have to walk the lengthy trail out to the end of the canal, peeking in at various spots along the way. That turned out to be unnecessary since we immediately found the Eider amongst a raft of diving ducks in the canal directly adjacent to the parking area.

King Eider (Second-year Male)

King Eider is an arctic-nesting duck, and most spend the winter in the oceans off of Eastern Canada, New England and Alaska. A few are seen in Ontario each year, usually during the fall.

A very handsome duck indeed!

Mountain Bluebird - First Vagrant for 2012

January 2nd; my last day off. I was doing some grocery shopping and bit of birdwatching not far from home when what should hit my inbox but a message about a Mountain Bluebird only 10 minutes away! First reported to Wellbirds by Paul Kron and forwarded to Ontbirds by Josh Vandermeulen. Thanks guys!

I took a quick trip to see if I could locate the bird, and all I had to do was walk up to where the other 6 birders/photographers were already standing. It then began to snow rather heavily and the wind picked up, so I retreated for home.

Mountain Bluebird

It is a female bird, age uncertain. Mountain Bluebirds are cavity nesting birds that inhabit grasslands and open woodlands in the western half of North America. They overwinter in the southwestern United States south into Central America.

But I wasn't quite satisfied since Hannah was at work and had not seen it yet. After she arrived home we immediately took another trip to the spot where Bill Read and Bob Curry/Glenda Slessor were each using their cars as a blind from which to view the bird.

Mountain Bluebird

Hannah was able to get a good look before the light began to fade. Memories of our summer vacation to Washington State.

Postscript: Hannah's Mom was able to observe this bird the next day.

Great Grey Owl - Final Bird of 2011

This bird was first reported more than a week ago, but being a 3 hour trip from home it was not a priority until Hannah & I found ourselves with some free time on the final day of 2011.

Great Grey Owl

This owl was profiled two nights previously on the Windsor news, so we weren't surprised that a crowd had gathered by the time we arrived at about 10:15 a.m. Perhaps 50 observers stood by while the owl perched not far away on a branch above a creek. This was bird #269 for my Provincial year list, and my final new bird for the year.

To make things extra-worthwhile for Hannah, we stopped by Pelee Wings Nature Store and purchased the Swarovision EL binoculars that she has had her eye on. Well thank you, husband of the year!

Swarovski 10x42mm EL SwaroVision Binoculars

Hannah now owns the superior optics, but I still remain useful to her as a guide & driver.

Smew in Whitby Harbour

Talk about twitching. When this Smew was reported to Ontbirds on Boxing Day I could hardly sit still through the next day-and-a-half of family togetherness as I kept calculating when I could make the 90 minute trip to Whitby Harbour for this Palearctic mega-rarity!

Smew

Fortunately, on the morning of Dec. 28 Hannah & I were among the first to arrive and witness this amazing first-year male bird just feet away from the railing.

Smew is designated by the ABA as a Code-3 bird, meaning that it is rare but recorded annually in the ABA area, although most of those records come from Alaska. Within the Province of Ontario, Smew is the equivalent of a Code-5 accidental with only two previously accepted records. Smew are sometimes included in private waterfowl collections so there will no doubt be questions concerning the provenance of this particular individual. It will be interesting to see whether the OBRC accepts this as a naturally occurring bird. Fingers crossed!

And the afterword is that the bird went missing and was not present the next day, or since. Whew!

Slaty-backed Gull

Larophile extraordinaire, Kevin McLaughlin has been offering to go gull-watching with us on the Niagara River for a while now, and I have been threatening to take him up on that offer. So right in the middle of gull-watching prime time we met up at the Sir Adam Beck overlook where we started the morning off with a first-winter Franklin's Gull flying at the south side of the dam (a bird first reported to Ontbirds by Willie D'Anna on Nov. 13).

We then took a trip to the Queenston boat launch where we observed two Little Gulls amidst the hundreds of Bonaparte's Gulls, and then to the whirlpool where we saw the previously reported juvenile Black-legged Kittiwake.

At that point, with 9 gull species in the bag we would have been satisfied. Little did we know what was waiting for us at the control gates above the falls. We arrived with no other birders present and began scanning the hundreds of gulls on the breakwall and on the river. Kevin very quickly spotted a dark-mantled gull with what appeared to be dark smudging on the face and a thick white tertial crescent. Kevin could distinguish pink legs as well. I think Kevin was convinced all along, but when the bird flew in directly towards us and landed on the breakwall we got amazing up-close views of this great rarity! At this point we had alerted other birders via Ontbirds and the crowds had appeared.

Visible in the first photo is the face pattern and bright pink legs.

Slaty-backed Gull

While in this second photo you can see the broad white tertial crescent and large white edge of the folded secondary feathers.

Slaty-backed Gull

Slaty-backed Gull is designated as a Code-3 rarity for the ABA area but is considerably more scarce than that in Ontario. It breeds primarily in Siberia, but also in western Alaska. Hannah & I were blown away. Thanks Kevin for gull-watching with us and leading us to this fantastic life gull!