Late April Rarities

The months from May through July are always my busiest of the year. As a birding guide and contract ecologist, my busy season coincides with when birds are the most active. Birding tours reach their peak in May and so I am out in the field ever day, either leading a tour or, on my days off, experiencing the rush of spring bird migration on my own or with close friends.

As the province of Ontario fills up with birds throughout the latter half of May, my work schedule shifts to include contract consulting work as an ecologist. The majority of my days are filled with morning breeding bird surveys, but I am also kept busy by completing botanical inventories and ecological land classification, frog surveys, snake surveys, bat surveys and more. If everything goes to plan, I am able to keep myself occupied with work every single day until sometime in mid-July, upon which the field work really drops off. Finally, after several very busy (but satisfying) months, I have a bit of time to breathe in July. That gives me a chance to take care of some long-neglected tasks, including catching up on blogging. And so here we are!

Wood Duck - Valley Inn, Burlington, Halton Region

My most recent post documented some of my early spring birding and helping adventures, both on tour and on my own, through the middle of April. It had been a productive few weeks and the birding continued to ramp up through the latter half of April. I managed to get out and chase a few rarities during this time. One of these birds was a Glossy Ibis that local birder Wendy Skirrow discovered on April 19 near the rifle range in Grimsby, Niagara Region. Ibises are rare in Ontario, though each year we see several records of Glossy and White-faced Ibis, and very rarely, a White Ibis appears. I had never seen a Glossy Ibis in Hamilton and so naturally I made my way down to Grimsby to scope out the Glossy that was happily feeding in a wet field next to some Mallards and Wood Ducks. Even though I've seen thousands of Glossy Ibises over the years around the world,  seeing one in my local county for the first time hits a little differently. 

Glossy Ibis - Grimsby, Niagara Region

On April 24 I led a birding tour in Hamilton, making stops in Burlington, Hamilton and Grimsby. It had been a great night of migration prior to the tour, and the trees were dripping with many newly-arrived migrants including a nice selection of early warblers - Palm, Yellow-rumped, Pine, and a surprise early Northern Parula. The sun was out and it was a gorgeous spring morning. The Wood Ducks at Valley Inn were looking particularly vibrant in the warm sunshine. 

Wood Duck - Valley Inn, Burlington, Halton Region

We wrapped up at 40 Mile Creek in Grimsby. This small park is located on the shores of Lake Ontario and the dense thickets and woodlot surrounding 40 Mile Creek often attract migrant songbirds. We found a vocal Fish Crow along the shoreline, and connected with a rare White-eyed Vireo that had been found earlier in the morning by Mike McLeod. A great day in the field!

Fish Crow - Grimsby, Niagara Region

The White-eyed Vireo was a new species for my Hamilton Study Area (HSA) list, #318. My HSA list is one that I've chipped away at over the years. I was born in Hamilton and for most of my life lived within the confines of the HSA, first in Cambridge and then in Guelph. (As an aside, the Hamilton Study area is quite large with a 50 mile diameter, and includes parts of Niagara, Haldimand, Brant, Waterloo, Wellington, Peel and Halton, in addition to all of Hamilton. Some say if you take a map of southwestern Ontario and cut off the corners, you end up with the HSA circle!).

After a several year hiatus when I lived in York and Niagara Regions, I have been back in the HSA for two years. New species don't come around very often and the White-eyed Vireo was a nemesis of sorts, but it was good to finally see one here. We finished the tour by checking in on the very cute Great Horned Owlets that I had been keeping tabs on throughout the spring. Always a crowd pleaser!

White-eyed Vireo - Grimsby, Niagara Region

Two days later, I led another birding tour in St Catharines and Grimsby. The warmth and bright sunshine had been replaced by gloomy, breezy conditions with the threat of rain looming in the air. However, migrants were around and we tallied around 50 species at the Port Weller pier. Though the White-eyed Vireo at 50 Creek was a no-show this time, we found a few other species including a very cooperative Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. And of course, the Great Horned Owlets were as cute as ever and a big highlight for my clients. 

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - Grimsby, Niagara Region

This particular tour concluded in the early afternoon. With time on my hands I decided to swing up to Caledon to search for some American Avocets that Tom Steller had found a few hours earlier at a pond in the Caledon brickworks. The wind was really howling upon my arrival but I easily located the avocets. The American Avocet is a beautiful shorebird that breeds widely across western and central North America, but it is an unusual species in Ontario. Many of our records occur in April and early May; presumably, these are birds hoping to nest in the Canadian prairies that took a slightly circuitous route to the east. 

American Avocets - Caledon Brickworks, Peel Region

Since it was still only 2 PM, I decided to continue driving northeast towards the south shore of Lake Simcoe. A rare Blue Grosbeak had been frequenting a grassy field at Sibbald Point Provincial Park. However, half an hour into the drive I abruptly changed course. My friend Henrique Pacheco had just discovered a Pink-footed Goose at near Wasaga Beach! 

Pink-footed Geese are not normally found in North America, but each year several are found along the coast. It is now an expected species each year in Newfoundland, for example. The odd one traveling with Canada Geese appears in far eastern Ontario; indeed, my only previous encounter with this species was one that spent some time in the Ottawa area in the autumn of 2015. With that one the views were distant and I was unable to manage any photos, meaning it was one of only ten bird species on my Ontario list that I hadn't yet photographed. 

I made good time to Wasaga Beach and was one of the first birders on the scene. Henrique had his scope trained on the bird - tick! Despite the great distance, the field marks on the Pink-footed Goose were easy to see as it is a pretty distinctive bird. It was too far for good photos but I managed a few record shots anyways. This was my 400th bird species that I have photographed in Ontario, a milestone I have worked towards for many years.

Naturally, this was the first Simcoe County record of Pink-footed Goose. Henrique is on quite the run lately, after having found a county-first Western Tanager the previous May, and of course the mega Short-tailed Shearwater last autumn which was another county first (and a provincial first, for that matter!). 

Pink-footed Goose - Wasaga Beach area, Simcoe County

My next post will cover the weeks I spent at Point Pelee and Pelee Island during the month of May.