February 2nd Birding

I know I said I would post this earlier but what happened was that my blogger was messed up. So now I'm posting from my IPad. Unfortunately I cannot post pictures so those will come later.

Anyway, on Sunday, February 2nd, I went with my mom and our friend to do some birding in the Durham region. We picked him up and drove to where the Great Grey Owl was reported but kinda got distracted by some turkeys in a field. Eventually we made it to the place where the owl was being seen. When we arrived, we saw only one car and only one person so we asked where the owl was. It wasn't there. We spent about half an hour waiting for the owl but it didn't show up. So we decided to leave and head down Halls road and look for some snow buntings.

After a while of driving the only birds we found was some crows, a flock of turkey, and a Red-Tailed Hawk. We eventually made it down to Lynde Shores Conservation Area. But before we got to Lynde Shores, we were surprised by a hawk which took off right as we drove by without even noticing it. It landed about 10 feet away from us in a tree. We looked at the side of the road to notice a dead black duck which the hawk had been eating. Shortly after, another hawk flew in and then flew off.

We then went in the conservation area and noticed people feeding chick-a-dees from their hands. So I went over and asked for some seed. It was very fun feeding the birds. I even got a Red-Breasted Nuthatch on my hand! There were plenty of friendly turkeys and red squirrels. We then went to the observation platform and saw a deer! After that we decided to go home.

As we were driving out of the park, I noticed a small bird fly off the side of the road into a bush so we stopped the car and tried to ID it. I had a good feeling of what it was but just to make sure, we looked at it through the scope. It was what I thought it was. A Lapland Longspur! I was so excited to be looking at a Lapland Longspur! And I guess it wasn't enough to just see it about 30 feet away, but then it flew right at us and landed about 10 feet away from us! Right in front of our car! I took a ton of pictures. We decided to push our luck even more and go right beside the car and look at it from 5 feet away. It just stayed there! So many people were passing by, none of them asked what we were looking at except for 1 car who just said "oh, cool." Then drove off.

We went home perfectly satisfied with the day.

Thanks for reading.

Some More Birding

If you're a birder you may have heard about the Spotted Towhee at a feeder in Georgetown and you probably heard that it doesn't stay for long. If you're not a birder then let me explain. A rare and colourful sparrow was seen in Georgetown and many people went to see it. The problem with this bird is that it doesn't show up for long and when it does, it gets scared easily. 

So anyway, my mom and I decided to drive up to Georgetown to see this elusive sparrow on Saturday. We read the previous reports on it and learned that it shows up at the feeders for 10 am and doesn't stay long. So we drove up there and when we arrived there was only one other couple looking for the bird. There was a very inconvenient snow pile that block the entire bottom of the feeder except for one little tiny area. The longer we stayed, the more we doubted it would show up. Then we saw a somewhat large bird fly under the feeder with white outer tail feathers. We all looked in the small area of the feeder that you could actually see. The bird popped within view for a split second then ran away! I did get one blurry shot of it leaving.

We were so excited that we saw it but unfortunately it left. We decided to stay a while and see if it would come back. 

It did! This time it gave us better views.

After that, the bird left and we went home.

Thanks for reading! I will post what happened on Sunday tomorrow.

I Got 200!

If you have read my last couple blog posts you could tell I was close to 200 birds on my life list for North America.

On the recent OFO trip we didn't see much but we did see a flock of Snow Buntings which brought me up to 199.

It was very foggy so the pictures didn't turn out that well.

But today was a great day. I headed to Bronte Harbour with my friend Adam to check out the "Heerman's Gull" that was reported there. To be honest I didn't think someone actually saw a Heerman's because there was no one talking about it and the email was done very badly which made me skeptical, but it doesn't hurt to check. I didn't see anything good. A flock of White-Winged Scoters was cool but nothing else.

After that Adam went home and my mom and I decided to go to Whitby to look for the Great Grey Owl. It was quite a long drive and when we got there we asked where it was and nobody had seen it since yesterday. So we decided to park and wait just in case it shows up. Good thing we did because as soon as we parked someone spotted it. Great Grey Owl is easily my favourite owl so I was very excited to see it.

Boom, 200th bird right there and my favourite owl!

He would fly around the forest edge, swooping down to the ground and back to the top of a tree.

Find the owl!

I also attempted digi-scoping without an attachment.

After a while we decided to leave to look for the Barred Owl on Hall's Road but no luck. But we did see Wild Turkeys so 201 birds on my list!

I did get some nice crow shots.

We then went to Whitby Harbour to look for a previously reported Snowy Owl. It took us quite a while to get into the yacht club to get close enough for pictures but it was worth it.

First Snowy of the year!

So after that we called it a pretty successful day and headed home. But as if we haven't been lucky enough that day, we were on the highway we noticed a large predatory-like bird flying above us. An adult  Bald Eagle! At that point we were just so happy with our day.

Thanks for reading!

Colonel Samuel Smith Park - December 29th (Plus Humber Arboretum)

On December 29th, my mom and I went to Colonel Samuel Smith Park to look for owls and a Northern Shrike. We decided to bring my mom’s friend along to come birding. Before we even parked we saw a perched American Kestrel which was pretty cool. We walked around to where the Snowy Owl usually hangs out but unfortunately it wasn't there when we checked. We met up with Bob Cummings (I hope that's how you spell it) and we looked at some ducks on a piece of ice. Nothing special. When Bob was leaving he noticed a Northern Shrike at the top of a tree so we quickly went over there and got brief views of it before it disappeared. Another lifer! That's 198!! We walked around a bit more but nothing special. A White-Winged Scoter right off shore was pretty cool and an adult male Harlequin Duck was also awesome. So pretty good day of birding with one new bird.

So for a couple years I've been going to camp at the Humber Arboretum and just recently I volunteered. The Humber Arboretum is a great place for not only birds, but mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Last year we had good numbers of winter finches but this year hasn't been good at all. But I did see one Common Redpoll at the feeders for a second then it flew off but I'm starting to doubt that it really was a redpoll. They also told me that they had Crossbills last year which I missed. But what this place is really good for is owls. I saw 4 of my 5 owl species here. Including a Great Horned Owl which I first saw with Adam in mid December and later by myself recently. And it is another lifer!!! That owl put me at 197 (before the Shrike)! I went out early one morning to see it and get some shots.

Here's the owl with the sun shining on it.



I later went with my mom so she could see it too but we had a little obstacle in our way.

Thanks for reading! And all the best in the New Year!

Humber Arboretum Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/humber.arboretum?fref=ts

Humber Arboretum website: http://www.humberarboretum.on.ca/