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.