OFO Walk: Niagara River - Part 1

Today an OFO walk was scheduled at the Niagara River so I decided to go. The group met at Sir Adam Beck Generating Station Overlook to look for some gulls there. I expected to see some friends there (Adam Capparelli and Jeremy Bensette). Adam did show up but unfortunately Jeremy had some personal things going on so he couldn't come.

There wasn't much to see at Adam Beck Overlook other than a couple Icelands Gulls and a Lesser Black-Backed Gull. The LBBG was a lifer for me! Someone also said they saw a Thayers gull, but it wasn't confirmed. A Red Tailed Hawk did come in and spook a bunch of gulls but it just passed through.

The group then drove over to Dufferin Island for a previously reported Red Phalarope. When we arrived there were a couple of feeders in a little forested area. Plenty of sparrows. I saw Juncos, House Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows, and even a White Crowned Sparrow. There were also chickadees and a Golden Crowned Kinglet there but the main attraction at the feeders were a couple of Tufted Titmice that would visit occasionally. The Titmouse was another lifer! I saw many lifers today. We then walked to the river to look for the Red Phalarope and there were already a lot of people there so we expected it to be there. As soon as we leaned over the railing we saw it! It was about 5 feet away from the railing! Along with the Phalarope, we also saw a Peregrine Falcon ripping apart something and a Purple Sandpiper!

The rest of the trip will be posted in separate parts.

Thanks for reading!

Sorry for not posting pictures. I fixed that.
                                          Red Phalarope

                                          Tufted Titmouse

TOC Walk Humber Bay Park

Today I met up with the TOC at Humber Bay Park east. My friends Noah Enkin and Adam Capparelli were there. We explored Humber Bay Park east and west for a while. The birds worth noticing were a Great Black-Backed Gull, a couple Common Mergansers, four (or possibly one) Pied-Billed Grebe, a giant raft of ducks (mostly Greater Scaup), a couple hybrid Mallard x Black Duck, a luesistic Mallard, and a muskrat that was very cooperative. Unfortunately only Adam and I saw the muskrat and the weird mallards because Noah had to leave early.

The group then drove over to Colonel Samuel Smith Park to continue the trip. Even before we could park, I noticed two very large birds in a tree at the side of the road, so I got out while my mom parked the car. It turned out that it was two Red Tailed Hawks! They only stayed for a couple minutes then flew off. The Harlequin Duck was still around Rotary Park so some birders got some good looks at a Harlequin Duck through a scope. We then travelled to the end of Colonel Samuel Smith Park and saw    a group of 5 Trumpeter Swans and a Horned Grebe. On the way back someone thought they saw a Northern Shrike on the other side of the park, so we walked over to check it out. On the way there, Adam and I noticed a fairly large white gull flying over us. It was a Glaucous Gull! Lifer! So we called it out to our group and I hope everyone saw it but who knows. We went to check the area with the "Northern Shrike" and looked for a while until I noticed a grey Robin-sized bird on the top of a tree. It was a Northern Mockingbird. I knew right away that this bird was the "Northern Shrike". So we headed back.

Overall it was a pretty good day. Tomorrow I will be heading down to Niagara Falls on the OFO trip to look for gulls.

This is my first blog post and I will post more, hopefully you enjoyed.