September 2016

Sept 28th 2016

Location: Sedgewick, Oakville

Weather: Hazy sun, and a little cool to start the day

I'm going to have to find somewhere new to bird otherwise I might have to rename the blog to Sedgewick Birding Blog <wink>. Yes .. I was there again, and the birds are still around. Yesterday I mentioned about the Black-throated Blue and the Wilson's had moved on, but I was wrong on both counts as I saw at least one of each today, then again these may be more of the same passing through (who knows). The light today was how I like it .. sunny, but hazy - I think this makes for decent exposures, without the harsh shadows.  

Sept 27th 2016

Location: Sedgewick Forest

Weather: Beautiful fall day - sunny and reasonably warm

Sedgewick is still pretty hot with fall migrating Warblers, Vireos & Thrushes, so I went back again today to see what pops up. Still a lot of Yellow-rumped & Black-throated Green Warblers about, but some of the species seem to be thinning out. I didn't see any Wilson's or Black-throated Blues today so I'm assuming that these guys have started on the next leg of their journey south. New today was a couple of Blue-headed Vireos (happy to see these beauties).

Sept 26th 2016

Location:  Sedgewick Forest

Weather: Dull & threatening some much needed rain

I was at Sedgewick yesterday, but for the most part I just carried my binoculars (it's a long story). There was a ton of warblers around, but especially Yellow-rumped. Another new "face" was both species of Kinglet, which was a delight to see. So ... today I went armed with a camera and was hoping for similar luck, and generally I was not disappointed. The lighting was pretty poor and so most of the images were very high ISO, and certainly more than I like to use. The species that dominated was still the Yellow-rumped, but so were a small flock of Thrushes, which were a mixed bag of Swainsons & Grey-cheeked. Other birds of note were Black-throated Blue & Green Warblers, both Kinglets and a few Magnolia Warblers. 

Sept 22nd 2016

Location: Edgelake Park, Red Hill Storm Pond & Sedgewick Forest

Weather: More unseasonably hot weather (29C of a high)

First stop Edgelake in Stoney Creek, and it was a complete bust, with zero warblers or any other bird for that matter. Stopped off at Redhill Storm Pond (no camera) but spotted a few warblers including Cape May and Nashville. Sedgewick yet again was buzzing with warblers, which now was predominately Yellow-rumped, but also a few Bay-breasted, Redstarts & Wilsons plus a couple of others. Spotted my first Kinglet of the fall season here as well. (not sure which one)

Sept 20th 2016

Location: Edgelake Park, Palletta & Thornapple Trail

​Weather: Sunny & warm (what else ;) )

Paletta Mansion was my first stop this morning and I did the short loop with no camera (I was more interested in seeing what might be around before hauling out photography gear). ​As it was there wasn't too ​​much to see, other than a couple of Magnolia Warblers. Edgelake was next and 

it was also a little quiet - I did, however,  spot a few Magnolias, Chestnut -sided, Black & White, Cape May, Common Yellowthroat and Wilsons Warblers. Final stop was Thornapple Loop which  is one of my fav places and today I had .. Eastern Towhee, Chestnut-sided, Red-eyed Vireo, Blackpoll Warblers and American Redstart. A Gray Catbird and Northern Flicker also dropped by. The Thornapple images were taken at the North East corner of the trail.

Sept 17th 2016

Location: Sedgewick Forest, again

Weather: Sunny & Clear

Sedgewick was a little quieter this morning than it had been all week. There was a few birds around, but the quantity & variety from a few days ago was significantly down. (The most common today was the Magnolia Warbler). Nevertheless I managed a few shots in the 4 hours I spent there. I had expected that the trails would be a little more populated with birders (there had been a few mentions in the forums this week)., but thankfully (I say selfishly)  there was only a handful of people around to enjoy the "warbler show".

Sept 16th 2016

Location: Sedgewick Forest

Weather: Clear morning which led to a very pleasant sunny morning

Yep .. back to Sedgewick. The weather was very cooperative this morning with lots of decent light albeit a little harsh in places, but I'm not complaining.....
When I first arrived at 7:30 the birds were plentiful but higher in the trees than I like, so for the first hour I just observed. As the sun got higher in the sky and for the next hour it was snap happy hour.

Sept 15th 2016

Location: Sedgewick Forest Oakville

Weather: Cool start (10c) and somewhat overcast

Sedgewick is the gift that keeps on giving it would seem. Lots of warblers around as well as some newcomers .. a few thrushes, which I think were all Swainson's. The sun never really made it out and combined with the darkness of the forest made for really not good lighting for sharp photography. I found myself setting ISO at 3200 and  1/500 at f5.6 (min for my F4/500 and  1.4 Teleconvertor). Nevertheless I was pretty happy with what I came home with. Looks like I may be going back again in the next day or two ... yeah!!

Sept 13th 2016

Location: Sedgewick Park, Oakville

Weather: coolish start, but sunny . 22C by 10:00am

As always, Sedewick is a warbler trap at this time of year, as it was in the spring as well. I arrived 7:30am and although the first half hour was not too good, it soon heated up (songbird wise so to speak). I was able to spot in the next two hours ... Wilsons Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Black & White Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, for a total warbler count of 14. Others included Red-eyed Vireo, Philadelphia Vireo, Northern Flicker, Coopers Hawk, and of course the usual garden birds. Good chance I'll hit this location again in the next day or two.

SW Ontario Vagrants

I had a conversation with a fellow birder/photographer earlier today relating to vagrants that show up in South West Ontario. The more I thought about it, I realized that these surprise visitors are not that uncommon ... which makes birding, in this beautiful corner of the world, all the more interesting & exciting (at least for all us diehard birders and photographers). I don't have enough information to be too accurate here, and I'm likely going to miss some REALLY good birds. Some of these I did travel to the reported location, and in some cases managed to grab an image or two. Most of these were reported in the last 18 months or so .....
Spotted Towhee (Glen Williams), Painted Bunting (Oakville), Blue Bunting (somewhere near London, as I recall), Lark Bunting (Flamborough), Varied Thrush (Guelph, etc), Bullock's Oriole (Pakenham), Vermillion Flycatcher (Wallaceburg), Missississipi Kite (?), Mountain Bluebird (Whitby, etc), Western Tanager (?), Townshends Solitaire (Toronto), Says Phoebe (Chatham), Ruff (Brighton), Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Hamilton), Western Kingbird (?), Brown Booby (Fort Erie), Neotropic Cormorant (Hamilton)  ... A lot of these sightings are  from my (getting old) memory, so forgive me if get something wrong (but feel free to enlighten me just the same). The birds in Bold are ones that I was fortunate enough to see while thay were around, and some of the others I went in search, but came back unsuccessful (maybe next time) ...
So ... I'm definately looking forward to the next 12 months or so, as I'm sure even more interesting and off track visitors drop in to our neighbourhood.

Stop Press <wink>: I just read litterly in the last hour that a Selasphorus hummingbird, a Painted Bunting and a Western Kingbird were banded in the last few days at Long Point. At Pelee a reported Black-headed Grosbeak earlier today  .. how cool is that :)

Sept 12th 2016

Location: Edgelake Park

Weather: Cool start (10C), but warmed up to a pleasant 22C

A short visit yesterday (Sunday 11th) to Edgelake resulted in lots of Warbler sightings, but with no camera (we were binoculers only ... nice change) so obviously no images. Today I brought camera etc to see if they were still around. I was happy to discover that yes they were and a few of the images are in the small gallery below this text. Fall warblers, I've found, are way trickier to capture than in the spring migration (personal opinion and experience) as they tend to be higher in the trees and move and hop between perches more rapidly (or maybe I'm getting slower as I get older (LOL)). Today there were several Wilsons, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Cape-May, Black & Whites  and Redstarts, as well as at least one Norther Parula. Also present were Phildelphia Vireo and a couple of bold Carolina Wrens. 

Sept 9th 2016

Location: Thornapple Loop & Princess Point

Weather: Clear & Sunny

It was a bright and clear day, but the ground was very wet from the rain the night before, so ended up getting a little wet from the long grass I walked through, but always worth it. Thornapple Loop as usual had a few birds, but not as many as other days. Princess Point I had expected to have a few warblers, but alas I never saw one. Did see a few Black-crowned Night Herons, but all Juvenile

Sept 7th 2016

Location: Robertson Tract & Hilton Falls, near Milton

Weather: the never-ending heatwave... sunny & hot

Another hot one ... 7:30am and already 23C. Not much happening at Robertson Tract, but Hilton Falls was quite active with several sightings and a few images. Keeping out of range was a Philedelphia Vireo, a Blue-winged Warbler, Magnolia Warbler and a Chestnut-sided ..it would have been nice to get a shot or two, but at this time of year nice to see them anyways. 

Sept 6th 2016

Location: Edgelake Park & Fifty Point CA

Weather:  You've guessed it ... sunny & Hot 

Once again I went to both Edgelake Park and Fifty Point Conservation Area. The other day had several warblers at both locations and today was even better ... there were tons of Warblers (especially at Edgelake). The majority were Magnolias, but there were several other species around as well, including a couple of Wilsons. Fifty Point had lots of action as well, but no real surprises  with the majority of sightings being either Magnolia or Black & White.  Best Warbler here was a Black-throated Green Warbler that came pretty close and posed for me for a few seconds.

Sept 3rd 2016

Location: 50 Point CA and Edgelake Park, Stoney Creek

Weather: Yep, sunny again

​Headed out this morning with a fellow birder/photographer to check out the ongoing Warbler Fall migration. Good reports on OFO & Ebird indicated good quantities at both locations and although things started slow there was no shortage of these little gems. Unfortunately they were generally higher in the trees than we would have liked, and constantly on the move making photos a tad  tricky to say the least

Sept 1st 2016

Location: Thornapple Loop

Weather: Sunny & Warm

Thornapple Loop is a relatively small woodlot owned by the Royal Botanical Gardens, and located  on the south side of Patterson Road in the Dundas area. I have always liked this location as a spot that always has a few surprises. Today was pretty typical for a Fall day with a few Warblers and other songbirds. A pleasant surprise for me was that a small family group of young Eastern Towhees (4 or 5) drifted through giving me a few chances at an image or two. Even in their juvenile plumage they were a pretty cute bunch.