December 2018

December 31st 2018

Location: Kitchener, Ontario

Weather: Cloudy, but mild(ish)

Townsend's Solitaire

First I would like to own up to a huge mistake on my part - To the right, on this page, is an email link "email me .." that has an old, and no longer valid, email address ([email protected]). I had to drop this address several months ago due to a security issue. The current email address is [email protected], so I humbly apologize to anyone who may have used the old teksavvy address.  The link has now  been updated, and is active. 
Anyways back to birding ..... Today I headed out to see if I could see & photograph a rarity that has been hanging out on Forfar Avenue, Kitchener, for a few weeks now. Namely a vagrant Townsend's Solitaire - a western bird that has turned up and is generally hanging out in the evergreens in this residential neighborhood. Good news is that it was easy to find, but bad news is that it's not too easy to get a good photograph as it tends to sit atop the local trees. I'm not keen on these type of shots - from a low tight angle. In fact I haven't seen a photograph from anybody on this particular bird that has a nice angled shot. (lots on some Facebook's birding groups. Anyways although it wasn't a "lifer" bird it was nice bird to end the year. 

December 27th 2018

Location: Algonquin Provincial Park

Weather: Some sun some cloud, but bitterly cold to start the day at -23C

Along with a couple of good friends, we piled into the car at 04:30 for the fairly long drive to Algonquin. We arrived around 09:15 at our first designated location at the Visitor Centre a) to pick up our passes and b) see what's is hanging out at next to and around the feeders. We also checked Opeongo Road and Mew lake and found at the 3 locations pretty much what we expected. The Visitor Centre we ended up going back and forward a couple of times to catch the arrivals of the Pine Grosbeak and Evening Grosbeak flocks, as they came in for a 5 or 10 minutes then headed away for up to a half hour. At Opeongo we had the usual Canada Jays (or Gray Jay or Whiskey Jacks ... take your pick for you favorite name), and a brief visit by a single Pine Martin, as well as the usual Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches. At Mew lake it was very uneventful with only a few Wild Turkeys, Black-capped Chickadees and one or two Nuthatches.
Still, all in all it was a fantastic visit as the light was for the most part almost perfect with the hazy sun giving us decent exposure light and also diffused enough for the shadows to be nice and soft.
The image of the Raven below was kinda nice - of all the years I have been photographing birds and having seen many, many Ravens I just realized, when I was there, that I have never photographed one.
The image to the right is of an Evening Grosbeak pair (male on the bottom)
​​​All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description

December 19th & 20th 2018

Location: Amherst Island

Weather: Day1 a bit of sun & cloud (around 2C), and Day2 started off sunny, but clouded over and was quite dull after 9:00am (0C)

After reading about good numbers of birds of prey being sighted on the island had us anxious to go and check it out. So up at 3:30am and on the road by 4:30am and after picking up Steve in Brampton we managed to get through the city before the traffic was too busy. Amherst Island is a fair hike from this end of Ontario but we managed to make the 9:30am ferry and by 10:00 am we were looking at many Snowy Owls along some of the dirt roads on the island. Over the two days we counted in the range of about 24 or so of these beauties with many of them at close range. At one point on day two I scanned over the 180 deg range of my vision and totaled 14 individuals (incredible). Other species were also in good numbers including Northern Harriers and Red-tailed Hawks especially. There were also several Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Shrikes, American Kestrels and Bald Eagles.
It was fairly obvious as to why there were so many raptors on the island as several times we watched the birds drop down and pick off an unsuspecting rodent. We also saw many times movement of the ground as voles or mice scurry to and fro. Excellent two days - no shortage of images to go through
​All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description

Snowy Owl

December 17th 2018

Location: Halls Road, Whitby

Weather: Cloudy and dull

I had seen several reports of several Barred Owls being sighted and photographed at Halls Road in Whitby. Every year it seems we get an Owl overwintering in the wooded area of Lynde Shores at the end of this unlikely road. This year it appears that up to five of these beauties have made it their winter home. Today, along with a couple of friends we explored the area, and after a few hours of searching it looked like we weren't even going to find a single bird, but a frantic call at one point in the early afternoon from one of my fellow searchers, had us looking at a perched Barred Owl shortly thereafter. This bird posed beautifully for the next hour - almost oblivious to our presence - being more intent on the Chickadee activity and that of a VERY brave Red Squirrel that several times got real close to the bird. At one point the Owl swooped down and nailed a vole that had got too close. A good day.

December 15th 2018

Location: Burlington area

Weather: Cloudy with the lightest peak of sun through the clouds.

I liked the look of the weather, so along with a good shooting friend, we headed to the Lake Ontario shoreline around Burlington. Our first stop was in Woodlands Cemetery where, for a few years now, there are a couple of  winter resident Screech Owls, and of course our first target of the day was a Screech Owl. We arrived around 7:30am (it was still quite a ways from being daylight) and our first spot (where in the past we would often find a Gray Morph Screech) we came up empty, but our next stop around the corner we had a Red Morph Screech sitting up in his roosting tree hole.We were careful to move slowly and to shoot from a longer distance than we would have preferred (approx 70-80 feet), but within just a few frames he dropped down into is daytime roosting position, and out of site, so we never got the chance to creep forward a bit to improve our image quality. I would have preferred to have been between 50 and 60 feet, but ... oh well.
From here we headed to La Salle, where a few days ago we had quite a successful  few hours with some Diving Ducks as well as the local Winter & Carolina Wrens. Not so today ... we only briefly saw a pair of Carolina Wrens (which neither of us photographed) and never saw a single Winter Wren. 
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Eastern Screech Owl (Red Morph)

December 10th 2018

Location: La Salle Marina, Burlington

Weather: Cloudy & dull all day

I'm beginning to wonder about the accuracy of our Ontario Weather Forecasting service. It seems every day the weather doesn't seem to  live up to the, what appears to be optimistic, forecasting. As I mentioned above the weather was 100% dull and cloudy all day in Burlington, but the forecast was sun (~3 hours) and cloud. Truth be told I prefer the cloud for photography any ways - the harsh sun, with it's too contrasty shadows, is a killer of what could be a good photograph. So why am I complaining - oh well ... Minor rant over.
Our target today was either a Winter Wren (1st choice) or a Carolina Wren. La Salle is excellent for both species at this time of year, but the usual spot was not fhat forthcoming for either species. We saw and photographed the Winter Wren (only just), but only got fleeting glimpses of the Carolina. Next time... right? I almost forgot we had a visit from a Brown Creeper, but it was too quick for my old reflexes, yet again.
On the way out we decided to check out the Bay for any water birds that might be hanging out. Quite a few around although predominately Mallards, there was a few other species there including ... White-winged Scoters, Greater Scaup, Goldeneyes, Buffleheads, Red-necked Grebes, Redheads and a single (surprising) Pied-billed Grebe of which we managed some fairly close shots off. Good day after all 

December 4th - 5th 2018

Location: Algonquin Park

Weather: 4th Clear, sunny & cold (-12C), and on the 5th it was Cloudy, dull and a tad warmer (-4C)

After last weeks fairly successful trip to Algonquin we decided it was worth another visit this week, but decided we hadn't given ourselves enough time last time so planned an overnight stay so we would have 2 days.
On Day 1 and on day 2 we visited Mew Lake Campground, Spruce Bog, the Visitor Centre and Opeongo Road. Unfortunately some of the targets we had set ourselves  were not fulfilled. We had hoped for any Crossbills (White-winged & Red),  and the elusive Boreal Chickadee. We did however see and photograph another target bird - the Common Redpoll which we saw a few off at the Visitor Centre.
Of course, which seems to be the norm these days, several Pine Martens were seen - at Opeongo Road, the Visitor Centre and at Mew Lake.
Lots of Gray Jays, or should I say Canada Jays, were around, as were both Nuthatches, Chickadees as well as Downy Woodpeckers and Hairy Woodpeckers. We also found and photographed lots of Evening & Pine Grosbeaks.

​All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description

December 1st 2018

Location: Luther Marsh

Weather: Dry and fairly mild, but dull and cloudy

Over the last few days I've seen some reports and posts about a flock of Bohemian Waxwings that were being sighted along the north side of Luther Marsh. LM is about a 80 min drive from my place so even though it was the weekend (I don't like going to stakeout locations on the weekend - usually too many people for me) and the weather wasn't promising, I headed up anyways.
On the way up I took a staggered route so that I could hit some of the back roads looking for anything else that might be around. I came across two flocks of Snow Buntings, one of which was quite large ... easily 80 birds, but neither flock stuck around after I pulled up, so no pictures and no confirmation of maybe a Lapland Longspur in the mix either.
I also was able to watch a raptor as it flew in a parallel path to me as I was driving a gravel road, but as soon as I stopped it took off in the opposite direction through some trees, so I never managed a good ID. My first impression based on what looked like a white patch above the tail, was that it was a Harrier, but who knows. Could have been the Gyrfalcon that had been reported up in that general area ... I'll never know LOL
Anyways I eventually arrived at the location on 59 where the Bohemians had been reported and  they were right where they were supposed to be, and as luck would have it I was the first there. a good bunch of the birds were perched in a small group of trees not too far off the road, so I was able to shoot from the car window and get a couple of OK shots. After a short time other cars began to show up and the birds were pushed back as people got out of their cars, as I did as well. Every now and then a group of birds (sometimes a 100+) would do a flyover, which was exhilarating to see. BTW Bohemian Waxwing was a "Life Bird"  for me :) :) ... woohoo!!
Before I left I headed further east along 59 and saw a small group of Pine Grosbeaks foraging along the road edge, but flushed as soon as I stopped, so no pics there either.