Niagara River

Caitlyn and I headed down to Stevensville on Friday to visit the in-laws, and I was able to squeeze in some time to bird the Niagara River.  This is definitely one of my favourite spots to bird watch in Ontario, mainly because of the great diversity of birds present as well as all the different spots to stop and look for them along the river.  This time of the year the birding is not as good here as during the fall, however, I was still able to spot a bunch of migratory harbingers of spring including killdeer, sandhill cranes, northern pintail and many others.

Highlights of the trip included a good assortment of ducks and a red-necked grebe on the river, tufted titmouse at Dufferin Islands, glacous gull at Adam Beck and little gulls at the Queenston Marina (skunked again on the black vulture at Queenston overlook...).

I unfortunately wasn't able to get any good shots that you would want to see.  I did manage to snap a distant photo of one of the adult little gulls. 

This adult shows off the characteristic pale wing edges that separate the similar bonaparte's gull

The dead give away for this guy is the dark underside of the wings that shows up at a great distance.  Bonaparte's gulls will show white below.  Try not to get motion sick, this guy was really far away!