A Big Morning on Amherst Island

On Sunday my Dad and I did our annual Amherst Island "Big Morning" that we officially started last year.  We catch the first ferry from the mainland at 6:30am and bird until we catch the 1pm ferry back.  Last year we had 100 species of birds in basically around 6 hrs, which isn't too shabby!  We wanted to beat our record and tallied 103 species just in time to catch the ferry back.

Highlights included some of the usual breeders such as Wilson's Phalarope and Upland Sandpiper, as well as a few winter stragglers such as Snowy Owl and Rough-legged Hawk.  We also had point blank views of a sneaky Virginia Rail!  We were not able to access Owl Woods in my Chevy Cruze, the roads were in very bad shape and I bottomed out and almost got stuck on the south access road.  This likely cost us at least a few species of birds.  The entire ebird list of species observed is shown below:

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45864287

The island is currently under heavy construction due to the wind farm that is underway, making the roads a mess in several areas.  We barely recognized the ferry docks, as they have been re-built to accommodate their own barges.  We were happy we chose to bird the island on a Sunday rather than during the week, as we did not have to contend with any construction traffic.

I unfortunately didn't have much time to take many photos as we were busy hunting for birds.

Snowy Owl

Wilson's Phalarope

I can't wait to do this again next year!  I really enjoy the strategy involved in trying to see more birds than you did the last time.  I think I will try to plan a similar trip in the fall, maybe in late September!