Late Fall Birding

Last weekend I was down in Niagara to pick up some furniture for the new house, and squeezed in a bit of bird watching along the Niagara River.  The gull watching was not as good as I was expecting for this time of year.  I had no white-winged gulls and overall abundance was lower than I would expect for this time of year.  Hopefully it is better for this weekends gull outing for OFO.  I still had a few interesting observations, including a Dunlin out on the rocks above the falls - I was surprised and disappointed when I looked closely and saw it was not a Purple Sandpiper!  I also had  Red-necked Grebe on Lake Erie near Point Abino.

Lots of Horned Grebes were present along the river and on both Lake Ontario and Erie

Tundra Swans were present in good numbers along the river

The area near the falls was coated in a thick layer of ice from all the freezing mist, it was quite scenic.

Point Abino

Yesterday I went up to Luther Marsh before work to look for some winter birds that Dan MacNeal had spotted.  I found the Bohemian Waxwings, as well as this Northern Shrike and some Common Redpolls but did not find the Pine Grosbeaks unfortunately.

Northern Shrike

 I have never seen so many Bohemian Waxwings at one time before.  The flock was easily at 200 birds.

Bohemian Waxwings

Balcony Birds: Cackling Geese

It is always a bonus to see interesting birds without even really trying.  While up at the Latornell Conference this week I scanned a flock of Canada Geese from my balcony and low and behold found 5 diminutive Cackling Geese!  A fun game of 'Where is Waldo'.

Besides that stubby beak and smaller size, the white collar really helps clinch any questions about the ID.  I also find Cackling Geese in Ontario are paler overall than Canada Geese.

Black-throated Gray Warbler - LaSalle Marina

Well it has been a busy time the last few weeks with the move to the new house, but today I found some time to zip down to LaSalle to see the celebrity bird: the Black-throated Gray Warbler!  People were watching the bird as we walked up and had great views at quite close range. Photography was challenging in low light and the tangles the bird liked to frequent.

Most of my shots look like this!

A new Ontario bird for me and one I have always wanted to see!