The Glory of Spring

Despite the ongoing pandemic, spring continues its slow march (or crawl) forward.  It has been a slow start to the spring in southern Ontario, but there is still lots to see! I have been out enjoying nature within 5 miles of my house for the ongoing "5 Mile Radius Challenge" to see as many birds as you can in this area in a calendar year.  This has turned out to be a great distraction from the current situation, and I have enjoyed finding new and exciting spots to bird watch near my house.  I am currently up to 73 species for my 5MR this year!

This morning I was out at my favourite new spot that has a nice mix of forest, thicket, and wetland.  I was rewarded with 45 species this morning including a bunch of new ones for the year!  Here are a few shots from my outing:

Hermit Thrush

Our backyard Northern Shrike has returned a couple of times this winter.  The photo below was taken through my kitchen window.

Northern Shrike

 The Fox Sparrow was a welcome surprise while out walking last week, but it didn't want to pose for the camera!

Fox Sparrow

 Wood Frogs and Chorus Frogs have been calling while I have been out and about.  I spotted these Wood Frog egg masses in a small ditch of water.

I have enjoyed the vacant trails the past few weeks.  Social distancing has been quite easy these days while out and about.  I look forward to getting out more in the coming weeks to enjoy the glory of spring.

5MR Update/COVID-19 Birding

Well, things certainly have changed in a month!  Fortunately birding can still continue through this pandemic providing that you adhere to proper social distancing!  I have still been doing the occasional bird watching in my 5 mile radius around my house and am now up to 52 species within this circle.  Today I added a 'blue' Snow Goose at a Fergus stormwater pond!  I am enjoying seeing some spring migrants, and my bird feeder is finally getting some use as well!

 Another great surprise for my 5MR was this cute little Screech Owl!  Thanks to Josh P for giving me the tip off!

I also made a trip down to Long Point before the pandemic restrictions really got going and saw the Eurasian Wigeon, although I was not able to get any photos.  I did get some distant photos of a Cackling Goose (central, small bird in photo below).

Other critters are also out and about including this Muskrat.

Stay safe and stay isolated so we can flatten this curve!

Fishing for Crows in Fort Erie

This weekend I was down in the Niagara area to celebrate my joint birthday with Cait.  We had a great time, and I even got out on Saturday afternoon to do some bird watching along the river.  I had some of the usual Niagara specialties.  Still lots of gulls along the river, but no kittiwake or Blakc-headed Gulls for me this time!  Some heavy snow at Queenston prevented me from finding the usual Black Vultures.

On Sunday morning I got up before church with the goal of finding Fish Crows!  After driving around for a while I eventually caught up with a good group of crows and quickly heard a few calling!  Fish Crows have a very unique call that is much different than the raucous call of their American counterpart.  I liken it to a squeaky toy.  I sat in my car for a while to avoid scaring off this flock, and I think there may have been as many as 10 Fish Crows!  I took an audio and video of some of these birds as well as some photos through the heavy, wet snow from this morning.

Click on the youtube video below to hear one the Fish Crow in the above photo calling.

I also made an audio file of a bunch of the Fish Crows calling and saved it to my google drive, I think it should work for public listening too.  Click the link below to hear them!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yLQ0RffAvo7FHTtubAWkKPOCDv3aG0x8/view?usp=sharing

Fish Crows are definitely one of my favourite birds to see in the Fort Erie area and I was glad to catch up with this species once again!

5MR January Update

I have not been able to get out as much as I would like to bird the 5 mile radius around my house.  I am only at 28 species so far!

My best bird so far was seen from my kitchen window, a Northern Shrike!

Below are a few other shots from within my '5MR' for January.


This Bald Eagle was hanging on to this icy tree the day after the big ice storm!

Red-breasted Nuthatch with a seed.

Rough-legged Hawk

Snow Buntings

I'm excited to add some new species to my 5MR in February!

5MR Birding 2020!

This year I am trying a fun new birding challenge called the 5 Mile Radius or "5MR" challenge.  The concept is simple, it is to see how many species you can see within the calendar year within a 5 mile radius of your residence.  My hope is that it encourages me to get out and bird locally more often - something that I don't do as much as I would like!

My 5MR includes some decent habitats including small woodlands, wetlands and portions of the Grand River and Belwood Reservoir in addition to urban and agricultural habitats.  Below is my circle.

If you want to join this challenge, it is easy to sign up and not too late!  Just search for the 5MR Birding Challenge on Facebook and join!

There will be monthly updates on the facebook page, and I will give occasional updates on how I am doing on my blog.  Especially if I find anything interesting!

My best bird of the first day was this juvenile Bald Eagle!

Christmas Birding

I am currently right smack in the middle of my glorious Christmas holidays and I have had the pleasure of birding both near Kingston while at my parents as well as in Niagara while at the in-laws!  While in Kingston, I made a quick trip to Amherst Island.  It certainly is a different year on the island compared to last.  We only saw 1 Snowy Owl, and it appears the vole population is really down this year.  It will be interesting to see what happens on the Amherst Christmas Bird Count.

While in Niagara, I did the usual circuit of the river, focusing on trying to find the Black-legged Kittiwake that has been seen at the Whirlpool and other spots occasionally the last little while.  I checked the Whirlpool once in the late morning without success on Boxing Day, and then went back that same day on a hunch that it would eventually show up.  My persistence was rewarded, and I spotted the familiar field marks - black 'M' shaped wing markings, black collar and slightly larger size to the surrounding Bonaparte's Gulls.  I found it while it was still sitting on the water!  I even managed to get a photo of it among the Bonaparte's Gulls!

Black-legged Kittiwake- the best I could do with my point and shoot from way up above the Whirlpool!

Can you spot the kittiwake among the flock?  Where is Waldo?

Note the slightly larger size, heavy bill, black collar and dark wing markings

 The last kittiwake I saw was on September 30, 2016 at Van Wagner's Beach in Hamilton...certainly a long overdue re-acquaintance!

The Niagara River Circuit

This Saturday I decided to head down to the Niagara River with a couple of friends for the gull pilgrimage.  My main target was Black-headed Gull along with some of the other goodies like Little Gull and white-winged gulls.  I enjoy the challenge of sorting through thousands of mostly similar looking birds to find the odd one out.  At the Whirlpool some folks who got there before us did the finding for us.  The Black-headed Gull is superficially similar to the numerous Bonaparte's Gulls but is slightly larger with wing and back colouration that is ever so slightly lighter than that species, and the clincher is the black colouration on the underside of the wing.  This is a European species that shows up in this part of Canada very rarely, although likely this same adult bird has been found annually on the river for several years. 

Black-headed Gull (top middle bird) with Bonaparte's Gull

Black-headed Gull - note the black under the wing

 While in Niagara we also stopped by to see the Black Vultures across the river in Lewiston NY (viewed from the Queenston overlook).  They were keeping warm on the usual church chimney.

We stopped above the falls and had 2 Little Gulls.  The biggest surprise was this crazy deer marooned out on an island right above the falls!  It must have swam out there and somehow made it to the island.  It is likely to either perish on the island or go for a ride over the falls...

As always, a great time on the river and I can't wait to spend some more time birding the area over the Christmas break.