As I write this, I am sitting in the Dublin Airport waiting on my flight to Paris for a week and a half trip to France and Switzerland. We were supposed to fly straight from Halifax to Paris, but flighthub never notified me that our flight was cancelled due to the 737 max groundings...so we had to reschedule in Halifax. Although not an official birding trip, I plan on slipping in some birding when Caitlyn's not looking. I will provide some updates when I can.
August 12.
Dublin Ireland Airport - Common House-Martin and Rook.
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S58932639
Paris
Highlights Carrion Crow, Great Cormorant, tons of Black-headed Gulls
...well that didn't go as planned, I got distracted and didn't have time to update! I did get about 45 lifers on this trip! An update is coming soon with photos!
Monday, 12 August 2019
Tuesday, 6 August 2019
Algonquin Park Canoe Trip 2019
I had the pleasure of experiencing another wonderful 4 day canoe trip with my family up in Algonquin park from this past Friday to Monday. The weather was absolutely perfect and we had a really relaxing and enjoyable time!
We canoed in from Canoe Lake to Burnt Island Lake where we stayed for 3 nights. We moved sites the 2nd day and upgraded to an island campsite. This was also an improvement on another front in that we moved away from an obnoxious group of campers playing loud music and being generally loud until late into the evening our first night. Not only is this generally incredibly inconsiderate, it is a violation of park rules that prohibit the use of such devices. I'm sure I am preaching to the choir here...rant over. The rest of the trip was great, with very respectful neighbors.
Below are a few shots of the scenery. As usual, I am already counting the days to the next trip!
We canoed in from Canoe Lake to Burnt Island Lake where we stayed for 3 nights. We moved sites the 2nd day and upgraded to an island campsite. This was also an improvement on another front in that we moved away from an obnoxious group of campers playing loud music and being generally loud until late into the evening our first night. Not only is this generally incredibly inconsiderate, it is a violation of park rules that prohibit the use of such devices. I'm sure I am preaching to the choir here...rant over. The rest of the trip was great, with very respectful neighbors.
Below are a few shots of the scenery. As usual, I am already counting the days to the next trip!
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| Diny Rock game |
Sunday, 7 July 2019
Dragonfly and Damselfly Surveys 2019
I had the pleasure of completing some fieldwork again this year looking for the Endangered Rapids Clubtail dragonfly on rivers throughout southwestern Ontario. Our work focused on the Maitland, Bayfield, Thames, Nith and Grand Rivers. This species has been recorded from the last three, but not the Maitland or Bayfield. I had a lot of fun boating down and wading through stretches of these rivers in June and early July looking for dragonflies. Naturally, we found other wildlife as well while on the rivers!
I particularly enjoyed using my new kayak to complete some of these surveys! The dragonflies and damselflies were drawn to it like a magnet for perching! I even had two different Rapids Clubtail perch on the bow of the boat, including the female below. After landing on my kayak, she flew off into the riffle and dipped her abdomen into the water column to deposit eggs!
The surveys were successful, in that I did end up finding 3 new sites for this species (on a river where the species is known from).
Of course we also saw lots of reptiles including lots of turtles.
The highlight of the reptiles was definitely finding this Queensnake! The first I have ever seen in the wild! We took some photos and promptly let it go hunt more crayfish!
I particularly enjoyed using my new kayak to complete some of these surveys! The dragonflies and damselflies were drawn to it like a magnet for perching! I even had two different Rapids Clubtail perch on the bow of the boat, including the female below. After landing on my kayak, she flew off into the riffle and dipped her abdomen into the water column to deposit eggs!
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| Rapids Clubtail female - note the mass of eggs at the tip of abdomen. |
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| Rapids Clubtail male |
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| River Jewelwing mating |
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| Midland Clubtail |
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| Rusty Snaketail |
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| Common Baskettail |
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| American Rubyspot |
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| Snapping Turtle |
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| Young Snapping Turtle |
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| Queensnake |
I'll take a Mocha...Emerald, Please!
Last week I was carrying out some insect surveys on a property in the Stoney Creek area and saw a large dragonfly foraging on the edge of woodland. It was almost the size of a darner, but a bit more slender overall. As it perched on a shrub I got a good look through the binoculars and knew it was a large Somatochlora (genus) emerald of some sort. I crept up slowly and snagged it with my net and took a bunch of photos to ID later. Back at the car I went through the guide book and quickly figured out it was a female Mocha Emerald! A very rare species in Ontario, with a sub-national (S-rank) of S2 'Imperiled'. Looking on inaturalist I only see 10 records in Ontario and none in the Hamilton Region. In Ontario, this species is mostly restricted to Chatham-Kent and Lambton County areas. What a thrill to find such a rare species and a new one for me!
Beautiful Places I have Seen - June
My lack of posting lately has been a reflection of my busyness rather than a lack of things to write about. My work in June was carried out at a frenetic pace that left little time to do other things. Now that things are slowing down (a bit) I have some time to post a few pictures of some of the wonderful places my work has taken me in he past month! In another post I will detail some of the highlights of the wildlife, but for now just enjoy the scenery!
These two photos are from a lovely ravine in the Hamilton area!
Thames River near Ingersoll.
Maitland River rapids
Morris Tract on the Maitland River
Caitlyn and I just got a pair of kayaks and have been having a blast going out to Belwood Lake the past few weekends. I have also used mine for some dragonfly surveys at work on the Nith and Grand Rivers!
These two photos are from a lovely ravine in the Hamilton area!
Thames River near Ingersoll.
Maitland River rapids
Morris Tract on the Maitland River
Caitlyn and I just got a pair of kayaks and have been having a blast going out to Belwood Lake the past few weekends. I have also used mine for some dragonfly surveys at work on the Nith and Grand Rivers!
Friday, 24 May 2019
Erieau Birding - Franklin's Gulls, Neotropic Cormorant, Red Knot and more!
This morning I was down in the Chatham area for work doing some bird surveys and decided to go birding at Erieau after. While checking out the shorebirds at the fields north of McGeachy Pond I bumped into Allen Woodliffe and Rob Palin, two birders that I am long overdue for meeting!
We looked over the hundreds of Dunlin, Ruddy Turnstone, and Black-bellied Plovers and eventually spied a Red Knot, a nice treat and my first of the year. While watching the shorebirds we saw a dark-mantled gull with a full hood which at first I thought was a Franklin's Gull due to what I thought was a slight pinkish hue, then I changed my ID to Laughing Gull due to the really dark black wingtips. Alas I changed my opinion yet again and I now realize that all 4 of the dark mantled gulls I saw were indeed Franklin's Gulls. Still a great bird! Side by side this would be a simple ID, but way out in a field with haze is a bit trickier for me...I guess I need to see more Franklin's and Laughing Gulls in Ontario! Apparently there was an immature Laughing Gull seen at this same location just yesterday!
I also checked the Erieau waterfront with Rob, and he spotted the continuing Neotropic Cormorant hiding in a small willow with some other cormorants. Another great bird!
There were lots of shorebirds on the beach too, mostly Sanderling, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones and Black-bellied Plovers.
We looked over the hundreds of Dunlin, Ruddy Turnstone, and Black-bellied Plovers and eventually spied a Red Knot, a nice treat and my first of the year. While watching the shorebirds we saw a dark-mantled gull with a full hood which at first I thought was a Franklin's Gull due to what I thought was a slight pinkish hue, then I changed my ID to Laughing Gull due to the really dark black wingtips. Alas I changed my opinion yet again and I now realize that all 4 of the dark mantled gulls I saw were indeed Franklin's Gulls. Still a great bird! Side by side this would be a simple ID, but way out in a field with haze is a bit trickier for me...I guess I need to see more Franklin's and Laughing Gulls in Ontario! Apparently there was an immature Laughing Gull seen at this same location just yesterday!
I also checked the Erieau waterfront with Rob, and he spotted the continuing Neotropic Cormorant hiding in a small willow with some other cormorants. Another great bird!
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| Neotropic Cormorant - note the white chevron near the mouth! |
Sunday, 19 May 2019
Amherst Island Birding Trip - May 2019
On Saturday, Dad and I took the first ferry over to Amherst Island for our 3rd annual May birding trip! Typically we try to catch the 1pm ferry home, leaving us approximately 6hrs of bird watching. In 2016 we had 100 species and in 2017 we tallied 103 species. Our goal this year was to beat our previous record, and I am happy to report that we were successful...barely! We got 104 species with only about a half hour to spare!
The highlight of the day was definitely a Least Bittern that we found on the edge of a marsh just a few metres away! We were so happy that he sat there and posed for photos! I always forget how small they are! They are indeed our smallest heron, being only the size of a robin! They are quite secretive and I have heard far more than I have ever seen!
Immediately prior to finding the bittern we had great views of a Virginia Rail, another secretive marsh bird. This individual was less cooperative as it was actively feeding, scuttling along the shoreline.
Other highlights were 18 species of warblers, Orchard Orioles, and a good number of shorebirds including at least a dozen Wilson's Phalarope!
I can hardly wait until next year to try to get 105!
The highlight of the day was definitely a Least Bittern that we found on the edge of a marsh just a few metres away! We were so happy that he sat there and posed for photos! I always forget how small they are! They are indeed our smallest heron, being only the size of a robin! They are quite secretive and I have heard far more than I have ever seen!
Immediately prior to finding the bittern we had great views of a Virginia Rail, another secretive marsh bird. This individual was less cooperative as it was actively feeding, scuttling along the shoreline.
Other highlights were 18 species of warblers, Orchard Orioles, and a good number of shorebirds including at least a dozen Wilson's Phalarope!
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| Wilson's Phalarope |
I can hardly wait until next year to try to get 105!
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