CBC rarities and a Snowy Owl oddity

The 30th Wallaceburg/Walpole Island Christmas Bird Count was held yesterday, Dec 27. The weather was not too conducive for finding lots of birds, but the birds made up for it in other ways. Quality, not quantity is one way to describe it.

My territory basically includes the St. Clair River from Walpole Island north to about the now closed Lambton Generating Station, as well as some inland areas east to Hwy 40. There is a lot of area there, but given that most of it is agriculture or private industrial, there is not a lot of inland area that is able to be covered very thoroughly. So the river gets a lot of viewing time, and normally that takes a lot of effort with lots of waterfowl, gulls, etc. Not so this year. I have never seen the river so devoid of birds!

The last couple of winters, albeit a little later in the season than this, looked like this. A huge amount of ice was present, causing large concentrations of ducks, especially Canvasback, Redhead and Common Goldeneye, to be jammed in to the little open water that there was.

This year, of course, all water was completely open, and freighters could go up or downstream uninhibited.

Side note: the day started off with heavy cloud, rain and brisk north wind. It improved somewhat as the day went on, but there was a bit of misty drizzle on and off for most of the day, and certainly not conducive for photography. Hence many of these images were taken under poor light, and I had to ramp the ISO up to 1600 or higher in most cases.

It was only after I got this photo on the computer that I realized a flock of Bufflehead, out of focus but in the lower left hand corner, were passing by. Bufflehead was one of only five waterfowl species I saw on the river this day. (I got two other species inland.) There was quite a current, and freighters going downstream were travelling considerably faster than those struggling to get upstream. With the brisk north wind, there were at times even whitecaps on the river!

With so few waterfowl to count, I even took the occasional photo of other things. A large church across the river in Michigan looked to have a good turnout.

At the Sombra Ferry dock, there is always a group of Mallards, and occasionally something else mixed in. In the last few days, a female Harlequin Duck has been hanging out. When I first saw it this day, it was resting on a post, and was almost underneath the boathouse and therefore in heavy shade. I used a bit of flash for these next two photos.

Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck with Mallards

It is considerably smaller than the Mallards it was with. And when the ducks get 'tired' of bouncing around in the water, they have a post or other feature to hang out on.

Mallard

The day before, there had been some Cackling Geese in amongst the resident Canadas at Cathcart Park, so I stopped there. Not a goose in sight, but there were, to borrow from "The Twelve Days of Christmas" seven swans a-swimming. I couldn't get them all in the same frame...only these four.

Mute Swans

Mute Swans were typically in numbers greater than we like to see, with 77 recorded for the count.

At the north end of the territory, I saw one of the two Peregrine Falcons that had been known to hang out at the Lambton Generating Station.

Peregrine Falcon

Working inland a bit, I came across a Northern Shrike, the first one I have seen all fall/winter so far.

Northern Shrike

Wild Turkeys are usually pretty easy to find on this count, but with the wind, rain and no snow cover they were almost impossible to find this time. I eventually saw a flock of 22, most of which are in this next photo. As it turns out, there was only one other Wild Turkey seen on the count, coming in to a feeder.

Wild Turkeys

I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to see the very cooperative Vermilion Flycatcher that had gotten the attention of birders far and wide these last 10 days. Even though it wasn't in my official territory, I can now add it to my personal Birds seen on a Christmas Bird Count list :-). Larry Cornelis found this bird a few days ago, and it is now the first time this species has been recorded on a Canadian CBC. In 2001, Larry found a Black-necked Stilt that stayed around for that year's CBC and it was the first Canadian record for a CBC. What are you going to find for us next year, Larry?

Vermilion Flycatcher

On my way home at the end of the day, I came across a Snowy Owl along Hwy 40 just south of Wallaceburg. It wasn't a real surprise given that several have been seen in the count circle over the past few days. However since there is never a guarantee, I decided to photograph it in case it was the only one seen. It was almost 5 p.m. and at this time, with the very heavy cloud cover, it was getting quite dark. The only way I could get this photo was setting the ISO to 6400, a number higher than I've ever used before. (Back in the film days, any slide film above 400 ASA/ISO was almost useless.) So I was quite pleased how well this one turned out. The bluish gray sky is an artifact of the heavy gray cloud cover. The image looks much, much brighter than the conditions it was shot under! In taking a closer look at this owl, I couldn't help but note the 'goggle' effect of the feathers around its eyes. Of the four pics I took, they all had this, and I have never noticed this before, although I can't recall ever photographing a Snowy Owl in such dark conditions. Is this something that they regularly look like in the dark? Does it have some kind of benefit to them to hone in on prospective prey? When they are on their breeding grounds, much of the time is in daylight. It was quite breezy from the north when I took this, so does this protect their eyes when they are more fully open to compensate for the dark conditions?

Snowy Owl

Any thoughts???

Red and white bring birders delight

It was a red and white day.

The word got out about an immature male Vermilion Flycatcher at the Cornelis home farm this morning. I missed the text message from Steve Charbonneau, as I was enjoying a meeting of mostly MNR retirees at a local hangout for a coffee clatch that we have every month or two. When I got home and checked the email before heading up to an afternoon meeting at Walpole, I saw Steve's Ontbird posting about this southwestern flycatcher! Then I checked my phone and yep....there was Steve's text.

So I informed the person I was meeting with at Walpole that I would be there a little later, and headed first for the Cornelis farm. There was a handful of folks already there. One of them said "You should have been here five minutes ago". Right....thanks Garry :-). It wouldn't be the first time I've missed an unusual bird by five minutes (or less). Fortunately that wasn't the case today. It appeared on the fence.

Then it worked its way closer into a patch of dead asters and goldenrods etc in the pasture, until popping up even closer on an open branch of a dormant sapling.

This is the second record for Chatham-Kent. The previous one was in the late fall of 1994, and we were hoping it might stick around to be counted on the St. Clair NWA Christmas Bird Count, but that didn't happen. With the Wallaceburg/Walpole CBC only 10 days away, this one has a chance if it can survive until then. But if it decides it has had enough of southwestern Ontario at this time of year, and can make it back home to Texas or Arizona where it really should be, I'm okay with that.

It is very distinctive even in this immature male plumage, but the adult male is positively brilliant! Somewhat like a smaller, but brighter, version of a Scarlet Tanager in a basic way. This next image is of an adult male which I took at the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in the very southern part of Arizona in the spring of 2012.

The female is distinctive as well, but much more subdued. It was also photographed along the San Pedro River in 2012.

After appreciating the view of this fantastic flycatcher today, I made it to my meeting at Walpole in reasonable time. Upon leaving Walpole, I returned home checking some of the areas where I had seen Snowy Owls earlier in the week. Sure enough, even in the fading light I saw one sitting on top of a barn roof. It was too dark to get the camera out...with the brisk wind and the constantly ruffled feathers, any photo would have been a blur. So I will post photos of three of the five birds I came across on Wednesday.

One of the first ones I saw was just south of Robin Line, in a corn field.

 Another one was sitting on the roof of a barn east of Malcolm Line, south of Mud Creek Line.

 I had been hoping for a good close-up of one on a pole by the road. The last one I saw that day was doing just that, right along Mallard Line.

It was definitely a Red and White highlight day today. Not often do you get a chance to see an arctic visitor within a few kilometres of a southwestern Arizona visitor in an afternoon!

Another year begins...

Three years ago Marie and I went to Arizona for a month over the latter part of March and the first part of April, spending two weeks of that time renting a house on its own 10 acres of Sonoran Desert. The southeastern part of Arizona is a fabulous place to visit for a lot of reasons, but especially if you like arid, sunny, warm conditions towards the end of winter. In combination with the spectacular scenery, abundant wildlife, relatively low density of the human population and some terrific national parks and wildlife areas....well it doesn't get much better than that, at least for me. Since the early 1980s, we have been to various parts of Arizona about 8 different times.

One year ago, I started this blog. It has been an interesting and rewarding experience, in part due to all the supportive readers and comments I have received. So I will begin the second year of this blog with some highlights of the Arizona desert, including some southwestern birds which have shown up in southwestern Ontario.

This first scene is on the property we were staying at. The owners even created a one kilometre trail which traversed the different sections of this desert. Even so, it is usually quite easy to walk around this type of desert. The rainfall is so limited that plants are spread out as their roots compete for moisture. On some days while we were there, the relative humidity was down to about 10%! In this image are several examples of the iconic single stemmed and multi-armed Saguaro cactus as well as the Santa Rita Prickly Pear in the left foreground.

There were feeders set up, which the wildlife visited readily.

Round-tailed Ground Squirrel

Gambel's Quail male

 We thought that the female Gambel's Quail were incubating, and on the day we left, this newly hatched family came by.

Gambel's Quail female and chicks

We had Curve-billed Thrashers visiting regularly; in fact one pair was nesting in a Cholla cactus within a few metres of the house.

Curve-billed Thrasher exiting the nest area in a Cholla

Curve-billed Thrasher on a Saguaro

We had Gila Woodpeckers all the time as well, including a pair nesting in a large Saguaro.

It is possible that this nest cavity might be a future roosting spot for the diminutive Elf Owl. We didn't see any Elf Owls on this trip, but have done so on other trips.

As expected, cactus were abundant, and some were even in flower while we were there, such as this Pink-flowered Hedgehog.

And lots of Santa Rita Prickly Pear.

We did travel to many other fascinating places while in the Arizona, including Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge right adjacent to the Mexican border, Madera Canyon and Ramsey Canyon (both of which are at the northern limit of the Mexican mountains and regularly have Mexican birds nesting), and San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, where the river flows from Mexico into Arizona. And Saguaro National Monument, very close to Tucson, is a must!

A short time before our time was up, we noticed that some of the Saguaros were in flower. They are usually near the top of mature arms, so not always easy to get a good photo of. But their position makes them more likely to be pollinated by bats, their main pollinator.

 And the desert skies gave some great opportunities to capture some sunset shots. This next photo was taken along one of the trails in Tucson Mountain Park, adjacent to Saguaro National Monument.

We saw other birds, including Acorn Woodpecker, Green-tailed Towhee, Pyrrhuloxia, Vermilion Flycatcher and Lark Bunting, as well as a few species that normally breed in Canada but spend the winters in the south, such as White-crowned Sparrows.

Acorn Woodpecker

Green-tailed Towhee

Lark Bunting

Pyrrhuloxia

Vermilion Flycatcher

I show these birds, because over the years several of them have put in an appearance in southwestern Ontario!

A Green-tailed Towhee showed up at a feeder in Windsor a couple of decades or more ago. Lark Bunting has appeared on several occasions, including a couple of times in the Rondeau checklist area, but not since the mid-1970s until one was seen very briefly along the Marsh Trail in 2014. A Pyrrhuloxia showed up at a feeder in West Elgin a few years ago. And a Vermilion Flycatcher appeared at St. Clair NWA late in the year in the 1990s, but didn't linger long enough for the Christmas Bird Count.

I have been fortunate to see all four of these species in Ontario....but I'm waiting to get one or more on my Rondeau list....will this be the year?

Another southwestern species that did show up at Rondeau and is now included on the park's checklist is this Cassin's Kingbird. Unfortunately I was the only one to see it at the park when I found it back in November of 2013, and since it was already dead, can't count it on my park list. But since some individuals of the southwestern flycatchers group have a tendency to end up going north instead of south in the fall, there is always the possibility of another rare flycatcher to show up.

And with that, I will begin another year of this blog. Thanks again for all of the visits and support!