New bird for Waterloo Region

Sooo....its been awhile, I know. I've sorta fallen off the blog thing, kinda, its not for the lack of birding, its just a busy time of year, with school heating up, and work not slowing down = busy times.

But anyways, Mike and I finished our latest project of writing/updating the checklist of birds for Waterloo Region. Just as we finished, what do you know happens....a new bird is found for the region - Boreal Owl!!

Peeter Musta found this young female dead along Fischer Hallman Road in Kitchener. Pretty bizarre 'sighting' considering there hasn't been any reports of Boreal Owl in southern, let alone all of Ontario! Anyways this is more or less the 300 species for the region! Not too shabby considering the region's land locked without too many good birders.

Anyways here's some shots I took of the bird (its in my parents freezers awaiting the ROM).

Here's a shot of my lifer Boreal back in December 2008 on Amherst Island.

Ps. Is it just me or does it seem like a few people maybe doing big years? If you don't believe me look at eBird -

http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/top100?locInfo.regionCode=CA-ON&year=2012&locInfo.regionType=subnational1