My biggest misses...

Well some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted anything for a while, that's obviously true. It's not for a lack of birding, as I've been doing that a fair bit, working a fair bit, doing a fair bit of school and working on some papers etc. The next two editions of Ontario Birds will (hopefully) have some papers of mine in it, so keep an eye out....

Anyways I thought an interesting post (to me anyways) would be go through my biggest misses - birds that I 'should've' seen in Ontario by now.

Pacific Loon - don't laugh...I just haven't been bothered to go for one. I'd rather find one of these guys on my own. We had 3 loons that looked oh so good at Netitishi Point last year, but could never conclusively confirm them.

Little-blue Heron - yup, another eazzzzy one. The only one I've legitimately tried for was the bird @ the BSC headquarters in 2008. Again, I'd rather find one of these on my own.

Wood Stork - the biggest miss of all time for moi???? In 2001, 3 juvenals spent pretty much the entire summer down on Pelee Island. As luck would have it though, I was at Long Point volunteering, so when I got back, my dad, Mike and I headed down. Unfortunately we showed up on the 1st day that they had NOT been seen! WTF! Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes though. To make it even better, these birds showed up about a week later for 2/3 days before finally heading out!

 Swainson's Hawk - same as the PALO and LBHE - I wanna find one of these on my own. Just a matter of time.

Wilson's Plover - I went looking for the bird at Tollgates/Windermere Pond in Hamilton in May 2004 twice....but came up empty handed.

Ivory Gull - there's been 2/3 that I could've gone to twitch had I had my driver's license or not been busy with school. The two that really stick out in my mind are the one's during the winter of 2000/2001. There were birds at Amherst Island AND Hamilton, but I was 14 so I couldn't exactly drive down the road to see them. This is def one of my 'most wanted' birds.

Black-tailed Gull - I remember getting 'the phone call' from brandon....only to realize there wasn't enough daylight (he called around 5pm) left to make it to Port Burwell. Mike and I headed down for first light the next morning. We came up empty, though it was reported by others that day.....

Fork-tailed Flycatcher - not really a huge miss, I must admit. I chased the bird in the Onion Fields @ Pelee in 2009? Obviously I missed it, though I didn't really expect to 'get' it.

Chestnut-sided Longspur - if only I had believed Stan Long's report from Reefor, I mean Reesor Pond....

Townsend's Warbler - there was a pretty spanking bird in April 2000 from Thickson's Wood's. Again, I was too young to be able to get there.

Black-headed Grosbeak - 1 bird was wintering at some feeders in Pakenham. To be honest I don't really know why I didn't go see it. Next one.

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch - if Wood Stork's are my biggest miss of all time, then this guy is a close 2nd....I remember leaving my parents at midnight, driving to PTBO to pick Mikey up (he was drunk) and then driving through the night, arriving in Chelmsford for day break, only to wait around with no luck! We did get some cool birds for the day though (Varied Thrush, Great Gray Owl, Hoary Redpoll, Pink-sided Junco etc), so it wasn't a complete bust. 


Next post will be about 'My biggest luck?'