Thursday, March 28, 2013

How many Little Gulls do you see?

I saw this on Facebook and thought I should really steal that and claim as my own...actually I thought it was pretty awesome and thought it would be a fun blog post. The picture is by Cory DeStein from near Presqu'ile State Park, in Pennsylvania, just south of Long Point.

They've had a flock of several thousands Bonies, with at least 52 Little's! Here's the pic:



How many Little Gull's do you see? I counted 5...and 2 alternate adult Bonies.

Last weekend, my Dad, Mike and I led a KWFN outing down to the Long Point area for our annual waterfowl outing. We had lots of great stuff, including 25 Little Gull's at Turkey Point. Mike was able to get some great shots, some of which I've stolen from him and pasted below:









Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Florida continued

I promised some pics of my trip to Florida....and here are some.

Red-shouldered Hawk - we only see these in the Everglades

Roseate Spoonbill - we saw decent numbers in the Everglades

Wood Stork

Swallow-tailed Kite - we had a group of 11, including this bird with some Spanish Moss

'Gators were common in the areas of the 'Glades with water

Anhinga's on the Anhinga Trail, Everglades

Little-blue Heron - still haven't seen this guy in Ontario


Black-crowned Night-Heron - we only saw a few of this species. No YCNH's though.

Green Heron - were locally uncommon

Purple Gallinule - what a beaut!

That's a lot of Alligators!

View of the 'Glades nearing sunset.

Sunset

Tricolored Heron - saw a few

Western Kingbird - we ended up seeing 4 birds throughout the trip
Broad-winged Hawk - this was the 3nd most common raptor (after OSPR and RSHA)

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - we ended up having 4 birds together at the Marathon airport, our only birds of the trip

Tropical Kingbird - we twitched this bird. It was hanging with 2 WEKI's!

Tropical (left) and Western (right) Kingbirds

And some videos!!!!



Friday, March 15, 2013

Essex and Chatham-Kent

This is a rushed post.....

I was working in Essex county today, doing some waterfowl surveys. The day turned out pretty nice, despite the cool temperatures.

Didn't have much 'on-site', however I was able to stop in at the Onion Fields shortly, and picked up the drake Eurasian Wigeon (reported on ebird) sleeping in the fields directly NE of the main Point Pelee park gate. See below for a shit-tacular photo!

You see it??? What! You don't? Ya, its a pretty shitty shot
 From the Pelee area, we made our way back to Waterloo, stopping at the Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons. This place has been a pretty happenin' place the last few months; getting numerous Greater White-fronted Geese, Ross's Geese, wintering Wood Ducks AND a Blue-winged Teal.

Anyways getting to the lagoons, I saw a few birds, including 3 Tundra Swan's in the north cell. I decided to get the scope out, and quickly noticed one of the 3 swans was quite weird......

Seeing how much yellow was on the bill made me instantly think Whooper Swan, but after getting a pic of it and looking at Sibley, I had my serious thoughts on Bewick's.


Anyways, long story short, I sent my pics to Mike, who also thought it looked good for Bewick's. He sent it to Ken Abraham (OMNR waterfowl expert) and he also thought Bewick's. I've got a few comments back from others, who all think Bewick's. What do you think?

I did read one paper very quickly regarding the identification of Whistling and Bewick's Tundra Swans ("A comparative analysis of the bill markings of Whistling and Bewick's Swans and out-of-range occurrences of the two taxa"; Evans and Sladen, 1980 in the Auk). To summarize their findings, they found the maximum amount of yellow marking on the entire bill of a Whistling Swan was 15% vs. the range of 22-42% of the bill on Bewick's (average = 31.5%). Looking really quickly at this bird, I'd say it has ~30% yellow on the bill. You can't see it in the pic, but the 'bridge' of the bill was also yellow. 

I've never seen a Bewick's Swan before so I would really enjoy any comments you may have. Even negative :)

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Florida trip summary - never too late...

Well I thought it was perhaps time to post something on my blog. Recently (2 weeks ago) my Dad and I did a whirlwind trip down to sunny south Florida, birding the keys and the Everglades. See below for our entire trip! I'll post some pics in a few days too.



South Florida birding trip, February 17-21, 2013

Day 1 – Miami-Islamorada Sunday  February 17th
After being delayed due to the snow in Toronto, we finally touched down into sunny Miami around lunch-time on Sunday. After another brief delay, we were finally off! We had our rental car, a nice Hydundai Elantra and our first and only Fish Crow’s of the trip.

From the airport in Miami we headed straight for the Keys, heading down US Route 1. Along the way, we were in awe of all the waterbirds (even when driving in-land), the number of hawks and vultures and different doves; not to mention the green vegetation and helmet-less motorcyclists! Here we had our first Boat-tailed Grackles, Common Ground-Dove’s, and Black Vultures. Making our way south onto Card Road South, we had our first views of mangroves and the Atlantic. We stopped at Key Largo Hammock State Park in the windy weather (winds were north at 30-40km/hr), and had a brief glimpse of a White-crowned Pigeon, as well as our first Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and our first warblers – Prairie’s, Yellow-rumped, and Palm.
Heading south from Key Largo Hammock State Park, we headed towards Islamorada, where we planned to stay the night in the area. Along the way we spotted a Western Kingbird briefly on the wires. In Islamorada, after settling in at the Days Inn, we checked the ocean, getting our first of several Lesser Black-backed Gulls and some more warblers.

Day 2 – Islamorada-Big Pine Key Monday  February 18th
Dad and I woke up first thing in Islamorada, and started heading south-west right away. Before we left though, we checked out the ocean from the hotel, picking up our only Northern Gannet, along with several Willets, and more Yellow-rump’s. We stopped at several spots along US-Route 1, picking up the usual waterbirds (e.g., Brown Pelican, the regular herons, Royal Terns and more than enough Laughing Gulls)! Our first notable stop however was at Curry Hammock State Park, where we walked a series of trails, picking up a surprising Worm-eating Warbler and our first of many Northern Parulas. Continuing we stopped at the Marathon airport, picking up a group of 4 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers(!) and another Western Kingbird! Just across the highway we drove around the local golf course, picking up our only 2 Monk Parakeets and a (dark) Short-tailed Hawk (both were lifers). At Ohio Key we saw several shorebirds, including Red Knot, Stilt Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitchers and Least Sandpipers. From here, we continued and stopped at Bahio-Honda State Park. Here we came across our first notable neotropical warblers (asides from the WEWA), netting Ovenbird, American Redstart and a surprising ‘Audubon’s’ Yellow-rumped Warbler (a review species in Florida!).

After having lunch on the beach at Bahia-Honda, we continued onto Big Pine and No Name Keys. Here we came across the endangered subspecies of White-tailed Deer, called ‘Key’ Deer. Traffic was also starting to die down, however costs associated with gas, hotels, and food were becoming more expensive. Several neotropical songbirds were also around, with Great Crested Flycatchers, more Prairie Warblers and another Ovenbird showing up. On No Name Key we had another White-crowned Pigeon as well as a large Iguana. We tried staying overnight in Key West, however all the hotels were booked and we had to back-track to Big Pine Key, where we stayed overnight and enjoyed a nice Mexican/Cuban dinner.

Day 3 – Big Pine Key-Key West-Florida City  Tuesday February 19th
On day 3, we aimed to be in Key West just after sunrise to check out a few local hotspots. Our first stops were the Golf Course and Botanical Gardens. The Golf Course provided our first waterfowl (with the exception of Red-breasted Merganser) in the freshwater ponds, with Ring-necked Ducks and Blue-winged Teals being seen in good numbers. Wintering neotropical songbirds were also in evidence, with the Botanical Gardens being great. Since the gardens didn’t open until 10am, we decided we would have our own private tour before things opened up...and were rewarded with picking up the female Western Spindalis that had been last seen a few weeks before! We also got other good birds, including; Painted and Indigo Buntings, 2 more Ovenbirds, our first Northern Waterthrushes and a Black-throated Green Warbler. Muscovy Ducks and Red Junglefowl were also around the area and White-eyed Vireos and Prairie Warblers were particularly plentiful in the adjacent mangroves.

 From the Botanical Gardens, we toured Key West, stopping at Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park before heading north and east towards the Everglades on US Route 1. Fort Zachary and Key West was very summer-like, being close to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, however birds were still around and we picked up our first Glossy Ibis, Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks, Black Skimmer and Magnificent Frigatebirds in the area.

Getting off the Keys, Dad and I found a hotel in Florida City, just outside the Everglades. From here we had just enough time to check Lucky Hammock, picking up a wintering Tropical Kingbird (with 2 Western Kingbirds!), and several new open-country birds for the trip; Eastern Meadowlark, Sandhill Cranes, Northern Harriers and Brown Thrasher as well as Pine and Orange-crowned Warblers. Arriving back at our hotel just before dark we picked up a Common Myna while at a stoplight!

Day 4 – Everglades National Park Wednesday February 20th
Dad and I got up well before dawn (around 06:45) and drove into the park, aiming to be near the south end of the ‘road’ for first light. Along the way we stopped at the park gate, where we picked up 2/3 Lesser Nighthawks wintering in the area. We continued on towards Flamingo, picking up several new birds as the habitat and landscape had dramatically changed from the Caribbean-like Keys to the now flat prairie-like Everglades. We started at Snake Bite, hiking about a mile down the trail and back. Here we picked up our only Limpkin’s, as well as unexpected birds like American Robin and Carolina Wren, plus the usual warblers (Prairie, Palm, N. Parula and N. Waterthrushes). After hitting up Snake Bite, we continued towards Flamingo, stopping at Mrazek Pond. Here we watched it seemed like hundreds of waterbirds in the small pool (~1 acre in size). Literally every heron was here, including Wood Storks, Roseate Spoonbills, and lots of teal (both species). Arriving in Flamingo, high-tide was approaching, and the sand-bar just offshore was packed with an estimated flock of 600(!) Black Skimmers amongst the 180 Willets and other regular waterbirds. Other shorebirds were around in decent numbers with us picking up our only Marbled Godwits, Dunlin and Western Sandpipers. We also scored pretty big, with Dad picking out a group of 11 Swallow-tailed Kites soaring overhead! After checking out the south end around Flamingo, we headed back north towards the park gate. Along the way we picked up Barn Swallow, Black-and-white Warbler, Lesser Scaup and Barred Owls at Mahogany Hammock. By this time, the day had really heated up (mid 80’s) and activity was fairly slow. Nevertheless stopping at the Long Pine Campground netted a rather unexpected Brown-headed Nuthatch! Nearby we also checked out Anhinga Trail. The trail was fantastic, however the crowds definitely were not! Dozens of every species of heron were in evidence often within only a few feet of us! The trail ended up netting several new species like American Bittern, Purple Gallinule, and Black-crowned Night-Heron. After hiking Anhinga Trail, we decided to go back to Flamingo for low-tide when we hoped more shorebirds would be around. Having dinner watching the tide go out was definitely a highlight, along with seeing all the regular waterbirds. Around dusk we headed back to our hotel, but not before stopping at a few spots, listening for any birds calling after dark. Stopping at ‘the’ spot for ‘Cape Sable’ Seaside Sparrow picked up 3-4 birds which were definitely the rarest bird of the trip (most recent estimate is 2,400 birds), plus a bonus Virginia Rail (uncommon) and Great-horned Owl. The day was pretty good, with 96 species throughout the day in perfect summer-like weather as well as seeing the odd Alligator.

Day 5 - Everglades - Miami - Ontario
Day 5 was our last day in sunny Florida. Dad and I again decided we’d try to get to Flamingo for first light and low-tide, hoping for shorebirds. Shorebirds didn’t turn out, so we quickly changed gears, driving back towards Snake Bite to walk the road for wintering neotropical birds. This was a good idea, with us netting 14 species of warblers, many in good numbers (Prairie 15, A. Redstart 7, Black-and-white 14, N. Parual 19, and N. Waterthrush 10), comparable to Pelee or Long Point in May.  Highlights here included our only Cape May (female) and a singing Yellow-throated Warblers, plus our only male Painted Bunting and several Barred Owls calling in broad day-light. After spending the first few hours in the park, we had to start making our way towards the airport in Miami.

Driving out of the park we picked up another White-crowned Pigeon. Getting out of the park, we stopped again at Lucky Hammock, where we finally got the Brown-crested Flycatcher as well as our first American 
Goldfinches and another Painted Bunting.

The drive back to the airport continued with much of the same stuff we had seen on the trip down to the Keys, with lots of Vultures, herons and doves being seen along the way.
All in all it was a great trip, 141 species, great weather (sunny and warm) and most importantly great company! The ABA regional bird finding guide proved to be an invaluable tool for this trip and is highly recommended for birders going to Florida in the future.

Found on the following page is a list of all species seen, plus the frequency observed throughout the trip (N=35 checklists). 
#
Species
Frequency

#
Species
Frequency
1
Muscovy Duck
9

43
Purple Gallinule
3
2
Mottled Duck
3

44
Common Gallinule
17
3
Blue-winged Teal
14

45
American Coot
23
4
Green-winged Teal
3

46
Limpkin
3
5
Ring-necked Duck
6

47
Sandhill Crane
3
6
Lesser Scaup
3

48
Black-bellied Plover
9
7
Red-breasted Merganser
6

49
Killdeer
17
8
Red Junglefowl
6

50
Black-necked Stilt
3
9
Pied-billed Grebe
23

51
Spotted Sandpiper
20
10
Wood Stork
23

52
Greater Yellowlegs
3
11
Magnificent Frigatebird
9

53
Willet
17
12
Northern Gannet
3

54
Lesser Yellowlegs
3
13
Double-crested Cormorant
69

55
Marbled Godwit
3
14
Anhinga
20

56
Ruddy Turnstone
6
15
American White Pelican
17

57
Red Knot
3
16
Brown Pelican
49

58
Sanderling
9
17
American Bittern
6

59
Western Sandpiper
3
18
Great Blue Heron
49

60
Least Sandpiper
11
19
Great Egret
54

61
Dunlin
3
20
Snowy Egret
31

62
Stilt Sandpiper
3
21
Little Blue Heron
29

63
Short-billed Dowitcher
3
22
Tricolored Heron
20

64
Laughing Gull
54
23
Reddish Egret
11

65
Ring-billed Gull
46
24
Cattle Egret
11

66
Herring Gull
17
25
Green Heron
9

67
Lesser Black-backed Gull
11
26
Black-crowned Night-Heron
9

68
Caspian Tern
11
27
White Ibis
49

69
Forster’s Tern
6
28
Glossy Ibis
9

70
Royal Tern
37
29
Roseate Spoonbill
26

71
Black Skimmer
11
30
Black Vulture
29

72
Rock Pigeon
31
31
Turkey Vulture
77

73
White-crowned Pigeon
9
32
Osprey
60

74
Eurasian Collared-Dove
29
33
Swallow-tailed Kite
3

75
Mourning Dove
40
34
Northern Harrier
6

76
Common Ground-Dove
11
35
Sharp-shinned Hawk
3

77
Great-horned Owl
3
36
Cooper’s Hawk
3

78
Barred Owl
6
37
Bald Eagle
9

79
Lesser Nighthawk
3
38
Red-shouldered Hawk
35

80
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
6
39
Broad-winged Hawk
17

81
Belted Kingfisher
46
40
Short-tailed Hawk
3

82
Red-bellied Woodpecker
34
41
Red-tailed Hawk
3

83
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
11
42
Virginia Rail
3

84
Downy Woodpecker
3

85
Pileated Woodpecker
9

114
Northern Waterthrush
17
86
American Kestrel
40

115
Black-and-white Warbler
6
87
Merlin
3

116
Orange-crowned Warbler
6
88
Monk Parakeet
3

117
Common Yellowthroat
23
89
Eastern Phoebe
23

118
American Redstart
14
90
Great Crested Flycatcher
20

119
Cape May Warbler
3
91
Brown-crested Flycatcher
3

120
Northern Parula
29
92
Tropical Kingbird
3

121
Palm Warbler
60
93
Western Kingbird
11

122
Pine Warbler
6
94
Scissor-tailed Kingbird
3

123
Yellow-rumped Warbler
63
95
Loggerhead Shrike
14

124
Yellow-throated Warbler
3
96
White-eyed Vireo
23

125
Prairie Warbler
31
97
Blue-headed Vireo
6

126
Black-throated Green Warbler
6
98
American Crow
23

127
Western Spindalis
3
99
Fish Crow
9

128
Savannah Sparrow
3
100
Tree Swallow
34

129
Seaside Sparrow
3
101
Barn Swallow
3

130
Northern Cardinal
43
102
Brown-headed Nuthatch
3

131
Indigo Bunting
3
103
House Wren
6

132
Painted Bunting
17
104
Carolina Wren
3

133
Red-winged Blackbird
40
105
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
46

134
Eastern Meadowlark
9
106
American Robin
3

135
Common Grackle
14
107
Gray Catbird
54

136
Boat-tailed Grackle
14
108
Northern Mockingbird
54

137
Brown-headed Cowbird
6
109
Brown Thrasher
6

138
American Goldfinch
3
110
Common Myna
3

139
House Sparrow
6
111
European Starling
37

140
Northern Shoveler
6
112
Ovenbird
9

141
White-winged Dove
9
113
Worm-eating Warbler
3