New year birding

While January is not necessarily the best month for birding, in terms of displacing large numbers of birds in addition to exciting species, the start to 2020 has been pretty good for anyone interested in doing a big year, with several continuing rarities.

I started the year at the cottage, just outside of Tobermory with Lill and her family. We had been at the cottage for a few days and were driving home on the 1st, with a few stops along the way.

First up was Lion's Head to look for the somewhat continuing Harlequin Duck, which unfortunately was a no-show on the 1st, as well as the previous 2 days I had checked. However, things were about to pick-up; on our way out of Lion's Head, heading towards Ferndale, I spotted a large bird at the top of some trees. Pulling over revealed it to be the gray Gyrfalcon found just before Christmas!!

I had in fact been searching for this bird, and managed to luck into it this time, after looking for close to 5 hours over the previous 2 mornings -- I guess that's why they call it three times a charm.

Needless to say I was pretty pumped. This was also a lifer for Lill, so that was pretty neat too.

Heading south from here, we drove through the flats and came across a lone male Common Grackle, seeming out of place.

From here we made a bee-line for the Owen Sound harbour, where we hoped to luck into the annually returning (2 years?) male Barrow's Goldeneye.

Sure enough, after getting to Kelso Beach Park, in Owen Sound, I managed to pick out the Goldeneye, as well as some other decent first of the year birds in the harbour, including Canvasback and Redhead.

All in all a good start to the year -- let's hope the rest of the year will continue to bring more goodies like on the 1st!