Pelee! #221-223

A pretty exciting post for me--my first trip ever to Pelee! I had been waiting for this since it's quite the trek from Ottawa...9+ non-stop hours (yeah...I know other birders go a lot farther than that...) It's hard to justify it by itself, for me anyway, especially when it's hard to forecast the optimal weekend. Should you go early or late in migration? Plus you never know what kind of weather you are going to get. So when we had to go to Toronto for a funeral, it didn't seem so bad to just keep on driving afterward the extra 4ish hours.

We saw this along the way on the side of the road. I don't know why I feel compelled to take pictures of (and then post) dead birds. Call me crazy but I think it's important to take a minute for them, and also to reflect on our impact on the environment. This sighting is particularly unsettling...I love all birds, but to see a pileated, an absolutely majestic bird, is extremely sad. Of course lots of birds we find have died of natural causes, but this one, along the roadside, was more than likely on a collision course with a vehicle :(

We figured it would be a good idea to sign up for one of the guided hikes since it's a new area and this would be a good starting point for us. That meant getting up super bright and early since we were staying with one of my uni room mates in Windsor, over an hour from the park.

Sightings board in the visitor centre

Alvan was our tour leader, whose blog I just found. He was pretty young guy, so it was pretty inspiring to see another younger person so knowledgeable and passionate about birdies. In fact, I saw lots of other young people birding, which was nice, since I don't see much of that around here. (*sigh of relief; I'm not alone*) The highlight of the walk for me was seeing an eastern screech owl that I would not have found otherwise. Our leader set the scope on it (a nice Swarovski...if I didn't have scope envy before, I sure do now!). I recalled the birdchick's digiscoping skills so I tried getting a shot through the eyepiece with my iphone. Not the best shot, but at least documentary, and it has kind of a neat effect.

#221: Eastern Screech Owl (Rufous morph); Point Pelee National Park; May 20, 2012

Then I remembered I could do this with my point and shoot and tried again...a little better! What a beauty. What a beauty. What a beauty. Neither of these pictures communicate how gorgeous this bird is, nor could any words I could write.

Then I joked that I was going to wear my owl earrings in honour of this sighting. And I will!

After our walk we headed down to check out the tip. It's definitely a cool spot. A scissor-tailed flycatcher had been reported earlier in the morning but we didn't see it. There was an interesting combination of die-hard birders and very-obviously-not-birders. I even heard some people say, "Yeah, it must be like, Birdwatcher's Day or something," LOL.

nice catch!

Around noon we decided to take a break and headed to Kingsville for lunch at Jack's (yum!!) and a little winery visit. A little refreshed (but let's be honest...still exhausted!), we headed back for the afternoon. It was a lot quieter than I had expected it to be...I was expecting a lot more warblers. The majority of warblers were yellow warblers, but some others were spotted as well. There were more Baltimore orioles than I've ever seen before, along with orchard orioles, which was nice, since we don't have those in Ottawa.

Pretty good looks at an Eastern Towhee

Since it was a little quieter on the bird front, we did get to enjoy some of the wildflowers and other living things of the park. There was a wildflower walk happening that I was really interested in, but we thought our time was maybe better spent birding...wildflowers could wait until migration is over. 

Canadian columbine

The quiet afternoon was more than compensated for when we arrived at the part of the trail that is known to be home to a pair of prothonotary warblers, which are endangered in Canada (although they are found in the U.S. as well). We got lucky--it was present and visible as we arrived--nonchalantly preening on a branch in front of us, offering great looks. Another birder from Ottawa just happened to be there as well.

#222: Prothonotary Warbler; Point Pelee National Park; May 20, 2012

showing off those undertail coverts!

As we made our way back to the visitor centre from the prothonotary area, we heard a crying coming from leafy green overgrowth...then this to-die-for little head pops out. Seems as though someone had lost momma. poor little thing; I felt bad but Matt assured me that things would most likely sort themselves out.

cuteness overload!

I think it was somewhere around this point that we both started feeling that extreme fatigue that every birder knows--the kind of fatigue that comes from getting up at the crack of down, being on your feet since then in the relentless sun, lugging around heavy equipment, craning your neck all day. I'm starting to think that when I request a referral from my doctor for massages I should just tell her it's because I'm a birder--I won't even bother mentioning the sitting at a desk every day part. Then something, just a little something perked me up enough to get me going again...a sweet little red admiral. Of course we'd seen tons of them all day but this one was feeling particularly sociable.

Three things going on here--a butterfly on my boob, the birding festival lapel pin on my bag which Matt felt compelled to buy from the gift shop for $10 for "good luck"  because it had a prothonotary warbler on it (hey, it worked!) and the bird necklace from Nadia (cuz I'm so bird-crazy my buds have started buying me bird gifts) :)

Matt taking a picture of me taking a picture of the red admiral

Fairly exhausted, we decided to call it a day. We pondered the thought of coming back for park opening the next morning on the way home, as we felt we had missed a few key birds, and hoped it might be a more productive day. However, I doubted it would be much different without any change in the weather. As we headed out of the park, I wanted to stop and get a shot of how lush a lot of the park is, with vines growing up all the trees in a way that it just doesn't do around here in Ottawa.

Matt wandered off down a little path and called me over to check out the beach. I don't know how but I did notice some birds....and...DANG....they were cuckoos!! I felt an immense sense of joy and the thought of coming back first thing in the morning the next day was long gone!

#223: Black-billed cuckoo; Point Pelee National Park; May 20, 2012

nice beach at Pelee--calm and quiet at the end of the day

It was a short trip...next time I would really like to have more time, but given the various limitations we couldn't stay any longer. I'd like to have a least a few days in the park, and also visit the island, and generally just take my time. Sigh, I always get sucked into these whirlwind trips! Anyways, I still consider myself lucky to have been able to go :)

headin' home

#220: Gotcha! (magpie-crow)

I realize that everyone else is going warbler-wild right now, but I have a couple of other birds of personal note this week. I haven't had much time to dedicate solely to birding in the last few weeks but I did spot my first rose-breasted grosbeak and American redstart of the year (I'm probably a little behind!). On the way home from my Pathfinders' camp, Matt spotted this beautiful hawk on the roadside wire. It let us get pretty close! I'm sure I've posted sharp-shinned hawks before, but it looks like I never counted one. This one seems to be a juvenile, and while the legs look pretty thick, I think it's pretty clear by the barring that it's a sharp-shinned.

#120: Sharp-shinned hawk; near Christie Lake, Ontario; May 13, 2012

 

buh-bye!

Some helpful sharp-shinned/cooper identification tips:

• Sharpie and Cooper side-by-side comparisons from Cornell
• More tips from Cornell
• Hawk Guide
• Sharp-shinned and cooper's together (great pics!)

Now, here's something I'm pretty excited about. I've had this guy on my radar for a while now, and have been out looking for him a few times this week. The first time I saw it was quite a while ago while out geocaching on lunch...I saw a bird that looked a heck of a lot like a magpie. Of course this makes no sense, since we don't have magpies here, but the white on the wings so clearly looked like a magpie that I was confused.

Then my IT guy at work who knows I'm into birds mentioned a bird he saw that looked like a magpie too, in the same area that I had seen it, so this was getting pretty interesting. The plot thickens...

Then, a few weeks ago I was waiting for someone to pick me up in that area, and I was standing on the corner (haha ok stop laughing), and what do you know, I look up and that bird is sitting about 10 feet away from me, and I can clearly see that it's a crow! It just happens to be partially leucistic symmetrically on both wings in the same spots that magpies have white. Mystery solved! As it turns out (and as I learned recently, here), it's quite common for birds in the blackbird family to have leucism or partial leucism, i.e. feathers with no pigment. It's funny, I also saw a grackle last weekend with one white tail feather.

Now, as you can guess, up to this point, I hadn't had a camera with me to shoot this unique bird (go figure), and so the search began for this clever crow that disguised itself as a magpie.

WANTED: American crow masquerading as a magpie!

This meant carting in The Beast to work, hoping that I would spot it. And we all know what that means--the more effort I go to spotting a bird and the more prepared I am, the less likely I am to see it. Let's add that, for maybe the first time, I wasn't just looking for a kind of bird, but one specific individual. Now that's upping the ante. Lucky for me, this bird is pretty well established at a pretty specific location! Yay for creatures of habit and predictable beahaviour!

My first attempt was after work earlier this week. I got off the bus on the way home and checked the spots I had seen it before--nada. Then I stopped by again today after another coworker mentioned that she had seen it recently too at another nearby location, so I started there today. I got off the bus, heard crows, and followed. Never before have I been so tuned into the sounds of crows! I watched the Nature of Things episode on crows (fascinating! check it out...there's lots of interesting stuff on how they communicate, and it's David Suzuki and how can you not love him?) and I really tuned in, not just to where the sound was coming from, but listening for others that might be responding. Within only a minute or two I found my target! It was flying right in front of me but...drats...my camera was still in the bag. Quickly and clumsily I put the book I was carrying away and got the camera out--the bird flew off nearby and I followed. It perched up on a lamp post and I got some good looks while it sat there, but you can't really see the full effect of the white wings. 

 So lucky for me it spread them out, and then took off. I followed. (repeat x 3).

  Oh, come on, how could I not?....interlude!!

I still didn't get the flight shot I was hoping for, but this pic gives you a good idea:

crow, not magpie!

Here's a magpie in flight for comparison. Obviously it has the epaulettes in white (and also white on its stomach), but strikingly similar right?

Magpie, not crow. (also not my shot)

Funny thing is a young couple saw me beside the road with my camera and did a u-turn and got out with their camera too to come check it out. The girl asked me what it was, and they thought it was pretty cool too. Then, I'm pretty sure one of the peregrines flew over being mobbed, and a heron flew over too. Downtown birding not so bad eh? If anyone is interested in having a look, it is usually in the Lebreton Flats bus stop area--either in the sort of abandoned parking lot by the empress, or by the one-story building by the condos on the way to the bridge.

In other news, I'm happy to say that I'll be making my first pilgrimage to Pelee this weekend, which is kind of a big deal for me. Stay tuned...I have a feeling there will be some meaty posts coming up!

reset (#219)

This weekend while out doing a little geocaching, I was inconspicuously sticking my nose in a pine tree when Matt chirps out, “hey, there’s a ruby-crowned kinglet!” It’s kind of neat when you’re just minding your own business and a lifer shows up. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was always that easy? We enjoyed fantastic looks at this little cutie, who turned out to be pretty curious about us too—it even flew right up to me a few times and then zoomed back to the tree. Since we weren’t in birding mode, all I had was a little point and shoot. Needless to say I am hugely disappointed with the pics.

#219: Ruby-crowned kinglet;  Red Pine Park, Ottawa; April 28, 2012

showing off the crown--no mistaking it!

With migration starting up and the weather half decent, I really wanted to get out there on Sunday, especially because I got a little excited after the Saturday sighting. We headed down Eagleson and stopped at one of the little ponds near a townhouse development, where we found a blue-crowned night heron in its usual spot. The next thing we saw further down Eagleson and out of the suburbs were two turkey vultures camped out just off the road—with some interesting prey (a raccoon)! They got spooked after a minute or two and flew off, but they were a memorable sight nonetheless. 

Further down Eagleson Matt spotted a huge dark clump in a tree along the edge of a farmer’s field. There were lots of branches blocking a good view and I sort of wondered if it was a porcupine just hanging out. Then we both thought it looked like it was too vertical to be a porcupine. Something seemed off so we decided that further investigation would be necessary. As we approached, the dark mass lifted from its perch, and holy crap---it was a golden eagle!! Ok wait…I’m 90% sure it was a golden eagle. I fumbled with the camera and managed and super blurry shot. Unbelievable—that’s a lifer..and there’s no question, that thing was HUGE! I won’t be surprised if we try to go find it again—I’m not sure what the chances are that it will stick around the same area.

Next stop was the Richmond Conservation Area, which I became aware of—get this—while geocaching. I have NO IDEA how I missed this little hotspot!! There are other ponds nearby but you can’t get nearly as close. Interesting how a new hobby brought me back to an old one.

I spent the first little bit fiddling around with the settings on my camera in the car because I couldn’t figure out why the focus point wouldn’t move. Normally I shoot with autofocus, but I control which point to use, since I find the camera is always more accurate than my eyes are..and faster than my fingers. I was getting pretty frustrated and sad that it seemed to be broken. I decided to bite the bullet and hit factory reset to see if that would fix it, but I couldn’t even find that option in the menus! I thought I had figured out the incredible amount of menus and options on my camera but the obvious eluded me.

While there was not a HUGE number of ducks, there was still a lot of diversity.  This area is an interesting location in that you can walk along the partitions that divide the ponds and get really close to the water, and also in that it is bordered by a marshy area on one side and woodland on another—so you hit 3 different habitats in one shot.

I could swear a saw a shrike there, and some shorebirds that I couldn’t quite identify. I became instantly aware that I still need to get myself a scope (Santa, do you read my blog??)—funny how you forget about these things until you are looking at a duck that is 100+ metres away. There were some ducks on the far side that I could tell looked different, but I couldn’t jog my memory as to which ones have brown on their flanks, so it was nice to get home and pull this up one the screen and realize there were quite a few northern shovellers. 

Being at the ponds really got the juices flowing for a bunch of posts that I want to write, and I felt that driving, creative, inquisitive force coming back. I also got to thinking about how I sort of got away from birding a bit..somewhere along the line I got a little distracted. One of my aunts asked me a while ago about the birds I saw on the Mexico trip, and I mentioned that they were all posted on my blog. She looked surprised that I still kept it going. She mentioned that she found most blogs start out strong and seem to fizzle out. I suppose that happened here to an extent—I’m certainly not as prolific as when I started. It’s important to find some kind of balance, and it’s hard to keep up that kind of intensity when you really fall in head first.

It was strange to think of what I was up to two years ago, and how different things were. It was hard not to compare that to where I was in that moment, and all the things that have changed. I felt a bit like I had let other priorities distract me without my even realizing it. What seemed to be a really huge part of my life at one point had sort of faded into the background. Not that there aren't other worthwhile pursuits I busied myself with, but I thought about my priorities; I thought about where the right balance might be...but I wasn't too sure of my answer. I felt like I needed to hit my own factory reset button, but I couldn’t remember the settings. The reality is that there are no factory resets, no system restore for people—every day and every thing and every experience changes us, and there is no going back from there. Every day we have to choose what is going to make us happy, what is important to us, how to move forward, what is going to make us proud of ourselves when we look back on our past. What do we want to accomplish and what will we have to show for it? If we don't choose consciously--then that is still a decision, and in the end we still have to face it.

 

The last stop of the day was Mud Lake, one of Ottawa’s great birding spots. It’s still pretty early and we hit at a quieter. One of the highlights was 4 pairs of totally stunning wood ducks.  

grey and yellow flycatchers of Mexico (#217-218)

I finally got my Mexican guidebook back from the library so I can sort out the last of my Mexican birds shots. Of course, since I left them last, they are also the hardest! ha!

Sadly I went down without a guidebook, which, in retrospect, was pretty stupid. Unfortunately I made a rookie mistake of assuming some birds were the same (in terms of differentiating between them--not knowing the little signs to look for, or listening carefully).

Then I get home and find out that there is a page full of birds that look pretty much the same. Ouf! Tough lesson learned. Once I finally decided on the guide I liked, Amazon couldn't get it to me on time...sad face. It's tough buying a guide when you can't look at it, and they don't tend to stock those ones around here. I did see one at the Nature Museum--so glad I didn't buy that one online--when I saw it was so cumbersome and a ton of text, not a lot of illustrations. Go figure, the guide I wanted was out at the library and came in for me 2 days after we left! (thank god I finally figured out how to make stupid tables in blogger...not sure why it seemed so hard)

Not a fan of this one!

Got this one...like it.

I paid for this mistake most with the little black and yellow birds. Seriously, how many kinds can there be? (and why do I have that terrible Wiz Khalifa song coming to mind?

Well, at least this many:

There are a few obvious ones and a few I'm not really sure of. Anyways, I'll share all the pics since they are really lovely birds!

#217: Great Kiskadee; February 15, 2012; Riviera Maya, Mexico

 #218: Tropical Kingbird; February 15, 2012; Riviera Maya, Mexico

More tropical kingbirds? I found this comparison of Western, Tropical and Couch's Kingbirds...it's pretty fuzzy business....This guy's bill seems shorter than the last guy, and the tail seems lighter, but maybe it's even a juvenile.

 

This one is definitely different, but I wasn't able to quite pin it down. If I'd had a shot of the upperparts, it might have helped. The black eye stripe is so striking!

Now that's out of the way, I'm looking forward to new arrivals and some posts on local birds!