Wild Times in Pickering!

At the Pickering Naturalists' November meeting, we were thrilled to have Jenn Bock and volunteers from Wild Ontario join us, along with four of their rescued birds as the Guests of Honour.  Needless to say, the room was packed as there had been lots of advance publicity for the evening, and I now admit to being the first  nerd one there to get a front row seat, versus my usual back-of-the-room spot.

Wild Ontario's goal, besides rescuing birds, is to educate us all about human impact on wildlife. Three of the four birds that evening were imprinted on humans and therefore unreleasable back into the wild.

Here's Whistler, a beautiful Broad-winged Hawk:

...sadly, some of her talons are missing due to frostbite:

Einstein is a female Great Horned Owl; as one of the volunteers said, "There must have been a Mrs. Einstein, right??"

Like dogs, birds don’t have sweat glands so they regulate their body temperature by panting:

Artemis, named after the Greek goddess of the hunt, is a vivacious little American Kestrel:

The Rock Star of the bunch made his grand entrance at the end: Socrates, a one-winged Turkey Vulture who started it all a few decades ago, back in 1987. Socrates' left wing had been badly broken after he had been hit by a car, and in the end it had to be amputated after numerous surgery and rehabilitation attempts:

 ...even though it may look like Socrates is giving Jenn the bird here sorry!, he was really very fond of her and it was quite endearing to watch them together:

It was a fabulous meeting with more than eighty people in attendance, what a night! Perhaps another time we can meet the rest of Wild Ontario's roster, which include American Crows and a Red-tailed Hawk...

Here's the link to Wild Ontario's website for further information:

http://www.ourwildontario.ca/

Dippity doo dah, Dippity Day

Yesterday was a Big Dip Day, as Rosemary, John and I travelled to the west end of Lake Ontario to not see some reported rarities, including a secretive Le Conte's Sparrow and odds 'n' sods at Van Wagner's Beach. But the day was fun regardless, and if nothing else, has whetted my appetite for winter birding!

As we loaded up the car at John's, Cedar Waxwings were feeding on mountain ash berries:

Our first Dip for the day was at the "Rona Pond" in Waterdown, and after patiently surveying this old quarry for the Le Conte's Sparrow, we packed it in and continued over to Van Wagner's Beach after lunch. It too was quiet, and the glaring absence of any local birders translated into our second Dip for the day.  Our third Dip for the day was at Windermere Basin, due to dredging activity going on in the water, so we headed back to Burlington to the marina in LaSalle Park.

How desperate was I by now?? I was so desperate that I took photos of a Double-crested Cormorant sunbathing on the rocks:

There were other birds out on the water though, including Canada Geese, Trumpeter Swans, Mallards, American Black Ducks, and American Coots. As we could see more waterfowl off in the distance, we decided to follow the North Shore Boulevard to take advantage of various lookout points along the way.

On our way out, Hawkeye John spotted an odd fellow amongst the Canada Geese in LaSalle Park:

At one of Burlington's "Windows to the Lake", Rosemary and John checked out the view, with the Skyway Bridge in the distance:

We added Hooded Mergansers, White-winged Scoters, Common Goldeneye and Bufflehead to our day list, and at our next stop, Spencer Smith Park, we were overjoyed to find more birds that were closer to shore, including my favourite, the Long-tailed Duck: 

John and Rosemary watch as they move closer to shore. Note John's brilliant red baseball cap as the Leafs continue their losing streak, so he may as well pack away his blue one, which only sees the light of day if/when they win: 

My first Surf Scoters (aka Goggle-nose, Horse-head, and of course Skunkhead for the adult male) for the season were plentiful. After looking at my photos, I'm leaning towards them being immature males versus females, but there could be a mix of both:

In Rosemary's words, this one Surf Scoter did his best penguin impersonation, as he somehow managed to raise himself up out of the water and briefly parade around before sinking back down into the water:

Our final stop at Sioux Lookout in Burlington....

...yielded some of the usual suspects, solving the "how-do-they-get-the-green-in-goose-poop" mystery:

Another odd duck goose was off on its own in the park:

So despite it being a Big Dip Day, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and I'm now especially pumped for winter birding as these "winter birds" are wonderful to see again in these above-average temps!

But autumn leaves beckoned me this afternoon, so Tessa kept me company in the backyard as I did some final raking for the season:

Staying Local Today

Taking advantage of the decent temps and sunny conditions, especially for November, my first stop was at the Oshawa Harbour. Although I dipped on the Pacific Loon (which was reported mid-day, after I had left), there were plenty of Red-breasted Mergansers out on the lake as well as in the canal:

As I left Oshawa to head to the Cranberry Marsh Raptor Watch, I kept a watchful eye out for local as well as any migrating raptors, and one was spotted along Victoria Street, just west of Thickson Road. Heading south on Hopkins and dodging transport trucks from the steel plant I'm an idiot, I re-located the hawk not only by sight but by sound as well, a beautiful Red-tail:

Suddenly two more appeared and circled overhead with the first one, soaring way high up in the sky, no doubt moving through to warmer climates, but it was their calling back and forth to one another with that distinctive "keeeeeeee-r-r" that was fascinating!

Timing is everything- I was able to catch that moment in time as they were calling out:

At the Hawk Watch, I wondered if these same three hawks made it to Jean's hourly count! During the time I was there, we had more Red-tail's move through, as well as Rough-legged and Red-shouldered Hawks, a Peregrine Falcon, and a Golden Eagle still not giving it a Tick on my Life List quite yet, need a closer look!



Rock Climbing in Cobourg for Another Lifer

This afternoon John and I popped over to the harbour in Cobourg in anticipation of seeing yesterday's reported Purple Sandpiper.

The good news: it was still there.

The better news: there were now three of them.

The bad news: they were on the far side of the breakwater, which meant crawling over massive boulders to see them. 

The good news/ bad news: just as Betsy and I were ready to take our lives in our hands and begin The Crawl, Dave Milsom informed us that they were no longer there. 

The better news: Hawkeye John had located them in his scope, but way over by the lighthouse. 

The even better news: we could drive there- hah!  

The bestest news: the required Rock Climb to the end of the pier by the lighthouse was manageable and all three birds were there.

As I precariously balanced myself between some boulders, two of the three Purple Sandpipers foraged around below us on the rocks before eventually flying off:

One of my field guides quoted a succinct description of this species by Roger Tory Peterson: "portly, slaty, yellow legs; on rocks". Yup, that about sums it up!

As for the purple??? I don't think so. Although another field guide claims that one can see a purplish sheen to some back feathers....as if. Perhaps it's time to see a cataract surgeon???

Another important field marking is the narrow white eye-ring, but especially the yellowish base of the bill:

I also saw my first Long-tailed Ducks for the season, with their hauntingly beautiful "owl-omelet" melody drifting our way, as well  as a Great Black-backed Gull.

Life was good today!

Get Thee to a Dentist!!!

On Halloween Sunday I did one of the final cottage runs for the season to bring back "stuff" that will not survive the deep freeze of the cold winter in one piece, let alone the rodent migration to the cottage interior (suckers, don't they know it's colder inside than out??!!). En route I stopped at Long Sault Conservation Area and was totally dazzled by the Black-capped Chickadee population, all three of them....another "minimum time" parking ticket purchase wasted on what could have gone towards my daily Timmie's IV drip, grrrr.

Instead, all I really saw for the day was this local Red-tailed Hawk on Highway 36 by the jail Correctional Facility of the Province of Ontario, in fact a banded sweetie. I had seen a banded one well over a year ago in the same location, and in fact had mentioned it to my dear friend Peter (he always revelled in my Lindsay Sewage Lagoon stories, somuchso that he outed me in the end in the Rose Street Rag), so I wondered if this could be the same one??? I was unable to pull any info off the band on its right leg, so I have no idea on this adult's story thus far:

At the cottage I dodged random snowflakes as I ventured down to the swamp with great hopes of seeing more than the usual Mallards and was totally disappointed, but at the very end of the Point I stumbled upon the largest rodent in North America  who knew! , a Beaver:

If you're brave enough to enlarge this next photo, you'll see that its dental plan totally sucks, as the disgustingly brown front incisor teeth (used to cut down trees) would indicate that they belong to a heavy smoker, eeeeeeeeeeeew:

It then went into serious grooming mode as it proceeded to wash its face with its front claws paws with these nasty-looking claws:

Its signature large, flat, paddle-shaped tail was for the most part submerged, unfortunately, but I could see a bit of it in my photos. Jim told me that he'd seen several of them together out in the swamp by his back lot, prior to him no doubt emitting some sort of Irish Banshee Yell in Beaver-speak to keep them away from the remaining trees on his lot, as they have done significant damage on the Point over the past few years.

So that was my day, extremely quiet on the birding front, but now there's only one cottage run left for the season to save the water cooler. 

Ironically, the mixed precip/snow streamers that came off of Georgian Bay, thanks to strong northwest winds, resulted in numerous raptors migrating through Durham Region within a few kilometres of my backyard- while I was not there, of course- yet another "grrrrrrr" for the day.