Well, I finally have time to sit and ruminate about the Florida Birding Extravaganza. 106 species seen and in a wide variety of locations, all within easy driving distance of Dunedin, which will be my home for the month of March, where I will be doing my day job as Video Coordinator for the Toronto Blue Jays. The great part is that I will have time to hit many spring birding and migration hot spots.
But back to the past week:
Bailey Tract:
I spent way too little time talking about Ding Darling WP. And I forgot all about the Bailey Tract, nearby, where we walked the trails looking for a Sora but instead found alligators and pretty much all the waterfowl we could want to see, including a juvenile Great Blue Heron, which looked like a completely new bird at first glance. They are white with green legs, and heron shaped. As I learn this whole birding thing I have to keep in mind the tale of The Ugly Duckling. The kids in many cases don't look anything like the beautiful birds they will grow up to be. In the case of the juvie heron, it was quite stunning in it's pure white plumage.
Ding Darling Wildlife Preserve
Next up was Ding Darling. We rode bikes from the Nature Center to the Wildlife Park and then the 4 mile trail. It was great, and as I mentioned we saw the Yellow Crowned Night Heron right as we arrived in the park. It seemed to be the equivalent of a WalMart Greeter near the front gate. It was pretty easy to spot the birding hot spots as there were always people one step ahead, stopped at the side of the road with cameras, binoculars and scopes trained on various creatures, mostly birds. One of those stops was a look at a lovely flock of White Pelicans, a Roseate Spoonbill and the Dunlin
Evening Boat Trip
After the bike ride and a brief rest and snack break we were off on a boat tour of Tarpon Bay to hopefully see some new birds, and while there were no new Year Birds seen, we were graced with the sight of hundreds of Brown Pelicans and many other water fowl spending the night in the mangroves. It was an awesome sight and combined with an amazing sunset, it was a perfect end to a long day of Birding.
Corkscrew Swamp Wildlife Sanctuary, Middle of No Where and Bunche Beach
One of my favourite parts of the trip was meeting up with Noreen and Edgar, whom Sue had met a few years ago and I had just enjoyed a birding trip with this past January, as my Big Year was getting under way. They took us on a tour of the Corkscrew Swamp boardwalk and though it got off to a slow start, by the end of the morning we had seen 25 species including 17 new Year Birds. We heard a Sandhill Crane right off the bat. It took a while to see anything at first, but as the wind died down and the sun broke through, we were off and running spotting birds everywhere. There was the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a view of a Short-taild Hawk flying overhead; the excitement of seeing the Great-crested Flycatcher and a beautiful female Summer Tanager. Everyone but me had seen the Carolina Wren, when it first appeared and I thought I might not get another chance, but later in the walk we chanced upon it again and I got my first look at a wren in the wild.
Once again Noreen and Edgar showed me how birding is really done and it was a reminder of how much I have yet to learn. But that's okay. That's why I am doing this. An I love the chase. Before we left we got a chance to see the Ovenbird and incredible Painted Bunting at the feeders outside the visitor Center. All in all and great morning of Birding.
But we weren't done yet. We drove to an even more remote spot than the location where we sought out and didn't find the he Fork-tailed Flycatcher,(twice!), and along the way saw a Wood Stork in a drainage ditch and a Snail Kite on top of a telephone pole. You just never know where something new is going to pop up and thanks to Noreen and Edgar's trained eyes, we got a great look at them.
I am not sure where we ended up, but let's just call it The Leigh High Acres Middle of No Where Wildlife Area. It smack in the middle of what seems like a failed Fort Myers housing community. And I hope it stays that way. We were treated to great views of Limpkins, male and Female Mottled Ducks, a Glossy Ibis and even got to have a fabled Snipe Hunt. They are tricky little shore birds to find, but Noreen had the magic touch with the scope and we were able to see the Wilson's Snipe up close and personal.
Thanks again to Noreen and Edgar. If the two of you are reading this, I look forward to you perhaps making a visit to Toronto so we can show you some of our favourite Birding Spots. Just brush up on those Northern Birds if you ever do make it up here.
We ended our birding in the Fort Myers area with sightings of a Sandwich Tern, Sanderling and Piping and Snowy Plovers at Bunche Beach, before heading back up to Dunedin.
Possum Branch and the Courtney Campbell Causeway.
Our whirlwind Birding Extravaganza ended up Dunedin, pretty much as it had begun, with a Sedge Wren which we both heard and saw, in Possum Branch and our final drive back to the Airport, along the Courtney Campbell Causeway, where I saw the first birds of the trip, the Common Grackle and Osprey. We stopped along the bridge twice an saw at least a hundred Black Skimmers, a Marbled Godwit and the bird I had been looking for all trip, finally on the last day, the Bonaparte's Gull. Woo Hoo! Not sure how many times I had looked for the Bonaparte's in Bayfront Park, and along the Niagara River without success, and down in Florida this week, but finally spotting it, and getting a picture, while that was just icing on the cake.
I shall post pictures later today, in a separate blog entry.
For now, it's time for a Wild Goose Chase. Litterally.
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Friday, 10 February 2012
Florida Birding Update
It's been a great birding trip and I have much to update. I read over my post from Ding Darling and due to a case of EBTS or Extreme Birding Tiredness Syndrome, I left out a lot of nice details and from our time at Matlacha, Pine Island and Ding Darling, not to mention completely leaving out our walk around the Bailey Tract just outside Ding Darling where we saw a juvenile Great Blue Heron.
I shall continue this tomorrow evening when I have had a little time at home to relax and digest a trip that included over 90 species of birds, including an additional 62 birds for my year, bringing me to 184 in just 41 days of deciding to become a Birder
I shall continue this tomorrow evening when I have had a little time at home to relax and digest a trip that included over 90 species of birds, including an additional 62 birds for my year, bringing me to 184 in just 41 days of deciding to become a Birder
Thursday, 9 February 2012
I am just here to see the Bird!
So began the reason for a drive to the edge of NoWhere Florida, a place called Cockroach Nature Preserve. It's not a place you'd stumble on accidentally unless you were stuck in the middle of a Twilight Zone episode. Cockroach is a place you have to seek out and find, in this case based on a FLARBA report of a Fork-tailed Flycatcher, fly catching between dense posts, bushes and a large seemingly dead tree.
It was there in the heat of a Florida winter afternoon, that Sue and I, along with other Birders who made the pilgrimage to the edge of nowhere, searched and searched and walked in seemingly endless circles, hoping to find a rare bird that most likely was off hiding somewhere and laughing at us with the Great-horned Owl from Honeymoon Island.
Not that it was a total loss, as we did see Black Vultures, a Common Yellowthroat and a very nice Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. I had stalked the Gnatcatcher into a tree, thinking I might be pursuing the Flycatcher. Sue set me straight and by then was ready to move on, so off in search of the Florida Scrub Jay. They are supposed to be easy to find in Oscar Schemer SP, and in fact it was easy. We spotted it in a tree outside of the trail we were on our way to, where we were supposed to see it. It turned out to be a fortuitous sighting, as we saw not a single Scrub Jay on the trail. Since we already had the bird we didn't walk too far into the scrub before deciding to just take what we had and move on. But before we left we heard, then spied a Common ground Dove. Since only Mourning Doves can be seen in Toronto, this was a cool bird.
Our adventure continued over to Matlacha,(pronounced 'matt-la-che') and Pine Island, a quaint old fishing village, where the prize find was a Burrowing Owl, living in the ground at the edge of a front lawn in a nondescript sub division. We saw two of them, though not at the same time, as one popped its head up, then disappeared underground, only to be replaced by a second, cute, little owl. Owl-let might be more descriptive as they are quite tiny, compared, say, to a Long-eared Owl. They were too cute and we could have watched them for a long time but there were other fish to fry, or rather other birds to, well, ah find, including a Merlin on a telephone wire and a Loggerhead Shrike in a park tree.
At Ding Darling Natural Wildlife Preserve we found some lovely birds, including a Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Redish Egret and a Dunlin, a cute tiny shore bird you can only really see and identify through a scope. Great things those birding scopes and worth carrying on your back for a four mile ride through the park.
Next up, Corkscrew Swamp Wildlife Sanctuary and a reunion with Noreen and Edgar my amazing guides from San Francisco. But for now, I must sleep and dream of all the birds left to see.
It was there in the heat of a Florida winter afternoon, that Sue and I, along with other Birders who made the pilgrimage to the edge of nowhere, searched and searched and walked in seemingly endless circles, hoping to find a rare bird that most likely was off hiding somewhere and laughing at us with the Great-horned Owl from Honeymoon Island.
Not that it was a total loss, as we did see Black Vultures, a Common Yellowthroat and a very nice Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. I had stalked the Gnatcatcher into a tree, thinking I might be pursuing the Flycatcher. Sue set me straight and by then was ready to move on, so off in search of the Florida Scrub Jay. They are supposed to be easy to find in Oscar Schemer SP, and in fact it was easy. We spotted it in a tree outside of the trail we were on our way to, where we were supposed to see it. It turned out to be a fortuitous sighting, as we saw not a single Scrub Jay on the trail. Since we already had the bird we didn't walk too far into the scrub before deciding to just take what we had and move on. But before we left we heard, then spied a Common ground Dove. Since only Mourning Doves can be seen in Toronto, this was a cool bird.
Our adventure continued over to Matlacha,(pronounced 'matt-la-che') and Pine Island, a quaint old fishing village, where the prize find was a Burrowing Owl, living in the ground at the edge of a front lawn in a nondescript sub division. We saw two of them, though not at the same time, as one popped its head up, then disappeared underground, only to be replaced by a second, cute, little owl. Owl-let might be more descriptive as they are quite tiny, compared, say, to a Long-eared Owl. They were too cute and we could have watched them for a long time but there were other fish to fry, or rather other birds to, well, ah find, including a Merlin on a telephone wire and a Loggerhead Shrike in a park tree.
At Ding Darling Natural Wildlife Preserve we found some lovely birds, including a Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Redish Egret and a Dunlin, a cute tiny shore bird you can only really see and identify through a scope. Great things those birding scopes and worth carrying on your back for a four mile ride through the park.
Next up, Corkscrew Swamp Wildlife Sanctuary and a reunion with Noreen and Edgar my amazing guides from San Francisco. But for now, I must sleep and dream of all the birds left to see.
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Snow Birds? Nope! Lots O Birds
I guess you can call us Snow Birds, having escaped Canada for Florida, but the only thing I was interested in was finding new birds. And the Gulf Coast of Florida has been a veritable smorgasbord of birding. An bountiful bird buffet.
Even before we left I subscribed to FLARBA, the Florida Rare Bird Alert and quickly learned about a Green-tailed Towhee very close by and a Fork-tailed Flycatcher, within easy driving distance.
The real Birding started very close by at Honeymoon Island and although we were looking for a Great-horned Owl, that was all we would be doing, when it came to the owl, was look and look and backtrack and bake in the sun and circle around and just leave it for another day. The owl should have been an easy find, instead it was the Osprey and Yellow-rumped Warblers that were in great supply that day. Not to mention the shrieking Cat Birds. Oh, and backtracking, metaphorically, to the Great-horned Owl, the reason it should have been an easy find was the sign below the tree it nests in, with a large arrow pointing up, that says, "Owl Nest." No one said birding would be easy, I guess.
The birding began as we were barely out of the car and saw a tree full of White Ibis, which was quite a sight as those are mostly seen on the ground. I guess they spend their nights perching in trees for safety and we were early enough to catch them before they went off on their Ibis-y duties. And there were Gray-Cat Birds and a Broad-winged Hawk before we even hit the trail.
The real find, however, was at the end of the path where the Bald Eagle had set up home to raise its two younglings. That was amazing. I needed to use my scope to get a really good look and a few good photos, but the long walk and wait for mom to come back and feed them was worth it. Not to mention the long walk just to find the nest. Ironic in that we didn't even know about the Eagle's neat going in and yet, couldn't find a well marked Owl.
Along the way were a good number of Big Year birds and Lifers. Amongst them were the Broad-winged Hawk, Black and White Warbler, and a Tri-colored Heron and, of course, the endless and relentless number of Osprey and Yellow-rumped Warblers.
It was then on to Caladisi Island and a few more good birds after a hike to Cat's Eye Pond, including a Blue-winged Teal. The ferry ride back was like a mini-pelagic and it netted a Royal Turn. Of course Sue was instrumental in most of the identifications. I did spot the Black and White Sparrow and Hawk on my own.
The next stop on our birding buffet was Possum Branch Preserve, where no Possums were seen, but the cutest little Hispid Cotton Rat was spied while we searched for a eastern rarity, the Green-Tailed Towhee. This little bird was on the FLRBA email and was found in some bushes around a pond in the preserve. I spotted it and it was quite a big thing to see a bird in Florida that normally winter's in Mexico and is only seen in summer in the western US.
Along with the rare bird, Possum Branch was full of many other great Year birds, including Lincoln's and Grasshopper Sparrows, Eastern Phoebe, Prairie and Palm Warblers and a Forster's Turn. Even the grass Outside the preserve was home to some Cattle Egret, bringing my Big Year to 145 as we prepared to set off in search of another bird hot off the FLARBA hotline, the Fork-tailed Fly-catcher.
Even before we left I subscribed to FLARBA, the Florida Rare Bird Alert and quickly learned about a Green-tailed Towhee very close by and a Fork-tailed Flycatcher, within easy driving distance.
The real Birding started very close by at Honeymoon Island and although we were looking for a Great-horned Owl, that was all we would be doing, when it came to the owl, was look and look and backtrack and bake in the sun and circle around and just leave it for another day. The owl should have been an easy find, instead it was the Osprey and Yellow-rumped Warblers that were in great supply that day. Not to mention the shrieking Cat Birds. Oh, and backtracking, metaphorically, to the Great-horned Owl, the reason it should have been an easy find was the sign below the tree it nests in, with a large arrow pointing up, that says, "Owl Nest." No one said birding would be easy, I guess.
The birding began as we were barely out of the car and saw a tree full of White Ibis, which was quite a sight as those are mostly seen on the ground. I guess they spend their nights perching in trees for safety and we were early enough to catch them before they went off on their Ibis-y duties. And there were Gray-Cat Birds and a Broad-winged Hawk before we even hit the trail.
The real find, however, was at the end of the path where the Bald Eagle had set up home to raise its two younglings. That was amazing. I needed to use my scope to get a really good look and a few good photos, but the long walk and wait for mom to come back and feed them was worth it. Not to mention the long walk just to find the nest. Ironic in that we didn't even know about the Eagle's neat going in and yet, couldn't find a well marked Owl.
Along the way were a good number of Big Year birds and Lifers. Amongst them were the Broad-winged Hawk, Black and White Warbler, and a Tri-colored Heron and, of course, the endless and relentless number of Osprey and Yellow-rumped Warblers.
It was then on to Caladisi Island and a few more good birds after a hike to Cat's Eye Pond, including a Blue-winged Teal. The ferry ride back was like a mini-pelagic and it netted a Royal Turn. Of course Sue was instrumental in most of the identifications. I did spot the Black and White Sparrow and Hawk on my own.
The next stop on our birding buffet was Possum Branch Preserve, where no Possums were seen, but the cutest little Hispid Cotton Rat was spied while we searched for a eastern rarity, the Green-Tailed Towhee. This little bird was on the FLRBA email and was found in some bushes around a pond in the preserve. I spotted it and it was quite a big thing to see a bird in Florida that normally winter's in Mexico and is only seen in summer in the western US.
Along with the rare bird, Possum Branch was full of many other great Year birds, including Lincoln's and Grasshopper Sparrows, Eastern Phoebe, Prairie and Palm Warblers and a Forster's Turn. Even the grass Outside the preserve was home to some Cattle Egret, bringing my Big Year to 145 as we prepared to set off in search of another bird hot off the FLARBA hotline, the Fork-tailed Fly-catcher.
Saturday, 4 February 2012
Soon to be Florida Birding
I am leaving for Florida soon and will hope to do better than I have in three days of GTA birding.
I will be leaving with a with a Big Year List of 122 and hope to return with 200 or more.
I will be leaving with a with a Big Year List of 122 and hope to return with 200 or more.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
No Redpolls and No Owls
There is a scene near the beginning of Jurassic Park, where the main characters are on an automated tour of the Dinosaur Park, and are seeing nothing but trees. Malcom, the Chaos scientist, eventually gets tired of lack of Dinosaurs and hits the intercom and asks, "You are planning on having Dinosaurs on your 'DINOSAUR TOUR' aren't you?
I kind of felt like that on the Owl Prowl tonight at Humber Arboretum. I was willing to give the Owl Prowl a second chance after having not seen owls a couple of years ago on the same owl outing. Once again, halfway through the evening walk in the woods, and countless owl calls by the guide, I wanted to ask, "You are planning to show us some owls on your 'OWL PROWL' aren't you?"
But they are wild animals and it is nature and nature doesn't play by guided schedules. But we did see rabbit scat and an owl pellet, and it was a nice walk, so no harm, no fowl. Well there was a Canada
Goose. So one fowl.
Earlier in the day I was lured up to Uxbridge with the chance to see Redpolls and maybe a Pine Siskin, but was thwarted in my efforts due to the fact that it is nature and birds don't always come to where you are birding. Now, not that I didn't see and hear some birds. And I did think I heard the Redpoll and maybe fleetingly saw the Siskin, but since neither bird is on my Life List, I could not with confidence add them to my Big Year list.
That being said, I actually had a great day of Birding. I didn't necessarily see what I was seeking, but I was out and looking and enjoying the day and seeing other birds along the way. That truly should be the goal. No, adding birds to my total is the goal. I wouldn't have driven an hour out of the city to the middle of nowhere if it wasn't the goal. But I enjoyed standing on the side of the road, training my binoculars on the trees, listening to the bird calls and hoping to catch a glimpse of the target bird.
No luck today, but it's only one day of many and every time out I learn a little more. I learned that just because someone saw a flock of Redpolls fly over his house in the morning doesn't mean they will be in the neighbourhood in the afternoon. I learned that Owls don't always come out at night, but did learn which trees to look for them in during the day. And I now know which Owls to look for in Humber Arboretum. I also learned that while Sue is driving, not to play the call of the American Dipper, as its high pitched call drills into her brain and can cause her to drive off the road.
And a correction from yesterday: Sue doesn't hate Gulls. She likes them just fine. She just doesn't like having me keep showing her pictures of Gulls, relentlessly, in order to identify them.
I kind of felt like that on the Owl Prowl tonight at Humber Arboretum. I was willing to give the Owl Prowl a second chance after having not seen owls a couple of years ago on the same owl outing. Once again, halfway through the evening walk in the woods, and countless owl calls by the guide, I wanted to ask, "You are planning to show us some owls on your 'OWL PROWL' aren't you?"
But they are wild animals and it is nature and nature doesn't play by guided schedules. But we did see rabbit scat and an owl pellet, and it was a nice walk, so no harm, no fowl. Well there was a Canada
Goose. So one fowl.
Earlier in the day I was lured up to Uxbridge with the chance to see Redpolls and maybe a Pine Siskin, but was thwarted in my efforts due to the fact that it is nature and birds don't always come to where you are birding. Now, not that I didn't see and hear some birds. And I did think I heard the Redpoll and maybe fleetingly saw the Siskin, but since neither bird is on my Life List, I could not with confidence add them to my Big Year list.
That being said, I actually had a great day of Birding. I didn't necessarily see what I was seeking, but I was out and looking and enjoying the day and seeing other birds along the way. That truly should be the goal. No, adding birds to my total is the goal. I wouldn't have driven an hour out of the city to the middle of nowhere if it wasn't the goal. But I enjoyed standing on the side of the road, training my binoculars on the trees, listening to the bird calls and hoping to catch a glimpse of the target bird.
No luck today, but it's only one day of many and every time out I learn a little more. I learned that just because someone saw a flock of Redpolls fly over his house in the morning doesn't mean they will be in the neighbourhood in the afternoon. I learned that Owls don't always come out at night, but did learn which trees to look for them in during the day. And I now know which Owls to look for in Humber Arboretum. I also learned that while Sue is driving, not to play the call of the American Dipper, as its high pitched call drills into her brain and can cause her to drive off the road.
And a correction from yesterday: Sue doesn't hate Gulls. She likes them just fine. She just doesn't like having me keep showing her pictures of Gulls, relentlessly, in order to identify them.
New Month, New Birds - But first ... Back to Bayfront.
Yesterday I decided to go Birding in Bayfront Park in Hamilton. It was a warm winter day, the sun was out and I had success there in the past. I was out in Guelph in the morning, so it was a short trip. Once again fellow birders came to my aid. It's a wonderful thing. It's a competition where your competitors actually help you to succeed.
On my way to Hamilton I passed through Puslinch and looked to see if the Mountain Blue Bird was still around and maybe catch the Eastern Blue Bird, which I had missed earlier in the month. No such luck, but when I stopped no the side of the road a little later, I once again pushed myself a little too far into a rut. This time, however, there was no initial panic and I succeeded in getting out with only minimal effort. I have got to stop doing that. So I decided to just head straight to Bayfront and their paved parking lot.
I had been planning on walking down the rail trail path, but a birder/photographer alerted me to the Brant and King Eider along the marina side. I needed a Brant, so I shifted my plans and in so doing ran into Barry, a retired gentleman who knows his birds. Good for me. He had seen the Brant and was willing to help me find other birds as well. We ended up spending the afternoon talking and birding. While looking for birds in the marina, my new bird buddy was willing to look at some of my photos and help me with identification of a Herring Gull and Lesser Black-Backed Gull. That added bird 119 to my list. I had decided at the beginning of the day, that 120 would be a cool number to end January with.
Along the way I spotted a Kestrel and off we ran to get some photographs. It was eating a mouse and close to us in a tree. What a treat. I had seen one earlier in the year, but only briefly in my binoculars before it flew off. Now I got the treat of photographing it and just watching it for about 10 minutes.
After seeing the Kestrel I was walking along the edge of the water and spotted a new duck, one I knew I had not seen before. I snapped a few photos for identification. Just yesterday Sue and I had been talking about a Redhead that had been seen in Whitby and I had thought I might drive out to see it. While, wouldn't you know, the bird turned out to be just that. A Redhead. Sue helped with that identification, as I had forgotten to look it up while there. I also got a great shot of a Turkey Vulture flying overhead.
My new best friend, Barry and I were going over to the other side of the harbour to find the Kind Eider. I had seen one earlier in the month, but they are cool looking birds and a photo would have been nice too. But, no Eider. Instead, a Glaucous Gull, one I had not seen in Niagara Falls and one that Barry was also looking for. I got a great look through his scope and some nice photos.
That's how I ended my first month with 121 Birds.
I forgot to mention that back home, the other night, when I was trying to identify the birds from my Niagara trip, Sue and I sat on the couch, displaying the photos on the TV and occasionally looking at them through our binoculars, trying to see details you might not otherwise catch. How crazy is that? A lot, I am sure. Who does that? Maybe more Birders than I might think. But Birding does bring out the crazy in people. In a good way. Birders are compelled, sometimes obsessive folks who love what they do and will do almost anything to see that one bird needed for their list.
Speaking of which, after dinner last night, I downloaded The Big Year movie from iTunes and we watched facsimiles of Sandy Komito, Al Levantin and Greg Miller race around North American in their Big Year. It's a fun, if not wholly accurate movie, and my inspiration, along with John Vanderpoel's Big Year, do become a Birder and chase new birds in 2012.
On my way to Hamilton I passed through Puslinch and looked to see if the Mountain Blue Bird was still around and maybe catch the Eastern Blue Bird, which I had missed earlier in the month. No such luck, but when I stopped no the side of the road a little later, I once again pushed myself a little too far into a rut. This time, however, there was no initial panic and I succeeded in getting out with only minimal effort. I have got to stop doing that. So I decided to just head straight to Bayfront and their paved parking lot.
I had been planning on walking down the rail trail path, but a birder/photographer alerted me to the Brant and King Eider along the marina side. I needed a Brant, so I shifted my plans and in so doing ran into Barry, a retired gentleman who knows his birds. Good for me. He had seen the Brant and was willing to help me find other birds as well. We ended up spending the afternoon talking and birding. While looking for birds in the marina, my new bird buddy was willing to look at some of my photos and help me with identification of a Herring Gull and Lesser Black-Backed Gull. That added bird 119 to my list. I had decided at the beginning of the day, that 120 would be a cool number to end January with.
Along the way I spotted a Kestrel and off we ran to get some photographs. It was eating a mouse and close to us in a tree. What a treat. I had seen one earlier in the year, but only briefly in my binoculars before it flew off. Now I got the treat of photographing it and just watching it for about 10 minutes.
After seeing the Kestrel I was walking along the edge of the water and spotted a new duck, one I knew I had not seen before. I snapped a few photos for identification. Just yesterday Sue and I had been talking about a Redhead that had been seen in Whitby and I had thought I might drive out to see it. While, wouldn't you know, the bird turned out to be just that. A Redhead. Sue helped with that identification, as I had forgotten to look it up while there. I also got a great shot of a Turkey Vulture flying overhead.
My new best friend, Barry and I were going over to the other side of the harbour to find the Kind Eider. I had seen one earlier in the month, but they are cool looking birds and a photo would have been nice too. But, no Eider. Instead, a Glaucous Gull, one I had not seen in Niagara Falls and one that Barry was also looking for. I got a great look through his scope and some nice photos.
That's how I ended my first month with 121 Birds.
I forgot to mention that back home, the other night, when I was trying to identify the birds from my Niagara trip, Sue and I sat on the couch, displaying the photos on the TV and occasionally looking at them through our binoculars, trying to see details you might not otherwise catch. How crazy is that? A lot, I am sure. Who does that? Maybe more Birders than I might think. But Birding does bring out the crazy in people. In a good way. Birders are compelled, sometimes obsessive folks who love what they do and will do almost anything to see that one bird needed for their list.
Speaking of which, after dinner last night, I downloaded The Big Year movie from iTunes and we watched facsimiles of Sandy Komito, Al Levantin and Greg Miller race around North American in their Big Year. It's a fun, if not wholly accurate movie, and my inspiration, along with John Vanderpoel's Big Year, do become a Birder and chase new birds in 2012.
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