Early November Birding

Weather is an incredibly important factor for birding. A drop in temperature will hurry along southbound migrants, and an increase in temperature will sometimes slow them down. A slight shift in wind direction can mean the difference between tons of birds, and no birds at all. And that's what happened yesterday on Lake Ontario.

          Wind directions have been consistently coming from the West for a quite some time, except for a few odd days, but those days were fairly week East winds. Yesterday the wind shifted to the Northwest, and on the west shore of Lake Ontario wind speeds were going to be up to 50 kilometres an hour at times. This, combined with some good luck, was the perfect recipe for pelagic species and Jaegers. The strong easterly winds would sweep all the birds along the St. Lawrence River, into Lake Ontario, and then straight for Hamilton, where I would be waiting for them...

This map shows the wind direction and speed across Lake Ontario, I got this from WINDY, a great wind app

In the morning I decided to go bird banding at Ruthven Park, to tie up a loose end for my Ontario year list, Fox Sparrow. Sure enough, on the second net round a re-trap bird turned up! 

You can tell where Fox Sparrows get their name from, from this picture - the brilliant red tones!

Birding was fairly good, and there was lots of South bound migrants going over. Mostly Red-winged Blackbirds, and Robins, but there was also some Pipits and Bluebirds mixed in, and I also heard a Rusty Blackbird flyover! Feeling good so far, I hitched a ride with my friend Nathan to Van Wagner's, where we planned to spend the next four hours or so scanning the horizon for birds blown into the Hamilton end of the lake from the gale force winds.

          When we got there, they told us that they had already a juvenile Black-legged Kittiwake, and a few Jaegers. After about an hour of scanning, I noticed a dark gull like bird shooting across the water. Everyone got on it and it was determined to be a Parasitic Jaeger! My first Jaeger species ever! Nothing happened for a while, but then a lone Brant was spotted flying Northwards. After that, I decided to go back to the car and get some warmer clothes. On the way back, I noticed a small gull making it's way up the shoreline towards the barricade of scopes. I got my bins on it and found that it was the Kittiwake! I called to the group, and everyone got on it! It continued it's way of the shoreline and disappeared. Kittiwakes are a small species of gull from the far east and west coasts of Canada. These birds turn up several times a year in the province, normally around Lake Ontario and the Niagara Region. So not totally unexpected, but my first for the province! After that, a few more unidentified Jaegers showed up on the horizon for a few seconds, and this disappeared again, in true Jaeger fashion. 

          After another hour or so, things picked up again, and another Jaeger came in fairly close, at least close enough to identified as a Pomarine Jaeger! My second lifer of the day! It even came close enough for (poor) pictures!

Jaegers are known to always be far out on the horizon, but when winds are this strong, they can get pushed super close!

More Jaeger spuhs were seen way far out, but not close enough to be identified. Thankfully there was some ducks closer in, mostly Long-tailed Ducks and White-winged Scoters, but I also saw a few Black Scoters fly by, another year bird! A Red-throated Loon also made an appearance as it migrated South with some Common Loons.

White-winged Scoters

Long-tailed Duck

Some surfers were taking advantage of the super strong waves, and braved the cold waters in wetsuits!

Brrr!

A large flock of Snow Geese was spotted South over the lake, and I estimated 80 of them! A really high count for the Hamilton Area! The flock was comprised of about 70% white morphs and 30% blue morphs! Another Jaeger made an appearance quick appearance, and flew within 80 meters of the viewing area, and was originally identified as a Pomarine, then switched to Parasitic, then changed to Pomarine again, and then again back to Parasitic where it will stay! The white line next to the white primaries is normally a characteristic trait of Pomarines, but apparently a small portion of Parasitics also show it. The thinner body structure and warmer caramel tones are also good indicators of this bird being a Parasitic.

Parasitic Jaeger - Such cool birds!

This photo shows the bill size and shape fairly well, a Long-tailed Jaeger would have a much shorter and stubby bill, where the black covers about of it, and a Pomarine would have a slightly thicker bill. The bulge at the end of the bill, also called the Gonydeal Angle, isn't overly noticeable, but whereas on a Pomarine, it would be fairly conspicuous

The longer tail and tipping on the tail are also good field marks for Parasitic

The white bar is more noticeable in this picture. If you can see this feature, then you know that the bird is close to you!

And that wraps up my weekend, pretty successful! In total two lifers (Pomarine and Parasitic Jaeger), and seven Ontario yearbird, one being completely new to Ontario for me! They were Brant, Red-throated Loon, White-rumped Sandpiper, Snow Goose (almost missed it!) Fox Sparrow (whew, also a close one!), Black Scoter and the new Ontario bird was Kittiwake. My best November birding ever!

Lists: Ruthven List, Van Wagner's List

          Next week I won't be doing much birding, because I have a kung-fu black-belt grading, but the weekend after I'm going up to North to do some patch birding!

Until next time... Good birding!