Long Point Big Day

The long awaited big day. It was finally here. Previous to this Long Point one, I'd only ever done half big days, where I didn't really try and see as many species as possible like this one, they were more just bird in a bunch of places for most of the day. My big day record was sitting somewhere around 130 species, which is still pretty respectable, but I was aiming for higher on this big day. Although our route was barely planned out, we knew that we would start somewhere in Long Point, and work our way to Hamilton. The team was comprised of myself, Nathan, another young birder from good ol' Waterloo county, and a bunch of other young birders from the banding station Ruthven I frequent.

At first light, actually wait, way before first light (2:30 am) I awoke, and we made the quick drive from my uncle's cottage in Old Cut to the actual banding station where we would be meeting. We walked around while waiting for people to show up, and got Pine Warbler, American Redstart, and a couple other nocturnal migrants by call. Soon everyone arrived, and we set out shortly after 3 am. The first stop was St. Williams Conservation Reserve, and quickly got an Eastern Whippoorwill singing. Surprisingly, this was a new bird for me, besides some that I heard a long, long time ago while camping. We stopped at a few other locations before sunrise, getting American Bittern, Virginia Rail, American Woodcock, Sora, Purple Martin, as well as many others. At the Port Rowan Wetlands, we decided to split up to maximize efficiency, and I missed Common Gallinule, while the other group got it. This is a way, way, way overdue Ontario bird, almost as overdue as Whip! So that was frustrating, but it was okay, because I *thought* we were going back later in the day... we didn't. But that was fine as we had many other good birds to keep us entertained for the rest of the day. For dawn chorus, we made our way back to Old Cut, satisfied with our 'first' night of the day, despite dipping on owls. Birding was slow in the morning, but after a couple hours at old cut, we had added a couple warblers, a Common Loon (always a worry on a big day), Lesser Scaup, Scarlet Tanager, and a Pine Siskin. Afterwards we headed to Hastings Drive, where the Kirtland's Warbler had been seen a few days before, but we (unsurprisingly) couldn't refind it. A Willow Flycatcher was a bit of a consolation prize, but not much of one! We next hit a couple more midday spots, including Backus, Hahn Marsh, the Timpf Farm and various backroads. With this, we added Cerulean Warbler, Black-billed Cuckoo, Hooded Warbler, Clay-coloured, Grasshopper and Vesper Sparrow, but dipped on Sedge Wren and Prothonotary Warbler (gah!). After passing the same dead opossum on the road for a fourth time, we decided we'd wasted enough time, and needed to get moving (and remember to plan our route better next year!). We headed to the Townsend Sewage Lagoons, getting Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Rock Pigeon (I know!), Sandhill Crane, Northern Harrier and Pied-billed Grebe. At Townsend, being a sewage lagoon, we gained many new species, most being shorebirds. Shortly upon arriving, we grabbed Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Dunlin and some other passerines. Nathan scoped out a male Wilson's Phalarope all the way across one of the big lagoons, which was a nice addition to the total, and also way to far out for a decent photo with the camera.

Dunlin, so pretty in their breeding plumage! 

 Semipalmated Sandpiper

And because I'm so nice, a bonus "sub-sub par" image of the Phalarope

While observing some ducks, we heard a strange, faint call. Whimbrel! We watched in awe as (exactly!) 43 Whimbrel swirled around in the lagoons, calling. What an awesome sight! After a few minutes of picture taking, the Whimbrels finally landed and warily eyed us. A truly amazing experience! I really hope that their call sticks in my head for good this time!

I really took so many pictures that I wasn't sure which ones to choose to put on here, so I'm gonna say that that's good enough. We left feeling quite reinvigorated, after all, we had already been up for twelve and a half hours, and it was only 3 pm...
          We next stopped by at my Grandma and Grandpa's house, which I knew was a reliable spot for Tufted Titmouse, as well as Bobolink and Meadowlark (which only some people in the group had seen). Within only a few minutes of pulling up, we had Tufted Titmouse which had responded pretty much right on cue to my whistle imitation, and we were (fairly) quickly on our way across to the other side of the Grand River, where the banding station Ruthven was. On the way there, we got Meadowlark and Bobolink out the window. We spent a bit of time at Ruthven, being successful with a roosting Screech-owl, Orchard Oriole, Chimney Swift, and a last minute Phoebe that was nesting at the mansion that we almost forgot to go get! Next was Hamilton, and on the way I saw Ontario yearbird Northern Mockingbird, but other than that it was a fairly uneventful drive. Next was Windermere, where we pulled out a Black-bellied Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, Redhead and Great Egret, as well as both Scaup together. We then quickly stopped at LaSalle for Trumpeter Swan, the lift bridge for Peregrine (and also got a bonus Long-tailed Duck), then CCIW and then carried on to Bronte Harbour. Here, we quickly found that we were running out of time (and species), but managed the local Red-necked Grebes, Red-breasted Mergansers and another Long-tailed Duck. The sun was beginning to get quite low, and Sedgewick Park was pretty much our last chance at the last few passerines that we'd missed. We spent just under an hour there, and collectively got Nashville Warbler, Carolina Wren, Cooper's Hawk (phew!) and my favourite- a family of six Eastern Screech-owls! The family was comprised of four young and two adults, which were camouflaging halfway up a tree. Super cute!

Three of four babies! Parents must have been busy feeding these guys! 

One of two adults

At this point, light was getting really low, so we high-tailed it back to Hamilton, and walked around in Coote's Paradise as the light finally faded for good. In near blackness, we somehow got a Black-crowned Night-heron, and an Osprey on a nest! We called it quits around 10 pm, dropped people off, and barely made it back to Kitchener without falling asleep. Nathan was so tired that he decided it wouldn't be safe to drive from my house in Kitchener back to his house in Cambridge, in case he actually did fall asleep. All in all a good day of solid birding, and our total added up to 154! A perfect tie of the old team record, so close!! Still really good though! I think with better planning we can get higher, and get me a Common Gallinule in the process...