Florida: Day #1, Circle B Bar

After my very successful morning birding, I was eager to head South to Circle B Bar, a large marsh complex, with also some prairie, lake, and semi-open deciduous forest habitat. The drive there was quite productive, seeing many thousands Turkey and Black Vultures kettling, with the odd Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered Hawk, and even some decent sized flocks of American White-Pelicans and Anhingas mixed in! One kettle contained all of these species, and is by far the most diverse kettle I've seen. The Anhingas really threw me off... 

I could never get them all in one picture, but this frame has mostly Turkey Vultures and Pelicans in it. Can you spot the Black Vulture?

We eventually arrived, but not before seeing my lifer Limpkin while driving, as well as some Cattle Egrets. I stepped out of the car, and was immediately blasted by near-midday Florida heat. And they call this cold! We walked over, and spotted a large group of photographers, photographing a calling Barred Owl! I took a few decent shots, saw a second bird, and headed out onto "Heron Hideout" the main marsh trail.

Barred Owl preening - This is one of the only species of owl that I have heard calling in the day

Immediately upon walking out onto the trail, I was amazed by the amount of noise coming from the marsh. Wails, grunts and screams came from nearly every direction, the sound of hundreds of marsh birds. I found that the majority of sound was coming from Common Gallinules, but some was also coming from several Limpkins! They have extremely bizarre, scream like calls, much different from what I expected from a shy marsh bird! There was also some Wood Storks roosting in leafless trees, another lifer!

Very interesting birds! And even more distinct!

Common Gallinule - A very pretty bird, and the ones here were very tame!

After walking up the trail a little bit more, I had already seen almost all of the herons and egrets found in North America! Tricoloured was probably the most abundant, but Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, Green Herons, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, White Ibis and Glossy Ibis were all also present in good numbers. I spotted a very large pink wading bird up ahead- A Roseate Spoonbill! A real gem amongst birders, but really to the world in general. Although not particularly rare, it's a banner species for birds in general, everyone's heard of a spoonbill! 

After looking through photos, I really couldn't find any good Spoonbill ones, but that's fine. The bird speaks for itself!

Shortly after seeing the Spoonbills, my Grandparents caught up on their bikes, and talked to my mom, so I got ahead a little bit. But not for long, as my mom walked up and told that she had seen a rail! She wasn't sure what kind, all she knew that it was semi streaky and had a yellow bill. I rushed back, but it was nowhere to be found. She looked through the guide, but couldn't come up with anything that quite fit! Just as we were about to keep going, she spotted some movement deep within the aquatic vegetation... A Purple Gallinule!!!! One of my bigger targets, and after hearing from a friend several times, they are quite hard! It stayed very hidden for a few minutes, but the shy bird slowly came out into the open, balancing carefully on a thick reed. 

As you can see, an incredibly distinct bird, very different from the Common Gallinule!

I was shocked by the vividness of the natural colours, this photo looks like I went crazy with the saturation, but it's 100% unedited! Combination of bright lighting and an even brighter bird!

While the bird was up, a group of kids on a nature walk came up behind us, and one of the asked "Is that a Cockatoo?" No joke! I got the whole thing on video, and I will forever remember this moment. Cockatoos might be pretty, but in my opinion, nothing compared to this!! As the Gallinule went about its business, a Rail flew across the open water and landed only a few feet away from me! Although it was only a few feet away, it was completely obscured by grass. I inched closer, and a little Sora popped up! 

I got my mom on it, and she said that this was the same bird she had seen earlier. Phew!

On my walk up to the next intersection, I saw a good sized flock of Black-bellied Whistling-ducks, my first ever whistling duck! I also got some respectable head shots of a Limpkin with an Apple Snail in it's beak.

There was some other wildlife besides birds as well, a family of feral pigs were foraging at the intersection. Although they can be detrimental to an ecosystem, they were pretty darn cute:

And I hate to say it, more food for the Gators! Of which there was many along this section of the trail, including this lil' one:

I finally got some ok shots of Black-bellied Whistling-ducks, which really do sound like they're whistling, it's the cutest duck call I've ever heard I think! There was also some undetermined turtle species, but I'm pretty sure they were River Cooters.

A big 'un

The trail eventually opened up a little more, and a lake appeared. There was lots of Pelicans on the lake, along withs some new trip species like Double-crested Cormorant, Cattle Egret, a tame Snowy Egret and a lone Royal Tern! 

Lots of Fish Crows were calling as we walked back, and several Red-shouldered Hawks did flyovers. We slowly (but surely) made our way back to the Visitor Center for lunch, content with our walk. The grounds around the Visitor Center were actually really nice fore birding, and there was several Carolina Wrens, Northern Mockingbirds, American Robins, and both subspecies of Palm Warbler around. I got decent shots of both subspecies, so you can really see the difference!

Yellow subspecies on top, Western on bottom

My mom seemed to be having lots of luck finding birds, and on her way back from the washroom, she came upon a male Painted Bunting! One of the most highly sought after birds by photographers, birders, and unfortunately even by pet traders, who capture this bird in Central America to be sold on the pet trade. As a result, the species has been listed as sensitive on eBird, so no one is allowed to access exact locations of these birds, or many details at all about it. Because of this I didn't really expect to see one, or even know if it was possible. I rushed over and got some very poor shots, of what turned out to be a pair of birds!

Male on left, female on right

I called a couple other birders/photographers over, but I couldn't relocate them again. I still had a few more targets that I wanted to see if I could hit in the prairie habitat (mainly Bobwhite). After a quick bike around, I came up mostly empty, the only new additions being an American Kestrel that flushed up 8 Wilson's Snipe, and a Bald Eagle on a nest. The Sandhill Cranes I saw before appeared even more photogenic than before, so I took some extra headshots:

A single Black-bellied Whistling-duck also decided to perch up on a stump for me, and later, I came across my first ever (alive) Armadillo snuffling around in the weeds! 

So... cute? I looked away for a second while taking this guys picture and it stepped on my foot!

I booked it back, realizing that I was supposed to meet up with my Grandparents to go back to the resort fairly soon. Unfortunately, there was lots of distractions along the way!

Black Vulture Pair and White Ibis

Black-bellied Whistling-ducks and Turtles sps.

Anhinga and Glossy Ibis

Grey Squirrel and Limpkin

And it turns I was ahead of schedule getting back! I wandered around the parking area for a few minutes, and spotted a blur of green, blue and red whizz by, then land right in front of me! The Painted Bunting! It was soon joined by it's female companion, and they fed quite close to me with barely any sign of nervousness. 

Beautiful male! Too bad my Grandma missed it again!

Although nowhere near its mate, still a very pretty lemon coloured bird!

Right after I found a different female, and then a Common Ground Dove! What a day!

Common Ground Dove- I always think they look like baby morning doves

And then to top it all off, a very obliging Northern Mockingbird!

You probably don't even need me to say this, but I would 100% recommend Circle B Bar to anyone going to Florida, it's great for photography, and it has an amazing selection of species! I had my best list by far here, with 61 species! 

Click Here for my eBird List!

Florida: Day #1, Productive Resort Birding!

So since our flight had gotten into Orlando after dark, I still had to wait another few anxious hours to bird around my grandparents resort before we headed off to our first family (birding) stop of the trip; Circle B Bar. My Grandma had suggested it, and I was happy to go, because after a quick bit of eBird research, it appeared to be a very good spot, that I'd somehow missed in my pre-trip research.
          I'd like to say that the beautiful songs of Carolina Chickadees and other specialty species woke me up, but they didn't. A combination of my alarm and surprisingly loud Boat-tailed Grackles did however! My first lifer of the trip! Although I knew they were going to be easy, I was still excited to bump my list up one. I stepped outside, and was immediately surrounded by birds. Turns out that Florida's Chickadees and House Sparrows are actually Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers! They were everywhere and flitted all around the man made pond at the resort. I heard a White-winged Dove briefly call, a bit unexpected for me, and a bird I din't think I was going to get for the year! Some suspiciously fat looking ducks greeted me as well, my first comfortably countable Muscovy Ducks!

They seemed to gravitate towards unnatural perches

Muscovy Ducks are probably as domesticated an animal can get, but they've been introduced and have escaped from captivity all over Florida, and now have become quite established in many ponds like this. No less countable than Ring-necked Pheasants in my opinion! I kept walking, and came up to a slightly more naturalized pond, where I found my last North American heron, a Tricoloured Heron roosting with a bunch of Anhingas, another lifer!

The morning light gave it a very purplish sheen, truly a beautiful heron!

I believe this bird is a young female, a truly interesting bird, half cormorant, half snake!

There was also a pair of dabbling ducks; a female Mallard and a male Mottled Duck. After a little bit of research, I found that a large percentage of 'Mottled Ducks' in Florida are actually hybrids, between Mottled Duck and Mallard. I did later see a pair of definitive Mottled Ducks, but I would be interested what this bird really is:

Any thoughts welcome. The fact that it's paired with a Mallard makes me lean hybrid right off the bat, but I have pretty much no experience, so I would like to see what anyone has to say.

I found myself in a little swarm of passerines, mostly the two warblers species, but also mixed in was a few Blue-grey Gnatcatchers, Carolina Wrens and Tufted Titmice. I saw a Vireo flit off from the mix, and I got excited, White-eyed Vireo!!??? Nope! But it turns out that Blue-headed Vireos are fairly uncommon down here, at any rate they're not dirt common. Although my morning had been quite productive, I knew that we needed to get to Circle B Bar fairly soon, so I headed back. I ate a quick bowl of oatmeal (courtesy of my Grandpa), and decided to do one last little jog around. Good thing I did, because as I headed back to the car, a yellow flash caught my eye. At first I thought it was the slightly more uncommon Yellow subspecies of Palm Warbler, but as I lifted my bins up, I noticed a very distinct, lemon yellow, finely streaked warbler. A Prairie Warbler! It wasn't in anything that really resembled a prairie, just a somewhat dry section of bushes right up against the resort buildings. 

A beautiful Warbler! Good to get after I'd repeatedly missed it in Ontario!

I quickly hopped into the car, and we were off to Circle B Bar!

Florida: Intro

Part 1 (February 1 2018) - Productive Resort Birding
Part 2 (February 1 2018) - Circle B Bar
Part 3 (February 2 2018) - More Resort Birding and the Apopka Wildlife Drive
Part 4 (February 2 & 3 2018) - Rock Springs Run State Reserve and Hal Scott Regional Forrest
Part 5 (February 3 2018) - Canaveral National Seashore


In between exams, I was lucky enough to have some time off, and it coincided with my Grandparents condo rental near Celebration, Florida. So my parents took work off for a few days, and the trip was set into motion. It would last three days, the shortest international trip I've ever been on. Although it was going to be (very) short, I had high hopes. My targets are as follows, in order of want:

Florida Scrub Jay (endemic)
Limpkin
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
Purple Gallinule
Yellow-throated Warbler
White-eyed Vireo
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Bachman's Sparrow
Snail Kite
Carolina Chickadee

I would have placed Snail Kite higher, but I didn't think that I'd really have a shot at them anyways. I obviously had a few other wants, but they were lower because I expected them. Then there was a few other species that were only possible under very unlikely circumstances, so I discounted them. As you can see, Florida Scrub Jay was my number one target, being Florida's only endemic, and I was in a pretty good spot for range.

Day one way pretty much all travel, or so my parents thought... A Ross's Goose had been found to be reliable at Spencer Smith Park, only a few hundred meters off of our route to Buffalo International Airport (flights were cheaper there than Toronto). We were pretty tight on time, so I quickly speed walked across the park. I got a few duck year birds like a juvenile White-winged Scoter, and Ruddy Duck.

Juvenile White-winged Scoter, not to be confused with the quite similar juvenile Surf Scoter!

Ruddy Ducks, and a tag-along Greater Scaup

I saw some other birders (they were actually photographers), and they said they hadn't seen it. I kept walking East up the park, and a medium sized white bird drifted only a few meters above my head. I was a little befuddled, and momentarily forgot what I was looking for. White bird, black wingtips, Gannet? My brain thought, just having gone through an hour and a half of solid math, then I remembered, The Ross's Goose! I ran up, and watched it land on a little man made beach, where it rested for a while, and I got some good photos.

Obviously a much, much smaller and daintier bird than a Snow Goose. Phew, not a hybrid at all!

Not even cropped!!!!

Needless to say (although I'll say it anyways), I was feeling pretty good about my Florida trip, hadn't even left the province, and I'd already gotten a lifer! This felt like an overdue bird for me, because it's my last expected Ontario Goose! I just (just, ha) need Pink-footed, Barnacle and Emperor and I'll have all of the Ontario geese!

More to come, only actually Florida this time, I swear...

Townsend Twitch: Episode III - Solitaire Redemption

As many (Ontario) birders know, Dan MacNeal, a well known known birder from Wellington County, found a Townsend's Solitaire last November, which many went out to see. Others may also know, that I was not one of these people, although I tried to be. So hence the title, when Dan refound the same Solitaire in the same location as before, I tried at a shot for redemption. Amazing that it has been around for so long! Interestingly Dan found what was very likely a different bird at Guelph Lake in  December. But it didn't stay long and I dipped on it as well... So my first chase of the year, second time chasing this individual, and third time trying for this species, I felt determined.
          I had ski practice in the morning first, which worked out well as it was known to become more reliable in the evening. On the way up I tried for Longspurs, but as seems to be a very strong recent trend with me- I came up empty.
          I was meeting up with my friend Logan Baldwin, whom I'd never actually met in real life, but we'd corresponded and had planned to try and meet up. He was already there, and told me that it hadn't been seen since the morning. Great I thought, Not again. But just as I thought this, me and Logan almost simultaneously called out a medium sized bird flitting away into the bush- with orange wingbars. We quickly searched the bush we thought it might have landed in, but had no luck. We decided to walk up the hedgerow, and inform the other people looking. They had disappeared into the bush, but just as we were about to change direction, Todd Hagedorn, an old employee of my mom appeared from the bush, and said that he had the bird in forest! We quickly followed him, but they had lost it. I noticed something flit, got my bins up, and it was indeed the bird! It was pretty obscured, and hard for everyone to get on it. Eventually it moved to a slightly more open spot, and I got some pretty decent pictures:

The first thing I noticed on this bird was the long tail, then the eyering, than the 'burnt' orange wingbars... A very very distinct bird!

Solitaire's wingbars can range from a dull, barely noticeable tint, to a bright, burnt orange. I would say that this bird is quite bright!

Quite content with my brief, yet high quality sighting, we trekked back out the opening. I called my friend Nathan Hood, who had left only a few minutes earlier- empty handed! It was a bit awkward when he showed up, and we didn't have the bird anymore... But we walked a small section of the road and saw it fly over again, in similar fashion to the first time! Feeling good, we decided to keep on heading up to our chalet, where we made a short stop at an art store in Flesherton called Local Colour, where a Carolina Wren had been coming to a feeder there. Although the bird wasn't there, the shop owner, David Turner was. He's a great birder in Grey County, and I've been wanting to meet up with him for some time! As a success present, I bought myself a wooden Piping Plover, my favourite bird! I collect bird art, and I really like shorebirds, so this was a great addition!

I did a little bit of birding on Sunday in Collingwood, where I got my FOY (first of year) Iceland Gull, Red-breasted Merganser, Horned Grebe and others. A great addition to January, and it isn't over yet!

Blob- AKA an Iceland Gull

Female Red-breasted Merganser, maybe I should do a post on Common vs. Red-breasted females. Or maybe I should just do a general post on common similar species (that are in season), like Downy vs. Hairy, and other stuff like that

Well there's that post... Not sure what my next one(s) will be on, but I know that I will do one on my upcoming trip to Celebration, Florida! It's barely going to be a birding trip, as it's only three days after exams, and my parents don't seem willing to drive me anywhere, they say that a vacation is being able to sleep in, relax, and not drive anywhere... Ha! 

One day...

The End of 2017

I have been insanely busy lately, with (un)important thing like exams, school, blah blah blah. I started writing this post almost, but I figured I'd put it out sooner rather than later. And I used to be putting out one a week... Oh well.
2017 was a great year to be a birder, 364 species were observed in the province, the highest ever in one year! After my Tufted Duck twitch, I had pretty much only one more opportunity for birding, the Meaford CBC. Last minute, my section got changed, but the new one still had quite a bit of shoreline and other interesting features. The day was pretty good, my section got 29 species, highlights including a Snowy Owl, several (Common) Redpolls, and a single flyover Snow Bunting. I finished off by having some Cider at the section leaders house. While waiting for the official wrap-up to start, my mom spotted a Northern Shrike out the window, putting the end to a poor House Finch's life. Then it flew up into a bush only a few meters from the window!

This blows away some of my previous shrike pictures:

You get the point... 

         The next few days leading up to the new year I mainly spent feeder watching, and some local birding. There's always a big flock of Goldfinches that cycles through our property at around the same time each day, and in past years I've had Purple Finches, Pine Siskins and Redpolls mixed in. There wasn't anything too exciting, but a few siskins did turn up, as well as a photogenic Downy Woodpecker.

I've since managed to get some ok shots of Hairy Woodpeckers on the same tree, so maybe I'll do a post comparing the two similar species. What do you think?

Goldfinch's streakier counterpart

Me and my family went for a walk not too far away from our chalet, and I found some Ruffed Grouse eating the buds out of a tree:

And then when I came back, I noticed a grey lump out on a tree limb over the feeder. An Eastern-screech Owl! Although not a yardbird, I think it's the first one I've ever actually seen in my yard, or maybe even county. A great way to end the year!

Not wanting to disturb him or her too much, I quickly retreated back inside. I went back out that night, and heard what was probably the same one doing it's monotonic trill. But of course in the new year when I went out (very) early that morning, it was nowhere to be seen or heard. Figures...

I birded my subdivision pretty hard the next morning, and turned up some Purple Finches, some heard only Redpolls, a flyover Common Merganser at my patch (the first!), and a leucistic Goldfinch at my feeder! Pretty good first day I think!

I think I'll turn out a few more posts this week, summarizing the rest of my new year, a chase, and a (still) upcoming trip to Florida!

Good birding!