May Week 3

21st May

Much the same weather as yesterday but less cloud first thing as the radar showed birds flying over without stopping. Numbers of Blackpoll numbers were up to 16 and a new female Hooded warbler was one of 190 birds banded. Just after lunch a walk around the wood delivered a Black-billed Cuckoo, Northern Flicker, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher nest building and then the briefest glimpse of a Red-headed Woodpecker as it flew up in front. A calm evening had a Nighthawk, Whip-poor-will and 2 roding Woodcock still on good form just outside.


Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

20th May

Southwesterly wind remained resulting in mass arrival. A very busy morning brought us to 100 bird species and forms banded this spring with Eastern Wood-pewee, Traill’s Flycatcher and Blackpoll Warbler being new. 53 species were banded today with a total of 465 birds. After a late closure a walk to Traverse added to an impressive warbler tally. The days totals were 4 Blackpoll, 6 Bay-breasted, 4 Tennessee, 1 Canada, 80 Yellow, 20 Chestnut-sided, 80 Magnolia, 6 Myrtle, 1 Cape May, 6 Black and White, 14 Black-throated Green, 6 Black-throated Blue, 40 Redstart, 5 Ovenbird, 3 Northern Waterthrush and 14 Common Yellowthroats.


Traill’s Flycatcher

19th May

Sunny again with a southwesterly wind and the woods were alive, well with over 500 Cedar Waxwings anyway. A surprise catch for the morning when a female Yellow-breasted Chat was discovered (only the 7 caught in spring), also seen was a Northern Mockingbird and 3 Tennessee Warblers. The Afternoon was spent going to town for essentials, on route a roadside pool held 8 Least and a Solitary Sandpiper. Just to the west of Picton a marshy area had 6 Black Terns and a Common Nighthawk hawking overhead.


Yellow-breasted Chat

18th May

The sun was out again with a cool northwesterly wind. The morning total just fell short of our average total with 94 new birds with the best being a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Also retrapped was the Hooded Warbler from the other day. At lunch a flock of 110 Red-breasted Mergansers passed by, as did a Blackpoll Warbler through the yard. Traverse was quiet with 4 Blackburnian Warblers, 12 Purple Martins over and a young White-tailed Deer.

17th May

A sunny day with a brisk westerly wind. The morning banding was relatively productive starting off with a male Mourning Warbler followed by a Wilson’s, Bay-breasted and a Canada Warbler. The highlight for the afternoon was a pair of Eastern Bluebirds that showed well feeding around the cottages on the south side of the harbour. Also noted were 2 Philadelphia Vireo, 2 Tennessee and 5 Cape May Warblers along with a few Redstarts and Northern Parula.


Eastern Bluebird
Trip total reached 175 – 46 lifers

16th May

A day with great promise but for the weather. First net round started off well with a Grey-cheeked Thrush and Bay-breasted Warbler on an overcast morning. As the morning developed a rain front also developed just to the west so the nets were promptly closed at about 08:30 with hopes of re-opening within the hour but as time passed more fronts appeared that followed behind at frequent intervals with short heavy spells of rain. It wasn’t until mid afternoon that we decided to open the nets for a while as the showers had stopped and it was now very humid as temperatures exceeded 18oC. The haul was mainly Magnolia and Yellow Warblers with the addition of a Canada Warbler and a Philadelphia Vireo. The ground traps took the day’s tally past a hundred with 20 Blue Jays.


Canada Warbler

15th May

A great contrast to yesterday with no wind and wall to wall sunshine. Whilst opening the nets a different bird could be heard singing, a Black-billed Cuckoo. The nets started producing with a female Hooded Warbler, Canada Warbler and then a little gem in the form of an Orchard Oriole.


Hooded Warbler


The day count of Blackburnian Warblers reached 10 with a walk to Traverse where there were also 3 Eastern Wood Pewee and a Philadelphia Vireo.

May Week 2

14th May

A day dominated by strong southerly winds and rain showers meant no banding was carried out! A brief look around the wood noted a Northern Parula and American Redstart. The harbour held a mix flock of swallows sheltering from the weather as 8 Chimney Swifts past overhead.

13th May

A bright sunny day with no wind and many birds. First year tick came just after net opening when a Swainson’s Thrush bundled into one. Next seen in the trapping area was a male Bay-breasted Warbler feeding high in the trees. The morning was good quality with 189 birds banded including a female Blue and Golden-winged Warbler along with 3 Scarlet Tanagers. Early afternoon I explored the lighthouse area picking up a male Blackpoll Warbler, 2 Orchard Orioles, Warbling Vireo nest building, ‘orange’ Scarlet Tanager and a skulky Sedge Wren. Heading back north a Chimney Swift flew overhead, arriving at Point Traverse I located a warbler flock along the cliff edge comprising of 3 Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, Black and White, Blackburnian, Cape May, Myrtle, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Northern Parula and Ovenbird. A Great crested and several Least Flycatchers followed on as well. On the road back to the obs a second Golden-winged Warbler was seen.


Sedge Wren


Scarlet Tanager

12th May

On the whole a glorious sunny day with very few birds. I carried out census once again with just 36 species noted but on arriving at the banding lab a bird was singing in the trees, close inspection revealed a White-eyed Vireo that promptly vanished on return from the census. The morning was spent showing visitors all the birds caught. The afternoon was spent trying to get onto the internet for the big game, thankfully I finally got on mid way through the second half to see that the mighty CLARETS were two nothing up! What a fantastic result but sadly I’m a little to far away for the big trip to Wembley so I had a beer instead to celebrate the win. An Evening walk was unproductive as the leaves start to emerge making spotting birds a little harder.

11th May

A sunny day proved to be relatively quiet compared to recent standards. I carried out the morning census picking up just 41 species, as it was obvious a departure took place over night. As the sun warmed up a flock of feeding swallows over the house contained my first Bank Swallows. We had a tape lure running this morning with a successful result when five male Bobolinks were caught together with an Eastern Kingbird. The standard nets also produced a smart male Wilson’s Warbler out of just over a hundred birds. This afternoon was dedicated to food shopping and laundry but whilst in town I got my first Chimney Swift.

10th May

Awoke to a brisk northwesterly wind today that hampered the nets with less than a third being opened. However it was obvious that birds remained from the previous day with warblers sticking low in the wooded areas. The only lifer for the day appeared first thing singing over a closed net 8c, a Bay-breasted Warbler. However most activity was from the banding lab through to net 3, here were 2 Indigo Buntings, Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue Warblers along with a grey male Brewster’s Warbler.

A walk through the trees in search of a White-eyed Vireo came up trumps, not the vireo though but my second male Cerulean Warbler, an absolute stonker! Best of all though it was only a metre off the ground and showing very close, he just blew me away.


Cerulean Warbler


Noon passed and we kept the nets open a little longer and were rewarded when the Cerulean Warbler found itself in one of the nets. This is only the second bird to be trapped in the spring with the first back in 1999. The nets were closed shortly after with the final bird of the day being an Orange-crowned Warbler. Hot on the search for more birds the harbour edge produced another showy Cerulean Warbler and a Pine Warbler. Turning around I headed to Traverse where I bumped into Brendan as we both had just picked up a female Summer Tanager feeding in the trees overhead. The bird showed well along side a male Scarlet Tanager and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. Many warblers flitted around with at least 8 Northern Parula, 10+ Black-throated Blue, 6 Cape May and a banded Cerulean Warbler.


Summer Tanager

9th May

Today followed on from yesterday with a calm morning and initial signs were good with many birds singing around the netting area. The first net round produced the first baby robin of the year and by the second the nets were filling up quickly with the main culprit being Myrtle Warblers as a ‘Blue-winged Warbler’ type bird sang from the swamp. American Redstart, Tennessee Warbler, Northern Parula and Red-eyed Vireo were all added to the banding list. But the morning was cut short as a thunderstorm was tracked heading straight for us so all the nets were closed as it could be heard approaching in the distance. The morning’s tally still reached a very respectable 262 birds of which 112 were Myrtles. At 12 o’clock the storm hit with torrential rain for 15 minutes followed by showers.

Early afternoon and a stroll just out into the wood resulted in the finding of a male Golden-winged Warbler shortly followed by a fine Blue-winged Warbler as the sun started to shine. Both birds showed well alongside Blackburnian, Cape May, Black-throated Blue, Black and White as well as several Black-throated Green Warblers.


Golden-winged Warbler


Around on the edge of the harbour a muddy puddle continued to draw in Cliff Swallows who are all busy rebuilding on the lighthouse. Heading for Point Traverse the wind increased from the west keeping birds lower down. On arrival I took the eastern path through the wood coming across a mixed flock, quickly picking out Baltimore Oriole and Scarlet Tanager I next came across a bird with a bright yellow throat. Closer inspection revealed the identity to be a Yellow-throated Vireo. I watched the bird for 10 minutes or so before the flock moved on disappearing from view. Efforts to relocate the bird just turned up another Golden and Blue-winged Warbler to end another great day.


Yellow-throated Vireo

8th May

A truly amazing day for migration with a light southeasterly breeze over night with high cloud, then from mid morning the lake was covered with low mist and birds dropped out of the sky. Leaving the house at dawn a Northern Mockingbird was spotted immediately, next on the list was a Magnolia Warbler. The banding was very hectic with a total of 434 birds banded (by far the busiest day) with the best being a smart Brewster’s Warbler that looked almost like a Blue-winged.


Brewster's Warbler


The afternoon was spent around Traverse with many birds to check. New in were Tennessee Warbler, Eastern Wood-pewee and a Red-eyed Vireo. Warbler numbers were impressive with final counts of 7 Northern Parula, 6 Chestnut-sided, 3 Black-throated Blue, 4 Magnolia, 7 Cape May, 16 Black and White, Northern Waterthrush, Blackburnian and 500+ Myrtle Warblers.


Northern Parula

May Week 1

7th May

A rather wet day with many grounded birds before the weather cleared out during the afternoon. Just prior to noon the rain started to ease as David wandered around the netting area where he found a showy Blue-winged Warbler that sang frequently and feed low down mainly allowing good photographs in the dull conditions. After spending some time with this cracker I headed for Traverse where I got much the same as yesterday but there was no sign of the cerulean. Once at the west end of the trail I heard a loud cry from the marsh area to the south, as I looked up an immature Rough-legged Hawk drifted over. Going to investigate the cry I confirmed my suspicions as two Sandhill Cranes flew up from the marsh in front. Back at the east end of the marsh an American Bittern circled before heading off south. The wind had completely dropped by the evening leaving a flat calm lake with many ducks viewable. Grabbing my scope I almost immediately spotted a pair of Harlequin Ducks once again very distantly among the long-tails. Continued scanning located a Red-necked Grebe.


Blue-winged Warbler

6th May

A light southeasterly wind over night with high cloud lead to the opening of the floodgates. Around the obs new birds for a start were Common Yellowthroat, Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Indigo Bunting. Mid morning and a male Golden-winged Warbler had been caught, whilst holding this bird for photographs a ‘blue-winged’ warbler type was heard singing in the wood behind. After a lengthy search I tracked it down to see what looked like a ‘blue-winged’ except for one feature, the bird had yellow wing bars which meant that it was another Brewster’s Warbler.


Golden-winged Warbler


Brewster's Warbler


The nets were closed shortly after noon and I was off to Traverse where there were many birds to check. I found a warbler flock and soon picked out 3 Blackburnian, 2 Black and White, Ape May, 8 Palm and 4 Black-throated Green from the numerous Myrtle. Next was a cracking male Chestnut-sided Warbler and then singing above my head appeared a stunning male Cerulean Warbler that moved around the treetops. On the road just outside Traverse was a flock of 30 male Bobolinks with a single female. As the sun started to set a Brewster’s warbler popped up in Traverse followed by a second male Golden-winged Warbler along the road back to the obs.


Bobolink


Trip total = 150, Lifers = 32

5th May

A quieter day today but a new bird in was a Green Heron that spent all day around the harbour. A Merlin flew over and as evening drew in an American Bittern started to call from the marsh near to the lighthouse. A scan over the lake got a very distant Red-necked Grebe.

4th May

A calm clear day meant it was a good day for migrants again, first was a male Black-throated Blue Warbler found in the wood at Traverse along with Black and White, Pine and Black-throated Green Warblers. Ringing produced a Red-breasted Nuthatch and another two Rusty Blackbirds. Around by the lighthouse a Whip-poor-will flushed off the beach, two Purple Martins flew over as three obliging Least Sandpipers feed along the shore on the point.


Whip-poor-will

3rd May

A slight drop and change in wind direction over night meant many new birds had arrived. There were lots of people around the banding lab so I got the chance to check out Point Traverse during the morning for a change. There were a few birds around but it wasn’t until the last little stretch when a warbler called from above my head in a lone tree that I was unfamiliar with. Straight onto the bird and I could see a grey bird with golden (yellow) wings, yellow forehead and a black eye-stripe! (white throat) Initial hopes of a Golden-winged Warbler were dashed as this turned out to be a Brewster’s Warbler. A hybrid of Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warbler. Back to the obs just as birds started to arrive with 4 Warbling Vireo, Black-throated Green Warbler, Cape May Warbler and 5 White-crowned Sparrows.


Brewster's Warbler


After closing, a trip around to the lighthouse yielded 3 Orchard Orioles along with 6 Baltimore and Red-bellied Woodpecker. Back around the inner harbour a second Brewster’s Warbler of the day was found singing a Blue-winged song (looked much the same as the morning bird).

2nd May

Caught today were two new warblers in the form of an Ovenbird and Northern Waterthrush. Whilst the sunshine brought a flock of 12 Broad-winged Hawks over followed by a Red-tailed Hawk. Around the wood at Traverse during the afternoon were Black and White Warbler and a Whip-poor-will.


Northern Waterthrush

1st May

The start of a new month produced very little change with highlights being a male Baltimore Oriole, Nashville Warbler and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The lake shore had 3 Spotted Sandpipers and a drake Gadwall flew by.

April Week 4

30th April

Nothing much happening today, a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak found the sunflower seeds in the morning. The afternoon was spent in Traverse looking for yesterdays worm-eating with no joy but other good birds were a Veery, Wood Thrush, Whip-poor Will and a Black and White Warbler.

29th April

A calm sunny day once again ended up with two goodies. Banding followed on from yesterday with nothing new but a Red-breasted Nuthatch frequented the yard. Straight after lunch a walk around Traverse was very rewarding with 3 Baltimore Orioles, male Scarlet Tanager, Cape May Warbler but the best was a Worm-eating Warbler that spent most of its time with a small warbler flock. This comprises only the 18th record for the point and first since 1996 for this bird right on its northern limit.



Pleased with our haul we headed back as the lake went flat calm. Grabbing my scope I started to scan through the thousand or so Long-tailed Ducks finding 6 Black Scoters, a pair of American Wigeon and many Buffleheads. As I worked through the distant dots I came across four birds driving consistently in close proximity, from their jizz these were obviously different, looking carefully I could see they had a large white patch at the front of their heads and then a reddish brown colour on the flanks. It was a group of Harlequin Ducks (2 males, 1 imm male and a female). We watched the birds for 10 minutes before they flew off further out onto the lake. Looking back at the records I was surprised to find that there had only been 32 previous birds in the Kingston area of which only three singles were spring records, a good end to a good day.

28th April

The day started with a Black and White Warbler in the yard followed by a Gray Catbird caught during banding. It was much quieter than yesterday and as noon arrived a few rain showers started to fall. In the afternoon all I could find were two female Pine Warblers as the number of Pine Siskins on the feeders increased to 30.

27th April

A cracking calm, sunny, warm day lead to an arrival of Yellow Warblers, Eastern Kingbird and a Broad-winged Hawk soared overhead. Ringing was good with 228 birds caught including 3 Rusty Blackbirds and a massive female Meadowlark. (impressive!!!!!)



After lunch a walk with Dave around Traverse produced a Great-crested Flycatcher. In the evening I headed towards the lighthouse through the swamp where feeding on the midges in the tree tops was a male White-winged Crossbill, the rest of my walk was relatively quiet (except for a Groundhog) until half way back when a bright orange chap was spotted high in a tree, a superb male Blackburnian Warbler in gorgeous evening sun.



26th April

A cool northerly wind resulted in very few birds. 4 Black Scoters flew by on the lake with some White-winged Scoters as 50 Canada Geese moved north slowly. Only passerines of note were 2 Blue-headed Vireos, 3 Blue-grey Gnatcatchers and 2 Western Palm Warblers.

25th April

We awoke to clear skies with a mild south westerly wind (9oC) and a quick glance at the latest radar looked very promising with birds moving over the lake following the tail of the front that was moving off northeast. Whilst opening the nets a Pine Warbler was singing over net 7. Back at the banding station two Western Palm Warblers popped up followed by a Blue-headed Vireo. Two hours had passed with a steady flow of birds trapped when visiting weekend birders arrived reporting a yellow-throated vireo at Point Traverse. Heading up there I couldn’t see any sign of the vireo but I found two more Pine Warblers (with bright yellow males possibly being misidentified as a vireo?), several Swamp Sparrows and a Whip-poor-will flushed off the path. Dave appeared saying the nets were hotting up with Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler, White-breasted Nuthatch and a Lincoln’s Sparrow all in bags. Back at the station just in time as a Pileated Woodpecker flew past.



Then two novice birders appeared back from around the harbour reporting a Lark Sparrow, Dave was straight round and sure enough there he was feeding on the grass lawn with a Chipping Sparrow. (only fifth spring record for Kingston area). Banding continued with a record breaking total catch of 7 Pine Warblers (all in one day!) as a Nashville Warbler was added to the year list. Banding was stopped mid afternoon at 228 birds of 27 species.



A walk around the harbour produced many birds with Spotted Sandpiper, Least Flycatcher and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher being year ticks. Also of note were 10+ Brown Thrasher, 2 Eastern Towhee, 50+ Myrtle Warblers, 8 Field Sparrows and a finally tally of 14+ Pine Warblers were logged. Whilst around the swamp I near s*** myself when I bumped into my first Snapping Turtles. They are mean looking fellows and flipping big as I kept a safe distance. Arriving back to the safety of the house at dusk the front edge of a thunderstorm was just arriving as the wind increased and the temperature reached a very mild 22oC. Luckily the storm passed just to our north!



24th April

Following on from yesterday with no obvious arrivals except for a Savannah Sparrow that was attracted in. The morning gradually got busier as Ruby-crowned Kinglets reached 34 and two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers were banded. Nothing much for the afternoon as thunderstorms arrived at dusk.

23rd April

Today was a much quieter day than yesterday with a fresh westerly wind blowing, we reached just over sixty birds banded. Mid-morning I spotted a Sandhill Crane flying high overhead in a northeast direction. Shortly later a fishing boat came into bother at the mouth of the harbour and had to release its catch attracting a swarm of American Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. In the evening the gulls were still lingering as I spent some time studying and photographing them.





22nd April

It was a nice calm start to the day with high cloud cover as the ground was damp from showers the previous evening. As the nets were opened a chorus of White-throated Sparrow, Myrtle Warblers and Slate-coloured Juncos could be heard. The initial net round produced about 20 birds but by the second round it was obvious that there were lots of birds here. New migrants for the year were a Field Sparrow and a Brown Thrasher. The six hours we up but net rounds were producing 40-50 new birds still so we carried on for a couple more hours non-standard banding. We called it a day having banded 288 new birds of 26 species with highest counts of 92 Golden and 36 Ruby-crowned Kinglets. A relaxing evening walk saw more of the same with birds feasting on the millions of flies from sparrows to woodpeckers to Buffleheads.

April Week 3

21st April

Luckily the rain cleared just prior to dawn leaving a calm cloudy morning as the front moved off northeast. As the nets were opened it was obvious that new birds were around with many Juncos and Kinglets. The radar websites suggests that thousands of birds were on the move last night behind the weather system. The nets seemed busy all morning with 40 Juncos, 33 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 19
Brown Creepers as well as 2 Swamp Sparrows, retrap Northern Cardinal and a pair of Cedar Waxwings. A spring record was smashed as 13 Pine Siskins were banded bringing the total to 27 beating the previous of 16. A grand total of 158 birds were banded of 22 species.

Since the weather was now glorious with sunny spells we made a return trip to Amherst Island just to see how much difference a week makes. After 1.5 hours we made it to the island with a plan to count every Rough-legged Hawk and to find as many Snowies as possible (5 reported to days earlier). For a change we went clockwise around the island first passing the hotspot that held 7 owls last week but nothing was to be seen. Not to worry as just a little further on a white blob was sitting in full view on a fence post across the first field. Carrying on we kept an eye out for all birds seen previously with no luck as we arrived at the southwest corner with no more sightings. As for Rough-legged Hawks numbers seemed less from last week but we kept a tally. Half way up the west side and a scan produced a very distant Snowy owl at least seven fields away. Deciding we needed to get closer we dropped of the slight rise as a harrier drifted in front and from behind a tree on the right appeared another owl peached on a roadside fence post. Edging closer the bird seemed oblivious to our presence or more likely just didn’t care! We pulled up level with the immature male and he did not even move his head. Allowing close views of 10m or less he continued to watch/listen to something before flying a few post further away.



Happy with our views we continued in which time the other bird was now perched up with 3 Short-eared Owls swooping over her head. Further up the road heading to the centre of the island a bird was spotted feeding on some prey, followed by another just south of the ferry port. Heading west along the north coast road we came to an area that held birds last time and there straight away was a cracking adult male sat on top of a tree, half a kilometre further and a distant owl jumped up to a tree as well. It was now time to head back to the ferry so we spun the car around to find one on the 2nd telegraph pole in front, laughing that we had missed one less than 10 more poles down the road sat yet another bird! Yet again Amherst Island produced a great days birding as 9 Snowy Owls were seen (just how long will they stay?), what seemed to be less Rough-legged Hawks actually reached 134 (how much did we under estimate by last time?), 5 Short-eared Owls and 2 Ravens.

20th April

An overcast morning with a brisk easterly wind resulted in the nets being very quiet and due to the imminent rain forecasted we closed early. Highlight of the morning was an easterly movement of birds offshore including the first Black Scoters (62), White-winged Scoter (c.200) and Bonaparte’s Gull (c.400). The afternoon was a wash out.



19th April

Not surprisingly the rain had cleared to leave a sunny day but a cool wind brought the temperature plummeting to just 2oC. Banding seemed slow but steady with a couple late American Tree Sparrows being caught as were 9 Pine Siskin. A second Ruby-crowned Kinglet was trapped with a Myrtle Warbler being seen. An afternoon walk was quiet but as the temp increased the first clouds of midges (non biting) were seen with Golden-crowned Kinglets stuffing themselves as were everything else.



18th April

Awoke to see clouds for the first time today as the morning started with a female Merlin just after the nets were opened. Many birds were still around with our catch total falling just short of 100, the best by far being a stonking male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. The afternoon was spent walking around the area of the lighthouse checking the lake along with wooded areas. The lake seems to be bustling with Long-tailed Ducks and Buffleheads all the time. In addition there was a pair of Lesser Scaup along with an eastly movement of 50 White-winged Scoters, 45+ Double-crested Cormorants and a Common Tern. Heading back into the swampy woods there were 4 Rusty Blackbirds along side the deafening frogs. At the obs a Savannah Sparrow dropped in to feed on the corn. Shortly after dark the heavens opened, briefly anyway!



Trip Total – 100 (10 lifers)


17th April

Birds birds everywhere. A very calm morning meant the nets were filling up nicely with lots of Golden-crowned Kinglets (54 to be exact). A White-throated Sparrow was new in but only seen briefly in the garden. Out of the 129 birds banded two were year ticks in the form of a male Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

During the afternoon we headed across the county for some shopping and general jobs picking up several Purple Martins on route as temperatures soared to 19oC (great contrast from the start of the week). Back at the point and 3 Northern Rough-winged Swallows were feeding around the harbour. As the sun set the two American Woodcocks started their nightly routines. The birds start calling (short, explosive nasal call) from an open bit of rough ground surrounded by scattered cedar trees. Then after a while he takes to the air climbing to great heights swirling around making a strange twittering noise before plummeting back to his faithful spot on the ground.

16th April

I was trusted to carry out the morning census today counting any birds I could find on the set route. Well I reached a respectable total of 31 species with Hairy Woodpecker and Winter Wren being new whilst a Ruffed Grouse drummed in the background. A much quieter morning followed with less than 50 birds banded and no banding ticks! An evening walk saw the first Cliff Swallows circling the old lighthouse. Mammal highlights were a Raccoon that slept for the whole day in a large tree across the road. But the most thrilling sight was at dusk when 4 Beavers were seen in the harbour fresh out of hibernation.



15th April

The weather remained similar with just a slight decrease in the wind and straight away 2 American Tree Sparrows found themselves into my hands. Shortly followed by a Chipping Sparrow and then just prior to 9 o’clock Slate-coloured Juncos appeared on mass with 47 being banded, bringing the mornings total to 113 birds. The only other bird seen of note for the day was a White-breasted Nuthatch.

April Week 2

9th April

My journey started early at Manchester Airport catching a flight to Heathrow before connecting onto a Toronto bound flight. I was off on my way to volunteer at Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory (www.peptbo.ca) for the spring migration to see how different it is from the UK.

I arrived at Toronto a little over 30 minutes late and made my way through customs relatively easily to the arrivals area where I met up with David Okines. Once all my gear was in the car we tackled the famous traffic of the city just about in peak rush hour as we headed east along with everyone heading home for the long Easter weekend! As we made steady progress the first birds spotted were Ring-billed Gull, Common Grackle, Starling, Red-tailed Hawk and a few others flying over. We finally arrived at Prince Edward Point in the dark being greeted by the calls of Wilson’s Snipe.



10th April


After a very long day yesterday I had a lie in getting up at 6:30 (11:30 UK time), Dave suggested that he would give me a tour of the area. First step out of the door produced some locals, mainly Song Sparrow, Brown-headed Cowbird, American Robin and Cedar Waxwings. Moving 100m we were on the shore of Lake Ontario admiring all the numerous wildfowl. Starting with Common and Red-breasted Mergansers then 10 White-winged Scoters but the most numerous reaching over a hundred each were both Long-tailed Duck and Buffleheads. Moving around to the old lighthouse as the sun continued to rise resulted in Tree and Barn Swallow, Eastern Pheobe, Fox Sparrow, Brown Creeper, Eastern Towhee, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a pair of Wood Duck. Pottering back to the obs we picked up the rest of the common birds such as Golden-crowned Kinglet, Mourning Dove, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-winged Blackbird and Slate-colored Junco all recently arrived back for the summer.




Over the next few hours we erected 19 mist nets ready for the banding season that starts tomorrow. All the nets are positioned along the edge of a wood running away from the obs. Mid afternoon and Dave took me on a trip to see some ducks, on route we saw American Kestrel, Blue Jay, Eastern Meadowlark and an Osprey. Arriving at Kaiser Cross there were some flooded fields covered with migrant Canada Geese. Moving over to the next field yielded American Black Duck, Blue-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Duck as well as Shoveler, Pintail and Gadwall. The visit finished with a pair of Northern Harriers quartering the fields at the back.

Trip Total – 53 (4 lifers)


11th April

Banding started bright and early at sunrise (06:30) as the nets were opened flushing an American Woodcock from the path in the process. The weather was clear with a northerly wind making migrant numbers low. As the morning progressed a Sharp-shinned Hawk passed over head followed by a Caspian Tern, Belted Kingfisher and a Bonaparte’s Gull. The six hour banding session came to a close with a tally of 5 Black-capped Chickadees, 4 Brown Creeper, 7 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 5 American Robin, 2 Song Sparrow, 3 Slate-colored Junco, 6 Brown-headed Cowbird, a Cedar Waxwing and a female Northern Cardinal.

A lazy afternoon produced a Common Loon offshore along with a thousand Long-tailed Ducks. Other sightings of interest were Red Squirrel, Chipmunk and the abundant Garter Snake with easily over 50 noted.




Trip Total – 61 (6 lifers)


12th April

Yet another clear frosty start to the day as the fresh northerly wind remained. The bird feeders attracted a House Finch and four American Goldfinch just starting to moult into their summer splendour. The nets were extremely quiet with only 3 new birds being caught so we closed early. Luckily the ground traps boosted the day’s catch with 43 Brown-headed Cowbirds being banded.




Hearing news that up to six Snowy Owls were still on Amherst Island we made an afternoon trip hoping to get some of the islands winter specialities before they all headed off north. Two ferries later and we arrived on the Island just after midday and were immediately greeted by our first Rough-legged Hawk within the first kilometre. It was soon very noticeable that Rough-legged Hawks and Northern Harriers were very abundant on the isle with its large rough fields. We crossed the island passing a wet area with a Lesser and 8 Greater Yellowlegs in attendance before taking a dead end coastal road scanning every field, tree, building, fence, etc. for a white blob. There was a strong heat haze making scanning distant objects hard as we started noting a few Red-tailed Hawks.




It wasn’t long though before we were stopped in our tracks as a white blob appeared over a hill, which surely enough turned out to be a distant male Snowy Owl. Good scope views were had as the impressive owl rested in a field. We continued up the road for less than a kilometre when a large white bird flew from behind the roadside fence, yes it was another Snowy Owl. This immature female bird proved very obliging as she landed closely in a field before flying back towards the fence, WOW.




Feeling very happy with ourselves we felt very confident that we could find the remaining 4 birds as they definitely lacked camouflage this late on in the year. We headed for the east end of the island picking up another bird followed by two more in quick succession reaching the northeast corner. We now had a plan to check every road on the island to see if there were in fact more than six birds after we had already seen 5 with just covering a fraction of the island all from the car. Next find however was a Northern Shrike followed by an Eastern Bluebird and a fly by Peregrine. We now had our eye in on the owls and soon were spotting them regularly mostly either sitting along the base of fences, behind grass tufts or rocks trying to shelter from the wind in open fields with rough grass. As we continued along the roads our tally increased steadily (is this really April?) with mostly distant birds. Our thoughts turned to thinking how many voles must their be to sustain this number of birds! Approaching the central road we stopped scanning a promising area with many hawks and harriers in view when Dave said quietly “look up”, there on the telegraph just 10m away sat another Snowy looking down on us (Shit!!!!).





As evening approached we headed for a wood for a casual walk and rest from all those owls finding some very inquisitive Black-capped Chickadees unhappy with our lack of food. Retracing our steps we headed back for the 8 o’clock ferry along a road previously checked. Straight away we encountered a Short-eared Owl then just 3km away from the ferry white figures started to appear on fences, first 2 then 3 and then over the next hill the next field astonishingly had five birds all sat out in full view!!! Earlier we had only seen three birds on this stretch of road, just how many have we missed?

Finally rushing back to the ferry we finally had time to reflect on an amazing days birding. Our totals were 80-100 Rough-legged Hawks (including 16+ dark morphs) with similar numbers of Northern Harrier seen but most incredible we had found 21 Snowy Owls (including 5 males).


13th April

Was another clear day with a cool northerly wind and banding was slow but the variety was good with a Sharp-shinned Hawk, Fox Sparrow, Purple Finch, Pine Siskin and American Goldfinch all new for the seasons list.

An afternoon stroll to Point Traverse yielded 80 White-winged Scoter, 6 Common Loon, 280 Bonaparte’s and a Great Black-backed Gull on the lake. The wood seemed very quiet with just a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Brown Creepers and Golden-crowned Kinglets.


14th April

As the mornings were getting warmer more birds started to arrive with a Hermit Thrush and Swamp Sparrow being banded. Best bird of the session though goes to the male Yellow-shafted Flicker, very smart indeed!!!!!!!!!! A Ruffed Grouse skulked in the undergrowth whilst a Vesper Sparrow ran along the road.

It was time for the weekly shop so off to Picton we headed but no sooner had we left the wildlife area a large white bird flew from the roadside fence off over rough land scattered with bushes and out of sight. You guessed it a Snowy Owl! After recovering from the shock surprisingly we carried on and did the shopping. On our return there was no sign but then a kilometre down the road there sat a familiar figure on a fence. In fact it was the wildlife area boundary fence making it the only second record for Prince Edward Point. Across the road was also a pair of Horned Grebes on the Lake.