Christmas Bird Counts

For-The-Birds Woodlot

I spent Saturday searching for birds in the vicinity of Harrow and visited sites such as the For-The-Birds Woodlot pictured above.  I have been participating in this Cedar Creek Christmas Bird Count for 24 of its 25 year history. I like this count. It started as an American Crow count due to the large number of crows that would descend on the town of Essex each winter.  At its peak ten years ago we recorded over 117,000 birds, making it the crow capital of Canada.  This year the roost failed to develop and apparently the birds have moved to the city of Chatham.  The next morning as I drove to Rondeau Provincial Park for another bird count I encountered thousands and thousands of crows along Highway 401 between the Tilbury and Chatham interchanges. 

Two Savannah Sparrows were a nice find on the count. They were feeding on the edge of a road where the snow had been scraped away from the shoulder exposing dirt, grass and a few weeds. 

A late hummingbird

Usually, when I see a new bird for my Ontario list I'm thrilled and happy to tell everyone about the encounter but this time that didn't happen. You see I didn't get a chance to share this sighting with my friends and only a very few people got to see the bird.  Normally when someone finds a very rare bird the sighting is posted on ONTBIRDS (or similar listserv) which gives many people a chance to look for the bird. In this case the bird departed before the identity was established.

I'm always interested in any local records of hummingbirds after mid October when most Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have left the region. While there are records of Ruby-throats as late as November 26 in Michigan there is a higher probability that a late hummingbird might be a different species.  For example a hummingbird that appeared at a feeder in Kingsville on 18 November 2007 turned out to be an adult female Rufous Hummingbird. It remained at the feeder to December 1.

Rufous Hummingbird, Kingsville, ON, November 22, 2007

On October 30, 2010 I learned of a hummingbird coming to Tom & Peggy Hurst's feeder in Cottam, ON.  After watching it for a while I decided it would be a good idea to come back the next day and get some more photos as there was talk of an Anna's Hummingbird that had just shown up in the UP of Michigan and this bird was not a typical plumaged Ruby-throat. We hoped it might be an Anna's Hummingbird but I hadn't seen an Anna's for several years and wanted to examine my photos and check some references before getting too excited. Unfortunately the bird never returned to the feeder. The few pictures that I digiscoped with a point-and-shoot camera were eventually sent away to hummingbird banders for an expert opinion. Both Sheri Williamson in Arizona and Bob Sargent in Alabama confirmed that this was an Anna's Hummingbird.

Anna's Hummingbird, Cottam, ON, October 30, 2010

This is the first record of Anna's Hummingbird for the province of Ontario. This species also appeared in Grand Maris, Michigan (2), Saylorville, Iowa and Val-d"Espoir, Quebec this fall.  The differences between female/immature plumaged Anna's and Ruby-throated are subtle. The bird above shows dingy dusky flanks with some green spotting, a straight bill and thick neck. The loral pattern is also different from Ruby-throat with a pale eyebrow, blackish spot in front of the eye and indistinct pale grayish wash behind the eye. Visible in the photo below is a distinct patch of dark spotting on the throat which is a normal pattern for female Anna's. 

In the Great Lakes region it is a good idea to keep hummingbird feeders up and supplied with sugar water until the snow flies! Species such as Rufous and Anna's Hummingbirds are quite tolerant of cold weather and capable of surviving freezing temperatures. If you are lucky enough to have a hummingbird appear at your feeder please report it immediately to your local birding hotline. My number is 519-966-5852. 

Gray Jay

I first heard about an irruption of Gray Jays back in September and since that time I heard of reports from Lake Superior east to the Ottawa region. On October 9 we came across the Gray Jay pictured below along a back road seven km NE of Burk's Falls, ON. The bird was a first-year individual based on the ratty pointy-shaped tail feathers.

The fall colours have changed since the post of two weeks ago. A brief cold spell with frost put an end to much of the colour derived from the brightly coloured maples and now the yellows of aspens and tamaracks are dominant. 

Tamarack (American Larch) stand, October 9, 2010

Fall Colours

Fall colours were dazzling this past weekend north of Huntsville, Ontario. It has been a long time since I explored this region during the peak of fall colour. This Red Maple was photographed along the river above the village of Burk's Falls.

Highway 11, Burk's Falls, Ontario

Southern Sky

Now that I am home again it is time to sort all the photos that were taken in South Africa and post a few of my favourite images. One thing that I did not do on the trip was spend enough time at night observing the splendours of the southern hemisphere sky.  Some of the finest celestial objects cannot be seen from Canada and they are well worth the effort to stay up at night, even after a long day of birding.

Here is an image taken on the lawn of the Kruisa Moya Nature Lodge showing the Milky Way with the Southern Cross low near the horizon. The dark CoalSack Nebula (or head of the Emu in Australia) lies along the upper left side of the Southern Cross.  (image taken with a Canon 5D MarkII and 20 mm lens)

Off to the left of this view lies one of the most spectacular globular clusters, the size of a full moon, known as 47 Tucanae (containing millions of stars) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (a close dwarf galaxy). Below is an image taken with a 100mm lens.

47 Tuc and SMC

Cape Dwarf Chameleon

Ever since I arrived in South Africa I have kept an eye out for a chameleon. I wanted to see the turret-like eyes, grasping toes, and cryptic colors of a wild individual. After scanning countless bushes for three weeks my quest for a chameleon was finally fulfilled this afternoon. I spotted this beautiful male chameleon basking in a small tree on the grounds of the Afton Grove Retreat where we are staying just outside of Cape Town. The owner had told me his grandson had seen a chameleon in the garden which served as an incentive to check the gardens several times during our stay here. I was glad I persevered.

Sent from my iPad

Cape Dwarf Chameleon

A few birds

Kruger National Park isn't just for big game. I was overwhelmed with all the new birds we found. Of course it was a big help to be birding with Tom Hince as he has birded South Africa on several prior occasions and knows the birds very well. I posted a few bird photos below.

Lilac-breasted Roller is a common and conspicuous bird in the park. Its colours are simply amazing. Even starlings here are gorgeous. We saw four species with iridescent plumage and two species of oxpeckers. The finfoot is much harder to find and we were fortunate to find this lone bird while birding from a bridge.

I hoped to see hornbills on the trip and we were lucky to see all six species in a single day. The Yellow-billed is the most common hornbill in the park. It seems to have a fondness for picking through elephant poop. Mousebirds were another new bird family for me. They are fairly conspicuous as they travel around in small flocks.

Lilac-breasted Roller

African Finfoot

Cape Glossy Starling

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

Burchell's Coucal

Red-faced Mousebird