Tropical Kingbird in Thessalon

I woke up early yesterday morning and took my dogs to the St. Joseph Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary. We saw a moose, had over a hundred Pine Grosbeaks migrating overhead, and recorded the first Bohemian Waxwing for the sanctuary's all-time species list. I got home and had a good early afternoon nap. So it was a very successful day, but it was about to get much better.

Minutes after waking up, my friend Tony posted photos on Facebook of a Tropical Kingbird that he had taken just over an hour beforehand just up highway 129 north of Thessalon. I quickly fired off some texts and got ready to go myself. I was out of town when the Vermilion Flycatcher showed up this spring, so I really did not want to miss this vagrant southern flycatcher.

About 50 minutes after Tony first posted the photo, I arrived on scene, and luckily, there was the bird, sitting nicely right on the powerline, right where Tony said he saw it. One of the easiest birds I've chased!

I stayed with it for about an hour and a half and it was very cooperative the whole time. It ended up staying around until dark, but there were no signs of it this morning when many birders went out looking for it.

I am no expert at yellow-bellied Tyrannus flycatcher ID, but those with experience are saying that the deeply notched tail, short primary projection, and long, thin bill all point towards Tropical Kingbird over the very similar looking Couch's Kingbird, and after doing lots of research online myself, I'd have to agree with that. Vocalizations are very useful to differentiate the two, and while I failed to get a recording of it, I did hear it call once, sealing the ID. 

My understanding is that prior to 2020, there have only two accepted records of Tropical Kingbird in Ontario. There have been a handful of other probable records, but those have been left officially recorded as Tropical/Couch's Kingbird due to the difficulty differentiating the two species. This is of course a first ever record for the Algoma District and a lifer for me!

OFO Field Trip to the St. Joseph Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary

Yesterday morning, I was joined by three other Ontario Field Ornithologists members at the St. Joseph Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary, where we took in some migration action. It was fairly windy, but the sun was shining and it was relatively warm, making for a fantastic fall day to be outside.

I hoped that we would be able to witness a solid waterbird movement, however, that was not the case. We recorded only seven duck species with very low numbers. A few Common Loons and Double-crested Cormorants were on the move south too. The highlight waterbird were four swans, which were likely Tundra Swans, but they were ~5km away flying over Michigan on the other side of the river, so no chance to officially rule out other swan species.

Raptor migration made up for the lack of waterbirds. We recorded nine species of raptors, some of which in decent numbers: Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, and Merlin.

A flock of migrating Turkey Vultures

There was also a good flight of passerines. Flocks of mixed blackbirds, American Crows, and Blue Jays were constantly going overhead. We also had 40+ Eastern Bluebirds, a ton of Pine Siskins, some Purple Finches, and a solo Horned Lark. In the forested areas, both kinglet species were abundant, but it was generally quiet bird-wise, save for the odd woodpecker or sparrow. A Ring-necked Snake was definitely the highlight on the walk back out to our vehicles.

Pine Siskin

In total, 48 species of birds were recorded within the sanctuary over the course of the field trip.

2020 Great Canadian Birdathon

Today, my dad and I set out to complete a big day as part of the Great Canadian Birdathon. This was no ordinary big day though. Due to COVID-19 concerns and the need for social distancing, we decided to do our big day at one location so that we could bird together but not have to get into a vehicle together to travel from location to location. There was no better spot to do this than the St. Joseph Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary!

Prior to going out, I came up a with a list of 104 species that I would expect to see at this location for May 23rd. Getting all 104 of those would obviously be a best case scenario, as it's not like I see every common and expected species every time I go birding. However, I set our goal for the day at 100 species, hoping that I could get most of those, plus a couple unexpected ones.

We met on site for 4:00am. A calling American Bittern was our first bird of the day, followed by Common Loon, American Woodcock, and two Barred Owls. One of the owls flew in and landed in a tree right over our heads!

We continued to rack up singing and calling birds as we biked our way through the sanctuary. We reached the ruins of Fort St. Joseph for sunrise and waited until it was light enough to scan out over the water. Ring-billed Gulls and Common Terns were out there, but there was a real lack of waterfowl. That wasn't totally unexpected though, most of the ducks have gone through here already. A heavy fog started to roll in, so we took a break from atop the ruins and went to look for songbirds in the forested areas.

I heard the familiar call of a House Wren, which normally wouldn't be too notable, however, I knew this was a species that had never officially been recorded within the boundaries of the St. Joseph Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary before. House Wrens have certainly been there before, likely every year, but they just somehow never made it to eBird or any of the historical records from the sanctuary. It is now officially the 198th species to be recorded in the sanctuary!

As we birded along, we picked up some nice species like Scarlet Tanager, Canada Warbler, Great Crested Flycatcher, Wood Thrush, and Baltimore Oriole. By 9:00am or so, we had already accumulated almost 80 species, but we were running out of species left to get, we knew it was going to be an uphill battle to even get close to our goal.

Great Crested Flycatcher

Porcupine

Baltimore Oriole

Then I found our bird of the day. Foraging along the road was a Field Sparrow! This is a rare bird for the Algoma District, with only eight previous eBird records of the species, and my first time seeing one locally. Species number 199 for the sanctuary! Luckily, it cooperated great for photos. It even sang once for us, but I was unable to capture that.

Field Sparrow

After eating an early lunch, we hung around the ruins area to see if anything interesting would fly by. We added a few species, such as Warbling Vireo, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Goldeneye, and Ruby-throated Hummingbird, but no Great Egrets or American White Pelicans like we wanted!

Turkey Vultures

We continued to bird but the new birds for the day were few and far in between. Our last new bird was a Mourning Warbler, our 91st species of the day. At 6:00pm, we called it quits, we were just too tired and there was no way we were going to get to 100. However, we of course were very satisfied with our results, especially the Field Sparrow!

A huge thanks goes out to everyone who contributed to our birdathon. Ron and I were able to raise $1,200, which surpassed our goal of $1,000. All the money raised is going towards Birds Canada for their bird conservation efforts here in Canada. If you are interested, you can still contribute here: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/bird-studies-canada/p2p/birdathon20/team/dorscht-birding/.

2019/2020 Winter Birding Season Wrap-up

November featured a Mountain Bluebird and multiple Northern Hawk Owls, so the upcoming winter season was going to be hard to beat. Sure enough though, it certainly did beat it. I managed to see a Gyrfalcon (a lifer!), six Northern Hawk Owls, three Great Gray Owls, a Boreal Owl, and a Harlequin Duck among a variety of other interesting birds. Here is the recap of my 2019/2020 winter birding season.

Boreal Owl

On the first day of the season, December 1st, I was excited to find a Harlequin Duck in downtown Sault Ste. Marie. While I initially assumed it was a female, it stuck around all winter and slowly transitioned into male alternate plumage. Many local birders and photographers got to see this duck and it was a lifer for most of them!

Harlequin Duck

The same day, I also saw my first Iceland Gull of the year. None were seen is late winter or early spring in 2019 and they showed up later than usual in late fall.

Iceland Gull

By mid-December, I was up to four Northern Hawk Owls that I had personally seen. The two that were found in November continued and I actually had clients come up from the Toronto area to see them. Then, one was found north of Bruce Mines and then I actually found one myself, it was along Highway 17 on my drive home from work one day.

Mid-December also was the start of the Christmas Bird Count season, one of my favourite times of the year. This year, I participated in five counts: Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinac Straits, Les Cheneaux, Rudyard, and Desbarats. I didn't end up finding anything too out of the ordinary in any of the counts, but lots of birds were to be had still. I had three Snowy Owls in my Sault Ste. Marie section, which was down from twelve the year before.

I started my 2020 list off by going up to visiting our long-staying Black-billed Magpie. This magpie showed up at Echo Lake in 2013 and has been here ever since. It'll be interesting to see how much longer it survives for. Upon returning home after a morning of birding, a small flock of White-winged Crossbills were in my yard. That was exciting!

Black-billed Magpie

Gyrfalcon was my most wanted bird this winter. It was one of the few remaining "holes" in my Algoma District list. I didn't think it would happen this winter, but I was sure excited when I photo came across my eBird alerts of one, misidentified as a Northern Goshawk. I just happened to have some time to kill the next day in Sault Ste. Marie, so I went looking, and lucky me, I saw it. Was it a good look though? Absolutely not, but it was enough to add it to my life list. It was chasing goldeneyes in the St. Marys Rapids and quickly disappeared. I was in town again a few days later and similar thing, it blew by overhead, but this time, I managed one absolutely terrible photo of it. The bird ended up posting up in the west end of Sault Ste. Marie and became fairly reliable to see well, so the weekend couldn't come fast enough. I actually had clients on Saturday who wanted to see it, so off we went. It wasn't there when we initially arrived, but it showed up soon afterwards and gave us some great views. At one point, it flew right over our heads, caught a small rodent, and landed it eat it. What an awesome experience!

Gyrfalcon

Towards the end of January, I received a text from a friend with a photo of a Boreal Owl he had just found. I raced down with hopes of seeing it myself, and luckily, it had stuck around. This was only the second time I've ever seen a Boreal Owl, and it was a much better look than the first time. Here's a video that I took of it:

The first reliable report this winter of a Great Gray Owl came in towards the end of January (there were two faked ones late in 2019, but that's not a story for here). Since it was seen within the St. Joseph Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary, my favourite birding location, I really wanted to see it, as who wouldn't love a Great Gray Owl tick at their favourite place? Three attempts though and no luck. I saw my first Great Gray Owl of the year when one showed all day between Bruce Mines and Thessalon. It was by far the easiest Great Gray Owl I've ever seen, I drove up and there it was. On attempt number four, I finally found the one within the bird sanctuary, so that was really exciting. A few days later, I finally saw one that had been hanging out in the Desbarats area within another one of my favourite patches, so that was neat. Can't complain with three Great Gray Owls this winter!

Great Gray Owl

Great Gray Owl

Over the course of the winter, I was able to catch up with a few other interesting birds. My co-worker has had an Eastern Towhee visiting her feeders all winter. A friend has a White-crowned Sparrow, and interestingly enough, it appears to be of the gambelii subspecies. There were a couple Carolina Wrens in Sault Ste. Marie and I heard one singing, which was good enough for me. I had Horned Larks in a couple different spots and a couple Lapland Longspurs. I also got three blackbird species: Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, and Brown-headed Cowbird.  The abundance of White-winged Crossbills, Red Crossbills, and Black-backed Woodpeckers this far south was also a treat.

Eastern Towhee

White-crowned Sparrow

The only things missing were some of the winter finches. As the forecast predicted, grosbeaks and redpolls did not come south this year. I still managed to tick Pine Grosbeak, Evening Grosbeak, and Common Redpoll, but no Hoary Redpolls this winter.

In total, I managed to see 73 species between December 1st and February 29th, which I'm fairly sure is my best winter season yet. The relatively mild temperatures sure helped! Now hopefully spring migration starts sooner rather than later.

A Saturday in Sault Ste. Marie

This past weekend, I hosted a morning bird tour in Sault Ste. Marie in search of some of the interesting birds hanging around. 50% of the proceeds of the tour went towards Bird Canada, so it was great to raise a little money for bird conservation as well.

We started off by checking a few of the vantage points along the St. Marys River. Our first stop was the Pine Street Marina. The wind was very cold here, as we were completely exposed to the elements, and there were only a few Common Goldeneyes to be seen, so we moved on quickly.

Stop number two was at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre. A few more Common Goldeneyes were here too, but the exciting bird was a Common Goldeneye x Hooded Merganser hybrid. This individual has wintered here in Sault Ste. Marie for a few years now (there were two of them in 2018!).

Next, we went to the vantage point behind the Art Gallery of Algoma. There were lots of ducks here, but mostly Mallards and Common Goldeneyes. Then the hybrid flew in from further up river, giving us a much closer look than the first time.

We hit the jackpot at our next stop by the Station Mall. The participants wanted to see the immature male Harlequin Duck that has been around since December. I was hoping to at least get them some distant views of it in the scope, as it's often on the far side of the river. However, with the strong winds, there was a group of ducks right close to shore, hiding from the wind off the end of a barge. Lucky for us, the Harlequin Duck was with them! We got some great, close up looks at it. Another bonus was that the female Great Scaup that showed up in town recently was there too, which is a great bird to see here in the middle of the winter. Check out this photo that one of the participants got of both of these ducks side-by-side.

We already got to witness a Common Raven eating a dead Rock Pigeon in the Station Mall parking lot. Based on the condition of the pigeon, it looked like it was a casualty of a vehicle, it looked pretty squished. Here is a video I took of it.

After checking out the river, we took some quick looks for the Gyrfalcon and one of the Carolina Wrens that have been in the area, but we struck out on both of those. By this time, the tour came to the end, with everyone still excited about the great views we got of the Harlequin Duck!

One of the tour's participants, Violet Aubertin, was taking photographs for a story she was doing on me for SooToday. You can read her story here. Thanks SooToday and Violet!

St. Joseph Island with the Ontario Field Ornithologists

Today I lead my first field trip for the Ontario Field Ornithologists!

We started the morning off by traveling down to the St. Joseph Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary, the best birding location of St. Joseph Island. However, this morning was not our morning. Heavy fog covered the entire area, making it impossible to see anything out over the water. Inland, there were a few birds here and there, but not as many as I expected to be there. While we waited out the fog, we saw some Northern Flickers, Black-capped Chickadees White-throated Sparrow, and Sharp-shinned Hawks. When the fog finally lifted, at first all that was out on the water were a few Double-crested Cormorants, but after scanning and scanning, we found two Ring-billed Gulls. After a few minutes though, we realized there a smaller gull with them, a Bonaparte's Gull! This is a nice bird to see around here.

Our next stop was the Mountainview Centennial Grounds. Bird actively was actually pretty good here, although only for a few species. There were at least 16 Eastern Bluebirds here, many of them posing well for photos. Northern Flickers, Eastern Phoebes, and Chipping Sparrows were all over too.

We ended the day with visits to the Huron Line Fields and Maguire Drive Boat Launch. By now, it had warmed right up and raptors were on the move. Most were Turkey Vultures, but there were also Bald Eagles, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Broad-winged Hawks, American Kestrels, and a Merlin.

In total, 40 species were recorded during the field trip.

Thanks to everyone who participated! Hopefully there will a future Ontario Field Ornithologist field trips in the area again soon!

Sault Ste. Marie's Summertime Greater White-fronted Goose

On July 26, 2019, I received a message from a local photographer. Her husband saw a different looking goose while kayaking on the St. Marys River in downtown Sault Ste. Marie. After reading her description, my first response was Greater White-fronted Goose, but I was thinking it was going to end up being a domestic Greylag Goose or something like that. She went off to take photos herself, and sure enough, it was a Greater White-fronted Goose.

Within Ontario, there was a grand total of zero previous records of Greater White-fronted Goose on eBird during the month of July, so this was a significant find, on top of the fact it's a rare bird for here to begin with. There are usually a few sightings of this species during spring migration in the Algoma District, usually requiring a scope to scan fields full of geese in agricultural fields. This bird was much easier to find, as all you had to do was drive up to the Civic Centre and you'd likely see it on the lawn or in the water at the adjacent marina.

Since I already had this species for the year, I wasn't going to rush into town just to see it. However, a few days later on the 29th, I had to go into town, so after running my errands, I swung by to see it. I couldn't believe how tame it was, it acted just like the usual city-living Canada Geese that have no issues with people being up close and personal. I was definitely able to get my best photos of this species to date! This was the 198th species I've seen within the city limits of Sault Ste. Marie.

The goose hung around the Civic Centre for a while. Multiple birders and photographers got to go see it and it was a lifer for many of them. A few people even saw it narrowly miss death as it attempted to cross the busy road.

On August 1st, the bird was seen making it's way east down the river towards Bellevue Park. Two days later, it was actually recorded within the park, making it the 209th species recorded there! I was in town again the day following this, so I made a quick stop, just to see it again.

As of today, August 6th, the goose continues at Bellevue Park. It would be interesting to know this bird's story. Did it leave the arctic breeding grounds early or did it never make it there? How long will it stick around for? Who knows, but I'm sure many will continue to enjoy its presence while it lasts.