After I finished my last exam for my first semester on the 30th, my sister drove me out to Burlington to find some birds. We scoped out Hamilton Harbor for the Pacific Loon that had been seen in the following days, but couldn't seem to find it, but did see a nice group of Common Loons. On our way back home we decided to stop at "Swan Lake" the ponds that had a Snow Goose the day before. To our surprise, it was still present taking a nice long nap on the ice with its buddies.
The next morning on Tuesday, a flock of Bohemian Waxwings showed up at the University of Guelph Arboretum (Michelle Beltran; Jan 31), but they were feeding in a tree located 150 yards outside of the HSA boundary. Knowing that Bohemian Waxwings are would be a very difficult bird to get in the HSA, my sister and I quickly geared up and drove over, arriving at 11:40am, an hour and a half after the initial sighting. Not even a minute walk from the parking lot and we could already see the group of BOWAs feeding in a juniper tree with a few Cedar Waxwings mixed in. We viewed these birds for about 5 minutes before we headed over to the HSA boundary line. Earlier, I thought the 150 yard walk from the tree to the boundary line would be short, but when I walked it, it seemed very far. Since the distance seemed so far, I didn't have much hope that these birds would fly over to the HSA, so we only waited a short time at the boundary line before heading back to see if they were still there. A small group of people were gathered at the juniper tree and informed us that the waxwings had gotten flushed by a Sharp-shinned Hawk and flew north, the opposite direction we would have liked for them to go. We searched the whole arboretum for the next hour and could only turn up two small groups of Cedar Waxwings. So to our knowledge, these Bohemian Waxwings never were/entered the HSA, therefore not making it a "miss" for the HSA Big Year & not making it on the recent rare bird sightings list. I've still got some hope that at least one group will show up in the HSA this year as in previous years some were seen at the end of March.
Bohemian Waxwing (Guelph Arboretum - birds not in HSA)
On the first of February, my sister and I went out to search for a Red-shouldered Hawk that had been seen on the East edge of Oakville in a residential neighborhood near "The Parkway". This had been my third time looking for this bird this year, but again, we came up empty. After that we decided to check out this snowy grassy development field on the edge of Halton, bordering Peel, which hosted a Dickcissle for a day last year in the fall. We spent an hour scouring the field for sparrows and actually turned up a Field Sparrow and a super skulky Savannah Sparrow, quite a nice start to February!
Savannah Sparrow
On Saturday, I attended YES (Young Environmental Science) Alliance, run by the Royal Botanical Gardens and led by Jackson Hudecki. That day out of all the times I've attended YES Alliance was one of my most favorite because we had some special guests visit from the University of Guelph, Wild Ontario! Wild Ontario educates youth and the public about Ontario raptors, and they even brought some fluffy raptor friends for us to see up close, it was truly an amazing experience! That evening I headed out to Pier 8 Park hoping to see a Glaucous Gull and maybe some other rare gulls (Slaty-backed Gull). Over the hour and a half I was there, saw many Herring Gulls, had the Great Cormorant flyby, saw an Iceland Gull and an adult Glaucous Gull at close range.
American Kestrel (Apollo) - Wild Ontario
The next evening while coming back from a northern birding adventure outside the HSA with Luke Raso and George Preiksaitis, we stopped by the Mattamy National Cycling Center where we found hundreds of Canada Geese feeding in the adjacent field. We scanned this massive group for Greater White-fronted Geese, Snow Geese, and Ross's Geese, the last goose species somewhat expected in the HSA that I still haven't seen this year (oh, and also Brant). We also saw a female Northern Harrier hunting in the fields at dusk, then landing on a brush pile going to roost.
I try my best to write and post a new blog each Sunday night, but got carried away with some other stuff that night so that's why I am posting tonight : )
I think next week we'll try to see some Short-eared Owls in Haldimand!
HSA Year List: 94
Recent rare bird sightings:
Snow Goose - One in Canal Park (Mourad Jabra; Feb 4)
Great Cormorant - Still occasionally being seen flying in Hamilton Harbor and roosting on the wave tower in the evenings
King Eider & Harlequin Duck - Both still being seen at Fifty Point, last report from February 2
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