Juncos gone, snow coming?

This past week it has been fun trying to get some birding in before the sun sinks too low for detail. I've been watching a bay on the Lake of Two Mountains which I can get to on the way home and had a nice variety of common ducks and a few less common ones such as White-winged Scoter and Long-tailed Duck, there are also up to five Common Loons there daily. Last Tuesday there was an interesting loon, viewed in fading light and at distance, which showed a good sized white flank patch indicative of Arctic (Black-throated) Loon. I watched it dive 13 times and each time the patch remained consistant, unfortunately, it was not possible to get much more plumage and structure detail and the bird has not been present since, interesting though and certainly not claimed as anything other than interesting.

St-Lazare sand pits have been limited, they are mostly covered in Canada Geese when I get there although the Greater White-fronted Goose is also always there. Our area had its first Snowy Owl of the season last week, I've looked three times without success so it must have just gone through, also there was a Northern Hawk Owl not too far away, I hope it finds the sand pits, it would be a welcome patch tick.

Like the title said, the Dark-eyed Juncos have gone so perhaps we can look forward to a blanket of the white stuff soon, hope not.

And the answer to the mystery bird a few posts ago, Northern Goshawk.

Below a few digishots of the goose, it was not that close or bright. It seems that Blogger has removed the video upload function, sparing you some rubbish footage of a Greater White-fronted Goose walking.

Sandhills in the murk

Saturday was a washout from around 11.30 but the weather people told us we would get some brighter weather Sunday so we made ready for the annual trek to fields off Milton Road just east of Ottawa. The fields attract  Sandhill Cranes, a bird always worth seeing, and we were optimistic that we would find the almost 100 birds present, we managed 82.

As often happens, the weather people got it wrong and it continued to rain on and off during the morning and the visibility was pretty poor. We went anyway, passing 16 Red-tailed Hawks by the side of the highway on the way there, all looking pretty miserable.

The cranes were easy enough to find thanks to the always specific Ontbirds directions (I give up in Quebec)and they flew around bugling and strutted around a partially ploughed field. A few Lapland Longspurs were in there too along with Snow Bunts and Horned Larks. I took a few photos, well you have to don't you, but they are pretty much rubbish.

The other good thing about the trip is that you get to take lunch in Alexandria at Gaetan's Chip Van, not very calorie concious but the onion rings are a twice a year treat for us, superb.

The photos are below, don't bother double clicking. If you have not looked at the dragonfly blog and are interested there is a link on the link list. I only have a few more species to upload, still trying to ID them, they may remain a mystery as the shots are not good enough to discern the goolies well enough.

Eight Fox Sparrows in the garden!

The clocks have gone back in Quebec and so not much chance of evening birding now although there is no harm in trying. The pits have been a little quiet recently although there were still six Great Blue Herons today despite recent chilliness. Shorebirds have just about done, eight Dunlin and Three White-rumped Sandpipers were present today although they had been missing on the last few trips there. The first Snow Buntings also came over today (Sunday) a sure sign of their favourite weather to follow.

In the garden the Dark-eyed Junco numbers have been up around three figues, well 101 which counts. Also today eight Fox Sparrows all gardening away together, a few snaps below.

I'm finally starting to get a grip of my dragonfly stuff from Canada and you will see a link to the blog pages I'm starting to populate in the links section. I'm sort of using it as a web site at the moment (schhh Google might be listening) but I will be adding to it in a blog stylee next season as I see more species and get different photos. Dragonflies in Canada are not as popular amongst birders as they are in the UK but I think that is because there is no single good book. A recent purchase by me, as recommended by Chris Cloutier (thanks Chris) was The Dragonflies & Damselflies of Algonquin Provincial Park and surrounding area (i.e Canada). You can buy it from the Friends of Algonquin web site, its very good, only $28.95CAN and a must if you want to know what you are looking at.

Finally, there is a very poor photo at the end of this post, it was digiscoped at about 600m in bad light. Obviously I know what it is, do you. Answer next post if I remember. Some of the sparrow photos are nice if you click on them but the mystery bird looks more like a plastic bag the bigger it gets.

Designer sunglasses!

Soon, but perhaps not soon enough, we are off to Panama for week, a birding trip to the Canal Zone. Expecting to see some sunshine I decided to replace my sunglasses, finally. My best ever pair were about 3UKP from some shop in Luxor, Egypt. My new ones were from Wal-Mart called Tough Man or some such garbage. They are pretty rugged made of some sort of heavy metal which is good because I tend to be a bit destructive with such things. The Egyptian sunglasses were the exception because they were very durable.

As usual the things were covered in tags, vynyl lens covers, bits telling you how designer the things were. Designer, oh how that expression irritates me, everything is designed by somebody, why would people be dim enough to think something with designer name on it is better than anything else? The are all made in the same Delhi/Manilla/Hong Kong sweat shop anyway. But I digress (sitting comfortably in your Tommy Hilfinger thong?).

Back to the sunglasses. After denuding them of the garbage I gave them a spin as I drove. I kept seeing what I thought was a low flying hawk out of my left eye, but it vanished whenever I turned to look. Birders who drive know how this works, you often glimpse things, sometimes you get a view, sometimes not. Once home I examined the sunglasses and get this, they have a logo etched onto the left lens! Call me a traditionalist but... I guess the designer that designed these was more used to windscreen etching, why else would anybody be so stupid as to etch the lens, I should contact the makers, Foster Grant, to see whether I can get my postcode put on in case I mislay them!

Enough rambling already, birds. The pits still have a few Dunlin, White-rumped Sands and Greaterlegs but it is starting to look bleak. The garden is stuffed full of Dark-eyed Juncos, about 100 or so, plus five Fox Sparrows, seed carpets work.

The weather this weekend was rather mixed, soggy Saturday, breezy Sunday. Below a few shots of the aforementioned juncos and sparrows plus a digiscoped Mourning Dove.

Perhaps in the next post I'll explain why I believe that Canada is built on a slope.

Still a few shorebirds

After a couple of days away from the pits, weekends are not always that great due to human pressure, I nipped down after work Monday and was pleased to see that the Dunlin flock that arrived last week remains although it has reduced from 12 to 10. Both Pectoral Sandpipers, which had been present for more than a week, seem to have gone but three White-rumped Sandpipers have replaced them as the shorebirds of interest.

Greater Yellowlegs too are hanging on, around four are still there, also one Lesser but perhaps not for very much longer as most nights now go below zero. Duck numbers, with the exception of Green-winged Teal, are now well down to although we are hopefully a long way away from the freeze out which effectively winds the year up for anything water dependant.

Below are a few digiscoped images taken against the sun, in a breeze and quite far away but enough of the excuses.

More terrible goose photos

At the pits tonight a nice self found tick was present in the shape of a Greater White-fronted Goose. It was not a pits tick, I saw one in 2004 but it was very welcome although a trifle distant.

Also there tonight nine Greater Yellowlegs, three Pectoral Sandpipers and a White-rumped Sandpiper. Not too many nights left now when I can get out, then its owl time!

Don't bother clicking on the images, they are as good as it gets.

Six Ross's Geese

On Monday of the Thanksgiving weekend we went for a walk around Etang St-Louis, a large, lilly covered lake by the Beauharnois Canal, part of the St-Lawrence Seaway.

Apart from a couple of gits on Quadbikes ripping up the canal banks, they really should be tarred, feathered and castrated in an order of your choosing, we had a nice walk. Out on the etang were a couple of thousand scaup of both species, I didn't pay them much attention but I saw lots of Lessers and some Greaters, also hundreds of Ring-necked Ducks and a few of the commoner wildfowl, especially American Wigeon. Also there a nice group of around 500 Snow Geese and the ubiquitous Canada Geese.

Naturally we checked for Ross's Geese, more out of habit than hope but, there were three adults and three immatures milling about amongst their bigger cousins. A couple of terrible shots are reproduced below, they were a very long way away. Also around were a couple of Hermit Thrushes, a few Myrtle Warblers, the odd Ruby-crowned Kinglet and lots of American Robins.

Back to Sunday and another American Golden Plover was at the pits along with two Least Sandpipers and about three thousand people all doing something at the Base de Plein Air which required a disco at 07.00, marvelous, I didn't stay long.

You know its nearly time to dust off the winter tyres when the sparrow contingent in the garden is boosted by the arrival of Fox Sparrows. The seed carpet now has around 20 Dark-eyed Juncos, 6 White-throated, 2 White-crowned and one lump of a Fox Sparrow all panicking every time a squirrel burps. More will come, perhaps a Lincoln's will join them in the next week or so, maybe even something new for the garden, Harris's would be nice, who knows?

Finally, we are still seeing hawks move, mostly Red-tailed and Sharp-shinned and the last of the Turkey Vultures. The scraggy Red-tail below flew alongside the car for a while, luckily its an auto that I can steer with my knees when photo ops like this happen, what!

You can double click on the geese if you like but will have to live with the disappointment.