Cape Hatteras in winter
January 21st, 2012
In winter, when most of the bright yellow birds have flown to the tropics, and goldfinches have molted most of their yellow for dingy greyish-green, what a sight to see a meadowlark, as golden-breasted as ever! These birds, generally thought of as a rural species, occur year-round at Pea Island Wildlife Refuge. In summer I hear them singing from the boardwalk.
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The Boat-Tailed Grackle, a supersize relative of the Common Grackle, is one of the characteristic birds of the south Atlantic coast. In winter they get very flocky, gathering on lawns, rooftops, sand dunes, and last but not least, feeders. A large group was patronizing the feeders at the Visitor Center, though they flushed into the vegetation as soon as I drew near.
The dominant wintering duck at Pea Island appears to be the Northern Pintail---they raft by the hundreds on open water. They're skittish when approached, though, so I wasn't able to get any good pictures of them. These female Buffleheads were somewhat more cooperative.
( More photos within )
Virginia/Hatteras Triplist
January 19th, 2012
I'm back from vacation in Virginia and Cape Hatteras.
( The triplist is, um, epic. )
Photos to come!
Port In A Storm
January 1st, 2012
Northern Cardinal and female House Finch at my feeder on a blustery, wintry day.
Blue Jay
December 13th, 2011
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It's been a great year for winterlisting so far, with our mild weather encouraging many fall migrants to linger into December. I scooped up 29 species on the first plus six more last week, the most surprising being some lingering American Wigeons at Mud Lake, and several Red-Winged Blackbirds at the Hilda Road feeders.
I'm also enjoying the sunflower feeder I hung from our second-floor balcony--one of the pleasures of having a house instead of an 11th-floor apartment! So far the mainstay is chickadees and House Finches, but I've also seen a few cardinals and, on one occasion, goldfinches. It will be interesting to see how much business it gets after winter really sets in.
Field Birds
November 24th, 2011
Yesterday I went out with my birding group and found two long-awaited lifers!
The first was Snow Bunting, an arctic songbird. They breed on open tundra, and winter in rural areas and on shorelines. I'm a little embarrassed that it took me so long to list Snow Bunting. It's common here, late fall through early spring. I can only blame it on my dearth of experience with rural birding, plus a dash of bad luck.
Yesterday made up for it in spades. I fell in love with Snow Buntings. Big flocks of them swirling over the fields, twinkling salt-and-pepper swarms of birds. In flight, they're obvious. But when, all as one, they settle down in a snowy plowed field...they utterly disappear. Their brown and white winter plumage is a perfect match to the brown and white landscape. Your only hope is to see movement. When they skitter around en masse in a field, it looks like the earth itself is moving.
Lifer #2 was Sandhill Crane. Did you know we have cranes in Ottawa? I didn't, before I took up this hobby. I thought of cranes as exotic, Asian birds. There are two species native to North America, the highly-endangered Whooping Crane, and the more numerous Sandhill Crane, a large, stately grey bird with a red forehead. Not to be confused with herons, which are easily seen in just about any stream, river or pond around Ottawa, our population of Sandhill Cranes is very small and reclusive, breeding in only one known location: Mer Bleue bog.
Autumn is the time to see them. That's when they leave the bog and gather in adjacent farmer's fields to feed on waste grain. The sight is a magnet to migrating Sandhill Cranes, who then touch down and swell the flock. At Milton and Smith roads, we found 95 of them in one field. Too far away for decent photographs, but with a spotting scope, we were able to have a good, close-up look.
Lifelist now stands at 299. The next one is the big one!
More Autumn Waterfowl
November 14th, 2011
In the past few autumns, a whole flock of migrant Lesser Scaup have taken to staging in one of the small, manmade ponds at Andrew Haydon Park. It's fun to get to see these very wild ducks up close. Over time they become tame, perhaps taking their cue from the surrounding Mallards, who evince no alarm at passing humans (but do react to passing dogs.) Last time I was there, a couple of them even came up on shore, the first time I'd ever seen scaup on land.
(female Mallard behind)
Alas, Lesser Scaup drakes wear their eclipse plumage late in the year, and by the time they're fully back in their handsome breeding plumage, they'll be gone to their wintering grounds. The photos above are both of drakes, though, being in eclipse, they resemble females. You can just see a few vague whitish patches on the back and flanks where the breeding plumage is coming back in.
Two Brant have been feeding on the park lawn for the last couple weeks. This small (duck-sized) tundra goose is a close relative to our familiar Canada Goose. It's not usually seen on manicured parkland (preferring to eat aquatic plants like eelgrass), but, like the scaup, these two seem to be taking cues from their more domesticated relatives.
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Whole flocks of this species sometimes put down to rest on the Ottawa River during their fall migration.
(Canada Geese behind)
This looks like a female Common Merganser--a common breeder in our area--at first glance. But its bright red eyes give it away as something more interesting: a Red-Breasted Merganser. See here for a look at the drake's unique, spiky-haired breeding plumage.
Green-Winged Teal
November 11th, 2011
Duck migration is in full swing. I went down to Andrew Haydon Park recently to enjoy the sight of teal, scaup, and other (relatively) exotic waterfowl, joining the ubiquitous mallards and canada geese in the western pond.
Every year, it seems, more and more Green-Winged Teal show up in Ottawa in migration. I never tire of their beauty.
Teal are dabbling as opposed to diving ducks. They obtain their food primarily by swimming in very shallow water and picking at the surface, or even while walking on mud flats. So I was surprised to find a group of three actively diving! I'd seen mallards diversify that way before, and it was less of a surprise, since mallards are generalists in a lot of ways. I didn't expect it from teal.
It was quite a different sight from, say, a diving scaup, which slips gracefully underwater with scarcely a ripple. These guys went in with tails spread, wings akimbo, and a loud *sploosh*.
"Local celebrity" would be an understatement this time
October 23rd, 2011
Ottawa has just seen its first Razorbill in recorded history. Razorbill is a seabird--an auk, to be specific--that, under all normal circumstances, breeds, winters and migrates in salt water habitat. Only extreme weather during its migration can cause this bird to be blown off course and end up inland. Which is presumably what happened, with the storm of a few days ago. (An interesting blog post here explores the possibilities.)
I've seen these birds in their usual locale off the Gaspé peninsula, and photographed one who swam close to the dock. No such luck today: the Razorbill on the Ottawa River was staying far out from shore, viewable only with spotting scope. He was preening and fishing and seemed to be doing quite well for himself, unaccustomed freshwater habitat notwithstanding.
White Admiral
October 19th, 2011
One from the backlog.
Highlights At Andrew Haydon Park
October 12th, 2011
Most sandpipers breed on the tundra and winter on the coast. But in autumn, about 20 species worth move through Ottawa in migration, showing up on muddy river shores and shallow ponds. Andrew Haydon Park is one of the classic places to find them. I went sandpiper-watching there on Saturday morning, and found many other points of interest besides.
Greater Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs
Great Blue Heron executing a perfect landing.
Red Squirrel in the morning light (available as wallpaper)
White-Rumped Sandpiper--life bird #294! (Yes, I'm celebrating when I hit 300 :-)
White-Rumped Sandpiper betraying its identity
Great Egret (wider-angle than my usual, but I liked the perspective of the Sailing Club behind it.) This graceful species was historically rare in our area, but in recent years, has become a regular sight along the Ottawa River in fall.
Eastern Chipmunk (with snack)
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