Essex County – Tails From The Bird House

It’s amazing the stuff you can re-learn when you have a bit of time on your hands, and the ability to understand what your teachers were trying to explain when you were younger.

As a child I was interested in space, after all it was the time of the Apollo missions and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

In school we learned about the sun and the 9 planets (yes Pluto was still a planet back then), and we learned about eclipses, the planets orbiting around the sun, the moon phases, and a little bit about the Northern Lights.

As mentioned in my last post I finally had the opportunity to see Totality during a Solar Eclipse, but this posting is more about Auroras than eclipses.

In the big city there is so little opportunity to see the Aurora, but there have been a couple times that I can remember.

Once in my early 20’s I was out late at night walking in the Warden and Finch area of Scarborough, when I happened to notice an odd green wash to the sky in the north. As I watched it seemed to move and change. At first my mind went to HG Wells and the War of the Worlds, but then my brain worked it through until I realized that I was seeing the Aurora, otherwise known as The Northern Lights. I was filled with excitement and so very happy to have seen this, from such a busy place.

Sadly there were no cell phones at that time (oooh, that must have been such a long time ago Grandpa!), and I didn’t have a camera either, so all I have is a memory.

The next time I saw the Aurora was with My Lady when we visited Alaska and the Yukon. We were in Dawson City in late August of 2005, doing laundry while on a tour, and I stepped out of the laundromat, looked up at the sky, and observed a green glow forming overhead in the late twilight sky.

We were tired after a very full day of touring, and after finishing the laundry my poor Lady wanted to go to sleep. I pleaded with her to come with me to the river (where it was darker), but she really was tired. Eventually I was able to persuade her to come with me, and as I led her while she sleep walked, she let me know that she was not pleased.

That changed when we got to the river.

As I set up my camera (yes, I had one this time – it was even a digital too!), My Lady lay down on a picnic table and looked up at the sky. Green waves, Pink ribbons and Purple streaks greeted our eyes. She was entranced and immediately wide awake.

At one point the sky right above us went into a corkscrew and turned a full revolution, before my camera was ready, and then disappeared as quickly as it started.

We stayed and watched the sky for a couple of hours until the show faded away. As we headed back to the hotel, My Lady mentioned that it was even better than sex.

The next time I saw that green glow was when I was driving up the 427 to the 401 while heading to work. There it was low on the horizon, greeting me like an old friend. Again this time, only the memory.

And a few years ago, My Lady and our Son and Daughter In Law were watching the Perseids meteors in Lion’s Head Dark Sky area, and were thrilled to see some of the familiar colours vaguely showing in the north. This time I had a camera, and even knew a bit more about how to use it. Surprisingly I was able to help a couple other people capture the beauty on their own cameras as well.

Which brings us to May of 2024.

We belong to a group of birders and we send messages when a bird of note is being seen. Sometimes a message comes in later in the night, or the summary email from EBird comes in and we get the message ding after 10, when us old birds are trying to go to sleep.

One night in May we were just falling asleep and had the “ding” come in. Neither of us bothered because we figured it was the EBird summary.

In the morning when we woke, we checked the message and were very sad to see that someone had sent a message telling everyone to get outside, the Aurora is fantastic right now. And we slept through it.

Since then we have been keeping a closer eye on the weather and the Aurora Alert sites online.

Now, swinging back to the sun. Right now we are in a high point of the 11 year cycle that the sun goes through, and we are seeing an immense amount of Sunspots. These Sunspots coincide with the increase in Aurora / Northern Lights, and the greater the Sunspot, the greater the chance to see the Aurora.

Over time I have purchased Solar Filters from Thousand Oaks and Celestron, and have been trying to photograph the sun when it is especially spotty. These filters go on the front end of the lens and block all light, except that from the sun. DO NOT TRY TO PHOTOGRAPH, OR LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY, WITHOUT A PROPER FILTER. YOU CAN DAMAGE YOUR EYES.

A few nights ago everything seemed to align, and we felt that there was an opportunity to (hopefully) see the Aurora. The sky was going to be clear enough, and the Alerts showed that the Aurora was dipping further south into our area.

Knowing that the best viewing would be to the north, My Lady and I jumped into our vehicle and headed to the north end of the county, along the shore of Lake St. Clair, and waited as darkness fell and our eyes adjusted.

Eventually I was able to see some colour showing up in my camera with a 10 second exposure, and we began taking a few more photos.

Soon after we moved to a different area where it was darker, but unfortunately had a bright red light flashing off to the right side. We stayed here because it was the best place we could find. We were joined by a lovely couple, and shortly after another lady arrived, who all stayed with us for an hour or so as we watched the sky to the north ripple in greens and tower in purples. Eventually this too faded away, and it was time for us to make our way home, once again feeling elated at being able to observe something so magnificent.

My Lady still believes it’s better than sex.

Ah well, I’ll just have to keep trying.

Maybe next time I can get a good photo of the Milky Way… not the chocolate bar.

Thanks for reading.

Till next time

Somehow winter has moved into spring and we are getting close to summer too. That doesn’t mean we didn’t see any birdies, it just means that I let time get away from me without keeping this bloggy thing updated.

So, even though this should be a long one…, well maybe it will be.

This year the winter was actually pretty cold and we had the lakes and rivers freeze over. When this happens the best place to see any life is at the Lakeview Marina in Windsor. This is where we usually hang out because there is a water treatment area just up the Little River Corridor, and the water stays warm as it enters the Detroit River. All the waterfowl congregate here because the food also gathers here.

The Glaucous and Icelandic Gulls were still here, the Black Backed Gull continued enjoying itself, along with the Canvasbacks, Buffleheads, the odd Hooded Merganser, and at one point I watched a couple of Mallard ducks chatting it up as if they were hanging around talking about all the people with cameras (Birds watching people perhaps?). The Eagles returned in larger numbers to Peche Island and kept harassing the ducks throughout the days. But noticeably missing was our little Wood Duck and his Lady Mallard.

In early February we observed a pair of Horned Owls occupying the Osprey nest on top of the cell tower that they squatted in for the past couple of years. Couldn’t get any photos because they always hunkered down low in the nest. Then about halfway through February we saw a Peregrine Falcon perched on one of the spires of the tower before eventually flying off. Sadly we never saw the Horned Owls there afterwards.

Peregrine Falcon Possibly Looking Over A Crime Scene

Slowly the days began to warm up, not by much but enough to melt the snow a bit.

There was an alert about a Short Eared Owl being active in the north east area of our county and we had an opportunity to wander over and patiently wait, until suddenly it appeared on top of a shrub alongside the road and fly almost directly at us. Got some great photos before the light quickly fell.

So we get quite a few Turkey Vultures coming in, as you may recall from our outbound observations from the last few years. This year there has been a Black Vulture staying in the area recently. My Lady saw one sitting in a tree a couple weeks ago, but I couldn’t see it since we were driving on the highway at the time. Then one day I was at the boardwalk in Pelee and looked up at a few vultures passing when I noticed one on the far side that looked different. Up go the binoculars and sure enough the tail was short and the wingtips are white. Excitedly I fired off a bunch of shots and got a couple for Identification. Not something to put on the wall, but glad to get a look at it anyway.

Black Vulture. Notice the Missing Feather On The Wing

One of the noisy little guys that entertains us at Holiday Beach almost never stays still long enough to get photos, and doesn’t like being near people. But one morning my Lady and I were at the park and had a visit from the Belted Kingfisher who laughed at us before taking off and getting his breakfast. He beat the poor little fish a couple times on the branch before quickly throwing it down his throat whole.

Going to tell you a little secret, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. We found out where the Horned Owls moved to after the Peregrine Falcon incident. They have taken over a ratty old nest at the top of a tree at Holiday Beach, and are raising a pair of little ones.

Oh Oh Oh , can’t let this one get away… we had to drop our car off for a service and were on our way to Hillman Marsh to check out the shorebirds when we got an alert that a Tufted Duck was spotted in Point Pelee. Initially we didn’t think much of it until a couple of other birders suddenly were extremely interested. The choice was made to go to check it out and when we got there it was difficult to find because it was in a group of other ducks that look so much like it. I finally got a photo of it and learned just how rare it is. Apparently it has only been recorded 3 times in the Pelee area. This bird is usually found in Eurasia, but can be found along the east and west coasts of Canada. This one has really drifted inland.

Along with the Tufted Duck we were happy to get some really nice views of a funny little bird called the Surf Scoter. This is also something that is harder to find close to shore, and is generally rare inland.

Surf Scoter Looks Like He’s Trying To Surf

Ok, so here comes May and we are kicking into Warbler season. Already the Yellows are coming in, Blue Gray Gnatcatchers, Black Throated Green, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded Warblers, the special little Prothonotary Warbler and so many that are being reported but we haven’t seen yet. Hopefully this year will be so much better than last year’s slow showing.