So What’s Been Going On Since Last Time

or perhaps

Does it still count as a Blog if I only post every few months???

I have to get a better handle on this thing (he says to himself knowing full well nothing will happen).

In June last year we had a few nasty storms come through the area. My Lady and I were sitting in the parking lot of the town Visitor Centre and watched as the clouds worked their way across the river from the west. My Lady suggested I take a photo, so I happily obliged. The phone panorama worked quite well.

Also in June My Lady and I went to Niagara Falls to see the new Tunnel attraction. We did the evening tour that included an interactive light display that we found informative and entertaining. Then we took the elevator down to the Tunnel, and made our way out to the viewing area beside the Horseshoe Falls. Spent a little time here and had to protect the camera occasionally so it didn’t get too wet. This attraction might be really cool to see at night when the Falls freeze up and the lights are shining on it.

In September our town has a little event called The Uncommon Festival. It’s a great time for fans of Steampunk and Wizardry to dress up in their favourite cosplay outfits and hang out with like-minded friends. We have been a couple of times and some of the costumes are really fantastic. I went in the evening this year and watched as a bunch of “Pirates” and “Soldiers” entertained the crowd by firing cannons as well as muskets and blunderbuss toward the river. Got a couple of interesting photos.

In the fall we went out towards the Bracebridge area hoping to see the autumn colours, unfortunately we were a little bit early so we checked out some waterfalls instead. However we did get to see the partial Lunar Eclipse.

A few weeks after that we headed north along Lake Huron to visit Goderich and Bayfield. Pretty little towns and a couple of our favourite day trips.

Would you believe that Birding has still been going on? Yup, even after our amazing journey to Texas, we still get out to look for birds whenever we can. If you have been reading my past posts you would likely have seen most of the regulars that come by, however we did have a few new ones that deserve a mention.

Then of course along comes the time to spend on the Holiday Beach Hawk Tower, helping to count whatever happens to be flying by.
This year we had an amazing young gentleman who was able to pick up the calls of birds flying by, and was so fast with his camera it was like watching an old western gunslinger shoot a coin out of the sky. He was able to get some awesome photos of birds that I couldn’t even see.

Remember the Pelicans that came by in the early spring last year? Well it looked like they had a great time in the breeding grounds, and they made their way back to our little marsh, and took up residence for a month or so. Often there were over 1000 Pelicans on the marsh at a time.

So 2024 was an amazing year for people who enjoy looking at the sky. The sun has been very “dirty” with sunspots throughout the year, and I have really enjoyed getting some shots of it. Then of course we had the major event of the spring (perhaps a lifetime) with the Total Eclipse in April.
In May we had the Aurora that sadly we stayed in bed for, followed up with the August aurora that we fortunately had a chance to see.
Did you know that in October we had another aurora? This one I am calling a MAJOR EVENT, perhaps even going so far as calling it an AURORAGASM (surely better than sex?). I have never seen anything like it before, and one young lady in our group was in such awe that she said “It’s so beautiful I feel like crying!”
I’ve been asked if the actual views were as good as the photos, and all I can say is that once our eyes were adjusted to the dark, all the colours were easily visible. So even while the camera was taking 8 second long exposures, I was still able to observe and enjoy. At one point the sky was Red all the way over our heads.
Wait until you see the photos below.
And just a week after that we were able to see Comet A3 with our naked eyes (it was difficult, but once you knew where to look it became easier). The photos look better as I took a number of photos a few seconds long each, then stacked them to really show what the tail looked like.
And we can’t forget the previously mentioned Partial Lunar Eclipse

Winter came in with a vengeance this year. It was cold all across North America, and we had our few days of it as well. Not only that, but we actually got some snow! Nothing like in the traditional snow belts, or what was going on in Toronto, but more than we have seen since coming down here. And with the cold weather, the snow stayed longer. The marshes froze over and people were out skating and playing hockey on them, the Detroit River was on and off frozen and Lake Erie had large ice shelves reaching far out from the shore.

But winter did bring in some of the winter birds, like Horned Larks, Snow Buntings, Lapland Longspurs and Dark Eyed Juncos, while others tough it out throughout the year, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Nuthatch, Blackbirds and Starlings and a good number of ducks.

We also have a few Raptors that are comfortable with the winter weather. Red Tail Hawks, Coopers Hawks, Northern Harriers, and of course Bald Eagles. I submitted the photo below of the Adult Bald Eagle to our local CTV news channel, and it appeared as the Photo Of The Day on the following day. Unfortunately we missed seeing it, but one of our friends sent me a text letting me know that they saw it.

Slowly the months turn over and March makes itself known by bringing in the warmer weather, and the promise of a new birding season.

My Lady and I went to a nearby Provincial Park in early March and as we were walking along the road a dark streak flew in front of us and landed in a tree. I got my binoculars on it and we were thrilled to see a Pileated Woodpecker! We hadn’t seen one since before we left Toronto, and although we hear of one visiting the area once in a while, we were never in the right place at the right time.

All winter we had an impossible time finding any owls, and after lamenting our woes to one of our friends, he advised us of a place that we should be able to see some. Fortunately he was right, and we had a couple of wonderful days observing a number of Short Eared Owls hunting.

A couple of weeks later another friend pointed out a Screech Owl sitting in a box.

It took a little while longer this year for the Pelicans to return to Holiday Beach, but it’s nice to be able to say that they are making their way through with a bit of a stopover here. Sadly the marsh is at its lowest water since before we moved down, and all of the birds are having a harder time finding food. This includes the Pelicans. There have been a few days where they weren’t seen at all after their earlier arrival.

So how many of you got to see the Blood Moon in March? I actually stayed up all night and had my camera taking photos every 20 seconds from pretty well start to finish. I have this little compilation here, instead of putting in too many photos.

Well, after March comes what I like to call “Birding Season”. April and May are some of the best months for the inbound migration and Holiday Beach and Point Pelee are going to see a lot of us again this year. Of course this means I will likely have a couple of thousand photos to go through before I can put together another posting. Hopefully you will all be patient.

Does that get us all caught up? Maybe, but I am sure I am missing a lot. Maybe I will remember it in time for my next posting (whenever that turns out to be).

Thanks again for reading, hope you are still enjoying what you see.

Till next time.

2023 Summer and Fall Update (don’t worry, it’s a short one)

Believe it or not, I actually had a majority of the blog written up to cover what happened in 2023, but by the time I was going to finish it up 2024 was already in full swing. So I think it’s about time to do a little catching up with 2023, before we get side-tracked by Summer, and then the Fall on the Tower, and just think, Christmas is just over 6 months away.

We had a majority of the usual suspects running through town over 2023, but then we also had a few rarities that had us chasing through Essex County for a chance to see them.

In June we learned that there was a very special migrant that was spending time down towards Point Pelee, so we hopped in the car and headed out that way. Once we saw all the cars parked at the side of the road, and our friends wandering over, we knew we were in the right place. This poor Cassin’s Kingbird is usually found in the far south US and Mexico, but it may have been blown up in some of the storms around that time.

In July My Lady and I took a trip up to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan via the Mackinac Bridge before going for a visit to Mackinac Island. This place is really pretty but also really pretty touristy. It is a car free island and the only way to get around is by foot, by bike, or by horse and carriage.

Getting off the ferry from the mainland you are almost immediately hit with the tourist shops of fudge, t-shirts, popcorn and candy, restaurants and so on. After walking around for a little bit, and waiting over 20 minutes at Starbucks, we hopped onto one of the Horse Drawn Carriage tours and enjoyed a slow paced trek around the hotspots and made a stop to see the butterfly conservatory, where a couple of butterflies took a real liking to My Lady.

After returning to the mainland we drove further north to Tahquamenon Falls. The upper falls is one of the largest east of the Mississippi River (nowhere near as tall as Niagara though), and further downriver is another set of cascading falls that make this a very worthwhile drive.

One evening we had an alert stating that there was an immature Little Blue Heron hanging out with a number of Great Egrets at the Egret Roost just down the road from our house. Zoom, out we go and meet up with our friends to see this rarity, and then we find that there were 2 of them. Fortunately they stayed for a few days giving us some nice opportunities to get photos.

A few days after that we had a Swallowtail Kite giving a real show in Lasalle, just a half hour up the road, and although we couldn’t make it the first day, we finally had a chance to go see it, and boy are we happy that we did. It gave everyone there a fantastic show as it went back and forth across the fields and over the road, just looking for some grasshoppers to eat. Many times it simply flew nice and low over all the photographers as if telling us to get the best pictures that you can. It even made it on the local TV news. After a few days it disappeared and was briefly seen at Point Pelee, before heading out to who knows where.

In 2023 My Lady and I had a chance to be on the Holiday Beach Hawk Tower a lot more than ever before and we truly enjoyed every moment.

We were entertained by feeding Ospreys and stealing Eagles, Hummingbirds, Sapsuckers, Deer and Sandhills. We even had Peregrine Falcons strafe the tower before inviting a Blue Jay out for lunch. Then there were the Broad Wing Hawks. OMG the middle of September is the best time to observe the Broad Wing migration where THOUSANDS of these raptors were on the move through the area in massive flocks that enthrall everyone who looks up.

Young Osprey happy about catching a fish

October, the smell of autumn permeates the air. The outbound migration makes a change and now different birds are going by. The last of the warblers slowly peter out and the Broad Wings get replaced by Turkey Vultures. Shorebirds visit the marsh looking for mudflats to feed on and Pelicans swarm in to rest and feed on the numerous fish that inhabit the marsh. Starlings murmur as they harass the raptors that are just trying to pass by. Waterfowl start to congregate in larger and larger numbers only to be stirred up whenever the Eagles swoop in.

Finally we arrive at November, the time of the Golden Eagles. As far as I am concerned 2023 was the best one for seeing Golden Eagles since we have been helping out on the tower. One day we had a couple of Goldens fly by and I was pointing them out to some visitors, when I looked back to the East and saw 5 more flying in towards us. I freaked out a bit and got everyone excited as we saw 4 of them fly in and pass over the marsh. Shortly after that a couple of the gentlemen who do the raptor banding pulled up to the tower and brought out the 5^th Golden, who apparently was tempted by the bait bird and got trapped in the netting. They did all the scientific measuring and banding, and brought it over for everyone to get a close up of it, before releasing it to carry on with its migration.

Finally in December we had a couple of new birds hit our area. A Limpkin spent a short time at Wheatly Provincial Park, and allowed quite a few people a chance to see it, and a Townsend’s Solitaire visited Point Pelee for an extended stay, often being stubbornly difficult to find, but other times just showing up and sitting in a tree for everyone to see. The Limpkin is usually found anywhere from Florida south to much of South America, and the Townsend’s is a Western North American bird.

The end of December hit all of a sudden and then BAM, 2024 came along. Is it just me, or is time moving a little quicker these days?

How about a few more photos for now

Maybe I can get our trip to Texas up before I get side tracked again for the rest of this year???

Thanks for staying with me, and if you like what you see, tell your friends about the site. Trust me, I certainly don’t think I’ll be spamming anyone’s inbox at the rate I am putting these posts up.

Till next time.

Let’s see how much of October I can actually remember. Thank goodness for photos.

March 18, 2023 (okay it’s not that bad. Well, maybe)

Well I know that I spent a heck of a lot of time at Holiday Beach on the Hawk Tower, as was to be expected.

The birds did their gradual change from the Broadwing Hawks and Blue Jays of September, to the Turkey Vultures, Sharp Shinned, Red Shouldered and Red Tailed Hawks, along with the Kestrels, Merlins, Coopers Hawks, and later in the month if we are lucky, we can see the Goshawks, Rough Legged Hawks and Golden Eagles.

Thankfully the winds this year were quite favourable, and the weather stayed fairly dry and comfortable. It made for some very pleasant days on the tower.

Of course with clearer days it sometimes made the observing a little harder to do. Usually it’s better to have a few clouds in the sky so that we are able to tell everyone else where to look when we have a point of reference. Sure, I might be able to say “Incoming North-East corner, 30 degrees up, far out” but to be honest I don’t carry a protractor with me, so I am only estimating 30 degrees, as is everyone else, but by the time others have eyes on it, the bird could be at 50 or 60 degrees up, and more to the North, South, or even passed us to the West. BUT if we had a cloud, we could say it is just under/over, left/right, entering/exiting and so on. That is as long as it’s not too many clouds, then we are all just trying to figure out which cloud we are looking towards. And it gets even harder when there is more than 1 bird coming in at the same time. But we all have fun as the day goes along.

The banding station continued to bring up raptors for people to adopt, and we had close visits from a few Sandhill Cranes.

The Starlings begin to gather by the time October rolled through. It’s amazing to watch their murmurations as they jostle for position in the flock, trying to evade being eaten by the various raptors that would enjoy a quick lunch along the way.

Starling Murmuration. The large bird at the bottom is looking for a Starling take-out meal

Another rare bird that visited the tower this year was a Virginia Rail. This little waterbird usually hid in the tall grasses around the other pond by the tower, but once in a while popped out to search for some food. We had to stay pretty quiet in order for us to watch it, as any sudden noise or movement would have it skittering back into the underbrush to disappear for a few hours.

Virginia Rail with what looks like a Snail

This year the marsh became quite dry and we were pleased to see some of the shorebirds come in for a few days. Groups of Yellow Legs would feast in the mud and then do a fly-by of the tower, Killdeer would gather and buzz us while they called out their name, and other Sandpipers would be seen in the mud flats, or walking along on the edges of the dying lily pads.

There had been an old Beaver lodge at the Trout Pond in Holiday Beach for a long time, but nobody had seen a beaver there for years. That changed in October when one day on the tower I noticed a wake in the pond and checked to see what duck it was. Nope, not a duck. I quickly called out BEAVER! Everyone turned and looked in astonishment at the new visitor to the pond. It was calmly swimming around as if checking out the place, and seemed to be interested in the lodge.

We also had a new addition to the Turtle group in October. Along with the Painted and Blanding Turtles we have a few Map Turtles in the Trout Pond.

One afternoon we were on the tower and had a show of a lifetime as this Fox calmly made it’s way along the edge of the pond.

My Lady and I spent a few days across the border and had our phones in airplane mode so we missed a bit of excitement until we were coming back home. As we were crossing back into Canada my Lady set her phone back and immediately started to receive messages about an Ultra Rare Tropical Kingbird being found in a small park just minutes away from where we were at that time. We immediately made the decision to go check it out. We met a couple of our birding friends there and we were all searching for it. Right after one of them showed me a photo of what it should look like, I saw a flash of yellow fly into a tree nearby. Of course we couldn’t find it again so we drove home to drop our stuff off, pick up the proper camera and binoculars and head back to the park.

Rare Tropical Kingbird. Notice it is missing a tail feather

After a bit of searching we all happily found the little guy flying from tree to tree and resting nicely for us. We were able to get some wonderful photos that day, and it hung around for about a month afterwards until it was no longer seen. We hope that it returned back to Central America, but it’s impossible to tell unless it survived the winter here.

October was also a strange month for other things in the sky. In early October I photographed a large number of sunspots on the sun, while later in the month we had some really interesting things going on with rainbows, sunbows, fogbows and sundogs. What’s interesting about the sunbows is that they appear to be flattened, not creating a proper circle that we would usually expect. Really cool stuff to see.

So that wraps up October. Who knows, perhaps November will come sooner rather than later? In the meantime, here are a few more photos from October.

Thanks for reading, and if you are interested in more about Holiday Beach, check out www.hbmo.ca.

Till next time.

September; a hard month to swallow

As the summer holidays end and the kids go back to school, we begin to see the birds making their way south to warmer climates.

This also is the time that we begin the annual Hawk Observation as they zip past the Holiday Beach Hawk Tower. This year my Lady and I actually had an opportunity to spend some time on the tower helping out observing and counting, and whenever possible, taking photos.

However, September was a bit shorter on the tower than we had hoped. Due to various things in life getting moved ahead in the priority list, birding took what could be considered a major bump down. Not that there was anything wrong. For the first couple of weeks we were looking after our Grandpup, and it is really difficult to look for birds and take photos when you have a pretty strong dog on the end of the leash. Then after we dropped Grandpup back home we spent a few days in Tobermory where we had a very interesting experience.

While we were driving, My Lady called her brother to say hello, and while they were talking he mentioned that He and our Sister in Law were in Tobermory for a couple of days. We were quite surprised by this coincidence and decided to meet up with them as we were on our way there ourselves. When we pulled into the Motel that we were staying at, My Lady mentioned that one of the cars in the parking lot looked like her brother’s. When we went into town we met up and as we were chatting it was confirmed that it indeed was their car as they were staying at the same Motel.

We walked around town and after we checked in and got our key I remembered the room number that they were in and as it turns out, our room was DIRECTLY BELOW THEM! This was just way too bizarre. We spent the evening having supper on our balcony, talking and laughing until it was time for us all to head to bed.

We have to consider that due to Covid we had only seen her brother briefly a couple of times, and had not seen our Sister in Law for literally years. These coincidences led us to believe that our meeting was meant to be, for whatever reason. We may never know exactly why, but we are truly happy that it all happened the way it did.

After our return home it was finally time to get up onto the tower for the Hawk Watch.

You may have noticed that I rarely use people’s names in the blog, but this time I really feel that I have to give a proper shout out to the people who dedicate so much time to counting the birds that make their way past not only the tower, but as far as the eye can see all around. Thanks to Nicole, Hugh and Liz who spend up to 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, from the beginning of September to the last day of November in almost every kind of weather. Anything from brilliant sunshine and hot end of summer days, to below freezing temperatures and winds so strong you can feel the tower sway beneath your feet as the days shorten into the end of November.

We see many things while standing on the tower. One day I happened to notice a Blue Heron who had caught a fish in the marsh. We have seen this before where the fish gets caught, the bird adjusts it in its beak and quickly swallows it. Fresh Sashimi to go.

Oh Boy this is going to be a really good breakfast

However, this time the fish was either putting up a heck of a fight or it was just too big to swallow.

Although it is a Hawk Watch or Raptor Count, there is also another group of people who capture the hawks and take various measurements, before sending them on their way with a new piece of jewellery. This is all for science and the banders are trained and certified. Once in a while they will bring a bird or two on the tower and people can adopt them. No, you can’t take it home with you, but you will get your picture taken with the bird, as well as a certificate with the banding information emailed to you, and any time that the bird gets “recaptured” you will be notified by email as to where it was found.

Sharp Shinned Hawk. Welcome to the Band.

The biggest movement of raptors in September is usually the Broad-wing Hawks. This year we had amazing movements with 33,000 Broad-wings and 92,000 Blue Jays on September 23 alone.

Very small portion of a Broad-wing flyover

You never know how hard or how easy it will be to spot the birds. Some days when the sky is clear they might start off the day flying lower and within sight, but as the day warms up they start to ride the thermals and it could take them so high that the only way to spot them is through binoculars. We have often had people lying on the floor of the tower with binos stuck to their eyes as they count tiny specks flying overhead.

Other days the clouds will cover the sky which will force the birds lower, which gives great opportunities for us to get really close views as they almost buzz us on the tower.

And some days they will be able to fly through the blue sky and disappear behind the cloud only to pop out again somewhere else along their flight path.

Families of Bald Eagles take up temporary residence in the marsh, staying months while the fishing is good.

Ducks begin to hang out for a while, fattening up for their next leg.

Monarch Butterflies pay us a visit to the tower as well during September, before starting the long trek to their wintering place in Mexico.

Monarch stocking up before a long flight to Mexico

And as for the Blue Heron with the fish mentioned earlier… We watched it for over 10 minutes as it fought with that fish. Eventually we saw it walking in the water, without the fish but likely still hungry.

Thanks for reading.

And if you are interested in more information on Holiday Beach and what the Hawk Count is all about, as well as seeing some of the numbers and an extra little article that I wrote up specifically for the site, please visit www.HBMO.CA. Feel free to make a donation if you are so moved to do so.

Till next time.

Hold on tight folks, this is a long one!

December 1, 2020

What a whirlwind the past couple of months have been for birding.

Just imagine, starting in mid to late April, and through the month of May, a huge number of birds fly into Canada on their northbound migration, and many of them funnel through our little area in Southwestern Ontario as they hunt for food and a place to mate and bring up their young. Thousands of people from around the world come here to observe this spectacle. Sadly this year was a no-go for the visitors, but the birds still came anyway.

The outbound migration is usually not as frantic for either birds or people, and takes a lot longer to happen.

The annual Raptor Count started at the beginning of September and ran right through until the end of November. During these 3 months there is a person on the top of the Holiday Beach Hawk Tower every day, keeping a count on all of the different raptors that fly by our area. Usually there are a good number of people helping out, but unfortunately with Covid-19 screwing everything up this year, only 3 people at a time were allowed on the tower, and that was restricted to the official counter and observers. To make matters worse, the Conservation Authority had blocked off physical access to the tower, so we had to climb over the barrier any time we wanted to go up or down. This was very difficult for my lady to do, so she would often stay at the bottom, or wander the park looking for the smaller birds. Fortunately, I was allowed up as one of the observers, so I spent quite a few hours helping out.

September was an amazing time for birdwatching this year.

My Lady and I got an alert about 2 Swallowtail Kites hanging out near Point Pelee National Park, and within minutes we were in the car and on our way. Once we got there and one of our friends told us where it was, we were entertained by 1 of them for 45 minutes as it flew back and forth over the fields looking for insects to eat.

One morning I was up the Hawk Tower helping to count the Raptors going by, when all of a sudden the young lady doing the official count got very excited and asked me to take some photos of one particular hawk. We were able to confirm that it was a Swainson’s Hawk, which is normally found in the prairies, and is considered a Provincial Rarity here. We were extremely lucky to see it, and I was even luckier to have gotten a few good photos of it.

Swainsons Hawk. Rare in this part of Ontario

The Broadwing Hawks made their grand exit over a few days mid-September. Initially we only had a few going by either by itself or with a few extras, then the next day it was as if a switch had been turned on and great kettles of the birds were forming over our area, and streaming out across the marsh on their way out. At times it was difficult to count with so many at one time. Over 44,000 Broadwings passed from September 11 to the 19^th. I left the counting to the professionals and for the most part I just stood there in awe, and taking a few photos along the way.

A Woodcock made an appearance right at the base of the tower one morning while I was there. It had been spotted the day before, and this time it had startled a lady walking along the path. It was much easier to get a good photo this time, than the ones I took in the spring

Woodcock out in the daytime. Usually out at night.

I guess the Blue Jays had a good year, because over the course of 4 or 5 weeks, they created steady streams in the sky as they flew out of the east and onward towards the USA. They had the counters on the tower working furiously with their clickers, with a final count of well over 1 million Jays. And this was only the ones we could see during the counting hours. It’s amazing to see the sky filled with birds like this.

Near the end of the September we had a couple of friends visit the area, giving us a chance to show them around. While we wandered through Holiday Beach we observed more Jays flocking through, along with a number of warblers and a pair of Green Heron. We were lucky enough to watch one of the herons catch and eat a fish from the marsh.

The warblers are also outbound during September through November, but sadly their colouring is much duller than in the spring. This makes it harder for the untrained eye to be able to determine what bird it is. I was snapping photos, but could only identify a few of them.

Not to be outdone by the birds, September is also when the Monarch Butterflies start their journey down to Mexico, with a short stop at Point Pelee. One evening over 4500 butterflies were resting on a single tree right near the tip. We got there in time to see them, but it was too dark to get a photo, so we came back in the morning to observe them leaving, but by the time we arrived most had already taken off.

Monarch Butterflies greeting the morning sunlight and heading south across the lake

And a bit of good news, the Ospreys on their communication tower successfully raised their young, and they fledged during September. Mom and Dad stuck around to teach them about life all through October.

It’s one thing to catch the fish, but you also have to fight to keep it

Into October the Starlings begin to gather in large numbers and make wonderful patterns as they fly over the fields. Eventually they too make their way past the counters on the tower, but are not included in the counting. Often many other birds fly at the same time as the Starlings, such as Red Wing Blackbirds, Cedar Waxwings, Rusty Blackbirds, and Crows. It all becomes an Avian Frenzy.

Starlings trying to interrupt communications

The Turkey Vultures come through in October. It’s cool to watch them slowly rise over the trees to the east of the tower, and as they find the lifting thermals, they circle higher and gather into large kettles before one decides to peel off and head west, and the remainder follow.

Small portion of a large kettle of Turkey Vultures

October finds the Golden Eagles making their appearance, usually just beyond camera range, but this year we had a few fly close enough to be able to get reasonable photos with a long enough lens. Although we have a number of Bald Eagles in the area, everyone loves to see the Goldens, and there are often a number of people hanging around the tower watching for them. Unfortunately this year the restrictions forced most people to watch for them from the bottom of the tower.

Red Wing Hawks and Red Shoulder Hawks came by in good numbers, along with Kestrels, Merlins, Coopers Hawks, Peregrine Falcons, Sharp-Shinned Hawks and Northern Harriers. Each has a different shape and flight style. It takes a while to learn how to tell them apart, and I often get them confused (Good thing I am an Observer and not a Counter).

Things seem to settle a bit come November, so we began visiting Point Pelee more often.

This year we had some Pelicans in the area, and we even saw them a couple of times but never had the chance to photograph them, until one morning in early November when we had gone to the Tip to see a Cave Swallow (missed it). One of our birding friends had seen the Pelican just off the east side, so we trudged over and as we were looking he texted me with a simple “Look Up”, and sure enough, it was passing directly overhead. We are very thankful to have great birding friends.

As we wandered one of the trails I noticed some birds at the top of a tree. Took a few photos and once I chimped the shot I saw that they were the Evening Grosbeaks that we had been trying to see for a couple of weeks. I pointed them out to my Lady and she was very happy to see them. Within a few moments, they all took off, and we haven’t seen them since.

Another evening we were settling down to watch some television and got an alert about a Frigate Bird hanging out near Leamington. Within the hour we were standing with a number of birders watching this bird that must have been blown up from the Caribbean or southern US by one of the hurricanes. After an hour or so, it was getting dark, so we decided to leave, only to find out that a few minutes later it flew off its perch and headed south to Point Pelee, and was not seen again.

The ducks are starting to show up on the lake and waters in the area. We had a visit from a Ross’s Goose at Jack Miners near Kingsville. Not usually found in this area.

Ross’s Goose about the same size as the Mallard Ducks. Here one day, gone the next.

Another thing found at Jack Miners was a small group of Cackling Geese hanging out with the Canada Geese. Up until last year we might have just thought they were young Canada Geese, but thanks again to our friends, we have learned there are some differences between the Cackling and Canada Geese, with the Cackling being much smaller, with a shorter neck and smaller bill. I wonder if we have seen these in Toronto, and never took notice of them before.

Cackling Goose is much smaller than the Canada Goose behind

We have had a few female Long Tailed Ducks off the Point Pelee tip. Haven’t heard of any males around, but the last time we saw them they were a bit north in Sarnia. Maybe we’ll get lucky this year to have both hang out this far south.

At the end of November My Lady and I were out for a drive near Point Pelee and as we went up one of the small roads to the east we had a very close encounter with an adult male Northern Harrier, also known as a Grey Ghost. It flew past us going the other way, hunting low and slow over the ditch by the road, so I swung the car around and buzzed past it to get ahead, parked the car, jumped out and grabbed the camera and started trying to get photos. Thankfully it somewhat cooperated and gave us enough of a show that I was able to get a few worthwhile shots. It eventually wandered up another road and we lost sight of it shortly after.

Adult Male Northern Harrier taking a dump and then flying by asking if I saw what he did

Finally wrapping up the Hawk Count on November 30, I went up the tower again to help out and wish our counter a safe drive back home. We spent a few hours looking into a grey sky filled with wind driven snow and sleet, with not a single raptor flying.

What started off with such a blur of activity, ended as it should, a dwindling down to shorter days, colder winds, snow, and the satisfaction of a job well done. Overall, the official count was over 115,000 raptors, taking 4th place for the highest season.

Not sure if I will have another post this year, seeing as how it’s been a few months since the last time.

I will leave you with a bunch more photos and wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. May 2021 bring us all better times.

Till next time, stay safe and healthy.

Winding Down The Year

So, once again time rampaged through another month, and now November is done, and we are counting down the days until Christmas.

We spent some time helping out with the raptor count at Holiday Beach, and that too has come to an end for the year. We had some days when almost nothing went through the area, but a couple of days when it was extremely busy. One day was so busy in fact that there was an urgent request for assistant counters to help out.

It just so happened that morning when my Lady and I woke up, I opened the blinds and watched as thousands of crows traveled past our house and made their way up river. It literally went on for over an hour. Then, just after the crows, the raptors started going by. It was not as busy as the crows, but it was an amazing sight none the less.

Steady stream of Crows flying past our back yard, just over by the river.

I made a point to go to the tower in the early afternoon, and arrived just as the request for help was going out. I got to the tower and just stood dumbfounded as the birds just kept coming by in waves. I am still not confident enough to call out what I was seeing, but I know that most were Red Tailed Hawks. I tried to count the crows that mixed in, since I was fairly certain of what they were.

Red Tailed Hawks directly over the tower

At the end of the day, it turned out to be the 3^rd largest Red Tail Hawk migration day on record at Holiday Beach, with 2,414 Red Tails. Total number was 3,069 various raptors, and around 15,000 crows. All I remember saying was “Oh My God” as they kept flying overhead. Truly awesome to see. A multitude of ducks and other waterfowl were counted as well that day.

Now here it is, early December, and the skies have been pretty gloomy and cloud covered for at least a week or so. Not too many larger birds visible in the sky and most of the waterfowl have left the area. Our little egret roost just up the road sits empty.

We did get a nice view of a large group of Swans in a field a couple of days ago, and just this afternoon we had 2 Bald Eagles fly almost 50 feet directly overhead.

The snows have started blowing through. We had a couple of inches fall a few weeks back, but within a day or two, it was all gone. Nothing like what it sounds like Toronto is getting. Thank goodness for moving down to the “Banana Belt”. I guess we’ll see what this winter brings.

Anyhow, this might be the last entry for 2019, unless something really interesting comes up.

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a safe and Happy New Year.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk again next year.

OMG, I’ve Never Seen It Like This Before!

Let’s get this straight; the inbound migration in Spring is very different from the outbound Fall migration.

In May we spent a lot of time at Point Pelee watching the little Warblers coming in. We had a few really great days, but we actually had to wander around looking for all the different birds, most of the time.

This is Fall, and we are spending a lot of our time at Holiday Beach, not only during the couple of weekends for the Hawk Festival, but during the rest of September and October, and will carry on through November.

Sure, some Warblers are being seen, but not in the numbers from May.

What’s really keeping us going out, are the various types of Raptors, the Turkey Vultures, and Blue Jays.

These guys are just passing through, but it’s a lot easier to find them than the little guys, considering they are travelling through in massive groups, or Kettles. We have observed a few thousand Broad-Winged Hawks going through on one day. Then, just a few days ago, I looked out our back door, and noticed lines and lines of Turkey Vultures going by. I grabbed my camera, ran outside and looked off to the south and saw more and more coming through.

I made a quick decision and hopped into the car and found myself at the Hawk Tower, and helped to observe and count the various birds that flew by. Vultures, Blue Jays, Kestrels, Sharp-Shinned Hawks, Harriers, a Peregrine Falcon, a Merlin, and lots of Starlings. One of our resident Eagles and Ospreys even buzzed the tower

And on October 8, we heard that there were over 55,000 Blue Jays counted going past Holiday Beach. We couldn’t be there to see it, but we did observe a lot of Jays going upriver from our back yard.

So now, the majority of Turkey Vultures appear to have migrated out, but some still hang around, and believe it or not, the Jays are still passing through.

One day, my lady and I were at the tower, and one of the Hawk Banding members came by with a Merlin. When asked if anyone wanted to adopt it, my lady quickly said that she would. The gentleman said that it would scream at her when they took it out of the protective covering, but the bird sat nice and quiet the whole time my lady held it, as we all took photos. As soon as she released it, it flew into a nearby tree and promptly told us all off.

This is one of the special times that we looked forward to when we decided to move to our little piece of heaven. Last year when we came down, we missed the outbound Monarch Butterflies as they pushed through Pelee, and again this year we haven’t been there at the right time (about 1000 were roosting on a tree near the tip a couple evenings ago, but we couldn’t make it). We did manage to see a small number resting on top of a tree one day, took a few photos, watched one that had a tag on it, and when we looked back to the group, they were all gone. Just like that.

A handful of migrating Monarch Butterflies

None the less, we have so much going on around here, it’s difficult to decide where to go and when. We might be in one place, and whatever might pass through somewhere else. Luck of the draw, but so much fun anyway.

Remember, we have an election coming up, and the polls are open pretty late. Be sure to get out and vote.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and don’t forget to click follow if you haven’t already.

Take care till next time.