OH MY GOD… IT’S A SNOWY!!!

January 2, 2020

Happy New Year everyone. Let’s hope we kicked 2020 out and slammed the door on that vile creature. Who needs to watch horror movies when we’ve been living through one for almost a year.

Well, we didn’t expect December to be quite like it was.

Of course we had lockdowns in the GTA, but also here in Essex County, and then the whole Province joined in with the fun. What a way to screw up the Christmas Holidays.

On the birding front, it was fairly quiet for the most part, but we still managed to get out and see a few things.

December started off with a beautiful snowfall, which brought in some Snow Buntings that came close enough to get some photos of. These little birds seem to follow the snow storms and pig out on the seeds in the fields. Always moving makes it difficult to photograph, and every few moments the whole flock flies into the air and land a few paces away. They are often found with Horned Larks and Lapland Longspur. We found the Lark but not the Longspur.

Shortly after that day we hung out with one of our birding friends and we were very fortunate to watch a number of Sandhill Cranes making their way along Lake Erie shores. These beautiful birds must have decided they don’t want to stick around for the snow. One flock that flew just north of our viewing area had almost 100 birds in it. We counted 35 in one flock and another 20 plus in a second flock as they passed overhead.

By the middle of the month we were hearing of some Common Redpolls that were hanging around at Point Pelee. If we hadn’t been made aware of what we were looking at, we might have misidentified them as another type of Finch or Sparrow, but these little ones are much prettier. The day we found them, they were enjoying themselves in the grasses on the west side of Point Pelee, with the winds blasting cold air straight across the lake, making it not only brutal for us humans to be standing in, but buffeting our cameras sideways as we tried to take photos.

Then we found out that everyone was trying to find the Common Redpoll’s elusive cousin, the Hoaries. After a few days of searching, we finally spotted a couple fly from the ground to a tree just as we arrived in the area. I quickly blasted a couple of blurred photos of them and they were gone over the trees. A few people have seen them afterwards, but they have evaded My Lady and I ever since.

As we went for a walk one day at Holiday Beach, I noticed a large bird fly into the trees across the way from where we were. Immediately the binos went up and we were very happy to see that it was a Great Horned Owl. Wonder if it was one of the little ones from our Osprey nest this spring.

Just before the end of the month My Lady and I were standing in line at Costco and I noticed a light coloured bird land on the lamp post ahead of us. Initially I thought it was a mature male Northern Harrier, so I wandered over to have a closer look. As I came around the proper side, I was Gobsmacked to see that it was the one bird that we had been searching 2 years for a close-up of. When I told My Lady, she rushed me off to get my camera out of the car, and I started firing off shots while moving all around the area for the best light and position.

A SNOWY OWL!!!

Not way out in a corn field allowing for tiny little dot photos that crop in terribly. This one came to visit US!

Just imagine seeing some crazy guy run out of line at Costco, who grabs a big long lens and camera out of his car and starts moving between parked cars, passing in front of people in line to get against the building, running back to his Lady, all the while smiling like a kid in a candy store (behind a mask, so no one could see that anyway) and taking photos.

I sent a blast out to our bird group and unfortunately just as we got to the front of the line, and one of our birding friends pulled in; it flies off and hasn’t been found since.

I got some great shots that I am very happy with, but we are going to keep on looking, hoping to get the classic perfect lighting while it sits on a fence post (or a stump), looking at me with wide open eyes (preferably a full white male, but the female is beautiful as well) photo. Am I asking too much? Might take a few more years, but we will keep on trying.

It was brought to my attention that on my last posting I misidentified a sparrow on a photo. Thank you Rick for pointing out that the White Throated Sparrow is actually a White Crowned Sparrow. It’s going to take a while for me to get these little ones right, even with the app.

Ok, how about my resolutions? Yup, More posts, More often.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA… …hahahahahaaaa… (wiping away tears from laughing so hard).Who am I trying to kid? Ok, maybe I should at least say that I’ll do my best.

Thanks for continuing to read this little bloggy thing. I will keep trying to improve the pictures, and change up the stories, especially if any really rare birds happen to show up in front of my lens.

Till next time, Stay Safe, Stay Heathy.

Has it really been a month already?

I guess every month might be the new norm for getting posts out.

It’s going to be hard to try to catch up nowadays.

The Tall Ships made their way through a few weeks ago. We had a small number of them in Kingsville for the weekend. Had a chance to go out and see them. I’m definitely not a sailor, but there’s something about the smell of the canvas sails, the strength of the wooden masts, and the thought of being out on the ocean travelling to new lands, that makes visiting the ships an enjoyable experience.

Empire Sandy
Empire Sandy

We had a friend down with us recently and showed her around our little slice of paradise. First night she arrived, we boogied on over to the Tecumseh Corn Festival. Nice little country fair. Enjoyed some corn on the cob, watched some people try to hang by their arms for 2 minutes to win a prize. Sadly nobody could. Checked out the vendors, wandered the midway and made our way back home. Next morning, it was off to some of our local birding sites. She was very lucky to have been able to see some of our feathered friends; Eagle, Ospreys, Green Heron, Snowy Egrets, and a rare Black Bellied Whistling Duck.

Mature Bald Eagle
Green Heron
Dragonfly
Sanderling
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Osprey calling
Osprey pair
Black Bellied Whistling Duck

Soon we were on our way to Point Pelee. Took the tram to the tip and walked the path to the most southern end of mainland Canada. As we started back to the tram stop, we found ourselves in the middle of hundreds of dragonflies, of all sizes and colours. A couple allowed me to take their photos, but most of the time they just buzzed around all over the place.

Too soon, our friend had to return home, but not before visiting Fort Malden for the Arts by the River in Amherstburg. We spent a couple hours wandering through the vendors. It’s quite a large event, especially for a small town, and even though we hadn’t planned on spending any money, I ended up making a couple of purchases.

The following week, my lady and I went to the Harrow Fair. This seemed bigger than the Corn Fest, and offered much more to see. Of course there’s the midway, vendors and food, but we spent a fair time wandering through the buildings looking at all the contests, including; quilting, baking, photography, livestock and vegetables. And let’s not forget the Tractor Pull.

As it turns out, the beginning of September is also the start of the Raptor Watch at Holiday Beach. Even though the Hawk Festival happens on the 14-15 and 21-22 weekends, the counting has already started. We have been to the tower a number of days already and have learned quite a bit about how to identify various raptors (not the Toronto Raptors, or the dinosaur). We all watch the sky for any movement, and even though it is a Raptor Watch, anything that seems to be migrating gets counted. Butterflies, dragonflies, hummingbirds, various warblers, starlings, ducks, geese, swans, and so on, along with the kestrel, falcon, merlin, red-tail hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, vulture, harrier, osprey (quite a few locals who aren’t moving out yet) and eagles (also not moving out yet), plus many more.

Our backyard birds are changing as well. The House Wren is gone, but we have seen and heard the Carolina Wren once in a while. The Hummingbirds have left and the Orioles were only back for a very short time. The Starlings are starting to gather in the trees, and we have seen flocks moving through the fields. The Egret roost just a couple of minutes’ walk away is filling up each evening, the Blue Jays are slowly moving in and will be here for a couple of weeks, before they too go quiet.

Soon, the season will change again, and if I am really lucky, or just diligent, I can start moving the pace of this blog up a bit, depending on what’s happening. But based on what I see on the Events Calendar, we are going to be pretty busy right through Christmas.

By the way, if you are in Amherstburg during September 14-15 or 21-22, try to stop by the Festival of Hawks at Holiday Beach. And on the weekend of September 27-29 we have The Uncommon Festival, Museum Ghost Tours, and the Essex County War of 1812. Not far down the road is the 40^th Anniversary of the Ruthven Apple Festival on the 28-29, and what’s even better is that admission is FREE.

Thanks for reading and I’m glad you made it this far.

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Slowly Catching Up

The Fish flies have finally left us, and now we have another special treat when we go out at night.
Fire Flies, or Lightning Bugs, are all over the place. For some reason these little beetles make me happy. It could be because you don’t see them in the big city due to the lighting, and even when you are out in the countryside, they may not show up in your area. We were taking an evening drive a few days ago, and first noticed flickering lights out in the fields. A couple days later and it was almost like going warp speed in space and having all the stars whiz by. Unfortunately a few hit the windshield and their light slowly went out.

We have heard about flooding all over the place, and our area isn’t immune to it. The Detroit River is high enough to bury docks. Lake Erie has eaten away at the shoreline of Holiday Beach and the trails there are flooded out, so the only place to go walking now is along the roadways, and the Conservation Area has closed the beach. Hopefully the water will go down before the Festival of Hawks near the end of September. In Windsor the Lakeview Marina is closed for the year while they install a new floating dock system. This marina is where we go in the winter to watch all the Eagles over at Peche Island.

I have been going through more of my photos, and found one that I meant to share before. We had a Snowy Owl sitting in a corn field down near Point Pelee back at the end of April. It was pretty far out in the field, so getting a nice clean photo was not really an option. Hopefully we have better luck next year.

As mentioned before, we spent a fair bit of May down at Point Pelee and other birding sights in the county, and took thousands of photos. May 9 in particular was outstanding. A bit of backstory first. On May 8 we had a couple things to do in the morning, alright, we actually slept in a bit longer, and we didn’t arrive at Pelee until after 10. By that time all of the southern parking lots were filled, and we had to park about half way down and take a shuttle to the main visitor centre. We figured the next day we would get our butts out of bed and get down there at a good time.

Come the morning of May 9 and we are up nice and early, arriving at the tip by 6:30. Of course there are already hundreds of people there, so we stood near a couple of gentlemen that we knew from other outings, and listened as they pointed out all the different birds flying in and out from the tip. It got to the point where we truly didn’t know where to look, there were so many birds. It was amazing. Birds were flying in and out in what was being called a “reverse migration”. Others suggested they were orienting themselves with the coast after flying through the night. Didn’t matter to us what it was called, we were just giddy with what was happening.

We stayed at the tip for about 6 hours that day, and talked with some people who said that they had been coming every year and had never seen it like this in over 30, 40 or 50 years. We were floored to think that this was really our first true year of birding (stage 3 – see earlier blog post), and we were experiencing this spectacle.

Strange to think that we are almost in the middle of July and I am still working on photos from May.

Perhaps I need to stop being so trigger happy. Uh, no, I don’t think so.

Mind you, the birds have mostly moved on and the trees are nice and green, so even if they were here it’s getting harder to see them.

Hope you are enjoying seeing the photos and reading the stories as much as I enjoy putting this all together for you.

By the way, I noticed that there were some ads showing up on the site. I don’t know how they are getting there, but please ignore them.

Until next time, don’t forget to click Follow to get email notification when a new post is up.

Thanks