Thrushin'

Last weekend I got an email from my Grandma about a varied thrush near our cottage at Marten River, about 30 minutes north of North Bay. It was being seen at a private home at Tilden Lake, 15 minutes from the cottage, so Monday my Grandma, my cousin and I went to check it out. A varied thrush in Ontario is no Frigatebird, but definitely not a bird that you see everyday, and for me, NEVER.  This would be a lifer for me! Even though I have been to BC and saw many great birds, the varied thrush seemed to elude me, so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to see a nemesis since I am staying up here for Christmas break anyways.

After waiting about 10 minutes I spotted a bird high in a cedar tree. Scoped it with the bins and Shazam! Varied thrush!  Didn't even have to leave the car!

Eventually, it swooped down to take a bite from some bread the house owner had out to eat and the camera snapped away. 

I was satisfied and had another bird for "the list".

I think I will go back on January 1st or 2nd so that I can add it to 2013 ontario list. 

Happy New Year!

New Gear!!!!

I meant to do this post a while ago but for whatever reason didn't get around to it. Anyways... A sweeeet box arrived on November 29 or something like that.
Inside the box:
Swarovski ATX 85mm scope
Manfrotto 190 aluminum tripod
Kowa case
I decided to split the cost of this scope with my Grandma because she kind of wanted it too and the wopping cost of $3700 would be cut in half. This might seem like a lot to spend on a scope but you get what you pay for and I got what I paid for!!!!This scope is KILLER. After openig it I played around with it for a bit but I really got to try it out on the OFO trip I blogged about on my last post.
I can honestly say that I dont think that it is possible for a scope to be any clearer! Im also a huge fan of the zoom and the focus ring beside each other!
This thing looks Beast too! I also got the Kowa stay on case with it for 30 bucks... not bad. Also, being swaro's newest scope, it can break down into two parts. I liked this for a couple of reasons.
1. Its cool
2.It really does break down quite a bit smaller.
3. It gave me twice the excitement when I opened it
4. It could allow me to swap out angled for a straight in different situations(not ideal but just another pro)
5.I can also swap out for a bigger or smaller objective lens if I want
Tripod's solid too!
I am also thinking of getting somesort of digiscoping adapter but after the wallet recovers a bit.
Because I am posting this on my Iphone the pictures insist on going at the end so here are some pictures of the BEAUT!(and the box)

Results for OFO trip Sunday

As expected, the Gull watch on sunday was pretty good, though the rain put a damper on things. A quick over view:
"Kumliens" Iceland Gull- 2 first cycles and 1 adult at Adam Beck, 1 first cycle above the falls.
Ring billed gull and
Herring gull-enough said
Bonapartes gull- thousands at the whirlpool and above the falls
Great black backed gull- a total of about 15
Little Gull- Whirlpool and above the falls.
Lesser black backed gull- 1 first cycle at Adam beck and multiple at the control gates.
Glaucous gull- I didnt see it but one flew down river at Adam Beck.
Thayers Gull: Was seen just before most of us Got there
Rare Stuff:
Black headed gull: above the falls. I followed it in the scope for about a minute
Probable "Greenland" Iceland gull-First found by Bruce Di labio above the falls. Pictures can be seen here on his blog
http://brucedilabio.blogspot.ca/?m=1

Other interesting stuff:
Black throated blue warbler: BEAUT male above the falls.
"myrtle" warbler: whirlpool
Merlin
Carolina wren

OFO trip tomorrow

Tomorrow I will be spending the morning with the Ontario Field Ornithologists group down at the Niagara River in hopes for a few gull species.
Things that have been seen there recently:
FRANKLIN'S GULL
Glaucous Gull
Iceland Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Thayers gull
BLACK-HEADED GULL
Little Gull
Bonapartes Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull

So we are almost guaranteed about 10 species of gulls.
Then again there is also the possibility of finding something super exciting...(ross's, ,slaty backed etc.)
Anyways, should be a good day.
I will post about what goes on tomorrow or monday.

Missed a Western Tanager...by THAT much

Havn't done a post for a while because there has overall been nothing to post about. So I'll do one on the last fairly good birding day I had.
Almost 2 weeks ago, Sunday, my Grandma and I decided to take advantage of the extra hour of sunlight to bird the Niagara river for the morning.

Highlights:

Evening Grosbeak

Evening Grosbeak: 1 Bird at the McFarlane house calling constantly. It was pretty far away so I couldn't get a very good picture of it but here is a blurry one.

White-winged Scoter: Many at Lake Ontario view.

So overall nothing too much to report from Niagara area. We also checked out the whirlpool, power generating station and a couple of other lookouts but not much there either other than the usual herring and ring billed mix. We had to go back for church for 9:00.

After church we again went out again but this time in the opposite direction... towards Burlington. Got to Vanwagner's Beach at about 1:00 and things were pretty dead. 

Highlights(Lakeland Center):

White Winged Scoter

Surf Scoter

Black Scoter

Long-tailed Duck

I actually spent most of my time there taking pictures of gulls on the beach.

After about an hour of this, hunger started to set in so we headed over to Hutches Resturant for some fish & chips and milk shakes(even though it was Chilly). When we were done eating we decided to do some birding just across from Hutches. That didn't last long. After about 5 minutes I checked my email and sure enough... Cheryl Edgecombe and Rob Dobos had found a Western Tanager at Westdale during the Fall bird Count. With another group of birders we went out to find it. Upon getting there we were walking down the hill to the path when Brett Fried and David Bell saw it just 10 feet in front of us. A group of us hurried down but could not relocate the bird(It was on top of a pretty steep hill in a backyard.) I did see, however, a tanager like bird fly past us but it wasn't IDable due to bad lighting and   thick shrubbery.

During our search for this bird I got an Email from the Scholtens asking if I wanted to meet them at the lakeland center and head to 50 point afterwards...so we did. 

Highlights for 50 point:

Black Scoter

Red-throated loon

Frustration!

So many good hurricane birds being reported.
http://www.nemesisbird.com/2012/10/tropical-storm-sandy-rare-bird-liveblog/#more-13149

Unfortunately, im not able to get out birding for the next 2 days!!!!!!!!

Wet day at long point.

Well i had a bigger overview typed out but for whatever reason it got deleted, so I think I'll just highlight the day.

Spent a pretty rainy day down un the long point/ turkey point area yesterday. Overall there was not too much happening but we did manage to have some luck.

Highlights of the day included:

CATE- Hastings drive
STSA- Port Rowan sewage lagoon
LTDU- Port Rowan sewage lagoons
GWTE- also PR sewage lagoons
And some passarine species:
Orange crowned, nashville, and
of course yellow rumped warblers.
WCSP
WTSP
I highlighted passarines because it is becoming increasingly hard to find them lately.
Didnt get too many pics b/c it was raining pretty hard but got a few.

Just some randoms.