Three owl day

January 1st 2007 dawned with entertaining conditions under tyre. Ice rain starting around midnight had made our drive and the local roads quite slippery, would this stop the Big Year quest from getting off the ground, nope!

My cunning plan is to try to see all of the rarer species and not chase birds that I will see in the normal course of a year. To this end we started in Montreal on I'le Ste-Helene trying to see a Black-throated Grey Warbler. Two hours of searching had added a few species to the year list but not the warbler, time to move on.

Next was an owl stop. A small patch of trees near Boucherville, south-east of Montreal, attracts roosting owls. This winter it was Long-eared and Northern Saw-whet on offer so we arrived in high hopes that we could find them. After ten minutes or so I spotted a photographer and, sure enough, there was the Northern Saw-whet, nine feet off the ground and steadfastly ignoring the boring birders. The bird then proceeded to boff up a pellet then eat its tenaciously gripped meal, a mouse, more on this tomorrow when I have time to edit my shots. In the very next tree was a Long-eared Owl, confident that we could not see it, we could.

We moved on to Chambly Basin, a large body of water partially surrounded by rich people. Fortunately someone had the foresight to created a parking point and over-view so I was able to scan the waves for Greater White-fronted Geese. Many scans later I came to the conclusion that the geese were absent today, compensation was four species of sawbill so I was happy (ish).

Next we tried for a Yellow-headed Blackbird, the third in our trio of rare targets. By now a pattern was evident and we did not see the bird, we did enjoy magnificent views of Pileated Woodpecker though, and the site is re-visitable so I'm not sweating it.

Last off we dropped in to see one of our local Snowy Owls. The bird was squating down on a low silo but we got it and, later, an out of season Northern Harrier.

The day ended on 39 species, modest by European standards but not too bad here in the frozen south (same latitude as Bordeaux!).

I have just one snap to show you but its a cracker. I'll do another post with Saw-whet shots tomorrow but remember, if you are tuning in from the UK we are five hours (and some say two years!) behind the UK so you will all be in bed by the time I do it.

Happy New Year everyone.

Pugnacious and indifferent at the same time, a Nothern Saw-whet looks over my shoulder at something more interesting!

BTW, this text could end up anywhere, such is the fun that is Blog!