Easter bunnies, 6-7 April 2007

Easter should be moved to late May, a much more interesting time to have an extra day off work to go birding, that way we would not have to brave the sudden dip in temperatures and light snow flurries, such was the fare of Easter Friday and Saturday.

The Snowy Owls have all gone from my area but have been replaced many fold by the hoardes of Snow and Canada Geese. Canada Geese seem to be in every field, not so quietly adding extra nutrients to the thawing landscape. Snow Geese are a bit more circumspect, preferring to drop into the middle of distant fields, not surprising when you see the antics of the local hunters, note to file, birders should not watch hunters at play, it can only enforce a feeling of ‘them and us’. I’ve said before that I have no objection to hunting and responsible hunters, I just feel that we as birders get a raw deal. Hunters can hunt virtually everywhere it seems, the birds do not get a day off and we do not get a hunting free day to observe them. Perhaps we should sit down and discuss time share, and please don’t tell me how much hunters pay to hunt, the object of their attention does not belong to any Government so therefore they have no moral right to charge for hunting. Oh and don’t dare quote some ridiculous religious text giving man dominion over all animals, that would be just too stupid.

Anyway, rant over and on with the birding. After trying for a Ross’s Goose amongst the 10,000 or so Snow Geese in my area several times, but being thwarted by sweaty Neanderthals swinging winged Snow Geese around by the neck to kill them (oops there I go again, sorry, responsible hunters swinging winged Snow Geese around by the neck to kill them, better?), we went out to take a look at a regular goose loafing point by the Pont de Gonzagues on the Beauharnois Canal. On arrival our luck was in and we were able to get close views of perhaps 3500 Snow Geese and smaller numbers of Canada Geese plus a few other returning wildfowl species.

The birds gather on a large lake with good access along the north side, unfortunately the light does not always cooperate from that side but there is a gated track that allows slightly obstructed views from the south side. Just go through the gate with the no hunting sign and follow the track to view by the spent cartridge piles!

After a bit of scanning I picked up an adult Ross’s Goose but quickly lost it again amongst the fluid goose pack. I then spent some time reading the yellow neck collars on some of the birds, eight in all, I’ll post details of their origins when I find out.

The constant movement of the geese (in part because we were a bit exposed and they chose to wander away) later revealed another Ross’s much nearer, a first-winter bird. I took some general ‘in the area’ shots and have a record shot to post below. I tend to think that Ross’s is perhaps more regular than people think, this was the fifth or sixth I’ve found locally, but for many birders here there is not quite the same compulsion to scan every flock for something unusual, something I can fully understand.

While out I snapped a Northern Harrier (badly) and have supplemented this posting with shots of one of two Pileated Woodpeckers in our garden this (Saturday) morning.













A general view of some of the Snow Geese.













Whites and Blues.
















The Ross's Goose is sitting, and is in it's second calendar year (not of sitting obviously). This is the best shot I could find but the length of the bill is exagerated by the legs of the geese behind. I cropped and lightened it a bit then put unsharp mask on, a record shot.














Northern Harrier looping the loop.

















Peekaboo pecker, this bird seemed to have found some grubs in one of our wood piles, its mate was in the next tree sending morse code tap tap taps.

















Every now and then it hopped into the tree for a look see.

April fools

31 March-2 April 2007

The promise of fine weather conditions over the last weekend in March was enough to finally get us out along the south shore of the St-Lawrence in search of King Eider.

Our previous March visit to the area between Rimouski and Matane, back in 2004, had produced four King Eiders, and we were optimistic of success, we just had to do the kilometers. In the end we did the kilometers and some!

After work on the Friday, crossing Montreal was a 1.5 hour trip to start with. We hit Montmagny and our overnight stop around 8.45pm. The next day we whipped along the highway and began birding in earnest just after Rimouski. As usual the shore was littered with Glaucous Gulls and Iceland Gulls of the race kumlieni, always a treat for someone who has spent hours at a gull roost waiting for just one to arrive.

Common Eiders were a bit thin on the ground (or river) but we hit a few just east of Grand-Metis and, sure enough, out in the minch with 50 or so Common Eider was a nice male King Eider. It was a bit distant for a picture but I took a poor record shot anyway.

















Mission accomplished we cast around for options. There was plenty of birding still to be had but what year ticks could be found. A freshening breeze cooled our ears and forced our hand a little and so we decided to head off through the Parc de la Gaspesie to try for a few species on the southern side of Gaspe.

The parc is spectacularly beautiful and we constantly saw finches gritting by the roadside. Among them was at least one Hoary Redpoll although we saw several more clean white rumps flush at several spots along the way. It took around two hours to cruise through and we enjoyed a tame Ruffed Grouse, a nervous Bald Eagle and plenty of White-winged Crossbills. The real winner though was the scenery and it pains you to think that our species can produce the dross that thinks it is ok to dump their trash by the roadside in such a place, but it does and they do.

Eventually we arrived at the town of Bonaventure and found a pleasant motel for the night. It was our intention to bird until around 11.00 the next day then drive home, about 800km or so away. As it happened our best laid plan rather floundered and circumstance saw us spending the night of April 2nd at Rivere de Loup, still six hours from Montreal. In the time before arriving at Riviere de Loup we had managed to get along the shore to Perce with Great Cormorant, Black-legged Kittiwake and Razorbill added to the year list, a little later, off Point St-Pierre, a lone Gannet passed by.
The year list ticks on, 115 now (4-4-7) with plenty in store for the rest of April. Our ‘little’ trip recorded 62 species and I managed to take a few photographs to brighten the pages of this blog.

















A 2cy Glaucous Gull making an emission.


















Adult Glaucous Gull behaving a little better.


















2cy Kumlien's Iceland Gull.
















Adult Kumlien's Iceland Gull
















Common Eiders riding the surf


















The awe inspiring Parc de la Gaspesie
















Truck dodging Ruffed Grouse












The famous Perce rock complete with Razorbills

Oh Canadas (geese that is)

24-25 March 2007

The northward movement of Canada Geese has now started in earnest with barely a sky view without them. The fields around St-Clet have undergone a rapid thaw and flood pools are starting to look attractive to both birder and bird.

Saturday 24th I did a quick tour of the St-Clet lanes but first making an ‘official’ visit to St-Lazare Sand Pit. An official visit is one where I see enough to warrant a notebook entry. The pits qualified by virtue of a singing Northern Grey Shrike which, along with American Robins, Common Grackles and the newly in-post Red-winged Blackbirds took the year list there to 13!

The St-Clet fields proper held about 1000 Canada Geese and one Cackling Goose a stupid name really and it got me thinking that perhaps we should name the races (or species) after the Canadian provinces.

Greater Canada Goose would, of course, be Quebecois Goose.

The ones that make the most noise and produce the most crap could be Ontarian Goose.

The Albertan Goose would refuse to mix with any other geese.

The Newfoundland Goose would be permanently out of step with the rest of the geese.

The BC Goose would always be on the left of the flock.

You would never see a Saskatchewan Goose, they would always be in the middle of nowhere.

Labradorean Geese have a barking call but nothing like as rich and unintelligible as the call of the Nova Scotia Goose.

The New Brunswick Goose honks and honcs, nobody knows where the North-west Territories Goose is, or cares.

The Nunavut Goose is best ignored and it might go away.

That just leaves our oddly named Cackling Goose which would become PEI Goose, small, attractive and a pleasure to behold.

I know I missed out Manitoba, I may have to visit Winnipeg some day, enough already, back to the birding.

I did not really expect the Snowy Owls to still be about but, on reaching the end of Ste-Julie which, as everyone now knows is the epicenter of the magic triangle for Snowies, there was a male on a fence post just asking to be photographed. A quick scan revealed a female nearby but I ignored her and crept up on the male taking a few snaps as he diligently ignored me. Later in the day Sandra came out with me and we saw two more males in the same area and a stunning flock of at least 1,000 Snow Buntings.

In between time we had been to St-Timothee marsh and located the incubating Great Horned Owl, a sore thumb amidst a few Great Blue Herons, back early in the heronry. At nearby Hungry Bay duck numbers are climbing with lots of Greater Scaup, a few Lessers and Ring-necked Ducks and a single female Barrow’s Goldeneye amongst her Common cousins

Sunday was quieter, there was an overnight snowfall which stymied the migration a bit but there was still one Snowy Owl in the regular place, a Northern Harrier was new and a couple of Hooded Mergansers were nervously feeding on the Solanges Canal.

Below a few snaps and oh, the Canada Goose thing, its comedy, I don’t really mean it and I don't want anyone to feel insulted, especially you lovely Ontarians.

Top to bottom, male Snowy Owl post preen then alert (or as alert as they get in sunshine), female Horned Lark then, finally, two Hooded Mergansers swimming away, an invaluable aid to identification as they always seem to do that.

Winter wind down

17-18 March 2007

While many people on this side of the pond celebrated the St-Patrick's day weekend (heaven knows why, most of those who call themselves Irish were born here, how can Canada establish its own people when most add the nationality of a distant relative to their origin, Irish Canadian indeed!) we ignored it and went birding. Saturday was a bit of a trial with snow all day, Sunday was brighter so we went back to Chemin Scotch and the surrounding area to try to see some male Red Crossbills.

Eventually we were successful although they really did not want their photo taking but a nice male White-winged Crossbill posed and a White-tailed Deer paused as it cross the track

The month appears to be warming up considerably and so the fields of St-Clet will be alive with wildfowl as flood pools form for a few days. The year list is stalled on 102 at the moment but I predict a sudden surge so.

Just a couple of average snaps, not a great month for photography so far.

Blowing cold and hot

10-11 February 2007

Following a bitterly cold week, Sunday saw a thaw set in with temperatures up around 4 degrees, tropical! Year list options are diminishing until the return of our summer guests so I concentrated on Red Crossbill, again! Thanks to a tip off from Martin Bowman I made the short trip to one of the country back roads north of Hawksbury, Ontario. Sure enough, within 1km we came across a female gritting, two more females showed briefly later but ice rain set in so we didn’t hang around.

On Friday I chanced upon a covey of Grey Partridges near Ste-Marthe. They were species 99 for the year, the Red Crossbill was number 100, only 200 to go. Also in the area were up to 200 Lapland Longspurs, 600 Snow Buntings and 200 Horned Larks, excellent birding. I nipped back Saturday morning first thing to try for a picture but was out of luck, the regular female Snowy Owl was present on her perch though.

Sunday I spent a few hours in my favourite St-Clet fields seeing a new immature Snowy Owl and the regular male. A few Wild Turkeys were browsing seed heads on grasses protruding from the deep snow and a much reduced number of longspurs etc were still present but skittish from traffic flushing.

Apart from the owl, everything else was a bit hard to photograph, record shots below.





















A few garden shots from the weekend, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, Purple Finch (female), and Dark-eyed Junco.

















Female Red Crossbill in poor light.























Mme Snowy Owl
















Below a flight shot. Not a great image but it shows bits you only normally see briefly.


















One of six Wild Turkeys near Ste-Marthe.
















This Coyote had obviously found its way into someones outside larder, it was hurrying across the fields carrying this oven ready duck, plucked and headless. It knew I was there but, instead on gettings its head down and running, it could not resist a backwards glance.

















I spent about twenty minutes wating for the female Snowy Owl to leave her perch, hoping to get a flight shot. She fussed and preened for a while, even having a fluffing session which is often a prelude for flight. It was a bit cold so I had lowered the camera for a rest when she took off leaving me with a series of shots with the wings chopped off. Next time maybe.

The last day of February

28 February 2007

With vacation days burning holes in my notebook, I decided to take advantage of the unseasonable temperatures and go birding, what a surprise eh!

My main target was Carolina Wren, a species right on the edge of its northern limit in the Montreal area, for a few more years at least. One had been seen regularly at a fine set of feeders in Chateguay so off I went.

The feeders are well placed and by surreptitiously parking in a quiet spot I could scan the very birdy garden looking for the wren from the cover of the car, this also offered photographic opportunities. I had been there half an hour enjoying Red-bellied Woodpecker, lots of American Tree Sparrows and even an Eastern Towhee briefly when two fine examples of Quebec workmen showed up and started a pump that screamed for 45 minutes and rather upset the birds. The relief when they turned it off and took their van, complete with maximum decibel radio, away was tangible, suddenly singing birds were everywhere, sounding louder than usual. I couldn’t decide whether they were singing louder to out blast the pump or whether the lack of screaming pump meant everything else was enhanced. To cut a long story short, I didn’t see the Carolina Wren.

After checking a few other local spots but seeing little I decided to trek across Montreal to Laval and try out the best owl wood in Quebec, Bois Papineau. On arrival the first bird I saw was an Eastern Screech Owl sat sunning in its hole, a good start. I then wandered around all of the spots where I’d seen owls before but finding none. One reason might have been a team of teens on a loud outing; it must be something new on the curriculum since I was at school. They even made the sound of the screaming pump seem attractive.

I had just about decided to beat the traffic and go early when I came across a group of birders/photographers looking intently at something, another screech, excellent. Then a dog walker asked me (in French) whether I had seen the Grand-duc d’Ámerique (for UK readers pron Granzuck damerike). He then happily led me to the nest with the mother Great Horned Owl sitting tight, ignoring the gathering throng of birders. It got better.

Thanks to the linguistic duality of virtually every Montrealler I’ve ever met, I discovered that the Chouette Rayee (Barred Owl) was also on view today and so I made my way to the spot expecting to peer into the tree tops for views. The owl was just sitting 25 feet up a tree on a bare side branch looking faintly bored. Its bill and feet were stained red, probably courtesy of a squirrel’s meaty bits, and it was not in the least interested in us no matter how much squeaking, grunting or subliminal ‘who cooks for you’ was going on.

The small group of watchers drifted away but I stayed and moved around for better light, unfortunately that meant all I could see was the birds back, then, the man with the dog came by and that sparked the owls interest, it even moved around to show its front to us, what a nice bird.

So February ended well with four year list additions making it 98 so far. March might be a good month if we get an early thaw, on the other hand it could be bitterly cold with snow dumps, c’est la vie.

Now the photos.



















American Tree Sparrows, soon to be off north.






























Male House Sparrow, naturalised Quebec birds have different calls from those in the UK, Le cheep cheep.





















The first Eastern Screech-Owl, they don't move much!












































This side on view of a Barred Owl shows why they can be overlooked, their subtle browns can blend nicely with tree trunks.





















Mother Great Horned Owl blending nicely into the background.
























The second Eastern Screech-Owl, equally as active as the first.




















Back to the Barred Owl and the side on camouflage can work but, front on, when you are the size of a small refrigerator, its hard to be inconspicuous.
























Despite my convincing attempts to impersonate a nervous squirrel, the Barred Owl only gave me a cursory backwards glance, then..For all those observers who have never seen a Barred Owl move much, here is a sequence where the bird actually turns around, full circle on the perch.















































Just organising my feet.














































Nearly there.























What's that, dog, edible, yes, hungry, no just finished lunch, just check out my bill in the earlier shots if you want to see the stains.