A nip in the air

10-11 November 2007

With the clocks going back birding is now pretty much limited to weekends, here in Canada it was a week later than Europe to match with the USA. Perhaps with the strength of the Loony (Canadian Dollar) against the US Dollar we should have demanded a change of an hour and ten minutes, a little political joke there. Interestingly, despite the Loony rising by 25% against the US Dollar in the past six months, prices of imported goods from the USA have not dropped, yet another way for the thieves of banking and commerce to rob you.

Back to the birding and unless we were willing to drive over to Abitibi to stand in someone’s yard to look for a Painted Bunting or the same distance but the opposite way to Rimouski, to stand in someone’s yard to look for a Blue Grosbeak, our options were slim. Purple Sandpipers have returned to Tadoussac, good, we might eventually, but the thoughts of a long drive after another long week was not tempting and so birding was to be a strictly local affair. This turned out to be OK and the ‘pits’ (St-Lazare sand pits) had Northern Shrike and Bohemian Waxwing to enjoy, plus lots of Canada Geese to pick through for the inevitable Cackling Goose.

In the garden a nice pair of visitors were a pair of Evening Grosbeaks. Hopefully they will stick around and the male will get his chance to pose for the camera. Another visitor that is becoming increasing regular is Pileated Wodpecker. As an experiment I moved a feeder to just outside the living room window. The regulars soon took to it and the endless procession of Black-capped Chickadees is a big improvement on Canadian TV (except for the excellent Corner Gas). The Pileateds soon found it and bound in regularly to make short work of the suet blocks. Having this beast of a woodpecker less than four feet away from you is pretty memorable, I wonder if the Ivory-billed Woodpecker searchers have tried suet blocks.
























Especially for Derek, Woody Woodpecker.





















A Hairy Woodpecker damaging our trees again!


















A late Fox Sparrow, not dead you understand, just late in the season.













































Mme Evening Grosbeak, the male was a little coy but its nothing to carp on about.

Duck double

4 November 2007

In an effort to fill the last duck gap in the year list, we went off to Chambly in the hope of securing the Canvasback that had been there a few days. As ever this required a trek across Montreal but traffic was light so it was pretty easy. The duck was there, sat in the middle of the river. A bonus was male Barrow’s Goldeneye with it.

Neither bird came closer than 150m so below are just record shots. The Canvasback was 266 for the year, it may well turn out to be the last addition or am I just being pessimistic!

We went to Abitibi and saw……

20-21 October 2007

Following reports of a couple of Trumpeter Swans in Abitibi, on Lac Motte to be exact, we or rather I was inspired to go and look for them. In the end we, yes we, went Saturday morning, cruised through some fine scenery and hit Val D’Or by around 16.30. A swift perusal of the site showed, as expected, a beautiful lake with few viewing points and lots of summer cottages hogging the banks.

Sunday we were back on the banks looking for white blobs, any white blobs. You have probably already guessed that we did not see them. We toured the whole area looking at any water available but really very little was on offer bird wise. I harboured hopes of lucking a Sharp-tailed Grouse but no, or perhaps an American Three-toed Woodpecker, well actually, yes. One was on a telegraph pole at St-Mathieu but bad positioning meant nil chance of a photo and it soon settled into the big year theme of flying briskly away.

Because of the distance involved in getting home and the requirement to be at least human at work Monday morning, we had only limited time in the area. We checked out the fields around Barroutte, one of the few sites known, or at least shared, for Sharp-tailed Grouse in Quebec. We were every bit as successful as our last visit, obtaining fine views of fields.

The trip home was not too bad and the ‘parc’ was very scenic, we even enjoyed good views of Grey Jay but it was a long drive. For readers in Notts, and I do know that some birders from Notts do read this, the road through the parc is the equivalent of driving from Nottingham to Portland. There are no real services, apart from a couple of sites to picnic or widdle and apart from Ravens, you don’t see too many birds!

The drive back was about seven hours, enlivened only by a couple of trucks bearing the heads of recently surprised Moose. Quite why they shoot the Moose I’m not sure, they are big and stupid and just stare blankly at you, the Moose are just as bad, you might as well shoot a school bus. It poses the question, do they just enjoy killing big animals, if so they are clearly not fit to hold a licence for a gun!
Below a few photos. I’ve not given up on the year list but can I really drag myself to Tadoussac again, we shall see.
























Distant Pileated Woodpecker, c100m away.



















Northern Harrier, not too many hawks up north.


































One of three Rough-legged Hawks seen.



























































Cryptic crazy chicken, the wrong grouse though.

















Still working on the white balance.

Vireo or cranes

14 October 2007

With news of a White –eyed Vireo being seen off the east end of Montreal, a place called Ile Charron, the choice was, do we trek across town to suffer disappointment or should we cruise out west, beyond the sacred Quebec boundary to try for a flock of Sandhill Cranes (not even a year tick but great birds) and a possible Canada tick, Eared (a.k.a Black-necked) Grebe. Small bird potentially in a bush, big birds almost certainly in a field. After a few seconds agonising, we went west.

The light was again ‘autumnal’ that is to say grey but the birds were there, 45 or so in one field and fairly close to the road. The cranes were a bit skittish and gradually made their way to the back of the field but we enjoyed good views of adults and their young, delving into the soft earth of the ex cornfield.

Our next stop was Alfred Sewage Lagoons. Oh how I (and many others) wish this was in Quebec. The place always has birds with many often tough to find species for Quebec.

This trip was to see the Eared Grebes that had been there for a few days and we saw four in all. Seeing them was pretty easy thanks to the tower erected outside the lagoons. If anyone from the Quebec authorities ever reads this: We parked in the FREE car park especially constructed for the viewing tower. We walked the path to the EXCELLENT viewing tower constructed for OBSERVING BIRDS. And we were able to enjoy the Ruddy ducks, Northern Harriers and assorted other wildlife without having to dodge skaters, dogs, push chairs, cyclists or any of the other many irritations that all Quebec sites seem to be designed for. It was a pleasure to be able to think that this was constructed for us, the birders. If we had this type of thing at all sewage works there would be no need to trespass.

Once back in Quebec we stopped off on the L’anse at Vaudreuil where 80+ Dunlin, 25 Black-bellied Plovers, 15 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 2 Ruddy Turnstones and a White-rumped Sandpiper awaited. I also had a not unusual experience there which hones the point made above.

I was watching the Dunlin and paying close attention to their moult, when a woman with child passed me. I was on the bank by the road clearly watching the birds (through a telescope!). She climbed down the bank on to the mud with the child and walked out to the birds, naturally scaring them away. I’m sure it was not done with malice, she was just displaying a tendency that many here seem to have and that is absolutely no awareness of anyone else and what they might be doing or whether their actions might impact on others.

If you think I am overplaying this, think of how many times you have had people flush birds that you have carefully stalked, or where you have been watching something only for the loud voices (and coats) to appear and march past you in blissful ignorance.

Anyway, reading this, all I seem to do is complain, it must be something to do with advancing age!

Petering out

13 October 2007

After a pretty poor September it seems that the year list is petering out. Few additions can be expected and my revised, revised target is 270 although even that might be optimistic.

The third quarter report sees the list on 264 so basically static. The month failed to yield a Grey-cheeked Thrush (so far!) despite birding suitable locals. Admittedly I didn’t chase any, birds were present in downtown Montreal, I had rather expected to find my own.

For the record the garden list stands at 77 for the year and I have spent 179 bird days in the field. I won’t bother telling you the kilometerage but, on reflection, it is probably not that different from my usual birding kilometres travelled.

Since the last post we have not taken any longer trips although in September I spent more days (or, more accurately, part days) in the field than any other month. In September I covered the L’Anse at Vaudreuil almost daily seeing a total of 20 species of shorebird there. The season is winding down but, as I write, there are still 70+ Dunlin there.

Looking at the year as a whole I would say it has been pretty poor bird wise, perhaps the tone was set with the suppressed Green-tailed Towhee in Montreal which stuck until March in a garden of birder haters. Recently the trend has carried on with a suppressed Eared Grebe at a ‘private’ site, but not so private that a birder was able to photograph it though. I spent many years in the UK trying to make sure that all birders got the chance to see rarities; here they just keep a lot of birds quiet for very tenuous and certainly indefensible reasons. I think the grebe was at one of the water treatment plants, I bet none that saw it, and there would be a few, tried to get limited weekend access for the masses, which here would amount to only 50 or so.

Next month we go south to Ecuador so I hope to have the odd picture to post. Next year I will be concentrating on St-Lazare sand pits, if I can stand the numerous dogs (especially stupid, yapping sled dogs), ATVs, toy glider fliers anglers and the hut, hut, hut from the nearby sports field where ten year olds in body amour spend three hours confused. It’s called Football here, which is rather stupid, but I will not digress, this time.

Below a few shots, when I have had the time the light has either been blindingly bright or very dull, on the odd occasion the light was good the wind was so strong that the poor birdies needed legs like a steroid enhanced American athlete to hold on.


















In pouring rain which is why it is rubbish.



















A Rusty Blackbird, one of many at Parc Plaisance.

Sabine’s probably the best gull in the World.

Last post to 16 September 2007

Since the Tadoussac trip things have slowed a fair bit. The L’Anse at Vaudreuil still produces a few shorebirds, six Pectoral Sandpipers on one visit, a Short-billed Dowitcher on another, incidentally my 18 species of shorebird there this autumn.

Warbler migration has been patchy, no obvious arrivals in bulk just a few relatively local species. One early winter arrival has been Dark-eyed Junco, they are in the garden, about six weeks earlier than any previous year since we have been here.

The weekend of 15-16 seemed set to follow the pattern with Saturday damp for most of the morning with the usual stiff breeze. A visit to Pointe Fortune failed to produce much, certainly no hoped for Sabine’s Gull and the back of what seems to have been an arrival in eastern Canada.

Sunday was better and an early morning watch at St-Lazare sand pits had Blue Jays, juncos and Rusty Blackbirds moving plus a few warblers, a bonus was a Barred Owl, new for my patch. Encouraged by this we went to the Lac St-Francois reserve at Dndee but, to be polite, it wasn’t very good. The Egret Trail was overgrown and tough to walk, perhaps one of the site employees could venture from their hut with a tractor or weed whacker sometime.

We toyed with going elsewhere but the day seemed shot. Once home I checked the soccer scores and email and poot, an immature Sabine’s Gull had been at Beauharnois barrage that very morning and we had been but 10km away at one point.

Twitching for us in Quebec has usually been fraught with disappointment but we went anyway. After ten minutes and having picked out a winter adult Little Gull the Sabs arrived. It fed at range but gave scope views and I also took a few shots of the water. If you look closely you can see an obscure blob with white triangles in the wings, that is the gull.

Sabine’s is my favourite gull, just pipping Ross’s to the title. This little beauty was Quebec tick 300 so extra special. The year list is at 263, I still need a mockingbird, Carolina Wren and Tufted Titmouse but I still have three months left to find them so all is not lost.


Below a few miscellaneous shots, no apologies for the record shots.
















The record shot of the Sabine's Gull and the original below. Feel free to click on it, the image is still lousy though.

































I'll put all of the really terrible photos at the front although, to be honest, they don't improve any. This is a flight shot of the Red-Necked Phalarope on the Chemin de l'Anse, the light was shocking.























Stilt Sandpiper from the l'Anse, probably up to six different birds so far.


















Woodpecker heads, you don't need me to tell you which species is which.

































































































































I've not bothered captioning the last few photographs as they are not too hard to ID (well onemight be tricky) If you don't know what they are, get your book out, its good practice. Just a hint, the last one is not a warbler.

Sunny Charlevoix, breezy Manicougan

25-29 August 2007

Hoping to catch up with a few species still absent from the year list, we took a five day break birding the Charlevoix-Manicougan area of the St-Lawrence river. Based in Tadoussac, the overpriced little tourist trap at the mouth of the Saguenay River, we ventured mostly north as far as Portneuf sur Mer, just short of Forestville.

Prime targets were Jaegers, any jaegers and also Red Knot, both Quebec ticks. Year birds also included a few of the shorebirds that have yet to grace Vaudreuil Bay and species like American Pipit and Orange-crowned Warbler which I just have not bumped into yet.

Our trip lists always start at dawn on the day of the trips so our garden birds were duly noted and, rather ironically, the first fall warblers had arrived. Five minutes on the front stoop produced two Blackburnian and single Black & White, Yellow-rumped and Magnolia Warblers. A Red-eyed Vireo gleaned the Birch trees and a family of Baltimore Orioles played chase around the garden.

Once underway we made various stops en-route to our first night location of St-Simeon. We checked out the l’Anse at Vaudreuil seeing the commoner shorebirds plus two Pectoral Sandpipers then Lac St-Pierre where five Ospreys, two American Golden Plovers and a nice flock of Black-bellied Plovers gave the trip list a good start.

We pressed on to St-Irenee, a good, back creaking distance to drive in an Echo, the trip only enlivened by a white stretch limo pulling out in front of us and crawling the last 20km or so to St-Irenee causing a 5km traffic tailback. The roads gave no chance to overtake and none of the ten cars between us and the limo seemed so inclined. We guessed that it was either yet another ancient Quebec driver with a car too big for them or, somebody had died and this was the funeral cortege. This has always confused me, why do they drive so slowly when you are dead. You don’t care too much, you are already surfing the astral plains (or scoping the astral wetlands, depends on your interests). The people attending would rather get the whole thing over with as soon as possible so they would appreciate a little more haste. The clergy would like to press on as it cuts into their communion wine and choirboy time, so let us all agree now, toe down, in the hole or up the chimney with the stiff, off to the bar, mine’s a pint.

The luxury that is Internet access is somewhat limited in some areas. Our first night motel had access and so we were very interested to note that a Tricoloured Heron had been seen at Tadoussac that day. Dense sea (well river) mist shrouded St-Simeon at dawn. A short sweep of the local shrubs produced a couple of Orange-crowned Warblers in with a few Nashvilles and Tennessees. A swift breakfast (that is a quick breakfast, we didn’t eat any swifts) and we were on the way to Tadoussac, a 30-minute drive or so. After ten kilometres the sun broke through, the shroud lifted and the day looked like it might be viable after all. Predictably the heron had gone, possibly to Trois-Riviere and the site of the oldest industrial building in Quebec, perhaps more of that later.

Our accommodation at Tadoussac was a chalet at the Domaine des Dunes, pre-booked, not cheap but nice and we could self cater. We took off for Les Escoumins to try for a Little Gull. When we arrived the sky was full of Bonaparte’s Gulls hawking insects, it took an hour and a half to find a Little Gull, just the one, although we were entertained by the Common Nighthawks that had joined in to show the gulls how to hawk properly.

Moving on to Longue Rive and a high tide so lots of shorebirds. An advantage here is that the shorebirds are pushed up to the road; a disadvantage is that the road houses thunderous trucks, roughly one every three minutes, it’s disconcerting. We soon picked out Red Knot from the mass, four birds picking busily away, they were my 299th Quebec bird and my 2,000,001st-4th Red Knot in the World! (approx). We dallied a while then birded along the shore ending up at some bridge thing with a path. Rocks at the river mouth had a few shorebirds, notably a Hudsonian Whimbrel and a few of each yellowlegs. Later a small group of Short-billed Dowitchers pitched in and I messed around taking a few photos.

Day three and we took a whale trip. I had birded the dunes at Tadoussac first thing seeing five Sharp-shinned Hawks in the first 20 seconds and not much else after. The whale trip was ok, not one of our best, we saw a few Minke's a few Fin Whales and the odd, distant Beluga. The wind was stiff and cold and there were very few seabirds except Black-legged Kittiwakes and Bonaparte’s Gulls. Later that day we did a trip to see Black Bears, see the previous posting.

Day four and off to Portneuf sur Mer. Nowhere in the Tadoussac area seemed to have room on their wireless Internet for us to look at the Quebec rare bird site so we had to wait until reaching an establishment of a popular hotel chain before we could log on. One day and fairly soon, wireless Internet will be free and everywhere. No reports were in for our area but the previously mentioned Trois-Riviere site had the Tricoloured, something we could try for on the way home.

We walked out at Portneuf along the spit. For UK birders its like walking to Blakeney Point, enough said. The sea (river but it is wider than the channel) held Gannets and flocks of Common Terns, all three scoters and passing Merlins seemed everywhere. The tide was rising so we decided to check out a picnic site just to the south where birds would gather, and we hoped to do another whale trip out of Portneuf as ‘thar be blues’ (translation.. there are Blue Whales off Portneuf) Unfortunately the constant gale remained constant so we contented ourselves with the shorebird roost and general mooching.

Day five was spent travelling back. Yes we tried at Trois-Riviere for the Tricoloured, no we didn’t see it, nor did anyone else as far as we know.

That was it, no jaegers but Red Knot and nine other year ticks making the list 262. The trip list came in at 115 and the month total 157.


Below a few photos of varying quality.



















Despite the thoughtful `Beware of the birders`roadside warnings installed by the local council, trucks still thunder along the Longue Rive.
















A couple of views of Semipalmated Plover



































You are now wondering how you ever confused the two yellowlegs!


















Hudsonian Whimbrel, a recent split by all who are sane.




















This view shows one of the reasons for the split from Eurasian Whimbrel, the bird is in North America! Pity you can`t see the all dark rump properly.















Two Short-billed Dowitchers although you could easily mistake the bird in the foreground as a Long-billed, its not though.




















Same bird.


















By cunningly pretending to be a slightly plumper dowitcher I was able get the group to accept me as one of their own and take a few photos. Wide angle shot courtesty of Sandra Dennis.


















A couple of record shots of Common Nighthawks, they were very fast (excuse for bad photos) and chose an area over Les Escoumins which contained the highest density of overhead wires found anywhere in Quebec.





































A Merlin, having just devoured a dragonfly, in the fashion of a Hobby or Red-footed Falcon, never seen them do that before.


















I like hummers so, if I photograph one, you are going to see it.


















Red-eyed Vireo.
















Shorebird fly past at Pointe-Boisvert, can you spot the Western Sandpiper.


















Last but not least (every pun intended) a Baird`s Sandpiper, one of the 21 shorebird species seen on the trip.