And so the list begins again...

As you can see from the Bird Count Panel on the side we have indeed started counting again this year. Most dedicated birders compile year lists and so I guess we can suggest that we are "dedicated".



 That dedication waned considerably as we stood out on the break wall of the Burlington Canal searching for the rare female King Eider, among hundreds of Long-tailed Ducks, that had been spotted only moments before we arrived.






 Our fingers and cheeks froze from the severe winds and we quickly gave up hoping that the bird will be spotted again on a sunny, warmer day.  On the positive side we saw 45 species on our first day up from the 32 of 2013.  In 2013 11 of those birds were lifers for us - this year we had only one lifer - the beautiful Northern Pintail.




 Anyone living close to Burlington owes themselves a trip down to LaSalle Park Marina in the winter to view the beautiful Trumpeter Swans that spend the winter there along with numerous duck species.  The Trumpeters are part of the breeding program from Wye Marsh near Midland and the young birds are captured and tagged at LaSalle during the winter and so they all sport numbered yellow tags.

We were very lucky to see 3 Bald Eagles as well - one adult flew past our home while we were tallying the species around our feeder, the second one was on an adult on the ice off Eastport Drive and the third was a sub-adult flying south across Burlington Bay.

Another very pretty duck is the Green-winged Teal, the lighting was not great for pictures yesterday but he is a brilliant mix of colours.

Any guesses what the name of this duck is?  The Northern Shoveler because that beak is like a shovel!

Close Encounter with a Hawk

Yesterday, we were at friends in North Burlington at a cottage at a summer camp property.  There was a beautiful juvenile Red-tailed Hawk eating a squirrel frozen into the ground. He was not leaving that food just because we were there and tolerated three of us standing around it within a few feet and talking and taking pics.  It is the closest we have ever been to a wild hawk.  Here are the pics - all copyright Jerry Horak

32 species - First Day!

We had a great start to our Big Year getting 32 species -with 11 lifers for us today.  We hung out down at LaSalle Park in Burlington and then along the canal by the lift bridge.  We have not really concentrated on ducks before so it was not surprising that we got so many lifers.  There were lots of birders out and we had help and confirmation with most of our identifications which was nice.  The Northern Mockingbirds - two of them - were a bit of a surprise, near the open water but we had great views of them and confirmation from another birder.  There are a pair of Peregrine Falcons hanging out at the lift bridge and we had the opportunity to watch one hunting pigeons.  He was not successful. I've added our bird count on the blog so you can see what we have seen.  Enjoy!

American Wigeon

Trumpeter Swan - tagged from Wye Marsh

Northern Mockingbird

Greater Scaup