Wawa to Thunder Bay

Today we spent more time birding the communities along the North shore of Lake Superior and less time on the highway. Much of the coastline here reminds me of Newfoundland. If someone took a picture from one of the bays of Lake Superior I don't think I'd be able to distinguish it from a bay in NL...

One of our first stops was at Pic River, a seemingly abandoned community along a large river. There were plenty of birds at the river mouth. There were hundreds of Dunlin, Horned Larks, American Pipit, and Lapland Longspurs.

In Marathon we walked the railway bed hoping to stir up some interesting sparrows. There were plenty of Savannah Sparrows and White-crowned Sparrows. We still haven't found a Gambell's White-crowned Sparrow despite scrutinizing about 30% of the White-crowned Sparrows we've been seeing.

A flock of Horned Larks included several Lapland Longspurs, including one male close to full breeding plumage:

A Field Sparrow in Marathon was a good find (apparently) with only 19 previous records in the Northern Ontario region (before 2012)! It was feeding from a lawn, where we watched it for no more than 30 seconds before we lost interest in this common species for Southern Ontario...

I was happier to see this Clay-colored Sparrow even though they're not nearly as rare:

In Terrace Bay a flock of 15 swans turned out to be the least expected species, Mute Swans. Another rarity for Northern Ontario (only 11 records prior to 2012) but a similarly not very exciting find, even though it's a record high for this large region!

It has been raining a lot here over the last few days. Some of the highways have been washed out resulting in closed roads. Luckily we haven't been delayed too much yet. This Bald Eagle didn't seem to be doing very well:

On The Road

1000km later and we're in Wawa. We made a few stops along the way and found some cool species.

In Thessalon we came across a small flock of Evening Grosbeaks:

A small flock of Brewer's Blackbirds were neat to see - a new Ontario bird for me!

Highlight of the day was when we saw a large waxwing-like bird while driving the highway. We made a quick turn around and were able to identify it. Mike got some pics before it flew off, we were able to age it as an adult (After Second Year) due to the extent of white on the primaries (check out Jean Irons guide for aging BOWAs here):

Some other neat stuff include 1 Olive-sided Flycatcher, a Black Bear, and 2 Moose...

House Finch from yesterday in Waterloo:

Still birding

Despite the lack of posts, I've been birding pretty much 80% or more of my waking hours this month.

After a week at Long Point, I made my way to Pelee where I lead some hikes for a few days, and then stayed on Pelee Island for another week. Lots of stories to tell, but not really enough time (or memory) to write about them all. So I'll just write about this weekend!

I came back to Waterloo on Friday, where I've been sleeping... a lot!

The big news is that I bit the bullet and purchased one of those superzoom cameras. I've been thinking about it for a while, have been increasingly disappointed with digiscoping (it's overrated in my opinion), and wanted something that can reliably document the things I see...

Some cool features of the camera:

It can do 13 fps on burst mode (only 10 frames total)!

Super macro focusing = good for insects and flowers :)

Most birds are back on territory throughout Waterloo county, so this morning I went to southern Cambridge and gave the camera a test run.

This E. Meadowlark was singing near Grass Lake:

The usual Grasshopper Sparrows were around:

Bobolinks are also back in good numbers:

At the Sudden Tract forest I tallied a surprising 17 species of warbler, including 2 Blue-winged Warblers (on territory), and a Canada Warbler (maybe on territory??)!

I actually only saw maybe 5 of those species and heard the rest.... too many leaves!

Butterfly numbers are increasing nowadays.

I think this is a Juvenal's Duskywing (let me know if I'm wrong!):

Tomorrow I'm headed on a road trip with the Burrell brothers. I doubt I'll have Internet access which gives me a legitimate excuse not to post for a while! But Mira may or may not make an appearance as a guest blogger!