American Avocet - Long Point

On the morning of April 15th, Josh Nieuwenhuis discovered an American Avocet off the Bird Studies Canada headquarters on the inner bay of Long Point. At first it flew off before anyone else could see the bird, but luckily it shortly returned and many observers got to see this beautiful bird (including myself). It was showing well in great light, not very far away, and actively feeding sweeping it's head side to side with it's upcurved bill. It seemed to be finding lots to eat as well.

It was a new Long Point bird for me, and the first one I had seen in many years. It was in gorgeous breeding plumage as opposed to the all black and white winter plumaged ones I had seen previously in Ontario. 

Although there were no Ontbirds reports today, e-bird tells me it was seen today (Tuesday) before an eagle scared off the ducks, and possibly the avocet as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the avocet is gone, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's still there Wednesday! Definitely worth a look if you are in the area. 

Vulcan Baru birds - Panama 2013

So I was doing some stuff on my computer and wandered into my unedited photos from my winter Panama trip. Lots of photos still need to be edited and shared, but I find that task very boring! Periodically (like today) I might post some stuff from my trip.

I did a crazy midnight hike up Vulcan Baru, the tallest mountain in Central America. A group of us left at midnight, making it to the peak in time to watch the sunrise over the mountains. It's about 13.5 km each way, with a change in elevation of about 1,700 metres. It was very beautiful, but also incredibly exhausting! Even though it's in tropical Panama, you risk hypothermia near the summit before the sun has come out.

The Birds:

Volcano Hummingbird - Stunning little guy with a black/grey/lilac gorget depending on the light. Feed on a little heather-like plant at the very peak. They buzz around mere inches/feet off the ground! Very cool.

 That's pollen on the front of his face I believe.

Volcano Junco - After the hummingbird, this was the next one I wanted to see. Photo doesn't do it justice, but the gold eyes are pretty intense. 

Sooty Thrush - Easily found at the summit hopping all over the rocky outcroppings. Quite entertaining and nice company when you are sucking air. 

Peg-billed Finch - Below the summit in the bamboo zone feeding on bamboo seeds. In the guide it says they are very rare but can be found when the bamboo is seeding. Not sure how rare they actually are, but it was a very good bonus bird. 

Screech-Owl-in-a-Box

Tis the season to be cleaning out bird boxes - and putting more up if you have them. I've already got several pairs of Bluebirds inspecting boxes and usually end up with 3-4 pairs each year. Anyways, while checking on a Wood Duck box I found this Screech Owl sleeping comfortably. I'd like to hope it's sitting on eggs, but wouldn't it be roosting with it's partner if that was the case?

Sidenote: I'm working on updating the butterfly list for Norfolk. Species most likely to occur here but not yet found include West Virginia White and Mulberry Wing. Consider these target species should anybody reading this find themselves in Norfolk! You could become famous ;)

Greater White-fronted Geese

Haven't posted for a while so I thought I'd throw up some photos of the GWFG that have been hanging around Lee Brown's for a while down at Long Point. They seemed to have disappeared for a week before showing up again - luckily for me since I missed them when they first showed up. People have been seeing Cacklers here as well, but I haven't caught up with them yet. Lee Brown's is also one of the best places to find Eurasian Wigeons around Long Point but nothing so far. Well, until Richard Skevington found one way up the Big Creek valley off the E 1/4 Line by RR#45. I dipped on it today.

and then it lost it's head...

Blackbirds are always fun to pick through for goodies. 

I had a flock of Redpolls today near Walsingham feeding in a weedy field and one of them jumped out as being extremely pale. I was 95% sure it was going to be Hoary if I could manage a decent look at it - they weren't that close and I didn't have my scope. They flew up into some trees and I couldn't relocate the bird in question. The redpoll above was the palest one I could find but it's just a CORE (streaked undertail coverts for one).

De-extinction video and links

There's a bit of buzz out there with the idea of de-extinction - bringing back extinct species using cutting edge science technology and techniques. It looks like a group of scientists are already working on bringing back the Passenger Pigeon. Instead of rehashing articles already out there I'll simply provide some links. I personally found the TED talks video informative and entertaining - like most of their videos.

Stewart Brand: The dawn of de-extinction. Are you ready?
http://www.ted.com/talks/stewart_brand_the_dawn_of_de_extinction_are_you_ready.html

The Plan to Bring the Iconic Passenger Pigeon Back From Extinction
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/03/passenger-pigeon-de-extinction/

------------------------------------

Locally, I went out for a quick jaunt into Haldimand County today and found a pair of Sandhill Cranes near the Grand River. While they are easy to find around Long Point, I'm always pleasantly surprised when I see them elsewhere.

And love'm or hate'm, the wind turbines are starting to go up fast in Haldimand

Snow Geese - Long Point

Back to blogging now that I'm back in Canada. I just posted photos of Resplendent Quetzals I saw in Panama, so check my previous post if you are interested in seeing those. This blog will be a Panama / Norfolk County mash up for the next little while. 

As everyone knows, spring migration is well underway with blackbirds, Killdeer, Tundra Swans, geese and ducks leading the charge. Every expected duck species is back at Long Point except for Blue-winged Teal as far as I can tell. Still thousands of swans around - check the waters off Port Rowan and the fields west of Port Royal. I'm still hoping for some Greater White-fronted and Ross's Geese to make an appearance, but I was happy to find 6 Snow Geese on Tuesday landing in a field with Tundra Swans. Once they landed it was tough to see all 6 of them, although a few were visible. 

Viewed from Front Rd 

As viewed from the Port Rowan pier.

 Large flocks of Wild Turkey are often easy to find in Haldimand County.

Resplendent Quetzal !!! - Feb 3rd, 2013

Yup, I know, I haven't blogged in forever - and no my fingers weren't broken. Basically wifi was hard to come by for part of my trip, and I made a decision to postpone blogging until I was back home in Canada. It's also nice to "disconnect" from technology when backpacking and I thoroughly enjoyed not having a cell phone, and barely turning on a computer.

For the next few weeks or so this blog is going to be a mash-up of Panama adventures and Norfolk nature sightings as we head into spring migration.  Hopefully I can get the Panama stuff out of the way relatively quickly. 

February 3rd was all about the Resplendent Quetzals - easily found at the start of the Los Quetzales trail on the Cerro Punta / Guadalupe side of Vulcan Baru. We saw 1 female, 1 immature male, and 2 full males as I recall. We got stunning views of them feeding, and flying directly overhead with the long tail streamers - incredible! 

First, the crappy back-lit photos I was able to obtain:

And here are a few AMAZING photos (of the same birds) from a photographer I was birding with:

Photo credits Michael Kuijl. Do not use his photos without permission please.