Perhaps I should predict the Lottery numbers!

Taking a day off work to go birding in Quebec ,based on The Weather Network's forecast is a bit hit and miss. Cloudy skies but bright and warm seemed perfect for an autumn day's birding, instead it was blue skies all day so not quite so good. One of our favourite games when watching local weather is flipping from the English channel to the French channel to see who gets the best weather. You might think that it would be the same but no, usually there is a couple of degrees difference and I can't help wishing I was Bilingual so I could enjoy their warmer days when they get the nod from the weather experts!

Back to the birding. Early morning fog effectively ruled out birding until 10.00 so I did the shopping adding duck, turkey and chicken to my oven ready list. At the pits there were good numbers of Canada Geese, most in the process of preparing to commit suicide by flying out over nearby farmland. On the main island around 30 Snow Geese snoozed in the 17 degree heat so I scanned through picking out a slightly smaller bird, different in shape around the head which was neatly tucked under its wing. After several sweeps of the rest of the avian delights, I returned to the sleeper and up popped its head for three seconds, Ross's Goose!!! I then waited another 35 mintes before it stuck its head up again, had a look around, yawned and went to sleep. Brief but at least I was able to confirm the ID as pure Ross's and not a hybrid, species 196 for my patch list. The bird was about 200m away so photos were difficult, eventually it had a prolonged fidget and I got some distant video.

While waiting for the sleeping goose I also snatched a short video of the Hooded Mergansers as they breezed around. Later a Cackling (Richardson's Canada) Goose dropped in but I've spared you the video of that, now that was distant.

In addition to the wildfowl a nice little flock of White-winged Crossbills were roaming around, a portent for later on when 20 dropped into the garden making them Bigby species 140 and a new species for the garden.

Florida 2001

The slide copying continues and below are a few examples from a trip we made to Florida in April 2001. The trip was memorable for the fact that we were both ill throughout with Flu, and also for some excellent birding, especially a trip out to the Dry Tortugas.

We also visited the Everglades, stopping at Flamingo and walking the famously itchy Snake Bight Trail, managing to avoid all Mangrove Cuckoos, and the ridiculously named Ding Darling Preserve which was pretty quiet. We saw 155 species on the week long trip, the number seen was fairly low as we were concentrating on seeing some of the Floridian specialities although we were too early for some, begging a return at some point in the future.

Quebec wise its been nippy, there has been very little migration and the weekend was way too bright for my liking. I still harbour hopes of another pits tick before the winter shuts us down, perhaps a Ross's Goose tucked in with the Snow Geese that roost there.

Green Heron, pre-digital age.

Wurdemann's (Great Blue) Heron

Snowy Egret

Tricoloured Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Florida Scrub Jay

Burrowing Owl

Little Blue Heron

Palm Warbler

Limpkin

Black Racer

Alligator

Black Vulture

Fox Sparrows are back

Another pointer to the impending winter is the October arrival of Fox Sparrows. At least five are around the area, paying regular visits to my seed carpet (which will one day attract a Harris's Sparrow). In lousy weather I took this short video. Any explanation why the sparrows continue to 'garden' for seeds when they are surrounded by several hundred thousand.

Out with the old

The digital age means that there is little point keeping thousands of slides, especially as most of them are pretty awful anyway, so I decided to continue the process of copying them using a digital copying attachment for my Canon Rebel. I have worked my way through the Gambia slides so thought I would post a few here. I still have thousands to go from other trips so expect more poor to average images of things you cannot identify.

Gambia is one of the West Coast African countries which can be pretty much covered in two weeks. This we did in 2001, taking a package tour and getting a local guide. The trip worked out pretty well, lots of great birds, a very genial guide and most of the hoped for species seen.

On the down side I did manage to get one of the dysentries, I broke the golden rule and ate some tepid prawns in Marie-Salmonella sauce and ended up going home in a coma! For a bad flier its a great way to travel although the subsequent squitting through the eye of a needle for two weeks is not recommended.

Incidentally, I recommend the Senegambia Hotel as the place to stay in Gambia, the grounds are superb for birding with zero hassle (and they were not responsible for the Prawn Cocktail), the rooms are fine, the food good and the staff very friendly. It really is worth the extra cost.

Western Plantain-eater (below). A big obvious bird.

Wattled Plover with wattles

A White-crowned Robin-Chat which is actually more like a thrush.

Red-billed Hornbills, very common.

African Pygmy Kingfisher, perhaps a misnomer as I think they actually eat insects and fish, not pygmys.

Little Bee-eater, not very big.






Hooded Vulture. They feed these things daily with disgruntled guests (just kidding, they use noisy kids really), they will walk up to you and try to eat your shoes.

Yellow-crowned Gonolek, stunning looking bird.

Egyptian Plover, one of the must see World birds. We took a battered Mercedes 18 hours up river to the town of Basse to find this bird.

Bearded Barbet, its a barbet with the beard.

Yellow-billed Shrike above, female Bufflehead below (the latter is not a Gambian species).

Autumn colour

I took the opportunity to spend an hour at the pits on Wednesday 8th October, the weather was fair and there were a few birds to enjoy.

Despite the dearth of shorebird habitat, the pits have continued to suprise and I added Baird's Sandpiper to the year list. Also there were three Pectoral Sandpipers, three Black-bellied Plovers and a Dunlin.

With the influx of geese comes the autumn cull by local shooters. Judging by the 15 or so corpses around the pits they are hitting and wounding more than in recent years, leaving them to die in their pits roost. I suppose I should be grateful that they don't shoot there and long may that continue. A few Snow Geese are also around but I did not see any casualties amongst them.

A opportunist Coyote was hanging around on the far shore of the pits, perhaps 600m away, hoping for a goose meal. I took a short video before he realised the attention he was attracting and reverted to being wily.

Moving on to the small wood by the sports complex car par, lots of American Robins were feasting on the berry crop while Yellow-rumped Warblers chipped from every bush. I had hoped to find a Winter Wren, I have them in the garden now and so there had to be a chance. As good fortune would have it I found a Brown Creeper instead, Pits tick 295.

Finally a pretty shot of the trees in the garden. Dark-eyed Juncos are definately in with perhaps 20 around, time to put the sparrow seed out.

Late Bigby surge

A pretty dank weekend with rain spells and poor light. On the up side, Saturday delivered a nice mixed warbler flock to the front door although photographing anything was a challenge. An hour or so sat on the stoop (front porch) produced:

Orange-crowned Warbler (Garden tick)
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Northern Parula
Nashville Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Blue-headed Vireo
Golden-crowned Kinglet (a plethora = more than 3)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Below a few photos including a three piece photofit for the Black-throated Blue Warbler, it just would not sit still.

Downy woodpecker

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Put them all together and what have you got?

Blue-headed Vireo, it looked much nicer in real life than in these photos

On Sunday it was pretty dark for most of the day but around 3pm the light got better, the clouds higher and a small passage of hawks slipped over the house. My standard hawk watching perch is on the back deck roof. The modest totals were:

Cooper's Hawk 7

Sharp-shinned Hawk 4

Peregrine Falcon 2

American Kestrel 3

Turkey Vulture 1

Monarch 2

Common Loon 1 (not a hawk!)

And while up there a Brown Creeper made the Bigby list.

Incidentally, if you are not sure what a Bigby is Google it, if you don't know what Google is, oh dear!

Slipping away

The leaves are rapidly turning and the morning chill heralds another Canadian winter around the corner. The birch trees around the house are a daily source of activity, a chickadee means a warbler and, as time is progressing, a warbler means a kinglet. The sky holds Canada Geese as they arrive for the autumn pause, pick up a bit of lead and then on further south to entertain others.

Another sign of autumn is that Canada is having yet another General Election where the competitors have all the appeal of lettuce and wet lettuce at that. This poor country does not appear to have a credible politician anywhere and its a pretty dead cert that, if a famous Hockey player were to stand for whatever party, they would get elected.

Back to the birds. The migration has been steady but not spectacular. As usual a few birds have appeared of interest but this province is pretty much the Cornwall of North America. I have concentrated locally on our immediate area and St-Lazare sand pits. The pits have had a few birds but shorebird habitat is at a premium although Dunlin, Short-biiled Dowitcher and a few Pectoral Sandpipers have popped in.

Below are a few snaps, nothing spectacular but I live in hope.

Hairy Woodpecker, Tennessee Warbler, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Northern Parula, lurking Sharp-shinned Hawk, spectaculer wasp sp.