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BIRDS OF NOVEMBER
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
These birds are from southern Texas and certain weather conditions will bring some up to the Great Lakes. The first big invasion was in early November 1999. Almost every year, some have been reported at this time of year in southern Ontario and the southern Great Lakes. This year was no exception.
On November 7, I went to Erieau to try and look at a Franklin's Gull that Jim Burk found the day before. After seeing that gull, I went to the other side of the harbour to try and get a better view of it. I immediately came across a Cave Swallow hunting for insects! I eventually managed to obtain several good photos of this bird. One is attached to this article.
A Barn Swallow was in company with it. It is very late for Barn Swallows, so that in itself was a good find. Interestingly, I obtained a photo of the two different swallows side by side.
Several Cave Swallows were also found at Long Point and a couple at Point Pelee.
The Franklin's Gull is a more western gull, so it may have come through on one of those strong west winds that we had. It is a very dark gull. It was still present on Sunday when we were doing a waterfowl count.
It is a good time for Black-legged Kittiwakes. This is a more pelagic gull from the north. One was at Point Pelee on November 8. None have been reported at Point Edward to my knowledge, but we just have not had a really good north wind. The weather forecasts sometimes predict one, but as usual, they are completely wrong. Case in point, last Wednesday a good NW wind was forecast, but as usual, it did not materialize and was only rather light. It is hopeless!
The finch type birds continue to head south. Redpolls have shown up in our area. An Evening Grosbeak was at Rondeau on November 4, and more were reported on November 10. I still hope for Pine Grosbeak there. It has been decades since they have been seen at Rondeau.
On Saturday, the finch theme continued. At Pinery we found some Pine Grosbeaks. These finches of the boreal forest are not seen in southern Ontario every winter. They are a treat to see and hear.
Lots of redpolls were flying over during the morning, but none seemed to set down.
Bohemian Waxwing is another bird that seems to follow finch invasions. Large numbers have been reported, and on the Pinery outing, we came across several. A photo is attached. They eat berries and grapes, and there seems to be a bumper crop of those this fall. The birds we saw were eating wild grapes.
On Sunday I had hoped for Bohemians at Rondeau, but there were only Cedars. There has never been a fall record of a Bohemian Waxwing at Rondeau.
Sunday was designated as a waterfowl count day in the Rondeau birding area. This will now become an annual event in order to get a hold of some waterfowl numbers in the Rondeau area. Rondeau Bay and area has always held impressive numbers of ducks in the both the spring and fall.
Some local birders went around and counted ducks, geese and swans in the circle. Final numbers were not in at the time of this writing, but there were impressive numbers of waterfowl on Rondeau Bay alone--probably in excess of 20,000 ducks. Large numbers of Gadwall, American Wigeon and Canvasback were present.
While doing the count, Jim Burk and I came across another Barn Swallow in Rondeau Bay Estates. Now, that is even later than the one I found on Wednesday!
We also noted hundreds of Bonaparte's Gulls off McGeachy Pond. It seems they like wind. We did not spend long there, but did spot a Little Gull as well.
More to come next week.....
