The Great Backyard Bird Count is a four day citizen science event that takes place each year in February, this year from February 17-20. The idea of the event is to get a snapshot in time of where all the birds are across the world. Obviously, I wanted to participate and try to see the most species for the Algoma District. All the data is entered through eBird, but the data for the Great Backyard Bird Count can be viewed separately from the rest of the eBird data.
Day One started when I left work a little early and headed to nearby Bellevue Park. There haven't been many birds there lately, but I managed to get my first nine species for the Great Backyard Bird Count. The usual Rock Pigeons, Black-capped Chickadees, American Crows and Common Ravens were all there. The Pine Grosbeaks that had been hanging around were still there, as well as two of the Purple Finches that I've commonly seen there this winter. Two White-breasted Nuthatches and a single American Goldfinch rounded out the stop. I then headed over to Whitefish Island and the St. Mary's Rapids. Here I added Mallard, American Black Duck, Common Merganser, Herring Gull, Glaucous Gull, American Robin, European Starling, Hairy Woodpecker and Downy Woodpecker. This put me up to 17 species on the day, but that left me in second place in the Algoma District after Day One, trailing by two. Day Two was a much better day. I awoke to an email saying a Canvasback was seen the day before in the St. Mary's River. Despite the fog, I was able to track it down. This was really exciting since it was a lifer and a rare bird for the area. I had to go to Desbarats for a Sault Naturalists outing on a Kensington Conservancy property that I managed, so I headed there, adding a Merlin along the way. The Sharp-tailed Grouse were present again and the resident Red-tailed Hawk flew over, this time with a mate. After spooking a Ruffed Grouse, I was able to add three more species over the course of the hike. I then went over to St. Joseph Island where I stopped at Barry Lyons' to try to see the Red-bellied Woodpeckers he had coming to his feeder. Barry was actually the one who stopped the Canvasback first. Over the course of half an hour or so, two Red-bellied Woodpeckers stopped by and I also added Blue Jay to my weekend list. After driving past an almost guaranteed Wild Turkey spot and seeing those, I went to my parents' house. Their feeder produced my final two new species for the day, Pine Siskin and Red-breasted Nuthatch. My total after two days was now 28, good for an eight species lead going into Day Three. Day Three was a very big let down compared to Day Two. I had plans to go fishing on St. Joseph Island and was hoping to add a Bald Eagle or a Rough-legged Hawk on the drive there, but no luck. While fishing, I heard Mourning Doves and later saw over 30 of them when I walked down the shoreline, so that was a new one for the count. I spent the rest afternoon at my parents' and a Northern Cardinal showed up today, another new one for the count. My new total after Day Three was 30, but I dropped down to second place, trailing by four. Day Three started with waking up to another email, this time saying a Greater Scaup had been seen down in the St. Mary's River. I arrived at Clergue Park, which is where it was seen the day before. There were lot's of ducks in the river, but no scaup after my first scan. Three Bald Eagles were out on the ice, so I finally was able to add them to my list. I actually saw one caught and eat a duck. After about five minutes, the scaup showed up. I snapped a few pictures as proof and then it disappeared again. I was able to add Red-breasted Merganser and Hooded Merganser while there too. My next stop was Whitefish Island again, where I only was able to add Pileated Woodpecker. After heading home for lunch and a few chores, I went out for a walk at Fort Creek Conservation Area. I took a trail I'd never been down before and came across a group of feeders that someone had up in the middle of the forest. There were a bunch of regular feeder birds at and around the feeders, but on a nearby tree I saw a Brown Creeper, another new one for the weekend and a lifer! My last stop of the day was back down at the St. Mary's River at the Delta Hotel. Three Ring-billed Gulls were out on the ice with the Herring Gulls and a Canada Goose was eating grass in front. I ended the day with a grand total of 38 species seen over the course of the Great Backyard Bird Count weekend, good for first place, three species ahead of second! It was definitely a very fun and very rewarding weekend. I was able to add six species to my year list for the Algoma District, with three of them being lifers. The unusually warm weather definitely helped as the birds were active and some species that shouldn't be here yet, were here. There were 52 species total seen this weekend in Algoma and I was able to get 73.08% of them. While it does feel good to get the most species, I have no idea how hard anyone else was trying and the whole idea of the Great Backyard Bird Count is definitely not a competition. It was good to see a lot of unfamiliar names pop up on eBird over the weekend as people took part in the event. My 38 species was also good for a tie for 76th place in Ontario, which is very good considering Southern Ontario has way more birds than we do here. It also placed me in a tie for 209th in all of Canada. I look forward to doing this again next year!
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Yesterday, the Sault Naturalists had an outing in Michigan to look for Snowy Owls and whatever other interesting birds were around. 13 members from the club, including myself, split into three vehicles and headed south from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
Our first stop was at the Dafter Post Office. The highlight species here was the Pine Grosbeak, which there was probably at 25 of. They were flying all around, collecting grit from the road and really enjoying a crab apple tree that still had apples on it. There was a Downy Woodpecker, a Pine Siskin, some European Starlings and a bunch of chickadees as well. We continued on, making our way to the Dafter Dump. Along the way, we saw many Bald Eagles and a Rough-legged Hawk. I spotted the hawk as it landed on a tall, distant conifer. We stopped and got out the spotting scopes to get a better look at it. It then took off, giving us a good look at it flying and luckily it came slightly closer and landed again. After more eagles, we got to the dump. Since the dump was closed, we had to observe from the entrance. There were many Herring Gulls, eagles, crows and ravens. I was able to get a brief look at a Glaucous Gull before it flew out of sight. Apparently, a Thayer's Gull had been seen there earlier in the day, but not again by us. We then headed down to Rudyard to check out the Snowy Owls. Almost right away, we found one sitting on a fence post. While observing it, we realized it was one of four visible from our location. We got some good looks of a few flying as well as they kept moving around. One of them was on a telephone pole just down the road, so we headed down and got some decent photos of it. We stopped for lunch in Rudyard, then headed south down Centerline Road. We managed to see three more owls along this stretch and got some decent photos. Next, we traveled over to Pickford. There is a house in Pickford we a feeder that usually attracts all kinds of birds. We parked right beside a crab apple tree and there was an American Robin enjoying the fruit. Our eighth Snowy Owl was seen on a nearby rooftop. We saw chickadees, goldfinches, nuthatches and a Mourning Dover at the feeder. I saw a bird and put my binoculars up, thinking it was another goldfinch. However, it wasn't. It was a sparrow, but definitely not like any sparrow that should be around this time of the year. Right after I called out "sparrow" to the group, someone mentioned that a Lincoln's Sparrow was a continuing rarity in Pickford. That made sense, as this sparrow I had seen had fine streaks on its chest. It didn't stick around in the feeder area for very long, but one other member from the group, Christopher, managed to get a look at it. After we consulted the field guide, it was obvious that it was in fact the Lincoln's Sparrow that we saw. A lifer for me! We waited for a bit, and I was hoping to get a photo of it, but it never came back. Another continuing rarity in town was a Western Meadowlark. We moved across town to where it has been seen as recently that morning. Some Mourning Doves were around, but not much else. Christopher and I walked up the road ahead of the group in search of the meadowlark. We found the ninth and final Snowy Owl of the day, perched on a pole in a backyard. Then, we heard a bird calling that didn't sound like anything we'd expect to hear. We were able to clearly hear it, but could not see where this bird was. Obviously we had our hopes up that it was the meadowlark. As the call ended, I pulled out my phone and played the call for the Western Meadowlark. It definitely seemed like a match to us! The rest of the group caught up and a lady came out of the house we that we heard the call coming from behind. Since she knew we were looking for the meadowlark, she told us that it was just on her back deck minutes before. It made sense that we heard it not too far from her back deck then. Since just hearing a bird counts, another lifer! It turned out to be a very good day of birding! Lots of fun seemed to have been had. On the drive home, our vehicle saw another Rough-legged Hawk and a Sharp-tailed Grouse to finish the day off. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of participating in the Sault Ste. Marie Christmas Bird Count, which is run by the Sault Naturalists each year. I joined Bob Knudsen, who teaches Ornithology at Sault College, Rob Routledge, a professor at Sault College and a student they had recruited to help out. Our job was to cover the downtown area of Sault Ste. Marie, including Whitefish Island, one of the best places for birds in the area.
Our morning started with a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree right at the parking lot of Whitefish Island. As we started our walk, a Downy Woodpecker flew off in the distance. The Black-capped Chickadees were everywhere, which was no surprise for this location. A few more Bald Eagles flew overhead and we figured there were at least four in the area. We made our way down the shore of the St. Mary's River to check for waterfowl and gulls. There were the usual Common Goldeneyes, Mallards and Herring Gulls. After a while, we found something different. A Long-tailed Duck landed in the water. Bob had seen one the day before, so he was excited that we had managed to find it again. We made our way over to the St. Mary's Rapids, which were full of goldeneyes. In total, we counted 388 of them, which greatly contributed to the count total of 424, which was a record for the Sault Ste. Marie Christmas Bird Count. Also in the rapids was the same Long-tailed Duck, this time accompanied by another, pushing their total to two. On the other side of the rapids sat a bunch of Mallards, American Black Ducks and Herring Gulls. Using the spotting scope, Bob was able to find a different gull, this one being a Great-black Backed Gull, a lifer for me. We continued down the path on Whitefish Island. I was leading the group and as we turned a corner, there was a Northern Shrike hanging out at the top of a tree. It stuck around long enough for everyone to catch up and see it. We wrapped up our morning at Whitefish Island without seeing much else of significance. Our next stop was at Station Mall to count the gulls, pigeons and Mallards that hang out in the parking lot. One of the gulls was actually a Glaucous Gull, which was another life for me. We continued on to check out some visible bird feeders and got some more chickadees and some American Goldfinches. The last task of the day was to drive around downtown and count all the Rock Pigeons and European Starlings that were hanging around. The final count of pigeons for the day was 1218, which led to another record for this count. By the end of the day, our group at recorded 18 species for 2229 birds, which was by far the highest total bird count for any of the groups. The day was followed by a potluck dinner and a discussion about the day's results. It was a great birding experience and I'm definitely looking forward to doing it again next year! Next up is the Desbarats Christmas Bird Count, a new count that I have started, taking place on December 29, 2016. JANUARY 17, 2017 UPDATE: To see the full results from the Sault Ste. Marie Christmas Bird Count, click here. JANUARY 18, 2017 UPDATE: One of the count's co-compilers, Don Hall, stepped down from his role, which was putting all the data together at the end of the count and submitting it. The Sault Naturalists were looking for someone to take on this role. Due to my experience running a Christmas Bird Count and computer skills, I was chosen and I'm really looking forward to helping out later this year! Yesterday, there was a Sault Naturalists outing where the main goal was to see what kinds of birds could be found at Bellevue Park and Whitefish Island in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. There were 12 members who came out, despite the light drizzle of rain.
We all met at the main parking lot of Bellevue Park, right along to St. Mary's River. On the left side of Topsail Island, which is part of Bellevue Park, where all the sailboats moor in the summer, was a Lesser Scaup, some Buffleheads, some Hooded Mergansers and a Common Merganser. We walked along the path onto Topsail Island, seeing some goldfinches and chickadees. At one point, I was in the front of the group and was the first one to approach a lookout point. There I was an American Coot, fairly close to shore I got really excited, because they shouldn't be here this time of the year. In fact, this sighting is only one of a handful ever made in December in the Algoma District. The rest of the group hurried over and was able to see it before it swam too far away. Off in the distance we saw some Common Goldeneyes diving. After we finished on Topsail Island, we toured the rest of the park. We managed to find a small flock of Common Redpolls and a Common Grackle, which is uncommon for this time of the year. In total, we saw 18 different species in a few hours at Bellevue Park. Next we traveled over to Whitefish Island. Unfortunately, this spot didn't produce any interesting birds like Bellevue Park did. We saw the usual Mallards, goldeneyes, gulls chickadees and pigeons that are almost impossible not to see at Whitefish Island. We ended up with 10 different species here. My highlight of the day was a few hours after the Sault Naturalists outing ended. I was leaving my apartment and was turning right onto Pine Street. As I was looking left to check for traffic, I noticed a bunch of people looking up in the sky at a lamp post. I figured there must have been something interesting on top of it, so I turned that way instead. It turned out to be a Snowy Owl sitting on the top of the lamp post. This was a lifer for me! I snapped a few pictures then continued on to my original destination. To see the full list of birds from Bellevue Park, click here. To see the full list of birds from Whitefish Island, click here. |
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Carter is an avid birder, living in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. Archives
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