Another Rare Sighting + Recent Birding

 

   

 Larger numbers of birds are now beginning to show up here on the Peninsula! My year list is now at 110 species for the Bruce County and 98 species for my yard. A few recent yardbirding highlights include a few Pine and Palm Warblers, an Eastern Towhee, a couple Golden Eagles, a few Lapland Longspurs, a couple Cackling Geese, an American Bittern, a few Northern Pintail, an American Wigeon, a Short-eared Owl, a lifer Trumpeter Swan(Awesome!), and the best one yet... a TOTALLY AWESOME LeConte's Sparrow!!!!!! I was out birding as usual when the sparrow just popped up from the bush and gave me superb views and photos! Only the second one ever seen in Bruce County! It is definitely one of the rarest birds that I've ever found in my yard!

Also, I was down in Stokes Bay area for a few days during March and April, and I was able to find 4 overdue lifers: a few Gadwall, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, and Northern Shoveler. Oddly enough, the day after I got the lifer pintail and wigeon at Stokes bay, I had both species fly over my yard! There were also large numbers of Ring-necked Ducks in Stokes Bay. Most days I counted around 200, but on the April 1 I estimated over 500 loafing out on the bay! 

With the 3 new editions for my yard (Northern Pintail, American Wigeon, and LeConte's sparrow), I have now seen a total of 199 yard birds in my lifetime! Just one away from the big 200!

Here are a lots recent photos...

                                 Tip: Click on photos to enlarge

LeConte's Sparrow

 

Yellow-bellied sapsucker

 

Eastern Blubird

 

American Kestrel

 

Pine Warbler

 

Palm Warbler

 

Yellow-rumped Warbler

 

Brown Creeper

 

American Woodcock

 

Hoary Redpoll

 

Common Redpoll

Greater Yellowlegs

 

Tundra Swan

 

Sandhill Crane

 

American Robin

 

Red-winged Blackbird

 

Northern Harrier

 

Northern Flicker

 

 

Brown Thrasher

 

Bohemian Waxwing

 

Eastern Phoebe

 

Killdeer

 

 

Rusty Blackbird

 

Ring-necked Duck