Late Spring and Summer Birding
It has been way too long since my last blog post (over 5 months 😬) so I thought it was time to do some catching up!
I'll start where I ended with my last post in late May and will continue on till about September. I'll write another post soon on my recent fall birding!
So we'll start off with May 27 (the day after my last post). I was outside birding the yard as usual, when I notice what I first thought was an Indigo Bunting perched distantly on a hydro wire. But a couple odd things stuck out to me, its larger size and different call. I got the binoculars on it and immediately noticed it appeared to have rufous wingbars. My jaw dropped. It looked like a Blue Grosbeak!!! Suddenly in panic mode, I totally did not know what to do next. If I went to go get my camera I had left inside, the bird might disappear and I'd be left with only crappy views of it. So I just stood where I was and played a quick Blue Grosbeak audio playback, and it suddenly flew right over and landed on the tree next to me, giving me stunning looks to confirm that it was indeed a Blue Grosbeak! After that the bird flew into the bush in the backyard, and that was the last I saw of it so no photos unfortunately. Blue Grobeaks are quite rare in Ontario with only a couple seen annually on average, so it was a huge treat to get one in my yard! This marks only the 3rd record of Blue Grosbeak for Bruce County.
Now for June I didn't do a ton of birding, but still managed some nice birds. I managed to get 3 lifers. My first one came in the form of another rare bird... a Kirtland's Warbler!! Kirtland's have declined in Ontario as they are very picky with their habitat, only nesting in large forests of jack pine. They are only known to nest in a couple spots in Ontario. As for my bird, I didn't even get a glimpse of it during the half hour it was singing out back in the forest. But I got a good audio recording to confirm its identification. Seems to be a trend of me not getting photos of rare birds!
My other 2 lifers were both overdue, a couple Purple Martins and a Marsh Wren. I also had a Dickcissel fly over calling one morning, a considerably uncommon to rare bird in the County.
Other June highlights include multiple Golden-winged Warblers, Upland Sandpipers, Grasshopper Sparrows, Sedge Wrens, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and a breeding Yellow-throated Vireo.
July was slow as usual, but I managed to pick up Black Tern as another lifer, and got a couple nice yardbirds, a Brewers Blackbird and a pair of Red Crossbills. I also got some photos of those wrens and rails from Dyers Bay.
Most of August I didn't bird much at all, but still managed to get overdue lifers Semipalmated Plover and Semipalmated Sandpiper with the latter being a flyover in my yard!
That'll be it for now, here's some photos!
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