www.thefilemyrs.com > Birding > Ontario 2006 > Trip Report

Trip Report by Connie Goldman

Monday, January 23rd marked the beginning of this trek to Ontario for winter owls, hawks, finches, and, basically, any other seasonal birds of interest. Sadly, we had learned on Sunday that Bill Murphy had come down with a “bug,” and had decided not to make the trip this time. We would be short by one very valued participant. Karl Lukens had come up from Cape May the night before, spending an overnight at Bert Filemyr’s. Connie Goldman met the two at Bert’s at 5:30am; the three picked Jane Henderson up at her house in Flourtown, PA and we were on the road by 6:00am.

We knew that our first major stop, Amherst Island, Ontario, was some six hours away, but we eagerly began scanning the roadside habitat to find our first “trip birds.” We soon began ticking off Pennsylvania crows and red-tails. Unfortunately, our progress was deterred significantly when we found ourselves in a snow storm, behind slow road-salting trucks. The situation got worse and worse as we progressed further north, with little snow maintenance and increasing accumulation on the road surface. We felt fortunate to be losing only time, as we began seeing cars that had skidded off the road, trucks in ditches, and even a south-bound road closure. We tried to convince ourselves that we were safe in Bert’s able driving hands. As it turned out, we were! We eventually passed through to the other side of the storm and were met by clearer skies. We had ticked off some common New York State birds, when, maybe to fire us up for the trip, Bert announced “This looks like shrike habitat.” The challenge had been made, and our initial Shrike watch was underway, as we strained our eyes to see onto the tops of near and distant trees and other likely perches. Unfortunately, we did not find a shrike this time. We reached the USA/Canadian border by 12:20pm, and were in the Kingston area to catch the 1:30pm ferry to Amherst Island.

Now our birding trip was seriously underway. In the unexpectedly ice free water, we sighted bufflehead, common goldeneye and mallard from the ferry, as well as three common species of gull. On land again on the other side, we began our slow drive around the island, stopping at feeders and habitat along the way. Feeders held a few common species. At one of the first open fields we came to, Bert spotted our first snowy owl, down on the ground in a small depression. This was to be one of seven different snowys we would see before completing a full circle around the island! These were all darkly barred individuals, likely juvenile birds. One snowy was remarkable in that it perched repeatedly on the tops of trees, sometimes seemingly precariously balanced on thin branches! The owls that were seen down in the fields stood out well; there was little snow on the island and their white coloration was readily apparent against the surrounding earth tones. Following from few reports of any sightings from Owl Woods, as well as seriously muddy conditions on the road in, we had opted against a walk through that area. Instead, we searched an area of pines near the Owl Woods entrance road for long-eared owls. We had gotten a lead that the birds had been seen there, but we found none. Our Amherst Island visit did produce one rough-legged hawk, though it was distant; we would have preferred a better look. Snow buntings were sighted in a flock in trees, and later, perched on a wire. Tundra swans and red-breasted merganser were among birds seen from the island. We birded Amherst until dusk, caught the 5:00pm ferry back, and arrived at our motel by 5:40pm. Dinner at the local Kelsey’s ended a successful first trip day.

On Tuesday January 24th, we started out at 6:25am after continental breakfast in our motel. This got us to our first stop, the DuPont hot ponds, in time to see a glowing pink sun just beginning to rise in a cloudy sky. Our search yielded over a thousand common mergansers, actively swimming and feeding in the ponds and surrounding bay and flying in long strings low over the water. Mallards and American coots were also there. A raccoon meandered along the edge of the pond, giving us a mammalian sighting of interest. As we drove along the lakeshore road, checking for waterfowl and gulls, Karl yelled out “Stop! Stop! Gull here!” Bert pulled over, and we all quickly got out to view a pure white bulky gull flying at tree-top level down the road in front of us; our first glaucous gull for the trip. We marveled at the great spot by Karl, made as we drove along the highway at 40 mph! Our next destination was the Napanee Dump (Richmond Landfill). Any time we passed open country en route, we again took up our shrike watch. However, we remained unsuccessful with finding this species. Though one or more of us chose shrike-watching times to “rest our eyes,” we are sure we did not miss any birds for this reason. They simply weren’t there!

As we approached the dump area, Connie spotted bird movement in a grove of evergreens along the road. As we watched what turned out to be dark-eyed uncos, Bert pointed out a flyover flock of cedar waxwings there for us all to see. We sighted a large flock of gulls in the distance flying over the landfill mound. Local information had advised that closer views could be had from roads adjacent to nearby fields, where the gulls reportedly flew and roosted. We drove the perimeter roads but found few gulls in the fields on this day. Driving directly into the waste treatment plant seemed to be the only way to get close enough. Fortunately, a worker welcomed us and gladly escorted us to the best viewing spot. A large flock flew circled above our heads over the mound, and we were able to pick out glaucous and Iceland gulls among the numerous ring-billed and herring gulls making up the group. It was now 10:40am, and, feeling we had exhausted the possibility for new species there, we headed out toward Algonquin Provincial Park. Common raven sightings increased as we progressed further north, and there was a remarkable change in the habitat. We entered the spruce and birch forested area, and now found ourselves on more seasonally typical snow-covered roads. Checking feeders along the way, we discovered common redpolls, along with a few more common species at a feeder in the town of Whitney.

At the East Gate of Algonquin Provincial Park, we observed red squirrels, red-breasted nuthatches, and black-capped chickadees as we obtained the necessary day use permits. The Opeongo Road area held grey jays, nuthatches and chickadees that fed from our hands, and we stayed awhile to enjoy this traditional winter activity. Though the park’s main visitor center was closed, we obtained permission to enter to view their feeders. Here we got great looks at pine grosbeaks, more redpolls and nuthatches; woodpeckers, blue jays and pine siskins. The Mew Lake campground afforded us another opportunity for close encounters with chickadees and nuthatches, more than willing to feed from hands even if it meant practically entering our vehicle. But we did not find any new species here, so we went off to search along the main park road. We pulled over to the roadside and got out to search for black-backed woodpeckers in a spot where they had been seen in previous years. Within moments of our arrival, a female bird flew across the road toward our location. The bird foraged in nearby trees, seemingly unaware of us, and we all got good looks. Finding the West Gate entrance feeders empty, we headed to Huntsville and arrived at our motel by 5:30. Dinner at Three Guys and a Stove in Huntsville was an enjoyable end to our second birding day.

On Wednesday, January 25th, our third day of birding started as we left the motel after continental breakfast at 7:15. We headed toward Bracebridge, Ontario. We passed through some open country, so, of course, our shrike watch was resumed. It had become a trip imperative! No, we were not dozing off while “on shrike duty;” but, again we saw none. We drove a local neighborhood, searching for feeder birds. We initially saw little besides black-capped chickadees and blue jays, and we circled the neighborhood twice without anything new. Then, on our third trip through, a backyard feeder was visited by a few pine grosbeaks. As we began to watch, we realized that the trees above the feeders were full of evening grosbeaks, a flock numbering in the twenties. We got out and walked the neighborhood street, getting good looks at both species from the base of the home’s driveway.

Our next stop was a second check of the West Gate entrance area. The feeder was now full, but quiet. We looked for pileated woodpeckers and, though we saw multiple excavations typical of the species, we saw no bird. On returning to the car, we checked the feeder again. Bert spotted a bird down on the ground in front of the car and advised us to “get on this bird!” It was a red-winged blackbird! The bird flew to the feeder, obviously intent upon finding a meal. Realizing that the species was unusual for the season, Bert advised multiple photo shots be obtained. Jane and Karl clicked away, getting shots that clearly demonstrated the red and gold epaulets.

Next we stopped at the Spruce Bog trail, with boreal chickadee and spruce grouse as our targets. Within minutes, three boreals approached close to our location on the boardwalk and flitted and called in the trees around us. We waited for them to fly off before intensifying our search for the spruce grouse. While there had been a grouse observed during Christmas Count week, there were no other reported sighting of the species this season. We gave it a try, checking in and around spruces in the area, but did not find a grouse. We headed toward Whitney for additional feeder checks, and lunch. The local feeders did not hold any additional species, but we enjoyed lunch at the local snowmobilers’ lunch spot.

After lunch we returned to Opeongo Road, finding only chickadees, nuthatches and ravens, so we headed back to the visitor center to report our blackbird sighting to the staff there. Rick Stronks, head naturalist, was happy to get this report and the photographic documentation of our sighting. After reviewing his records of previous winter sightings, he reported that this is only the second winter record for red-winged blackbird in Algonquin Provincial Park! The centers feeders held the same bird species as had been seen there the previous day.
Driving back toward Huntsville we made some additional feeder stops, and searched another neighborhood for pileated woodpecker. Though there were many snags and large trees showing excavation work typical of the pileated, we could not sight one of the birds. We returned to our hotel by 4:45pm. We opted for another fun dinner at Three Guys and a Stove to end our day.

On Thursday, January 26th, we left our motel by 7:00am and headed to Orillia. On the ride down, we had our lowest temperature for the trip, at -7 F. We were going to meet Bob Bowles, a local birder. Bert had communicated with Bob via e-mail, and he had agreed to escort us around a neighborhood that had visiting bohemian waxwings in recent days. Bob led us through the neighborhood from his car, and we scanned the treetops for the birds. As we turned a residential corner, Jane saw birds up in the spruces. While we thought these might be the bohemians, a scoped look revealed that they were pine grosbeaks. We added a few common feeder birds in the area to our trip list, and after a few unproductive rounds of the neighborhood, we followed Bob to an area for possible great grey owl. Though this species had been seen earlier on these roads around Orillia, we did not observe one this time.

Next Bob directed us to an extensive feeding station of a local resident. Here, we observed up to 200 birds in the trees, on the ground and at the feeders; mainly, common redpolls, pine siskins, and American goldfinch. We scanned the birds for a hoary redpoll which has been visiting the feeding station this winter. We could not locate the bird while we were there. We decided to head back to town to look for the bohemian waxwings one more time before heading south. Unfortunately, we had another unproductive search through the neighborhood. We thanked Bob and said our good-byes and were on the road at 10:45am. Though a longer search may have produced the waxwings, we still had waterfowl and partridges to find, and a final destination of Niagara Falls to reach.

Our next stop was LaSalle Park and Marina in Hamilton. The highlight here was three species of swan. Mute, tundra and trumpeter swans swam just off the boat ramp, in close view. Having all three species here made it an ideal place to study their defining characteristics for direct comparison. The marina waters had also attracted many duck species. We observed white-winged scoter, redhead and canvasback, pintail, greater scaup, American wigeon. A number of greater scaup and common goldeneye were seen at close range and in great light.

Next we headed to the Brantford airport area where our target was the gray partridge. Yes, we continued our shrike watch at every opportunity in spite of rumors that we were actually napping between destinations! We circled the Brantford area a number of times, spending 2 hours driving airport roads and scanning surrounding fields. We spoke to local residents who reported knowing of the birds but not seeing them in recent weeks. After this considerable search, we had no gray partridge sighting. This completed our birding for the day and we drove to the Niagara Falls area, arriving at our hotel by 6:00pm. We completed our day with dinner at the Frontiers Steakhouse.

Friday, January 27th, would be our last trip day, and we’d be heading back to the USA and home. We decided to try for a better view of a rough-legged hawk at the Legends of the Niagara Golf Course before leaving the area. We found the gate to the course closed. We scanned from the gate and drove around to an alternate entrance area, also closed off for the winter. We searched the golf course fields from the road, finding a few red-tailed hawks but little else. We stopped briefly at a few overlooks to scan the Niagara River for waterfowl, and added belted kingfisher to our list.

At the Sir Adam Beck overlook we observed numerous Iceland gulls, including at least one full adult. We were able to add Bonaparte’s gull as a new species for our list, as a small number of these birds flew in among the larger species. Lesser black-backed was another new gull species seen from the overlook. This would conclude our Ontario birding, though we had a couple additional target birds to look for in the USA on the way home. We headed to the border. It was our fortune to be selected for a random vehicle check, and we were detained briefly while the border agents checked our car. Bert tried to negotiate a car wash as part of the arrangement, but the agents could not be convinced that this would keep our country safe from outside threats!

We drove to the intersection of NY Route #63 and Route #18 to try and find a hawk-owl reported in the area. As we approached the intersection we began intently scanning the treeline and structures on which an owl would perch. As we turned the corner at the intersection, Bert immediately spotted a large bird perched on the telephone wire right along the road. It was the hawk-owl! We pulled off the road and got good looks at the owl before it began flying. Over the next twenty minutes it flew from perch to perch and once came down to the ground, seeming to pounce on potential prey. Finally, we congratulated ourselves on good looks and good photo opportunities, and headed off.

We would make one more birding stop on the way home, at a New York spot where gyrfalcon had been recently sighted. We located the outstanding landmark, the Potatoes Building in Montezuma NWR, and began scanning the area. Before long, multiple red-tailed hawks were sighted, and a large dark bird perched in a distant shrub revealed itself to be a dark morph rough-legged hawk. This bird flew across the impoundment before us, allowing great scope views of its striking field marks. We had had our preferred “better look” at a rough-legged! We continued searching for the gyrfalcon, aware that these birds can frequent a large area. After forty minutes of scanning, we decided our search was over. This was our last official birding stop, and we returned to our vehicle to document our last day’s sightings and continue our drive home.

Our last day’s shrike watch, in which we were ever vigilant (zzzzzz), was, sadly, unproductive! But one last sighting occurred as Bert pointed out a large bird flying low over the median strip along Interstate #81 south of Syracuse NY. We all quickly got on the bird, hovering in typical rough-legged manner, barely above eye level! At this close range we easily observed its field marks and got an amazingly close look at this hawk. Our “better look” at a rough-legged had now been topped! We happily continued our ride home, reviewing the “birds-of-the-trip,” and agreeing we would return to do this 1700 mile round-trip to Ontario for winter birds again.