Big Year Birds in Ontario

 Having had to return home with a kidney stone was not my idea of fun and though I may have missed some birds on the east coast, my body needed time to recover.  After a few days of rest, I was back to birding and chasing down year birds here in Ontario.  I started with a trip up to the Lambton Shores, on the shores of Lake Huron, looking for Sabine’s Gulls and Long-tailed Jaegers.  I got to view a distant juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger, and I had even better views through my scope of a juvenile Sabine’s Gull.  No photo good photos, but I did take a nice one once of a Sabine’s Gull, down in California on a pelagic:

Two of the birds I had missed in Ontario, early in the year were a Ruff and Glossy Ibis.  I had been in other parts of the country when they had shown up and I was not expecting to have a second chance at a Ruff, but hoped for a fall migrating Glossy Ibis.  Amazingly, I got both on consecutive days, in the same park in Durham, Ontario.

The first one was a Ruff.  It was being seen in Rotary Park in Ajax.  Not in the actual kitchen cleaner, but on some mudflats as viewed from a bridge not far from the parking lot.  It was a rainy day, but not nearly as rough as they had it on the east coast, so I wasn’t complaining about birding in the rain.  As it turned out, I didn’t have to spend that much time outdoors, as the juvenile Ruff made an appearance less than 10 minutes after I arrived.  Another birder, who was already there, spotted it first, then a few others arrived and we all had super close looks at this rare shorebird.  It was only the second time in nearly 11 years I’ve seen one here in Ontario.  I got the share the sighting with some birders I met earlier in the year at the White-winged Dove sighting.

No sooner than I got home, after a two hour plus drive back to Brantford in heavy Sunday afternoon traffic, than reports came in that a pair of Glossy Ibis were being seen within the same park.  I was too tired to drive back after a long day of travel and birding in the rain, so put it off until the next morning, hoping these wayward ibis would stick around for 24 more hours.  Just as I was heading out the door the next morning, I received a reminder that I had an inspection for my car at my local Ford dealership and had to head there first.  Luckily it didn’t take too much time out of my morning and I was on the road and back in Ajax before noon.

I wasn’t familiar enough with the park to know where the “corner marsh” was, but fortuitously I ran in to Jean Iron on the very same bridge from the previous day, and she did know where the marsh with the ibis was and gave me very good directions to get there.  Another birder joined me for the walk and we made it there in short order.  A few other birders were already staked out and searching, but not seeing much other than Great Blue Herons and lots and lots of Wood Ducks.  

I had the only scope at that time, so while the others scanned midrange with binoculars and telephoto lenses, I concentrated on the distant cattails.  Ten minutes into scanning I thought I had a pair of Glossy Ibis in the scope.  I wanted everyone to see, but just in case I was mistaken, I said, “I need y’all to check my scope, just in case I am imagining this.”  In turns, everyone got to the scope and yes, lo and behold, the sought after ibis were seen by all.  They quickly vanished into the cattails again, but a little while later, re-emerged and everyone was able to get even better looks.  I was able to get a cool digiscope video with my iPhone and PhoneSkope adaptor.

So, today is Tuesday September 27 and I have counted 437 species in Canada this year.  Based on eBird Totals over the past 10 years, only a pair of birders, having counted 457 species, have ever seen more birds in a single year in Canada.  I won’t break the record, though that was never my goal, but second all time is not bad.  There are more birds to see and trips to make before the end of the year, but there is more time than money left in my budget.  More rarities showing up in Ontario would be nice!