When I got home from work today I came inside and noticed a Hermit Thrush on my lawn. The bird appeared to be shivering, which I thought was perhaps the cold weather (it was about 5 degrees Celsius). However, I quickly realized the whole bird wasn't shaking but it was just very quickly tapping the ground with one foot. I watched the bird (and noticed another Hermit Thrush doing the same thing) for about 45 minutes off and on. I remember seeing the same behaviour once before at Bird Studies Canada Headquarters by a Semipalmated Plover and Ron Ridout at the time told me it was a foraging behaviour used to draw prey up to the surface. I've heard second hand that Wood Turtles actually employ a similar technique!
Anyways, I did some searching and found this paper from the Wilson Bulletin that documents the behaviour in some of the other Catharus thrushes and also suggests that the "foot quivering" is a foraging behaviour - something that seems well supported by the video I took:
http://youtu.be/78kK4572vjE
The Birds of North America Online account for Hermit Thrush also references "foot quivering" as both a foraging technique and an aggressive behaviour between birds.
Chronicling my birding and other outdoor explorations around Ontario and beyond!
Monday 30 April 2012
Sunday 29 April 2012
More from Pelee Island
Spent most of today again on Pelee Island with Ken. We racked up another decent list considering the persistent cool temperatures and north/east winds putting a damper on migration. New birds for me for the year were Sora (Fish Point first thing), Ovenbird (singing at Sheridan's Point), Black-and-white Warbler (along west shore road), and Red-headed Woodpecker (along west shore road). You can have a look at the full eBird checklist for the day.
The highlight of the day was again one of the Yellow-throated Warblers that have been present since Ken arrived. Ken heard the second one just before we saw this one at the pump house:
Here are some other photos of actual birds from the island today.
And a few non-birds:
Got a couple more shots from the plane too:
I'm back on solid land so hopefully things don't get too crazy this week...
The highlight of the day was again one of the Yellow-throated Warblers that have been present since Ken arrived. Ken heard the second one just before we saw this one at the pump house:
Here are some other photos of actual birds from the island today.
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| You know it's slow when... |
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| Some nice and close Red-breasted Mergansers today |
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| Ken claims there are "lots" of pheasants this year but I didn't see that many |
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| Decent numbers of Hermit Thrushes this weekend |
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| A few vultures around |
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| A woodcock camouflaged with its surroundings |
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| young eagle |
And a few non-birds:
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| Fox Squirrel |
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| Fair numbers of Question Marks and Red Admirals today |
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| Syrphid to identify... |
Got a couple more shots from the plane too:
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| Middle Point |
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| Lighthouse Point and Scudder |
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| Point Pelee |
I'm back on solid land so hopefully things don't get too crazy this week...
Saturday 28 April 2012
Welcome to the Island
I made a quick trip down to Pelee Island to visit with Ken and do some birding for the weekend. As expected based on the weather the birds have been slow but lots of new stuff for me for the year (about 30 year birds in the last two days). The best bird was one of the Yellow-throated Warblers that Ken has had near his cottage for the last few days. Here's our eBird checklist for today. Be sure to check out Ken's blog to follow sightings on the island this spring.
The ferries that normally service Pelee Island are both broken down/ being maintained so right now service is only by plane, which was actually quite a nice and quick (15 min!) way to get to the island. I took advantage of the flight and snapped some pictures of the island from the air.
And I couldn't resist some Pelee Island scenery from a couple summers ago:
And a Pelee Island post wouldn't be complete without a Fox Squirrel from the island today:
With a little luck I'll have some bird pics to post tomorrow!
The ferries that normally service Pelee Island are both broken down/ being maintained so right now service is only by plane, which was actually quite a nice and quick (15 min!) way to get to the island. I took advantage of the flight and snapped some pictures of the island from the air.
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| View of Essex Sewage Lagoons from the air |
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| Lighthouse Point (NE part of island) |
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| trail at Lighthouse Point (summer) |
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| the lighthouse (summer) |
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| Lighthouse Point from the air (Point Pelee in the distance) |
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| Sheridan Point and the Pelee Club from the ferry a couple years ago |
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| The municipal campground (centre of east shore of island) |
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| Middle Point (Brandon Holden's least favourite spot) in the distance |
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| West dock, where the ferry would normally drop me off! |
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| Fish Point sign (SW part of island) |
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| Fish Point from the air |
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| Fish Point interpretive sign |
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| Lightning over Lighthouse Point |
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| Sunset from Lighthouse Point |
With a little luck I'll have some bird pics to post tomorrow!
Saturday 21 April 2012
Guide to spring arrival dates in Ontario
*: I originally posted this in April 2012 using 1900 to 2011 data. I have since updated everything to include up to the end of 2013.*
I've wanted to put something like this together for a while now but it wasn't until I read the "Changing Seasons" piece in Volume 65 Number 3 of North American Birds that I had a good way to do it. So what is it? Following this short introduction you'll find a list of 198 of Ontario's fairly common birds and the dates you can reasonably expect to find them returning.
Background: in the article I mentioned above, Marshall Iliff, Brian Sullivan, and Chris Wood (AKA eBird HQ) proposed that we should start using 20% of the peak arrival frequency for a given species to indicate the day that a species arrives on a broad front (I'll refer to this day from here on out as the "mass arrival date". The eBird team showed that this is really a good measure of arrivals since it is largely independent of outliers (exceptionally early individual birds), independent of sampling effort (since it is based on percentages of checklists, not raw number of checklists), and adjusted for species' rarity. Email me if you want a scanned copy of the article.
Methods: I went through the eBird frequency graphs (for all data years 1900-2013) for each species reported in Ontario. Frequency is a common statistic eBird calculates - it is the percentage of checklists reported for a given date/location which have a positive observation for a given species. I didn't include species that are very rare in Ontario during spring migration, species which don't show an appreciable widespread seasonally predictable change in frequency (i.e. resident and irruptive species), or species which are more frequently encountered during the winter season and just decrease through spring migration (i.e. they don't show a spring migration spike in frequency). That left me with 201 species. For each of the 201 spring migrants I collected the date and value (frequency) of the spring migration peak and then calculated what the mass arrival date frequency would be and what date the average mass arrival date in Ontario is (Figure 1). For species which overwinter in parts of Ontario I corrected for the "winter frequency" by calculating the mass arrival date as:
M = 0.2 X (P - W) + W
Where:
M = mass arrival date
P = peak arrival date
W = winter frequency
Results: Well, first of all to most of you this information won't be new, but I think it is interesting to put some hard numbers to things. Keep in mind when looking at the results that these results show the average date that the species arrives on a relatively widespread front across Ontario. So, the actual date will obviously be earlier along Lake Erie but later in Thunder Bay - interpret accordingly. Before the final results, here's a neat figure showing the number of species arriving en masse per week during the course of spring migration.
OK, here are the results, now get out there and find some spring migrants and be sure to report your findings to eBird so we can compare how advanced (or not) this year has been!
| 02 Feb - | Horned Lark |
| 05 Feb - | American Crow |
| 20 Feb - | Redhead |
| 26 Feb - | Gadwall |
| Northern Pintail | |
| Canvasback | |
| Bufflehead European Starling |
|
| 28 Feb - | Tundra Swan |
| American Wigeon | |
| 02 March - | Snow Goose |
| Canada Goose | |
| Ring-billed Gull | |
| 03 March - | Mallard |
| Lesser Scaup | |
| Red-breasted Merganser | |
| American Coot | |
| 04 March - | Cackling Goose |
| Hooded Merganser | |
| Red-winged Blackbird House Finch* |
|
| 07 March - | Red-necked Grebe |
| Common Grackle | |
| 08 March - | Ring-necked Duck |
| 09 March - | Horned Grebe |
| Sandhill Crane | |
| 10 March - | Ross's Goose |
| Eurasian Wigeon | |
| Northern Shoveler | |
| Green-winged Teal | |
| Killdeer | |
| American Robin | |
| 11 March - | Red-shouldered Hawk |
| Little Gull | |
| 12 March - | American Woodcock |
| 13 March - | Merlin |
| 14 March - | Turkey Vulture |
| Northern Harrier | |
| Song Sparrow | |
| 16 March - | Eastern Bluebird |
| 17 March - | Pied-billed Grebe |
| 18 March - | Wood Duck |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | |
| Eastern Meadowlark | |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | |
| 20 March - | Red-throated Loon |
| 21 March - | Great Blue Heron |
| Rusty Blackbird | |
| 22 March - | American Kestrel |
| 25 March - | Northern Flicker |
| Eastern Phoebe | |
| Brown Creeper | |
| Winter Wren | |
| Fox Sparrow | |
| 27 March - | Blue-winged Teal |
| 28 March - | Pectoral Sandpiper |
| Belted Kingfisher | |
| 30 March - | Dark-eyed Junco |
| 31 March - | Wilson's Snipe |
| 01 April - | Bonaparte's Gull |
| 02 April - | Double-crested Cormorant |
| Tree Swallow | |
| 03 April - | Great Egret |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | |
| Field Sparrow | |
| Vesper Sparrow | |
| 04 April - | Osprey |
| 06 April - | Common Loon |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | |
| Greater Yellowlegs | |
| 07 April - | Cooper's Hawk |
| Hermit Thrush | |
| 08 April - | Lesser Yellowlegs |
| Purple Finch | |
| 09 April - | Caspian Tern |
| 10 April - | Black-crowned Night-Heron |
| 13 April - | Louisiana Waterthrush |
| Pine Warbler | |
| Swamp Sparrow | |
| 14 April - | American Bittern |
| Forster's Tern | |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | |
| Eastern Towhee | |
| Savannah Sparrow | |
| 15 April - | Surf Scoter |
| Barn Swallow | |
| Chipping Sparrow | |
| American Goldfinch | |
| 16 April - | Broad-winged Hawk |
| Brown Thrasher | |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | |
| White-throated Sparrow | |
| 17 April - | American White Pelican |
| Northern Rough-winged Swallow | |
| 18 April - | Virginia Rail |
| 19 April - | Purple Martin |
| 20 April - | Cliff Swallow |
| 21 April - | Yellow-throated Warbler* Worm-eating Warbler* |
| 22 April - | Black Scoter |
| Upland Sandpiper | |
| 23 April - | Willet |
| 24 April - | Green Heron |
| Sora | |
| Spotted Sandpiper | |
| Common Tern | |
| Bank Swallow | |
| 25 April - | Long-billed Dowitcher |
| Blue Jay | |
| 26 April - | Solitary Sandpiper |
| Blue-headed Vireo | |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | |
| Palm Warbler | |
| 27 April - | Wilson's Phalarope |
| White-eyed Vireo | |
| House Wren | |
| Marsh Wren | |
| Northern Waterthrush | |
| 28 April - | Sedge Wren |
| Grasshopper Sparrow | |
| 30 April - | Common Gallinule |
| Dunlin | |
| Chimney Swift | |
| Red-headed Woodpecker | |
| American Pipit | |
| Black-and-white Warbler | |
| Nashville Warbler | |
| Kentucky Warbler | |
| Black-throated Green Warbler | |
| 01 May - | Eastern Whip-poor-will |
| Warbling Vireo | |
| Wood Thrush | |
| Gray Catbird | |
| Ovenbird | |
| Blue-winged Warbler | |
| Orange-crowned Warbler | |
| Hooded Warbler | |
| Lincoln's Sparrow | |
| White-crowned Sparrow | |
| Rose-breasted Grosbeak | |
| 02 May - | Ruby-throated Hummingbird |
| Least Flycatcher | |
| Eastern Kingbird | |
| Yellow-throated Vireo | |
| Veery | |
| Golden-winged Warbler | |
| Prairie Warbler Blackburnian Warbler |
|
| Orchad Oriole | |
| Baltimore Oriole | |
| 03 May - | Great Crested Flycatcher |
| Prothonotary Warbler | |
| Common Yellowthroat | |
| Northern Parula | |
| Black-throated Blue Warbler | |
| Yellow-breasted Chat | |
| Clay-colored Sparrow | |
| Scarlet Tanager | |
| Indigo Bunting | |
| Bobolink | |
| 04 May - | Black-bellied Plover |
| Semipalmated Plover | |
| Least Sandpiper | |
| Swainson's Thrush | |
| Cerulean Warbler | |
| Magnolia Warbler | |
| 05 May - | Cape May Warbler |
| 06 May - | Least Bittern |
| American Golden-plover | |
| Short-billed Dowitcher | |
| Black Tern | |
| Gray-cheeked Thrush | |
| American Redstart | |
| Kirtland's Warbler | |
| Summer Tanager | |
| 07 May - | Common Nighthawk |
| Tennessee Warbler | |
| 08 May - | Ruddy Turnstone |
| Sanderling | |
| Black-billed Cuckoo | |
| Philadelphia Vireo | |
| Red-eyed Vireo | |
| Connecticut Warbler | |
| Bay-breasted Warbler | |
| Canada Warbler | |
| Wilson's Warbler | |
| 09 May - | Semipalmated Sandpiper |
| Cedar Waxwing | |
| 10 May - | Yellow-billed Cuckoo |
| Eastern Wood-pewee | |
| Acadian Flycatcher | |
| Blackpoll Warbler | |
| 11 May - | Brant |
| 12 May - | Olive-sided Flycatcher |
| Willow Flycatcher | |
| Mourning Warbler | |
| 13 May - | Yellow-bellied Flycatcher |
| 15 May - | White-rumped Sandpiper |
| 17 May - | Red-necked Phalarope |
| 18 May - | Whimbrel |
| 20 May - | Red Knot |
| Alder Flycatcher |
*these species are barely calculable due to a pretty weak peak
Anyways, I hope you find this information interesting/helpful. Please let me know of any errors you see. It will only get better as more eBird data comes in.
Last updated March 1, 2014.
Sunday 15 April 2012
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Wouldn't you know it, we get a weekend with lots of south winds and I am stuck in a classroom attending a course all day Saturday and Sunday. Well, I managed to finish early today and headed straight for the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that was reported yesterday by Terry Sprague, near Demorestville.
When I arrived I was told by the friendly lady who owns the property the bird was south across the field by the small lake and I was welcome to walk across! After walking across the field I quickly saw the bird - beauty! Also got my first of the year Swamp Sparrow here, bonus! Here's the full eBird checklist and some photos:
I am pretty sure this is an adult (definitive alternate) male. Definitely a male by the bright red underwing and the large notch on the outer primary (P10).
When I arrived I was told by the friendly lady who owns the property the bird was south across the field by the small lake and I was welcome to walk across! After walking across the field I quickly saw the bird - beauty! Also got my first of the year Swamp Sparrow here, bonus! Here's the full eBird checklist and some photos:
I am pretty sure this is an adult (definitive alternate) male. Definitely a male by the bright red underwing and the large notch on the outer primary (P10).
Friday 13 April 2012
Good migration conditions tonight
Sorry it's been so long since the last post. I'm working on a couple things that I should be able to put up on the blog soon...
In the meantime there was a link posted on the Frontiers of Identification list serve for this awesome wind visualization map. It is a pretty nice simple look at the current wind patterns in the US, very handy for figuring out whether it will be worth looking for new arrivals the next day or so.
As for tomorrow, I'd say it should be good....! Here's the current windmap (better if you go to the site and see the moving version):
You can see there's a nice conveyer belt of south winds coming right up from Texas and up the Mississippi flyway.
The current radar shows lots of bird movement across the entire eastern US (the green blobs around the radar stations are birds, the blockier yellowish blobs in the midwest is precipitation):
eBird did a good story recently about interpreting weather RADAR for looking at bird migration, check it out!
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PS, way to go Ontario eBirders, we're sitting in third place for number of checklists submitted for April (although Texas is catching up)!
In the meantime there was a link posted on the Frontiers of Identification list serve for this awesome wind visualization map. It is a pretty nice simple look at the current wind patterns in the US, very handy for figuring out whether it will be worth looking for new arrivals the next day or so.
As for tomorrow, I'd say it should be good....! Here's the current windmap (better if you go to the site and see the moving version):
You can see there's a nice conveyer belt of south winds coming right up from Texas and up the Mississippi flyway.
The current radar shows lots of bird movement across the entire eastern US (the green blobs around the radar stations are birds, the blockier yellowish blobs in the midwest is precipitation):
eBird did a good story recently about interpreting weather RADAR for looking at bird migration, check it out!
------------
PS, way to go Ontario eBirders, we're sitting in third place for number of checklists submitted for April (although Texas is catching up)!
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