more excitment!

On the equinox, interesting birds were gracing the station by their presence! Lots of warblers (mainly Yellow-rumped) and red-breasted Nuthatches were flying through and getting caught in our nets. We also got the first Gray-cheeked Thrush of the fall, on its way from its boreal breeding ground to some foothills east of the Andes. We also had a young Wood Thrush, not a common bird in our cedar woods...

But the best bird in our nets (if we can rank birds) was undoubtly a Merlin!! A young male, this Merlin is only the second one ever captured in 6 years of monitoring! What a beautiful bird! Well, I have a soft spot for birds of prey, I admit; but to prove my point, here's another picture!

baby turtles!

during an afternoon run, I spotted something unusual on the road; it was a baby snapping turtle! Excited by the discovery, I ran back to the station to grab my camera and take pictures. Eventually, I found 4 babies on a 100-m stretch, all of them with dirt on their shell and their egg tooth still prominent on their beaks. They most certainly just hatched nearby. Very rarely you get the chance to see turtles at such a young age: I was delighted! (here's a picture; to get an idea of their size, they were smaller than a regular wristwatch).

a first at Cabot Head

on September 18, we were very lucky to get a Great Crested Flycatcher in our nets. It is the first ever banded at Cabot Head since a regular monitoring started in 2002. That was a nice treat in an otherwise relatively slow day.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo!

On a slow day, we were fortunate to get a Yellow-billed Cuckoo in our nets! It almost escaped, but wasn't fast enough! The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is not very common around here, and gets caught very rarely!

But a picture is worth than a thousand words in this particular case...

Boom and bust

Like the capitalist economy, the migration monitoring is subject to boom and bust cycles. However, the only victim is the bander-in-charge, getting desperate for some banding action. It has been a slow week, with very few migrants moving through the area. There’s always a lull sometimes in mid-September, when most of the warblers, flycatchers and vireos have already moved through and kinglets, sparrows, juncos and Yellow-rumped Warbler are still to arrive in numbers…

However, good birding doesn’t need big numbers of birds. For instance, one morning, I saw the end of a hunt by a Merlin over the bay: the Merlin was chasing a small bird over the water, which means no place to hide for the prey. After 3 attempts, the Merlin finally caught its quarry. It is not the first time I’ve witnessed such a hunt. It makes a lot of sense for a Merlin to pursue its preys over water where escape is tough. We have around the area a pair of breeding Merlins and they put on a show from time to time!

Another exciting sighting occurred while I was kayaking on the Bay during a free afternoon: an Osprey flew right over me, as it was coming ashore on the Bruce. It was a rare treat to have this magnificent bird of prey flying low just over me bobbing on the water. Ospreys are shaped almost like gulls and think nothing of crossing large bodies of water like Georgian Bay, which this one undoubtedly did.

To stay with birds of prey (although it could be technically disputed), I saw this morning my first young Turkey Vulture! It was with 4 adult ones, their red head gleaming in the intense sunlight. Not only its grey head was clearly visible, but also its plumage, as a young, was perfectly clean-shaven and fresh. All the adults had a ragged plumage, as moult puts “dents” in their wings and tail. It is the first time in 5 years that a young Turkey Vulture was observed at Cabot Head. Of course, it doesn’t mean no young ever flew by, as we sometimes have a distracted eye towards TVs, or they are too far, but it is nonetheless true that plumage of juvenile birds of prey is so crisp that it could be quite remarkable and detectable at a respectable distance.

Today, an upward trend seemed to begin to materialize; the day started very quietly though, but as a strong south wind began to blow, birds were literally falling from the sky and filling our nets! A lot of Red-breasted Nuthatches, some Yellow-rumped Warblers and a sprinkle of other species of warblers (Black-throated Green, Nashville, and Magnolia). Like an eager stock-market analysis, I keep my senses alert for the rebound!

raptors and geese

in fall, there are less raptors seen at Cabot Head than in spring: the funnel effect of the Peninsula doesn't work as well. However, some interesting observations of birds of prey have been made. For example, last Sunday, on September 2, a parade of birds of prey flew across the skyline fighting a strong south wind: a kettle of about 30 Broad-winged Hawks tried to push south, joined briefly by a young Bald Eagle. Several Red-tailed Hawks - young and adults alike - showed their skills at mastering the wind as they moved in the airspace with grace and ease. The local Merlin was also seen, as well as 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks and one Northern Harrier...

On September 4, another Bald Eagle flew to Middle Bluff and then perched for a few hours on a big pine tree (where I have seen other Eagles perched before). It was a 4-year-old, recognizable by the white head and tail that still retain some brown.

It is also this time of year when flocks of Canada Goose are leaving their northern breeding grounds to milder climes. Although it still feels like summer here on the Bruce, there's no doubt that colder days are already a reality on the shores of Hudson's Bay. Yesterday must have been a good day to travel for the geese as about 600 of them were counted moving flocks after flocks over the bay.