Good afternoon folks.
Alfred Adamo and I spent a few hours on Hanlans Point this morning and we saw a few nice birds as you will see below.
I held off posting until after checking and rechecking field guides, etc and talking to Alfred. We found what we are (quit sure) were 2 juvenile Chestnut-collared Longspurs walking through the grasses along the dunes behind the western side of the airfield fence on Hanlans Point. We observed these 2 birds for about 10 minutes as close as 10 feet away. Front, side, back and any other view you can come up with. The birds kept walking and feeding (not hopping) as we followed them. It all boils down to the birds being 80% Chestnut-collared and 20% possible Smith's Longspur. In any case these were definately Longspurs.
Other birds seen were a 1st year bald Eagle heading west hurried along by a Sharp-shinned Hawk (picture that), an stellar view of an Orange-crowned Warbler, Winter and House Wrens, and a bunch of the usual species for a total of 49 species in that short area.
One other surprise was just before we caught the ferry at Hanlans Alfred called out a large Woodpecker overhead with large white wing patches. The bird went behind some trees before we really got a good look at it then reversed and landed in a tall Cottonwood. Alfred was sure it was a Pileated Woodpecker (very rare on The Islands) but not wanting to rule out Ivory-billed Woodpecker
We waited until the bird flew out of the tree and headed west. It was indeed a Pileated Woodpecker and not the Ivory :-( :wink:
but a darn good bird for The Islands non the less. First for both of us and for Margaret Liubavicius who had joined us on our walk to the ferry.
A great end to a great week on The Islands.
Chestnut-collared Longspur - We have checked, talked, checked again and found that indeed we saw two first winter Chestnut-collared Longspurs on Monday. A rare bird in Southern Ontario. Shows that you should always check those skulking or unfamiliar birds.
