Eleven PBCers met early on Saturday to enjoy yet another glorious fall day of birding and headed directly for Lynde Shores where we met three others waiting there for us. The feeder trail woods were hopping (and scratching?) with birds, we followed the trail south to the waterfowl viewing platform and were amazed at the numbers of sparrows in the area. We had good looks at Fox (heard them too), White-cr. and White-thr., Song, Tree, and Lincoln’s Sparrows while there but I am sure there were a few more species as well. Everywhere we looked there were birds flitting around in the shrubs and brush, we even managed to see a few warbler species, mostly “butter butts” but we also had a Magnolia and a few Palm Warblers, including a very yellow one. Everyone today had great looks at Golden-cr. Kinglets which may for the first time this fall for us have outnumbered the Ruby-cr. Kinglets. While searching nooks and crannies for Saw-whets I did not find any but did make a much “bigger” discovery. A crashing sound in the canopy above me drew my attention straight up in a very tall willow just in time to avoid being ‘beaned” by a pretty large branch which landed a few feet beside me. Looking up allowed me the chance to see the juvenile Golden Eagle take off from that same tree and glide slowly to the west. It did not appear to be going far as it seemed to be in hunting mode so I rounded up the group and we kept a lookout vigil for a little while from the parking area. As luck would have it we only had a large kettle of Turkey Vultures on the northern horizon so we decided to go west from there. But the last car out of the parking area saw a large dark bird glide south across the road near the marsh and all of them got good views of the Golden Eagle searching the area for unsuspecting prey.
As the rest of the group headed west towards Corner Marsh we spotted a large bird circling and soaring south of us which then started moving north across the road in front of us at a very rapid rate on powerful wingbeats. We tried to catch up but could not with traffic but we were still able to ID it as an immature Bald Eagle. It was our first "two eagle species" day in a long time and the day was not half over yet! We arrived at Corner Marsh where J. Fairchild already had a scope set up and helped us view a variety of waterfowl species including Common and Hooded Mergansers, Gadwall, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, Lesser Scaup, and a few others. We mentioned our eagle finds to him and wished him luck in that regard and sure enough he later spotted 3 Golden Eagles at the Iroquois Shoreline raptorwatch just after noon, it was that kind of day! We next moved to the bridge where the creek empties into the lake and we found four Dunlin in winter (basic) plumage, two Green-winged Teal, a Northern Shoveler, and quite a few Bonaparte’s Gulls flying around in addition to all of the loafing/resting Ring-billed Gulls. Before I forget, we also had Northern Harrier and Red-tailed Hawk back at Cranberry Marsh and Bill also spotted a very strangely marked (albino or partial?) bird near the NE corner of the marsh. We all had brief glimpses of it as it flew across the road but we could not relocate it. Apparently Doug Lockery IDed a partial albino Song Sparrow in this area the same morning so it was likely the same bird, we just wished we could have had a prolonged look at it instead of a passing glance.
We then headed to have lunch in Pickering where everyone got to relax a bit, a few more so than others but not mentioning any names of course. Our final birding stop for the day was at Rosetta McClain Park in the mid-afternoon where we still found BigFrank maintaining a vigil at his post even though the weather was starting to take a turn for the worse. Not much was seen until a reverse flight (see BF’s earlier post) of Turkey Vultures appeared from the west, I started to count them but forgot about that as soon as I got my glasses on the last bird. I was thinking Black Vulture as I could see the white wing patches in the lower wrist area of this very dark bird but then realized they were too small as it got closer and that it was too big. Before I could yell “Guinness Eagle” BigFrank called it out as a Golden Eagle. Was it the same one we had seen about 5 hours earlier and fifty km further east? Possibly, but the fact they had 3 of them around noon at Iroquois made me suspect otherwise. Everyone (I think) got to see this one and while we were celebrating we almost missed the two Northern Harriers also flying west to east and the large accipiter trying to sneak low along the bluffs in the same direction. The latter bird flew beside us just below eye level and landed in a tree on the bluff face still just barely in visual range. We agreed that it was a juvenile Northern Goshawk, a very nice bird to end an exceptional day. The weather may very well have been the ultimate (or proximate?) factor to turn these birds around but I would also like to give them some credit (perhaps a tad anthropomorphic) in realizing they could not find a decent place to stay in T.O. that late in the day and turned around to find a better spot to settle down before dark. Hopefully next weekend will bring us some more northern raptor specialties, can everyone properly say Gyrfalcon? Good birding, Brete
