After last Sunday’s successful survey of King Eiders, ferreted out by Dave Milsom’s amazing sleuthing on the West Humber Club’s annual “Magical Mystery Tour”, I invited lifelong friend, Iain Wilkes of Carleton Place to forego a day of February work on Friday in an attempt to bag a lifer for him. Another target was the elusive Barnacle Goose at Grimsby which Dave told me looked “very good” and Lev Frid appeared to agree at Xmas time. Dave cited historical encounters with this species wintering in the Port Credit area and I also found them listed on records of the Lake Ontario Waterfowl Survey for 2007,8 so I was optimistic. What I was not apprised of, was the anomaly of "George" the hybrid, who also frequents the 40 Mile Creek area in Grimsby . Over 5 decades of birding in Southern Ontario, Iain and I have grown to see a lot of changes, a major one being the plentiful zebra mussels now that allow some interesting species to winter in the Burlington Shipping Canal area. Friday started as a very calm grey morning with a bit of fog. With males in full breeding plumage and pumped with hormones, we saw frisky displays of courting from varied species particularly the calling Goldeneyes and Red Breasted Mergs on the Hamilton Bay side, when not flushed by the resident flyby immature Sea Eagle (Baldy). More exotic was the incredible consorting of all 3 Scoter species at the eastern end of the Channel, that saw a parading pair of Black Scoters putting on a fine show. Dave, with his worldwide experience of birding, points out this is a rare opportunity to see the usually distant flying and bobbing Scoters up close and personal, with males in delightful plumage. But scope as we might, all the way down to Grimsby , we could not buy a King. 3 immature Night Herons hunkered down at Red Creek without their GPS’ calibrated yet to chase warmer climes and better food sources further south. A female Wood Duck was found with the Hoodeds there to complement the beautiful male Wood Duck of last week. One has to wonder at the toxicity intake of all the wintering Fowl at Windermere, not so windy this day like last Sunday’s frigid conditions blasting in off Hamilton Bay . But the plentiful Ruddies et al live to reproduce another year, so it works for them. One Glaucous Gull was seen on the Bay on the ice. We were surprised on arriving at the top of the hill to the 40 Mile Creek area by a flying flock of geese led by a Barnacle faced individual. Our initial hopes, buoyed by this easy find, subdued when "George" led his flock of Canadas back to the harbour ice. His large size, brown colour and orange bill/legs belied his Greylag origins. Oddly, George looks more barnyard blotchy on his right side but his left face pattern is very suggestive of a Barnacle x Greylag pedigree rather than the Canada x Greylag I have seen attributed to him since. Disappointed with the lack of a real Barnacle Goose, we took compensation in the 3rd year Lesser Black-backed atop the ice splash in the harbour. We had an adult LBB flying by further up as well as a light phased Roughie hovering atop a vole field at the North end of Grimsby . Now that the east wind picked up, all the waterfowl retreated from the Lake’s chop, even hardy ocean birds like the Scoters, Long tailed ducks, Scaup etc - so our efforts for the King Eider ended in vain, alas. But as Iain says – any day birding is a good day, and we discovered the sagacity of Dave M’s observation that the Hamilton area is as good as it gets for varied birding in Ontario winter. Some truly nice wintering birds. George can be seen here http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralfnowak/4231918649/ His left side compares well with this ‘cross the Pond’ presumed Barnacle x Greylag: http://www.gobirding.eu/Images/Geese/Hybrids/Greylag%20x%20Barnacle%20Goose%20QN,%20Holkham%20Park,%2022-Nov-04%20%28A2%29%20L.JPG Robin Lawson - Newmarket _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
