Hi Birders, Alvan Buckley, Mike Burrell and I just returned from a 9 day trip across northern Ontario, birding the north shore of Lake Superior and Rainy River (May 20-28). Birding was really good in pretty much every area we birded; though we spent most time at the listed locations. We used the latest birding site guide to Rainy River, published in Ontario Birds, and basically checked every town from Wawa-Sleeping Giant Provincial Park using google maps. In total we had 197 species (driving 4,000km), with several highlights, listed below (in order of observational appearance): May 20th: Waterloo - Wawa Bohemian Waxwing - 1 bird near Mamainse Harbour (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14202731). We saw 3 other potential BOWA's near Wawa, but couldn't get a clinching look. May 21st: Wawa - Sleeping Giant Provincial Park Field Sparrow - 1 bird in the town of Marathon at a feeder (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14201864). Great Black-backed Gull - 1 adult at the Pic River mouth. Mute Swan - a flock of 15 in Terrace Bay. We talked to some locals about swans in the area and they had no clue about these birds. These birds were in a sheltered cove, riding out the bad weather (appearing tired, but hard to say definitively; http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14201868). May 22nd: Sleeping Giant - Rainy River Eared Grebe - 1 adult in the lagoons at Chippewa (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14243184). Northern Mockingbird - 1 bird at Silver Islet (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14243071). Townsend's Solitaire - 1 bird along hwy. 11 about 80km west of Thunder Bay. This was our best and most random bird of the trip (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14264215). Hudsonian Godwit - 1 breeding plumaged adult in a flooded field north of Rainy River, by Harris Hill resort (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14264326). Wilson's Phalarope - 136 birds at the Rainy River sewage lagoons Harris's Sparrow - 2 birds near Harris Hill Resort May 23rd: Rainy River Wilson's Phalarope - 142 birds at the Rainy River sewage lagoons, +2 in a random wet field. Marbled Godwit - 1 bird seen east of Rainy River Harris's Sparrow - 1 bird at Harris Hill Resort May 24th: Rainy River Piping Plover - 1 unbanded bird at Windy Point (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14266283). Great Gray Owl - 1 bird just south of Harris Hill Marbled Godwit - 6 birds found in 4 locations. Wilson's Phalarope - 90 birds at the Rainy River sewage lagoons May 25th: Rainy River-near Terrace Bay Hudsonian Godwit - 1 bird flew over at Hurkett May 27th: Batchawana Bay - Sudbury Northern Saw-whet Owl - 2 calling birds near Batchawana Bay (not really that 'good', but a fun species for a 'southerner'). Golden-winged Warbler - 1 male north of Bruce Mines, this bird was singing a spot-on Blue-winged. Eastern Towhee - 1 bird near Pumpkin Point. Le Conte's Sparrow - 1 bird singing north of Bruce Mines. Rainy River: May 23-25 We had most of the 'specialty' birds from the region - I've listed the species we had there below: Sharp-tailed Grouse - a total of 18 birds in scattered locations throughout the region. American White-Pelican - common throughout the region. Wilson's Phalarope - see above. Pretty awesome numbers. Yellow Rail - we tried pretty hard for this species in appropriate habitat but came up empty. Too early? Eastern Whip-poor Will - several birds heard near Fred's Marsh. Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1 bird near Oak Grove Camp. Yellow-throated Vireo - a rare species in northern Ontario. We had 6 birds, all along Rainy River Black-billed Magpie - locally common, seen everywhere in the region in small numbers. Sedge Wren - good numbers (12) throughout the region. Golden-winged Warbler - scattered singing males throughout the area (6 males). Likely many more. Connecticut Warbler - we were too early -> didn't get any. Clay-colored Sparrow - common! We had 100+ birds. Le Conte's Sparrow - we only had 2 birds -> too early? Nelson's Sparrow - we missed this species. From my limited experience in this area, it seems like a hard bird to get (I've never had it here. Perhaps Sable Island would be the best spot). Western Meadowlark - 7; scattered individuals, primarily along hwy 11 east of Rainy River. Yellow-headed Blackbird - we had around 30-40 birds, mainly at Harris Hill resort and at Windy Point All these species have been entered into ebird, with exact locations. To search for a selected species, go to ebird. Use the 'Explore Data' interface, selecting the 'Range and Point Maps'. Enter the appropriate species and zoom into the Rainy River. Further selecting the data to this year, will give the searcher the easiest (and best) results. We had a plethora of mammals, including an obliging Lynx, a Richardson's Ground-Squirrel, Gray Wolf, several Moose, Bear and the regular mammals. Butterflies and Dragonflies weren't very common, with only scattered individuals of the most common species. Alvan has posted some pics from the trip on this blog, which maybe of interest: http://www.alvanbuckley.blogspot.ca/ For any specific questions, please feel free to email myself. We were going to write a summary of blurb of our trip - if you'd like a copy email me. Good Birding, Ken Burrell Waterloo, ON _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
