Month in Review- March 2016 FULL

March, also called 'Hlyd month', or 'stormy month' by the Anglo-Saxons. "Stormy month" is a very appropriate name, if you ask me! This month, our area has experienced snow storms, ice storms, flooding, wind storms, heavy rain, and even thunderstorms! But with the spring storms comes spring birds. The first wave of migrators arrive, as the winter birds head back north. Familiar faces arrive- Robins, Grackles- and winter friends prepare to depart.
Here's March in Review...

*note- This review will be a bit longer than normal. In the future, I'll have individual blog posts for the events as they happen.

Tuesday March 8th-
I decided to go out for a 'quick' bike ride after school before staring my homework. I only took my binoculars, because I didn't expect to be out too long- just a quick ride around the neighbourhood. The weather was absolutely beautiful! I took advantage of the weather and decided to bike down a backroad that led to the local water treatment plant- one of my favourite birding spots. On the way there, I came across a flock of Snow buntings. I was really excited, as this was the first time I was able to observe a flock; all the other times I have seen Snow buntings was when I was in the car without opportunity to stop. Just when I though things couldn't get any better, I heard a Horned lark! The songs of Horned larks are right up there in my favourites list. And to add to that, I saw a single Lapland Longspur- Lifer #257! I decided to push my luck a bit further and visit the water treatment plant. There was nothing too notable there- Mallards, Canadian Geese and American Crows. As I prepared to leave, I noticed a truck pull up the driveway, and just sit there. I was starting to get nervous. A few minutes later, a person got out, walked a few feet and stared at me for a few minutes. I tried not to acknowledge him and stay out of sight, but it was still a bit sketchy. He got back into his truck, turned around and watched me for a few more minutes. I decided to go and get my bike, running all the possible scenarios through my head of what could happen. As I walked towards my bike (which was a few feet in front of the truck), and as I did, the truck slowly made it's way out of the driveway, then pulled over about 700m up the road, then carried on once they saw me bike towards them. On my way out, I saw a really nice female Northern Harrier.


March 10th-
My two year birderversary! I didn't do anything special, because I was going out birding two days later.

March 12th-
On March 12th I went birding with Brereton Field Naturalists near the Minesing swamps. My dad was away in Dominican at this time, so my mom dropped me off in Barrie. The morning started off with some American Tree Sparrows and Cardinals.

After, we spent most of the day scoping out flooded fields. Here are some pictures-

A rough legged hawk, and another near the bottom right. There were three RLH and one RTH in that spot.

A snowy owl with a wing tag. I overheard someone saying it was from  Michigan. I tried doing some research on this guy, but came up empty handed. His tag is #12

Canadian Geese. I observed something funny in this field- while one goose was feeding, another came up to it and pushed it over, causing it to do a flip. 

I had a great day! Here's a list of notable birds seen on the trip:
Pine Siskin
American Tree Sparrow
Killdeer
Wigeon
Northern Pintail
Tundra Swan
Rough Legged Hawk
Red Tailed Hawk
American Kestrel (Two- Early record!)
Snowy owl
Bald Eagle

Horned lark

Snow Bunting
Sandhill crane (Heard only)

And best bird....'

Greater White Fronted Goose (Lifer 258)

While watching some tundra swans, I heard a strange noise overhead. I recognized the call, but couldn't quite place it. One of my young birder friends told me it was a Greater White Fronted Goose, and he had been researching them the day before as he had seen the reports from eastern Ontario.

Afterwards, we met up for a nice lunch of Pancakes and Sausages, then left for home.

March 13th-
Early in the morning, my dad took me out to the water treatment plant, where we saw three Tundra swans- Two adults and a Juvi, Mallards, Canadian Geese, Redheads, Buffleheads, Goldeneyes, A single Canvasback, and a raft of Ring Necked Ducks (Lifer #259, 260).

Bufflehead ducks at the WTP

Later that day, My dad and I went back to where I saw the Greater White Fronted Goose. A couple other birders were there looking for it too, but without success. I felt really fortunate to have seen it the day before. Instead, we had Wigeons, Wood ducks, Northern Pintails, along with the regulars. While my dad was engaged in conversation with one of the birders, I decided to photograph a Snowy Owl down the road.

One of the many pictures I got of the Snowy Owl

March 14th-
Two little notable things happened this day. First, I saw a Cooper's hawk in my backyard, which is a new Provence bird, as well as a nice addition to my yard list, and saw the local Merlins 'copulate'. Last year, I saw the Merlins go from one, to two, then three... up to six! I enjoyed watching them grow up, and hope to experience it again this year.

Backyard Coopers hawk

Merlins. #thingsonlybirdersgetexcitedabout :)

The rest of the month was pretty quiet for birding. I'll have less and less time to bird over the next few months, as I am involved with my High school's production. Every other year, we put on a play, this year we are doing The Wizard of Oz, and I'm playing Clarinet for the 'pit band'. Our rehearsal schedule is crazy, with practices almost every night of the week and near full days on the weekends.


All the best for April!

Bird Joke- What's the difference between a Cordilleran Flycatcher and A Pacific-slope Flycatcher? I don't know, you tell me!