The Dog Days of Birding

If you're not traveling a lot, birding in southern Ontario in the summer is not that exciting.  Yes, there are lots of birds around, including Eastern Kingbirds, Cedar Waxwings, House Finches, but new and rare birds are few and far between.  So when news of a Northern Bobwhite up in the Hamilton Mountains filtered through my e-mail in box, it was call for celebration, kind of.

I had to wait a couple of days, but when I did arrive at the designated spot, there were many birders, and a few chasers that I seem to run into at every rare bird alert, including a couple who's 6 month old baby has quite the life list already.  It was pouring rain when I parked, so I hung out a bit and then decided to go get some lunch and return.  And when I did, the sun was out and the Bobwhite was calling.  It was, however being very gaurded about giving up its location.  People came and went and eventually I got a glimps of the bird, but fumbled too long with my camera to get a photo.  The one pictured below is a Bobwhite I saw last year.

And just today I was in James Gardens.  Started with biking and ended with birding.  As I was getting my binoculars out of the car I ran into Don Burton, who leads bird walks in James Gardens in spring and fall, and together we found a pair of Solitary Sandpipers, while looking for Spotted Sandpipers and Killdeer.  Only my second new species for July, but that could change when I head down to Florida and try and chase down the Smooth-billed Ani in Miami.


Northern Bobwhite,(seen last year at Rouge Park):