I'm Just Here for the Bird: Gulls Gulls Gulls

It was a fast and intense 24 hours of birding from the Niagara River in Ontario to a frigid Sewage Lagoon in Chambly, Quebec. It was fun and and exciting and at the end of the day added my 11th Life Bird of the year, a Ross's Gull. It's a Code 3 on the ABA List, but a Code 5 for places like Quebec, where it is a rare visitor, indeed.

Day One, Of Little and Franklin's Gulls and an Eider not so Common:

The 24 hours of extreme,(well, let's just call it what it is, crazy), birding began with a trip to Niagara to see what had been reported as a Common Eider, another rarity for these parts, and a chance to see a Franklin's Gull on the river. By the time I arrived, and was searching for the Eider, I got a report that the bird was actually properly identified as a hatch year King Eider, a bird I'd have not driven to Niagara to see.

I met up with fellow birder Andrew and together we tried to find the Eider but in the meantime found a couple of Little Gulls flying close to the shore and we had a merry chase trying to get good photos of this bird, that in the spring is only seen at a distance in Oshawa Second Marsh. We had a ball running along the edge of the Niagara River, on a warm November afternoon, clicking off lots of photos and finally seeing one less than 15 feet in front of us.

Later we met up with Len, whom I have run into twice previously this past week, looking for Purple Sandpiper and Greater White-fronted Geese. There are a few of us who just can't get enough birding and we just keep running into each other again and again all over Ontario. We decided to spend our time, rather than obsessing about the Eider, trying to find Franklin's Gulls. Again, we chased birds up and down the river and while chasing a group of gulls, Andrew found a Red-throated Loon, that had not yet completely molted into winter plumage. My first of the year and also first where I actually got to see the red throat. Very cool.

After photographing the Loon, Len spotted a Frankin's Gull and we chased it down the river until it settled into a group of Bonapart's Gulls on the river and we got to watch it and try to photograph it until it started getting too dark to see much of anything. Until, low and behold, Andrew spotted the Eider flying back up the river. Again, back into the cars and the chase was on again. Finally, as it was getting too dark to bird for anything but owls, we got to watch the Eider and concluded it very likely was a King Eider. The great thing was, had we not been chasing a Common Eider we might not have been there for great looks at Little Gull, Franklin's Gull and Red-throated Loon.

As we were packing up our scopes and tripods and cameras and binoculars, the subject of the Ross's Gull in Quebec came up. The decision was made to leave that night for Quebec and try to see it the next morning. I had been unsure if I was going to go for it, but my daughter lives in Kingston, and I wasn't about to let a couple of other birders get a bird on their list that I didn't have. Damn competitive birding!

Day Two, Quest for The Pink Gull of the North:

I awoke at 4:45am. I spent an evening at home, cooked dinner, and went to sleep at 11, hoping to wake a couple of hours later and get a very early start on the 6 hour + drive to Chambly. Didn't work out that way. I was still 90 minutes away when I contacted Len and Andrew on my iPhone and discovered they had already seen the Ross's Gull and were actually on their way back to Toronto. Well, at least I knew the bird was there.

I arrived at the Boul Industreal Sewage Lagoons just before 11:30 Tuesday morning, shot right past it, as there is no sign marking it as such. But the number of cars parked on the road next to and inside the gates glimpsed out of the corner of my eye as I drove by had me making a quick u-turn up the road to head back. The New York license plate on the car parked in front of me clinched it. I loaded up with my two cameras, scope and binoculars, not to mention putting on lined cargo pants over the pants I was wearing, a sweater under my warm fleece jacket, my LL Bean Snow Sneakers, mittens and ear muffs under my brown felt fedora. I had to run back to the car for my hand warmers, not long after arriving.

When I got out of the car another birder was getting into his and he had photographed the Ross's Gull at 10:58am, according to his camera. He showed me the photo so I'd know what to look for. But, he said, it had flown off shortly after and hadn't been re-found. Before I was even through the gate, two cars drove out and when I finally arrived atop the windy hill facing the lagoon, only four shivering birders remained. One of them had already seen the bird, but a gentleman who had driven 8 hours from New York City had arrived at 11:02 and had missed it by a couple of minutes.

And so we stood and froze and shivered and waited and scanned the lagoon for nearly 2 hours. There were dozens of Bonapart's Gulls, lots of Ring-billed Gulls and a small number of Mallards, but no Ross's Gull. Eventually everyone but the New York fellow drifted off. The two ladies who only spoke french and understood almost nothing of what I said to them, headed to Fort Chambly to look there. Another fellow left for a hot coffee. I should have done the same. I went back to the car to warm up, returned, kept up the vigil and then the two of us decided that maybe going to the Fort was a good idea.

But by the time we got to the cars, other birders were returning, letting us know that not only was the Ross's Gull not there, it was even colder and windier at the fort. No thanks. I was already shivering down to my bones. I spent another 20 minutes, maybe,(time is blurred when you're standing in frigid winds), and once again went back to the car, after determining from talking to another birder that it would be nicer tomorrow and that maybe I'd spend the night and look in the morning.

Just as I was warming up and deciding to go get a coffee at the local Tim's, the first birder I met that morning returned to get another look. I told him we hadn't seen it since he left, and just as I was about to decide to run for a coffee, we heard shouts from the top of the hill that indicated they had seen something not a Bonapart's or Ring-billed Gull. We raced up to the top of the hill and in the far right corner of the pond was, yes, The Ross's Gull. It had probably been hiding there the entire time laughing at us silly, shivering obsessives.

No worries. We snapped off some photos, exchanged happy smiles, added a Lifer to our list,(in my case number 608 on the ABA list in less than 23 months). We had finally seen he bird we had come to see, and it didn't take much less time than say, a trip to Churchill, Manitoba where, if lucky, you can see them easily on their breeding grounds. Aside from rare visits to some areas of the north east of North America, no one is one hundred percent sure where they winter, but it is believed to be at sea.

The birds took off and the Ross's landed amongst the other gulls in pretty much the same spot we had been scoping the past three hours. We all watched and snapped photos. The French ladies returned, the guy from New York, who didn't even have a camera to take a photo, left and eventually I headed back to the car too.

Before I could pull away, another birder pulled up. He was a fellow Ontario birder and I congratulated him on perfect timing as he would, with a little luck, not have to stand in the ever colder afternoon wind for hours to see it. I walked him up to the spot, introduced him to all the birders I had met and who's names I had quickly forgotten,(I should write these down more often), got another look at the bird and finally, took my leave of them.

It was a fun, exciting and exhausting 24 hours of birding that was fun to reflect back on as I drove to Kingston to visit my daughter. We had a nice visit, and I was back in bed in Toronto at 1:00 am, I slept in a little today and was disappointed that there were not local rare birds being reported to chase. Well, maybe I need a day off from birding to get some real work done.

Such is life :)