May 12, 2009 - Day 10 - Gas is expensive!!

What a great day. 10 full hours, 6 new species added to my May list, and the best company a birder could ask for. I joined a Toronto group made up of various members of the Toronto Ornithological Club and we had an awesome day together. Unfortunately, I'm too tired to actually write anything substantial today and I promise it will be a boring post...I just don't have the energy to put much thought into it!

The first good bird of the day was a beautiful Summer Tanager at the tip. It was actually one of the nicest I've seen, with bright red in the tail and a nice mix of orange-green throughout the rest of its body. I missed Clay-coloured Sparrow again but that's perfectly ok. There were other good birds to find. Bay-breasted Warbler was my first new bird on Woodland Trail. Then a Sharp-shinned Hawk flying over the same location. Later, the group had an Osprey over Tilden Trail. Following that, I got a Red-headed Woodpecker at a nesting hole across from Pelee Wings Nature Store. Finally, Hillman Marsh was excellent in the evening and I added Whimbrel and Black-billed Cuckoo to my May list from this location.

The one big blunder for me was walking 2 field lengths to see a Hooded Merganser that was reported in a canal in the Onion Fields. Our scopes couldn't see through the heat waves so I decided to put some extra effort in and made my way all the way down to where the bird was swimming. I trudged along the (private?) property, excitedly looked out into the water, and identified the bird as a Mallard. My shoulders have never slumped so low.

I also added a few more books to my Birding library today including The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (for taking into the field because the original Sibley's guide is just way too heavy for that!), A Guide to the Identification and Natural History of The Sparrows of the United States and Canada, which contains amazing plates illustrated by David Beadle, and finally, The Birdwatcher's Companion to North American Birdlife, a steal at $20. It's a good thing it was a steal, too...because gas for the truck is expensive. I thought I would save money on this trip but that ain't happening!

Day List:

Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Ring-necked Pheasant
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Whimbrel
Ruddy Turnstone
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Black-billed Cuckoo
Eastern Screech-Owl
Chimney Swift
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Least Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing
Blue-winged Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Palm Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Total Species: 105