No one ever said that being an Avid was easy or necessarily smart. We tend to be people that find themselves at the center of attention at holiday gatherings and family sit-downs. This is not because we are attention-craving maniacs, it is because we are people that do not typically conform to normal societal expectations when it comes to what we do during the winter. I can hear it now, “So, Joe, are you going to put up holiday decorations and one-million candlepower blinking multi-colored lights around your house on Saturday? Are you going to sit in front of the fire and catch the big game on Sunday?”
“Well, not really.” I’d reply with reservation.
They immediately would ask, “Why not? Isn’t it your responsibility as an American homeowner to make your house look as obnoxious as possible between October 15th and January 15th then sit around and enjoy the fruits of your labors while watching 22 humongous men beat each other half to death on television?”
Feeling myself cower a bit, “I don’t know about that, but 15 other people and I are heading up to the middle of Ontario just east of the Georgian Bay this weekend to look at birds.”
“Your going whe…to Cana…in Decem…to look at wha…on purpose?” they would stutter. “Are you out of your mind?”
And it only goes downhill from there. I guess we’re not meant to be understood, and yes, we do tend to head north during the winter for species that cannot be found at such pleasant latitudes as ours. It’s a burden we all must bear and we should do so with pride.
To further our image, 16 Avids in four vehicles did in fact go north for a few days of whirlwind birding in Ontario during the first weekend of December 2002. While the trip didn’t officially begin until 8:00 p.m. on Friday night at Niagara Falls, everyone was able to do a little birding on the way up earlier that day. In fact, one vehicle drove to Mentor, Ohio on Thursday night to get a head-start on Friday’s birding. Speaking of vehicles, all of ours had nicknames, or handles, as it were. One vehicle was named the Snackmobile and was composed of Joe Faulkner, Linda Helm, Doreene Linzell, Becky Hatfield, and Gina Buckey. Joe’s van has a reputation of having more food in it than the main Kroger warehouse. Another vehicle was deemed the Partymobile, mainly because three of the occupants are part of the “party generation” while the other belongs to a slightly different, but wiser, generation. I realize I’m tiptoeing on thin ice here and I hope that Paul Gardner, Randy Rogers, Brad Sparks, and Troy Shively forgive me. I did hear that the youngest person in the vehicle asked the most experienced person to turn down his music though. Is the party generation all talk and no action? You make the call. Without going into a lot of details, the third vehicle was called the Texas Express and was made up of Byron and Joan Bossenbroek, Dan Sanders, and Bill Heck. The fourth vehicle really didn’t have a name that stuck too well. One suggestion was Three’s Company because there were two women (Julie Davis and Darlene Sillick) and one man (myself) while another was Hot Seats because of the vehicle’s heated seats.
Friday, December 6, 2002
We all birded our way up to Niagara Falls and everyone was able to enjoy the immature male king eider at Mentor Lagoons, Ohio in between snow squalls. In fact, half of the group was videotaped by some officials from the city of Mentor because they were interested in promoting recreational tourism there. They had the idea because they were impressed with the fact that people from Columbus would visit Mentor to look at a bird in a snow storm. From there some folks stopped at Headlands Beach State Park, Ohio where the previously reported purple sandpipers proved to be quite elusive in the high winds and blowing snow and sand. Two of the vehicles also stopped at Fairport Harbor, Ohio for a look at the female common eider and whatever else happened to be around. In addition to some canvasbacks, redheads, and scaup, three surf scoters and one black scoter were in attendance out in the harbor itself. While most vehicles went straight to Niagara Falls from there, at least one stopped at Conneaut, Ohio and Presque Isle, Pennsylvania. One surf scoter was tallied at Conneaut, but little else was found at either that location or Presque Isle.
Upon arriving at the Super 8 Hotel in Niagara Falls, we discovered that there was an extraordinary number of people around. It turns out that there was some kind of cheerleading competition, convention, or something in town and it seemed like all of the over-caffeinated 11-15-year-old girls were at that hotel. Because it was quite loud and crowded in the lobby, we had our orientation meeting in one of the large bedrooms at 8:00 p.m. We talked about the itinerary, our expectations and possibilities, and recent reports from the area. Everyone was excited and ready to begin our first full day of Ontario birding.
Saturday, December 7, 2002
We had agreed to meet at the adjacent pancake house at 6:00 a.m., but discovered that it didn’t open until 7:00 (I had gotten some bad information). So, we ventured to the local Denny’s which turned out to be quite expensive and fairly slow. They apparently weren’t quite ready for a crowd of 16 at 6:15 in the morning. While waiting on the food, a few of the participants commented on how noisy the hotel was during the night. Apparently the cheerleaders were practicing in the hallway fairly late into the evening. Doreene’s solution to that was to do the Ross’s gull cheer right back to them. Imagine that, Doreene in the hallway choreographing “R-O-S-S-‘-S, that’s the best bird in the wide wide west!” After a few laughs and more food than we could possibly eat in two sittings, we gathered everyone up at 7:30 and went west along the QEW to the town of Stoney Creek. We spotted a couple of gorgeous rough-legged hawks along the way to the various Lake Ontario viewing points in this little hamlet. Lake Ontario is known for its large congregations of long-tailed ducks, scoters, goldeneye, and other diving ducks and Stoney Creek provides a great place from which to view them. Upon exiting the vehicles at the end of Green Road, we were treated to numerous long-tailed ducks, some close and some farther away. Looking out over the lake, we could see long-tailed ducks everywhere. There must have been several thousand of them out there. After enjoying the long-tailed duck spectacle we began scanning the other species present. There weren’t a lot of goldeneye around–we were hoping for a Barrow’s–but there was one large raft of greater scaup and we were able to find all three scoters. There were numerous surf scoters including many adult males sporting their gorgeous black-and-white plumages and multi-colored bills. White-winged scoters were also well represented, but we only saw a couple of immature/female black scoters. We saw more ducks off to our west so we headed for Sayers Park. This provided another nice lookout point where we got more and sometimes better looks at the species we had already seen. Troy went down to the water’s edge, looked east, and found an adult male black scoter sitting on something just beyond a pier. It poked its head out at regular intervals, almost teasing us with its orange bill knob. Eventually it got into the water and swam out into the lake with a mallard. While its choice of company wasn’t the greatest, it did provide a spectacular view for everyone. Nine-thirty came and we decided it was time to go back east to Niagara Falls. While putting my scope into the car, I spotted a small bird fly to the base of a planted spruce tree across from Sayers Park. As I knelt down, a Carolina wren showed itself from just under the lowest branch of the tree. What a hardy trooper.
As we approached the Niagara River the sky became quite gray and the temperature became quite chilly. We were prepared for cold weather and donned all of our outerwear above the falls at the control gates. We saw many canvasbacks along the pier by the control gates and there were a few gulls milling about. The highlight here, though, was what appeared to be a possible first winter glaucous x herring gull, otherwise known as “Nelson’s” gull. It was roughly the size of a herring gull, had the pink bill with a black tip like a glaucous gull, the mantle, covert, and tertial color of a glaucous gull, and dark chocolate brown wing tips with pale ends. The digiscoped photo to the left shows the sleeping hybrid gull in front of an adult herring gull.
Parking the vehicles north of the power building we scanned the rapids above the falls. There were lots of birds but we were unable to find the little gull that was reported earlier in the day. We ran into John Odgers from Texas and Tom Bartlett from Ohio’s Black Swamp Bird Observatory. They told us about a couple of purple sandpipers way out on the rocks and we were able to find the distant birds. Basically they looked like dark-backed, white-bellied birds running around. We also learned that we had missed a red-necked grebe at the control gates.
After jockeying around and making a nasty U-turn at an intersection where the Snackmobile went over a curb, we parked at the Falls parking area for $10.00 Canadian. Ouch. Some folks ate lunch while others walked to the falls. We scanned the birds around both falls and Troy turned up a nice second-winter Iceland gull at the base of the American Falls. The Snackmobile occupants finally made it to the overlook area and were able to take in this extremely handsome northern visitor. After a few minutes, and realizing we were behind on time, we decided to skip the whirlpool and the Queenston Boat Launch and go straight to the Adam Beck Overlook. When we arrived a local showed us a gorgeous adult Thayer’s gull that posed on a rock at the point. We all got great looks at it and were able to study the various subtle field marks. In the mass of gulls there we were also treated to a first-winter Thayer’s gull, three adult Iceland gulls, two first-winter Iceland gulls, and an adult lesser black-backed gull. This stop produced quite a few lifers for participants and provided some good study time.
At 3:45 p.m. the group arrived at the Nelson Street Gazebo in Niagara-on-the-Lake to watch the evening spectacle of Bonaparte’s gulls heading out of the river to spend the night on Lake Ontario. While we were waiting, an absolutely knock-your-socks-off male long-tailed duck put on a 30-minute show about 20 feet in front of us. Folks, including myself, could not get enough. Two horned grebes and a couple more long-tailed ducks also lounged around inside the marina and a belted kingfisher surprised us when it flew past. As is began to get a bit darker, the Bonaparte’s gulls began flying by sporadically and in very small groups. Suddenly, Dan yelled out “little gull!!!” and there it was flying near the New York shore showing its distinct black underwings. Somehow everyone managed to get on this bird and watch it fly past the fort and into the lake. A little time went by and Troy found another good trip bird in the form of a red-necked grebe over by the New York shore. Everyone was able to view this bird in the dimming afternoon light as well. We continued watching the Bonaparte’s gulls fly out of the river until it was quite dark. By then everyone was very cold and in need of a restroom. So, at about 5:15 p.m., we left Niagara-on-the-Lake for Barrie, stopping at a McDonald’s on Route 55 for a pit stop.
Getting through Toronto was a nightmare due to the traffic. We should have taken Route 407 all the way around, but instead went right through the middle of town. I’ll know better next time! At any rate, we got to Barrie at 8:00 p.m. and found that The Keg was packed. After making reservations for Sunday night, we went north to the next exit and had a great meal at the Red Lobster. When we came out of the restaurant, we discovered that at least 2 inches of snow had fallen just during the time it took us to eat. We made it back to the Comfort Inn to find that we would once again have a problem with a large group occupying the motel. This time it was a sports team of some sort. Were they following us? There were minor difficulties with a couple of the rooms, but nothing overwhelming. We finally got settled in and off to sleep in anticipation of the next day’s journey.
Sunday, December 8, 2002
After a short night’s sleep, we all gathered in the lobby at 6:00 a.m. to discuss the day’s activities. In addition, John from Texas joined us on today’s excursion. The weather had turned nasty and they were calling for up to 12 inches of snow along the road we were to travel up to Algonquin Provincial Park. It had already snowed 6-8 inches at the motel, but we decided to give it a try anyway. Route 11 was not in the best condition and we stopped at Orillia to eat, get gas, and check on road conditions. The Provincial Police had no information to give and we weren’t able to reach the Ministry of Transportation. We continued northward, slowly, and hit a line of snow squalls that brought us to a crawl. By 8:45, we had emerged into sunshine once again and the squalls were over. We stopped at the junction of Routes 11 and 60 to relax a bit and take in some much needed nutrition. The Tim Horton’s doughnut from earlier just didn’t cut it. Realizing that the weather could only get better, we continued east on Route 60 to the West Gate of the park, arriving at around 10:00. The roads were still snow-covered, but we were able to traverse them without too much difficulty.
As we piled out of the vehicles at the West Gate, we realized that it had gotten quite cold. In addition, it was still very windy. We paid our fee and investigated the feeder only to find a black-capped chickadee and a white-breasted nuthatch. We did hear a couple of crossbills fly over us though. Our first destination inside the park was the KM-8 post. We parked alongside the road and began looking and listening for birds. Our targets here in the mixed forest were black-backed woodpecker and boreal chickadee. Soon after getting out of the vehicles, we began hearing white-winged crossbills. Finally, we spotted two of them at the top of a spruce tree and everyone was able to get great scope looks at the birds. Occasionally the sun would hit the male just right and he would glow with a radiant pink beauty. We continued looking for the other two birds and were able to call in a small group of chickadees. Unfortunately, no boreals were among the bold black-cappeds. We did have a pileated woodpecker here, but no black-backed. Realizing we could work this area again on the way out, our group continued east to the Visitor’s Center.
To utilize time wisely, we ate while traveling to the Visitor’s Center which was approximately 35 km to the east along Route 60. In addition, Brad spotted a large bull moose along the side of the road. Everyone got turned around eventually, but by the time people got to the area, the moose had vanished. So, only one person in the entire group got to see the wary animal. After arriving at the Visitor’s Center, we investigated both the restrooms and the feeders out back. This is often a good place to find gray jays, but today just wasn’t the day. Both downy and hairy woodpeckers graced the large suet feeders and a couple of black-capped chickadees dined on the provided seed. A few blue jays came and went, but no gray jays were around. Getting our fill, we loaded back up and went the short distance to the parking lot for the Spruce Bog Boardwalk. As soon as we arrived, two gray jays appeared out of nowhere and investigated this odd lot of 17 souls. It didn’t take long for people to whip out the unsalted peanuts and take in the unique experience of a wild bird landing on your hand. An informal survey discovered that two out of two gray jays prefer fresh walnuts over fresh peanuts. Of course, many photos were taken and people were amazed by the event that had just transpired. It was a first for many.
The Spruce Bog Boardwalk is a favorite location for locating spruce grouse and boreal chickadees; we had seen both here in 1998. So, we took to the trail and birded it at medium speed the first time through–I was trying to get lucky. Luck apparently wasn’t with us, but we enjoyed walking the trail and seeing this northern ecosystem. We did locate more white-winged crossbills though. The second time through the trail we birded very slowly through the first half looking at every little thicket and spruce tree. We still had not heard or seen any passerines other than the crossbills. We couldn’t even get a chickadee to come in. Tired bodies and cold weather forced a retreat so we headed back to the vehicles. John bid us farewell at the parking lot and headed back to Barrie. Our group went over to the Visitor’s Center for a restroom break and then went back to KM-8. We arrived at a little after 3:30 and gave the woodpecker and chickadee another chance. By now it was 3oF and the wind was still blowing. Standing around alongside the road proved to be quite chilling and we weren’t having any luck with either species. By 4:00 we decided to drive back to Barrie and give ourselves enough time to clean up before going to dinner at The Keg.
The roads back to Barrie were much better during the evening than they were in the morning and we were able to travel at normal speeds. We made it back to the motel at 6:00, got cleaned up, and met at The Keg at 7:00. We found a little surprise when we arrived as John had left us a thank you note and had arranged for two bottles of champagne to be served at our table. What an outstanding gesture. We had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed sharing stories of combined interest. We plotted our strategy for the following morning just before we left and all were in agreement that we should try for the gray partridges around the Brantford airport. So, we agreed to meet at the Country Kettle restaurant for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. before making our way south.
Monday, December 9, 2002
It was an odd feeling to wake up a little later than usual this morning. It surprisingly didn’t take too long to pack up all of our vehicles and make our way to the Country Kettle. They were ready for our arrival and we were soon seated for a nice hot breakfast. By 8:30 a.m. we were on our way south around Toronto and then west toward Brantford. It was a fairly pleasant drive and traffic wasn’t nearly as bad as it was on Saturday night. I think we counted about 15 red-tailed hawks along the road between Barrie and Brantford. The partridges had been seen on Saturday near the airport buildings and upon arrival it didn’t take long to find the line of cedar trees where they were reported. We scanned the area from behind the fence, but were unable to locate any birds. We walked west toward the terminal building and scanned the fields and buildings from there, but again came up empty. We did get to observe a female northern harrier hunt over the fields and we were all hoping that she would scare up a gray partridge for us. Troy checked with the airport staff and they reported that they had seen the birds right around the terminal a few days ago. In addition, they gave us permission to walk out to the cedar trees where the birds were reported on Saturday.
We weren’t the first people to investigate those trees as we found numerous footprints in the snow around them. We also found some other footprints which told us that the partridges were no longer there. It was clear that they had fed extensively below a small maple tree with a heavy seed crop then walked north across the runway into the thick matted grass. We scanned the fields again, but an elephant probably could have been camouflaged in there, much less a small gray bird with a broken pattern of darker stripes. Realizing this was an exercise in futility, we headed back to the cars and decided to drive the road that borders the airport to the north.
We drove slowly along the road which was bordered on both sides by fencerows and agricultural fields. A woman taking her morning walk said that she had seen partridges in her yard in previous years, but not yet this winter. As we stopped and scanned the various fields and brambles, we turned up a solitary golden-crowned kinglet working the branches of a small lone tree in the roadside fence row. In addition, an American tree sparrow put in a brief appearance in an adjacent fencerow. Making things exciting for a moment was a flock of about 25-30 horned larks. We were hoping for a snow bunting or Lapland longspur, but it was not meant to be. Neither was the gray partridge. It was now noon and we all needed to get back home. So, we said goodbye to the elusive partridges and made our way back to the freeway.
The four vehicles were soon separated and everyone ventured home on their own. Our vehicle experienced a minor delay just across from Windsor as it was searched by immigration officers and a dog. We were released in good time and were soon back on the road south through Detroit and on into Ohio. Everyone arrived home safely and has now had a truly northern experience. Will people still wonder about the sanity of us birders? Sure they will. However, we know in our minds that these out-of-the-ordinary trips to far-flung places at odd times of the year make us appreciate what is really out there in this small world that we live on.
“Did you at least stop at the casino and duty-free shop in Windsor?”
“No, we really didn’t have time.”
The following list represents the 57 species of birds seen while the group was together beginning on the morning of Saturday, December 7th and ending at noon on Monday, December 9th. Including birds seen on the way to Ontario on Friday, December 6th, the group tallied an impressive 32 collective life-birds on this trip.
