Birders all across Ontario speculated that October 24 would be a bumping day of Fall migration. While most songbird species had already passed through southern Ontario, some exciting migration (and rarity potential) was still in store.
The end of October and early November is a good time to see one of Ontario’s low density migrants, Golden Eagles. Furthermore, this fall has seen the largest push of Evening Grosbeaks in southern Ontario in many years. Evening Grosbeaks may end up wintering just about anywhere in the States and southern Canada, but no one’s really sure what they’re going to do. The north winds predicted for the twenty-fourth promised good movement of both of the aforementioned species, and spelled good migration in general. The twenty-fourth also followed southern Ontario’s warmest day in some time. In the Fall, a cold front coming through on the coattails of a warm day or two usually spells an explosion of backlogged migrants that dawdled because of the warm temperatures. This marriage of favourable factors led me to expect a great day of birding at my (not so local) “patch”.
Back in the Fall of 2019, my friend Ethan Gosnell scoped out a very promising location for morning flight and lake watch in Elgin county between Port Burwell and Long Point. Morning flight or visible migration (vismig) happens in (you guessed it) the morning when nocturnal migrants (most neotropic passerine migrants plus a lot of other species) can be seen either at the tail end of their nightly journeys or reorienting along their migratory routes after touching down elsewhere. A lot of vismig this time of year takes the form of diurnal migration: birds such as waterfowl, blackbirds, finches, and pipits migrate primarily during the day. It’s a pretty neat phenomenon to witness, and the Erie shoreline in a prime place to do so, since lots of birds hug the shore while migrating. A few of us have frequented the spot, and, since late 2019, we’ve built up a respectable list on the location: 168 species (as of November 1, 2020) including a couple notables such as Eurasian Wigeon, Dickcissel, Wilson’s Phalarope, and Willet. See eBird’s illustrated checklist here! The rarity potential that morning flight brings to the table may come in handy on the Ontario big year I’m conducting in 2022 (see the breakdown at the bottom of my previous blogpost). Personally, I’ve managed to rack up 152 species at the spot, which we’ve dubbed “Mattress Landing” because of the actual queen size boxspring that is marooned in the sand on the windward side of the bluff.
The location gives us an almost unimpeded 360 degree view of the surrounding area. The vegetation that lines the road often hosts migrants (as well as local birds), so, even when it’s a slow day for vismig, we can still occupy ourselves by exploring the greenery. The night before the twenty-fourth found me up until the wee hours of the morning, so, knowing there was a good chance I’d sleep in if I retired so late, I decided to make the trip down from Hamilton during the night and sleep in my car until dawn (in retrospect, I should have taken advantage of the location’s titular mattress!). At around 7:30, Isabel Apkarian, Ethan Gosnell, and Nathan Hood (other patrons of Mattress Landing) showed up, and the birding began.
There were still a few holes in our Mattress list that needed filling, and, personally, there were a couple species I was missing that I thought I could get on the day. Large numbers of blackbirds immediately began to zip through: Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, Rusty Blackbirds, and European Starlings made up the highest numbers, but a fair amount of Brown-headed Cowbirds were also mixed in.
American Goldfinch and American Crow numbers were also high, not unexpectedly. A couple Lapland Longspurs eventually went by heading west, as most of the birds were. This was not only a new patch bird for me, but my 302nd year bird for Ontario! As we have found to be the general rule, raptor migration started around 9:00. Turkey Vultures were the dominant raptor, followed by Red-tailed Hawks. We also had handfuls of most of the other expected raptors: Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, American Kestrel, Bald Eagle, and a single Merlin. Around 10:35, our first Evening Grosbeaks (three birds) went over. They were the first of a total of sixty-five odd individuals on the day, and of course a new species for the patch! We also had a surprising eighty-eight Eastern Meadowlarks, which is more individuals of that species than I’ve ever seen at one time. Eastern Bluebird numbers were also up there, with ninety-seven total birds. We also had five Common Ravens, an uncommon bird for the coast of Lake Erie. We had only had one at Mattress Before the twenty-fourth. I have seen a lot of Common Ravens where they shouldn’t be lately, so I expect there is a push of them in the south just like there is with other northern species. We were able to pick out at least one uncommon abieticola subspecies of Red-tailed Hawk. They can be separated from the more common borealis subspecies by their darker head (with streaks 'dribbling' down onto their flanks) and back and their densely marked, blotchy bellyband pinched together at the centre. A partially marked throat patch is another tell. Finally, the first Golden Eagle came through, followed shortly after by another. In the veg, I found two patch lifers: a Blue-headed Vireo and a couple (don’t laugh) Black-capped Chickadees, a weirdly tough bird at the location. Five Vesper Sparrows foraged along the edge of the field.
Isabel, Ethan, and Nathan left before 3:00, but the raptor movement was still steady so I stayed for a bit and picked up another Golden Eagle. I was also able to add one new species for the location, a Pine Warbler. This warbler addition to the Mattress list leaves us with only a couple common warbs left to pick up for the patch: Mourning Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and Canada Warbler, but we’ll have to wait until next Spring for a chance at those. We finished the day with three new species for the patch, and I got one year bird and five patch lifers. A very successful day of birding! See the eBird checklist here.
