Niagara Introduction

So the first day in Niagara has drawn to a close. We're staying in Niagara-on-the-lake, a beautiful town that lies on where the Niagara river flows into Lake Ontario. The weather has been pretty lousy today but it has still been possible to rack up some interesting species. Most notably, there have been more Bonaparte's Gulls than you could shake a stick at. In fact, on the evening flyby (birds fly down the Niagara river late afternoon and roost on Lake Ontario) there were probably in excess of 3,000 along with a nice adult Little Gull, standing out markedly by its obviously dark underwing in contrast to all the Bonaparte's. There was also a sizeable flock of Bonaparte's hovering over a shoal of small fish near Miller's Creek Marina (between Niagara and Fort Erie), where it was possible to study the species at close range despite the poor light.

Note the rather dark bar on the underwing, a feature I don't recall seeing so obviously previously

Like the vagrants I've seen in Britain and Ireland, leg colour really does vary from bubblegum pink to bright orange; probably more birds in the pink...

 The legendary Adam Beck HEP was pretty decent too, although the large gulls in the river at the bottom were rather more distant. However, it was good to be able to study American Herring Gulls, particularly adults, where the primary patterns seemed pretty variable with some birds almost argentatus-like with reduced black in the wingtips while other birds only had small mirrors on the outer primaries. Anyway, I saw half a dozen Kumlien's Gulls of varying darkness too along with my first Great Black-backed Gulls of the trip.

Ducks were scattered right the way along the river, mainly Goldeneye, Buffleheads and Long-tailed Ducks with smaller numbers of Red-breasted Mergs and Goosanders. And, just outside our hotel, there was a nice close pair of deglandi White-winged Scoter late afternoon - good enough to see the drake's bill and brown flanks. Other birds noted included a showy Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, American Goldfinch and American Crow.

Northern Cardinal

That's a better one

Having complained yesterday about the relative subtlety in the kumlieni at Ashbridge's, I had a stroll down the Toronto waterfront for a couple of hours just before I left. The aim was to photograph the Ring-billed Gulls and Long-tailed Ducks in the lovely light, but I managed more than that by chancing upon another Kumlien's Gull - again an adult, but this time rather less subtle (with nice mirrors on P6-P10) and a really good bird to see.

And here's another Long-tailed Duck...

More of Toronto's waterfront birds

I've really enjoyed my time here in Toronto, with today being our last full day here before we head around Lake Ontario to the natural wonder of Niagara Falls and of course one of the best spots for gulls in North America apparently. So today was a bit of a casual birding affair, with a long walk around the city culminating in a brief stop at Ashbridge's Bay Park. Like all of Toronto's water front, this place was packed full of ducks - the commonest species being Buffleheads, Long-tailed Ducks and Red-breasted Mergansers. And wherever there is food to be had, those ringos sniffle around your feet at literally a few inches distance. I could actually have grabbed one of those crazy mofos today, but Karen didn't want me to. So I didn't.

Anyway, in amongst all the Ring-billed Gulls was a northern beauty - a nice adult Kumlien's Gull. Well, I say nice but I would have loved something looking like that adult a couple of winters back in Galway. All the Kumlien's that I've seen and found have never been anything like approaching thayeri in wing tip colouration, and this boy was the same. Nice dark shafts to P8-P10 with only discernible subterminal bands on P7 and P8. There's a quality Kumlien's vs. Iceland Gull article recently written by Newfoundland gull afficionado Dave Brown here, and he mentions although the iris colour of kumlieni is variable, they all show a bit of dark peppering - just like this bird.

Also at Ashbridge's, amongst the confiding Mallards and Buffleheads (that incidentally did not come to bread), was this hybrid drake Black Duck x Mallard.

Heinz 57

Snowy on the Spit

Right then, I'll keep it real short as today was action packed full of Nearctic waterfowl and really enjoyable northern birding. Karen was once again brilliant on these 'non-birding' holidays and, while I got my fill of yankage, she filled her boots in a shoe museum amongst other things.

Today was the Toronto CBC (Christmas Bird Count) and it was good to meet Jean Iron, who has continually been most helpful in providing me with info prior to and during this visit, amongst others while I was out and about on 'the spit' at Tommy Thompson State Park. Pride of place went to a totally majestic, immense 1st-winter female Snowy Owl, part of the latest movement of this species due to food shortages further north.

I also saw 1000s of waterfowl - well up on usual numbers due to the mild winter over here - and this included a real array of Nearctic beauties including Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, 2 species of Scaup, 3 species of Merganser, Bufflehead, Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck, Black Duck, Mallard, Gadwall, Trumpeter Swan, Mute Swan and Canada Goose.  More on these some other time.

Aythya action Canadian style

Other decent stuff of course included a load of gulls, as well as an American Coot, a Great Northern Diver, a Great Horned Owl, Black-capped Chickadees, American Tree Sparrows and a single Song Sparrow.

ATS - Corvo next?

Canadian Intro

I've had a really enjoyable, leisurely stroll along the Toronto waterfront today, having arrived late last night following a smooth flight. The place is packed full of a nice selection of birds literally within a stone's throw from downtown (the city centre in plain English speak). Highlight for me was the masses - literally 1000s - of Long-tailed Ducks close in all along the harbour wall. I've probably seen more of these beauties today in the crisp winter sun, than I have in my life before.

The ringos were pretty confiding too, and it was possible to stroke a couple of the first-winters that evidently hadn't become accustomed to the human race yet. Lovely stuff, and even though these boys are as common as you like on this side of the pond there's still something about any Nearctic gull, wherever they are, that makes me transfixed. Look at the intricacies and variability of the 1st-winters in these shots.

And given that this trip is one of those 'non-birding' ones, we did the tourist thing and shot up the CN Tower late afternoon.

The other side of the pond

I'll soon be heading off for a week's trip to Ontario - visiting Toronto and Niagara. I'm looking forward to another winter trip to North America, just like when I went to New York in January 2009. It'll be good to get my eye in on some bits and bobs larid wise too before it kicks off over here, though the juvenile American Herring Gull at Baltimore, County Cork has already got me in the mood. There were an impressive dozen species of gulls at Niagara the other day, so hoping I'll get a look in with some of these bad boys - Kittiwake, Bonaparte's, Little, Franklin's, Ring-billed, American Herring, Thayer's, Kumlien's, Glaucous, LBB, GBB and a single Slaty-backed Gull.

It won't be a hardcore birding trip, and sometimes it's good to mix it up a little bit. In fact, it will just be nice to be in good health as when I was in NY a couple of years back I got a bit of a bug that had me done over for a day, and then feeling pretty grim shady for the rest of my days there. Anyway, here are a few I prepared earlier (New York, 2009).

American Herring Gull (photos 1 to 6)

Ring-billed Gull (1st winter)

Ring-billed Gull (adult)

Pale-bellied Brent

Snow Goose (1st-winter)

Hooded Merganser

Pied-billed Grebe

American Robin

Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Winter Fun on Fuerteventura

The fun started yesterday morning - with an early morning charter flight with the lovely Thomson airline, a company that I'd been delayed by 56 hours with in Israel a few years ago. This time though, things were smooth - apart from some twat that the stupid air hostesses had allowed to buy 12 cans of Stella on the flight. Lee and I therefore arrived on the island just after midday and away we went, and off on the trail of rectifying a bird that had been taken from me by a white van man and a cunning Englishman who didn't know a word of Spanish.

Heading south after picking up the extremely cheap rent-a-car, first notable bird was an adult Egyptian Vulture over Barranco de la Torre - but this was just the sideshow. In no time at all, we'd pulled into Rosa de Catalina Garcia, a tidy little reservoir/pool that was full of birds in the otherwise waterless landscape.

Rosa de Catalina Garcia, Fuerteventura

Ruddy Shelduck

Berthelot's Pipit

Ruddy Shelducks were pretty obvious - at least seven (most seen at once), but probably more came and went during the afternoon - and so too were those pesky Stilts, LRPs and lots of Berthelot's Pipits mincing around and about. A small group of Teal held something more interesting - a nice Blue-winged Teal, that spent most of the afternoon alert and on the move with its slightly smaller congeners. I always enjoy vagrants from across the pond, no matter where I am, so this was a bonus. However, after an hour of no show - and Hans and Bosse arriving - I was starting to get worried about the main prize.

BWT - upperwing

BWT - underwing, belly and legs

It was all well and good that I'd seen some nice bits and bobs, but with the books not marking themselves back home, there was only one reason why I was on this pretty rancid island - and after patiently waiting, the Allen's Gallinule flew out of the reeds and then proceeded to feed on the more distant muddy edge. It looked something like this... presumably an adult bird, with a rather dull bill. If you want to see it up close and personal then have a look at this shot from my mate David Monticelli.

The gallinule for most of the afternoon remained fairly elusive, though did spend periods of time probing on the reed fringes for food. Other birds included Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper... a nice assortment of waders. Also good to remember where I was by the fact that Lesser Short-toed Larks and Trumpeter Finches came down to drink at the pool, and Spectacled Warblers were pretty common too. Oh yeah, this bad boy showed late on too.

Not too well-versed with what's what in terms of historic Canaries records, I can't imagine there have been too many Great Bitterns? There was also a 1st-winter Spotted Crake in the reedbed last thing in the evening, before the sun set and I got whisked off to some shit hole of a resort called Caleta de Fuste (where I'd stayed in 2003) and to The Trafalgar Pub for dinner. It was the first time I'd ever been to an English bar abroad - I thought bloody Johnny Vegas and his Benidorm crew were about to walk out any second. At least the beers were cheap.

I only had a hour or so of birding light this morning before the flight, and being on the island perhaps for the last time, it was rude to leave without its endemic chat. So I old-schooled it and went down to Barranco de la Torre, the place I'd seen them most consistently 8 years ago. And though the tamarisk clumps had grown considerably two Canary Islands' Chats were found in the time available - a male and a female. 30 Trumpeter Finches and a few scratchy Sardinian Warblers were in the mix too.

The Ryanair flight left on time, and I was back home in my London flat for just after 5pm. It's remarkable what you can do in a weekend.