Author: Jason

Book Review: Birds of Ontario by Bezener

Jason / / book

I found Birds of Ontario by Andy Bezener at the local public library about a week ago. The book is part field guide and part reference, with one page devoted to each species. Having used various bird guides and books, I found this book to be a very convenient guide for Ontario.

I am very partial to books that give more than just the basic identification and species information. Bezener’s book is one of these because it includes a large paragraph for each species that gives interesting behavioural information not strictly necessary for identification. I have enjoyed reading many of the entries so far.

This book also has a very handy reference guide with small thumbnails at the beginning as well as an introduction to birdwatching. It also contains a small description of some of the most popular sites in Ontario. We will probably find this very useful, as we actually have done the majority of our birding in Australia where we first became interested in birds, and we are only just getting introduced to Ontario.

The book is illustrated by Ted Nordhagen, Gary Ross, and Ewa Pluciennik. Each species has one or (in the case of tricky species) two illustrations. As a guide, I would say that it would be definitive for the majority of species, with only very few sightings needing a second source. It also has the advantage that it concentrates on Ontario, which is more efficient sometimes than consulting a more massive North American guide.

I would recommend this book for anyone who regularly birds in Ontario.

Melbourne’s Yarra Bend Park

Jason / / location

Site Location: Melbourne, Australia

The Yarra Bend Park is the largest green space in Melbourne. Although it is urban, you can find quite a lot of fascinating things there.

Not just for birds!

Having once lived only a few minutes walk from it, we quickly became the eBirders with the highest number of submitted checklists for the park. I suspect that will change in the next year or so. Given that we’ve been so many times (far more tha indicated on eBird), this location post will be a little more detailed than the typical one. Due to where we walked, I will be talking about the following areas indicated by numbers on this map:


Before going to this park, I must emphasise that this park is a little seedy at times, with graffiti artists doing their thing and other odd elements. This is also a dog-friendly park, and sometimes there can be a lot of dogs, including many poorly-trained ones. The best times to avoid the dogs is definitely in the morning. However, many dog owners in this park also don’t pick up their dog feces, and we’ve stepped in it more than once despite trying to be careful.

Despite that huge warning, this park is definitely worth a look. You can minimise the weird stuff by going on weekdays, early in the mornings, during colder months, not during school holidays and definitely not around christmas.

Grey Butcherbird is one of four butcherbirds that can be seen in Australia, and it is the only one that can be seen in Melbourne.

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Britannia Conservation Area and Mud Lake

Jason / / location

Site Location: Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)

I didn’t have high hopes for Britannia Conservation area, which is a 2.5km trail around Mud Lake. About 15km west of Parliament hill, Mud lake is a surprisingly good find for us. Here is the trail map that is also displayed at points along the trail:
When we first arrived here on a Saturday, there were dozens of cars parked along Cassels street. It looked so crowded I was convinced it would be a bust and I was half-ready to just go home and not even check it out. Luckily we tried anyway. It turned out that most of the people there (which I believe was a bunch of birdwatching groups) were sticking mostly to the trail north of Cassels street.

We parked at the water treatment plant parking lot, and went clockwise around the lake. As soon as we started, I was pleasantly surprised at how few people were on the trail, which to me hinted that not all the birds would be scared away. Right at the beginning, we found Hooded Merganser. We read that this place attracts ducks during fall migration, and Hooded Merganser is certainly not a bad start.

A little bridge at the beginning of the walk is a good place to see Black-capped Chickadee.
The path around the lake is excellent, and gives a surprising illusion of wilderness for such an urban area. There are several good lookout points along the way, and it makes good sense to look for any unusual species. We found American Wigeon for the first time here.
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Thank you, bagpipes

Jason / / sighting

The other day we sat down for a rest in Vincent Massey park. Seemingly unfortunately, we were greeted with the sound of bagpipes. Obviously, we couldn’t rest with that kind of sound going off in our ears so we walked to a new spot. A few minutes later this beautiful owl flew into a tree very close to us:

Great-horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)

It was truly an amazing view, and we wouldn’t have seen it if it weren’t for those bagpipes driving us away!

This is in fact the second owl we’ve seen on our quest to see the world’s birds (339 and counting). The first was the Rufous Owl that we saw in the George Brown botanic garden in Darwin:

Rufous Owl (Ninox rufa)

Perhaps this means we’ll see even more owls in the future?

Canada, So Far

Jason / / Uncategorized

Canada and Australia: how do they compare in terms of birds? Canada is without a doubt more challenging. The time spent to good sightings ratio is higher. In Australia, great views were easy. There were all sorts of huge, colourful birds practically flying in our face.

But, we’ve made some good Canadian progress. Check out our bird list to see that we’ve seen 39 new species here in Canada (there are a couple more to add, too).

And we’ve gotten some good sightings here, no doubt. For instance, last month we had an amazing view of Northern Cardinal:

The quest for the Superb Lyrebird

Jason / / sighting

We’ve been trying to find the Superb Lyrebird since we first started birding in Australia. What’s the Superb Lyrebird you ask? Only the world’s largest passerine!

It’s not just the world’s largest passerine, though. It can also mimic a huge array of sounds, most of them being other bird calls. Believe me, the sound replication is very accurate. The calls of Laughing Kookaburra, Eastern Whipbird, and Red Wattlebird are all very different. Yet, the Lyrebird’s imitation of them sounds like the real thing!

We recently tried to find the Lyrebird for the last time in the Dandenong ranges, which is a convenient 40km drive from Melbourne. It’s also one of the prime locations for Lyrebirds. We tried to find them three times before…and failed.

Our most recent trip had to be our last attempt at trying, since our time to find Australian birds is running out. If we didn’t find it, we reasoned, we would not get another chance for many years.

We started off early, at 9AM at O’Donohue picnic ground. Typically, after twenty minutes I got discouraged. However, we couldn’t give up. Remember. The last time. Lyrebird.

Late fall is good for visiting the Dandenong ranges. The walks through the forest are nice and it’s not too crowded. And walk we did. After O’Donohue, we went to Grants Picnic Ground and started a long walk. The first hour past, the second, the third. Finally, at lunch time, we heard something. A Whipbird? A Kookaburra?

No. Even though Superb Lyrebirds have outstanding mimicry, they can be distinguished from the birds they mimic by multiple bird sounds emanating from the same location. We stopped and listened for five minutes while a hidden Lyrebird rattled off many bird calls in rapid succession. Now, even if we didn’t manage to see a Lyrebird, we at least heard it, and that was pretty good because its vocal performance is one of its coolest features.

The Lyrebird never came out of hiding. Instead, we kept on walking. A gentleman farther along the track was taking a photo. Did he see the Lyrebird? No, he was looking at some cool mushrooms.

We had been searching for the Lyrebird for over three hours, and we were hungry. It took us a couple more hours to walk back to the car at Grants Picnic Ground. On the way, we saw many White-throated Treecreepers that I kept hoping would be Red-browed Treecreeper. No avail.

Once we returned to the car, we drove back to O’Donohue because Grants was too crowded for a peaceful late lunch. Six hours passed since we had started, and we were resigned to not seeing the Superb Lyrebird, ever. It didn’t like us.

We tried walking around a little and saw a Grey Shrikethrush. Since it was too cold outside to sit, we ate in the car and talked about how the Lyrebird would remain forever unseen to us.

Movement in the bush caught our eyes.

A male Lyrebird with the most beautiful tail walked into the parking lot and began foraging for snacks in the leaf litter! And only a few meters from the car and in perfect view of the passenger window. We scrambled for cameras and got the shot. We rolled down the window and sat silently, appreciating the beauty of this majestic bird.

He kept foraging for several minutes, giving us the perfect Lyrebird experience. A distant car sound coming towards the picnic ground startled it and back to the forest it ran — Lyrebirds prefer running over flying.

After an exhausting six hours, we drove home with the afterglow of our Lyrebird show, which must be one of my top five birdwatching experiences.

The Wet Northern Queensland

Jason / / location

We just came back from Northern Queensland, targeting three areas: Cairns, Kuranda, and Cape Tribulation. Our trip spanned March 10-17, which is near the end of the wet season. We had a few near planning mishaps: the Daintree ferry was out of operaton the previous week and heavy rains made many roades impassable. Thankfully, by the time we needed to use these roads, the flooding had receded.

Cairns

We spent two nights in Cairns.

We went to the Jack Barnes Mangrove Boardwalk after picking up our rental car. It was a great way to stretch after our flight. There are two walks, both providing wonderful views of the mangroves, crabs, and mudskippers.

We found this colourful crab in the mud of the mangrove forest floor.

Possibly because we did these walks in the middle of the day, we didn’t find many birds. We did get one new one: Pacific Golden Plover, feeding in the small field next to the start of the shorter walk. However, had we come earlier, we might have missed the crabs because of the higher tide.
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Blue-billed Duck and Freckled Duck at the Western Treatment Plant

Jason / / sighting

Pretty much every duck in Victoria can be see at the Western Treatment Plant. The only exception might be the Plumed Whistling Duck, which is not easy to see in Victoria at all.

However, there are two ducks that you have a chance of seeing but are not so easy at all: Freckled Duck and Blue-billed Duck. If you do see them, chances are you’ll see 1-2 individuals, compared to the thousands of Australian Shelducks in the summer. Actually, you have a much better chance of seeing them at Lake Lorne in Geelong, but if you don’t want to make a detour there, here’s something you can try at the Western Treatment Plant.

Go to Lake Borrie via the first entrance on Point Wilson (Gate #5). After going through Gate #6, go in the direction of the red arrow:

As you pass the the head of the arrow, look to the right. For some reason, this smaller inlet seems to be a haven for these rarer ducks. Now you pretty much have to scan every duck with binoculars. Look around quickly because these ducks have a tendency to swim away if they can tell that you’re there. Here is a Blue-billed Duck we saw the last time we were there, and we’ve seen it more than once:

Yes, it’s a male Blue-billed Duck! Keep in mind that the Blue-billed Duck can dive underwater so it pays to look at every area a couple of times. The Blue-billed Duck has an intricate mating display that involves water splashing but we’ve never seen it.

If you can tick the Blue-billed Duck and Freckled Duck, then the other ducks in Victoria should be a piece of cake. After that, one trip to Cairns and the surrounding areas should allow you to see every duck in Australia. (I’m excluding the Northern Mallard here.)