Whiskey Jack North

Baie-du-Febvre

Fôret Montmorency

See the wind?

The work of a Black-backed Woodpecker?

Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris

Boreal Chickadee Poecile hudsonicus

Canada Jay Perisoreus canadensis

Canada Jay Perisoreus canadensis

Canada Jay Perisoreus canadensis

Canada Jay Perisoreus canadensis

Canada Jay Perisoreus canadensis

Baie-du-Febvre, Fôret Montmorency, February 26, 2017
  Dan showed up at an eye-wateringly early 6:20 a.m. yesterday for a trip up to Fôret Montmorency, with two members of the McGill Students' Birding Club, Zack and Kateyn. Kudos to Dan for handling the driving for the grueling 700km round-trip. Halfway up, we stopped in Baie-du-Febvre (site of our Prothonotary big day last May: http://snowyowllost.blogspot.ca/2016/06/twitch-and-shout.html), for a cheeky scan of the fields along Route Janelle. We came across loose flocks of charming Horned Larks with a few Snow Buntings mixed in, but unfortunately not the lone Lapland Longspur that’s been hanging out there.
  At our final destination up in the hills, the white-out conditions got challenging at times, both for driving and for birding. Fôret Montmorency was awe-inspiring, I’ve never been in a boreal forest quite like this – very Tim Burtony. One of our target species, Boreal Chickadees, were taunting us with fleeting glimpses all the way up a hill, until we were finally rewarded with satisfying long views at the top. They looked quite different to Black-capped Chickadees - relatively large and chunky, giving a dark, purple-ish impression at first glance. Lovely bird.
  Similarly, we blanked when it came to spotting Canada’s bird, the Canada (Gray) Jay, after a full tour around Lac Piché, probably due to the wind situation that seemed to be keeping most birds hunkered. After a quick regroup back at the main building, and some helpful tips from passing hikers, we raced back down a trail in a Hail Mary foray back to the lake, which failed. On our way back, we moped and despaired, until, two minutes from the parking lot, I looked up and saw a phantasm. A Canada Jay was perched inches behind Zack’s head. The next ten minutes were surreal, like being in the presence not of an animal, but an alien race far superior to humans. The pair of Whiskey Jacks perched calmly within a foot of us, seemingly observing us and taking notes of their own, communicating with each other using cryptic, whispered chuckles. The encounter ended when they melted back into the Balsam Firs as a pack of Pine Grosbeaks rippled overhead.

Baie-du-Febvre
American Crow - 11
Horned Lark – in the neighbourhood of 45
European Starling - 3
Snow Bunting - 4

On the road
Herring Gull - 1
Rock Dove – 23
Blue Jay - 6
American Crow - 68
Horned Lark – 25ish total on several roads near Baie-du-Febvre
European Starling -31
House Sparrow - 11
(Red Fox – 1, White-tailed Deer – 1)

Fôret Montmorency
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Gray Jay - 2
Black-capped Chickadee – at least 6
Boreal Chickadee - 10
Red-breasted Nuthatch – at least 5
Pine Grosbeak – a flyover flock of 9, with several others heard from treetops
(American Red Squirrel -1)

St. Valentine's Day Birdssacre

Fields of Mirabel

Parc des Falaises de Prévost

Snowy Owl Bubo scandiacus

Snow Bunting Plectrophenax nivalis

Snow Bunting Plectrophenax nivalis (Male coming into breeding plumage?)

Snow Bunting Plectrophenax nivalis

Snow Bunting Plectrophenax nivalis

Snow Bunting Plectrophenax nivalis

Snow Bunting Plectrophenax nivalis

Mirabel & Prévost, February 14, 2017
  Just got back from another few days up north at Casa del Joey, filled with bluegrass jams (my fingers hurt), spiced rum (my liver hurts), and birding (all is well). We spent the morning of the 14th cruising the Rangs Ste-Marie & Ste Dominique north of Mirabel Airport, trying to peer over the massive walls of snow that have been cleared off the roads – we’ve had a lot of heavy fluff-fluff in the region over the past week. We soon came upon 60-80 (one group of 20 roved widely) Snow Buntings by the roadsides, and spent literally hours watching them and listening to their delightful little chattering calls.
  Towards noon we came upon another target species – a Snowy Owl perched briefly on a barn, before it headed back out to the middle of a field. We later told another birder about this sighting, and he replied “Crisse! Ou ca?”, and sped off in pursuit, heh heh. We had no luck with finding a Gyrfalcon there, or at the Alfred-Kelly Nature Reserve/Parc des Falaises de Prévost, which was very quiet overall.

Way back when

Gotta love those skiddy hoar frost morning rides

Robin, Subho, and Loghry try to spot an Eastern Water Rail at dusk - two of them succeeded... 

Tim finally gets his Sandhill Crane

Tim scans the bay from the seawall for a sunset surprise

I find my second Suncheon Sandhill

Eurasian Nuthatch Sitta europaea

Eurasian Siskin Spinus spinus

Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus

Eurasian Magpie Pica pica

Little Grebes Tachybaptus ruficollis huddle and circle on a ridiculously small unfrozen patch

Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus

Hooded Crane Grus monacha

  It’s been a slow bird week, so I was having a traipse down memory lane, sifting through old Suncheon folders from this time last year, and found a few I had plum forgotten about in the mindless scramble of my last month in Korea. Here are a few more memories from the best patch I’ve had the pleasure of birding in - although it was being steadily degraded by encroaching development when I left, and I hear that has continued unabated. Incidentally, the memories would have paled without the cool dudesters in those pics.
  Going up north tomorrow for a few days to hang out with Joey, and I’ve got some ambitious, Google Maps-inspired winter birding planned. Fingers crossed.

White Squall

Pre-squall

Squall line

Post-squall

Clot of owlers

Canada Goose Branta canadensis - Could it get any more Canadian than this?

Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus

American Tree Sparrow Spizella arborea

Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia

One of each

Ile Saint-Bernard, January 29, 2017
  Dan and I went to Ile Saint-Bernard yesterday, always a lovely spot. Initially sunny, a huge snow squall pushed through around noon. I liked it. There was a pair of Great Gray Owls around, but we were too cool to hang around the scrum - too cool for those squares, daddy-o. I actually loathe being around such a scene. That's just me. Anyway, we found our own Great Gray a few years back at the Arbo (http://snowyowllost.blogspot.ca/2013/01/montreal-morgan-arboretum-january-16.html). I got a kick out of watching Song and American Tree Sparrows interact.

Technoparc, January 20, 2017

Dan looking worried about the future of the Technoparc site, with Shrijeet and Anita

Long-eared Owl Asio otus

  Yesterday Dan and I met up with McGill Students’ Birding Club members Anita and Shrijeet for an early morning session at the Technoparc. It was refreshing to bird with these passionate young birders. We had unseasonably balmy above-freezing temperatures, although our morning’s birding was set amidst the fairly depressing backdrop of ongoing noisy construction at (destruction of) the Technoparc site. The site boasts one of the highest species counts for the island of Montreal, including an impressive array of breeding water birds last summer, including Green Heron, Virginia Rail and Sora.

  Unfortunately, the degradation of the prime wetland habitat is well underway, in preparation for the construction of the ‘Hubert Reeves Eco-campus ’, ironically named after a well-known ‘popularizer of science’. This monkey business is frustrating as hell, but it’s a familiar song after having lived in Korea for close to a decade. Same shit, different continent. Lucre, disinformation, greenwash. It’s ok to wipe out this ridiculously productive wetland because...because...we’re calling it an ‘Eco-campus’! Yep. Fake news!

  Our target species was Long-eared Owl – I’ve only seen this species on one previous occasion (a quick encounter with an individual unfortunately being hunted by a Goshawk last year in Suncheon: http://snowyowllost.blogspot.ca/2015/11/suncheon-october-26-november-15.html. I’d forgotten how relatively small they are, in spite of echoing the morphology of the much larger Great Horned Owl. We also had a brief encounter with one of those impressive birds a bit earlier on.

  We found the Long-eared Owl, still in the tree where Shrijeet first discovered it several weeks ago. Four photogs were huddled directly beneath the tree, snapping away at the owl, which had its tufts up in an alert posture. I always get a queasy feeling when it comes to witnessing photogs interacting with owls. I know, I know - I have a camera and I took a picture of the owl. I’d like to think the fact that we didn’t get as close, and were in and out in 20 seconds (as opposed to camping out and getting all up in the bird’s face) meant something - that there was a line in the snow that we didn’t cross. I dunno. I guess the stern words of Dr. Nial Moores still echo in my ears when it comes to birding ethics, especially where owls, a much sought after group of birds, are concerned. Over the years I’ve avoided photographing owls, posting images of owls, and even mentioning certain owl sightings, when I thought that the bird’s welfare was in question. Anyhow, that’s my rant, now give me my ‘Saint of Birding’ halo. Toss it up to me on my high horse.

  There were reports of Snow Buntings and a Snowy Owl being sighted near the runways of the Trudeau Airport recently, but no dice yesterday. Shrijeet’s little bridge camera was badass, by the way. It made me re-evaluate my antiquated boat anchor. My New Year’s resolution? Get on eBird. I’ll do it soon.

Red-shouldered Hawk -1 probable, seen at a considerable distance near the runways

Red-tailed Hawk – 2

Rock Dove – 3

Long-eared Owl – 1

Great Horned Owl – 1

Downy Woodpecker – 8

Hairy Woodpecker – 1

Northern Flicker - 2

American Crow – 6+

Black-capped Chickadee – 8+

Brown Creeper – 1 heard

European Starling – 20+

Northern Cardinal – 6+

Dark-eyed Junco – 1

House Sparrow – 5+

American Goldfinch – 9

Pine Siskin – 1 mixed sneakily in with the Goldfinch group

Westmount Summit / Two cemeteries, January 17, 2017

Only the dietarily-disciplined shall pass - I barely scraped through

Townsend’s Solitaire Myadestes townsendi

House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus

House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus

House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus

Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus

  In pleasant enough January weather, I took a leg-numbing walk from NDG up through Westmount and the cemeteries. The summit and oratory area were very quiet, as was the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery. I do think there are some Eastern Screech Owls or Northern Shrikes in there somewhere, as it's a vast space with potential, in spite of the bulk of bird activity being confined to the Mount Royal Cemetery just over the fence (Dan and I have spotted Great Horned Owls and Northern Mockingbirds there at this time of year, so there's hope).
  After squeezing through a gap in that fence, I saw some photographers congregated on a rise in the Oak Ridge sector, clearly in search of the long-staying Townsend's Solitaire. I wasn't in a chatty mood, so I wandered south. I stopped in a small copse of trees (in A4 bordering on L2) when I heard a strange, intermittent squeak over the rush of wind through pine needles. It took me about five minutes of listening to realize that I was hearing two trees rubbing together, but just as I was about to carry on rambling, a medium-sized passerine flopped down onto a bush perhaps ten feet ahead of me. It was the vaunted Townsend's Solitaire, and it eventually flew up to perch atop a tree, before some passing crows caused it to dematerialize in a puff of smoke.
   Another highlight was a leisurely look at a group of House Finches in a brief slice of sunshine. Best looks I've had in a while, and they really reminded me of the Pallas's Rosefinches I saw in Korea: (http://snowyowllost.blogspot.ca/2016/01/suncheon-december-24-january-9.html)

Westmount Summit
Red-tailed Hawk - 1 being chased by...
American Crow - 2
Black-capped Chickadee - 5
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1 heard
American Robin - 2 heard near the Oratory
Northern Cardinal - 1 heard singing near some feeders

Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery
Common Raven - 2 heard
American Crow - 3
Black-capped Chickadee - 6+
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1 heard
Pileated Woodpecker - 1 heard

Mount Royal Cemetery
Common Raven - 2
American Crow - 7+
Black-capped Chickadee - 12+
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
American Robin - 2+ heard
Townsend's Solitaire - 1
House Finch - 5