How is it September?

Great Crested Flycatcher Myiarchus crinitus

Great Crested Flycatcher Myiarchus crinitus grappling with a cicada

Magnolia Warbler Setophaga magnolia

Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina

Hairy Woodpecker Picoides villosus

Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis

juvenile Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis

Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus
(This bird apparently fell from the sky and almost hit a birder....
that's some X-Files level birding shit.)

Eastern Chipmunk Tamias striatus

Japanese Beetle Popillia japonica (invasive)

More evidence of the over-zealous scrub clearing of late -
many brushy areas that have been around for as long as I can
 remember have been cleared to the ground.

Mount-Royal Cemetery, (Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery), September 5, 2019

  How is 2019, for that matter. Blew up my legs today at the cemeteries for almost five hours. Birdy in spots, and at times. Had a Cooper’s as well as a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and I heard what sounded like a Black-billed Cuckoo again around Oak Ridge. Nice to see Nashville and Tennessee Warblers, it’s been a while. Towards the end I watched a Black Swallowtail get bill-shwacked by a Great Crested Flycatcher, but drunkenly fly off. Ended up with 37 species, 9 of them warblers.

Squall birding

Rose-breasted Grosbeak Pheucticus ludovicianus

Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis

Indigo Bunting Passerina cyanea

Black-and-white Warbler Mniotilta varia

Chestnut-sided Warbler Setophaga pensylvanica

Ovenbird Seiurus aurocapilla

Cape May Warbler Setophaga tigrina
(in one of the dead trees by the south entrance)

Mount-Royal Cemetery, (Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery), September 2, 2019

  Spent 2:00-6:00 P.M. in the cemeteries today, and got thoroughly precipitated upon for the first hour. The sun cracked through after a bit, which brought the bugs out in force, followed closely by the birds.

  The first warbler wave hit in the north end of the NDNC, and there were signs of three more distinct waves in the MRC, all vizzing south. Other highlights included a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, close looks at Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, eight Cedar Waxwings, and two young Indigo Buntings where the species breeds in the NDNC.

  The mystery of the day went down in Oak Ridge, when I heard a brief and distant trilling/clucking call coming from the NDNC that sounded suspiciously like a Black-billed Cuckoo. The call wasn’t heard again, but an American Crow was heard from the area shortly after – perhaps the first call was mimicry or a crow being a weird jerk?

  The day ended with 34 species, 11 of which were warblers:

Northern Parula- (1 along the north field)

Chestnut-sided Warbler- 3 (3)

Magnolia Warbler- 8 well-dispersed, (3)

Cape May Warbler- 1 (1)

Black-throated Blue Warbler- 1 male in Mountain View

Black-throated Green Warbler- 6 in various spots, (4)

Yellow-rumped Warbler- (1)

Bay-breasted Warbler- 1 on the eastern slope down from Mount Murray

Black-and-white Warbler- (1 along the north field)

American Redstart- 3 (1)

Ovenbird- 2 in the woods just north of Mountain View, along the fence-line where they always seem to reliably end up.

America Mechuragi Doyo

St-Lazare Sand Pits

Traffic in the woods

Anthony, George, and Shrijeet in a totally unposed pic

Swampy bit of Parc et Sentier Naturel Taylor Bradbury

Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos
(아메리카메추라기도요)

Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca (top)
Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes

Olive-sided Flycatcher Contopus cooperi

Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina
(can be tricky this time of year)

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui

Viceroy Limenitis archippus

Tawny Crescent Phyciodes batesii (I think)

Tawny Crescent Phyciodes batesii (I think)

Twelve-spotted Skimmer Libellula pulchella

Carolina Locust Dissosteira carolina

Bumblebee sp.

Northern Green Frog Rama clamitans

St-Lazare Sand Pits and Parc et Sentier Naturel Taylor Bradbury, August 31, 2019

  America Mechuragi Doyo is the Korean name for the Pectoral Sandpiper. I spent years scanning shorebird flocks in Korea hoping to see one, but never managed it, as they’re vagrants there. Lo! I had the pleasure of seeing my first Pectoral Sandpiper today while on a BPQ field trip to the St-Lazare Sand Pits – a most interesting spot that I have a fuzzy feeling I birded at as a wee lad. Always feels awesome to finally clap eyeballs on a bird you’ve been staring at for years in field guides…hey, there it is…and it looks just like the illustrations in the book…imagine that.

  The bird was extremely confiding, and foraged in the company of several other equally unbothered shorebirds, including Least Sandpipers, and my highlight of the trip – a Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs foraging together at close range. The side-by-side real-time comparison views were amazing, and I feel like I learned a few things about separating the species for next time.
  Other highlights at the lovely sand pit site included four more shorebird species, a Northern Pintail, an Olive-sided Flycatcher, and several Barn Swallows – I’d forgotten how orangey they are here, compared with the Jebis of Korea. We only had three Warbler species (Palm Warbler and Common Yellowthroat at the pits, and American Redstart at the park) on the day, in keeping with my warblerless theme of late.
  While not usually a big fan of birding in large groups, it all worked out well, and I think I did a bit better than the last BPQ trip I was on, when I found myself expectorating random and incorrect bird IDs in a fever-dream of avian Tourette’s.
  We (George, Anthony, and Shrijeet and I) hit up another spot in Hudson after the pits – a fun little park with swampy trails featuring a nice mix of overgrown habitat holding much potential.
  A vexing variety butterflies and other critters were out and about, and it helped having Anthony around to help with the IDs. Thanks to George for doing the hard part (driving), and Shrijeet for the well-timed croissants. Always good times birding with those fellers.
  We ended the day with (more or less) 38 species at the St-Lazare Sand Pits, and 24 species at Parc et Sentier Naturel Taylor Bradbury, for a total of 52 species.
  Anthony's eBird lists: Sablière, St-Lazare
                                                  Parc et Sentier Naturel Taylor Bradbury

Beatin’ feet in the sweet heat

Warbler road (but not today)

Love it

Crow silhouette someone put up near the hummingbird feeders...

Some arseholes knocked over at least a dozen gravestones

Balloons are dumb

Baltimore Oriole Icterus galbula

Scarlet Tanager Piranga olivacea

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Empidonax flaviventris

Eastern Wood-Pewee Contopus virens

Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia chomping on a cricket

Mount-Royal Cemetery, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery + Université de Montréal woods, August 26, 2019

  Woah, seems it’s been almost a year since I did a proper cemetery walk. Was lovely and sunny, and fresh fresh fresh, ended up with 28 species in 3.5 hours. I bumbled onto the one-that-got-away early into the walk, on the northwest corner of the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery. For 30 seconds, the rising, piercing zhwink call of an Eastern Towhee circled me in a bushy area, then went silent. Having not clapped eyes on the bird, I can’t rule out an odd call from a juvenile Eastern Bluebird or something, so it shall have to remain a throbbing question mark.
  Nothing else too unexpected, and it was nice to see stuff like Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and Eastern Wood-Pewee around. Very birdy in G7 on the way out. A patchy Baltimore Oriole confused the heck out of me – initial furtive looks at the red-orange mottling bleeding down from the throat had me thinking Summer Tanager, until I was able to get a look at the head. Do juvie BAOR often look like this? I don’t have much experience with them in the fall.
  On Pine Hill Side I was strafed by a massive yellow butterfly, I’m assuming Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, based on the size (and colour). I know they’ve been seen closer to the border, but are they common on the island? Other butterflies seen out and about included several Monarch and Painted Lady, and Cabbage Whites were plentiful.
  Seems the groundskeepers at the MRC got a bit blade-drunk in several formerly reliably birdy spots – large tracts of bushes, shrubbery, and even several apple trees (that had been untouched for years) have been recently cut down. Shrug. Also, someone put up crow silhouette thingies up near the hummingbird feeder for some reason.
  Oh yeah, no warblers! They’re definitely out there, I just didn’t manage to see any. Early bird, something something, worm, something something. (The next day's edit: I sheepishly now remember I saw a Yellow Warbler in G7...it was in the midst of the "weird Oriole panic/hectic bird wave," so I plum forgot about it.)

B-flies and Northbimbles

The great Up North

Chutes Croches

I want to believe

Merlin Falco columbarius stalking dragonflies

American Toad Anaxyrus americanus

Atlantis Fritillary Speyeria atlantis

Atlantis Fritillary Speyeria atlantis

Silver-bordered Fritillary Boloria selene

Silver-bordered Fritillary Boloria selene

White Admiral Limenitis arthemis

Mont-Tremblant, August 14 + 22, 2019
  Shot up north to Tremblant with the Scottsman on the 14th and 22nd. Still a bit buggy, but lovely sunny weather on both days, and all the sweet, delicious boreal air you could ever want to breathe. I’m looking at you, Korea.
  Bird activity was subdued, with most birds heard, rather than seen. On the 14th, low single-digit numbers of Red-eyed Vireo, Black-capped Chickadee, Winter Wren, Swainson’s Thrush, American Robin, Nashville Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, and Ovenbird.

  Because it is still that slow time of year for birds, I focused my optics downward at les papillons, and found two fritillaries I’d never seen. Do they call those lifers too? Do they? I’m 90% confident in my butterfly IDs, but that shit is tricky.

  On the 22nd, to the soundtrack of Spring Peepers and American Red Squirrels, birds of note included a Common Loon, two Common Goldeneyes that initially had me confused as their bills looked quite heavy in the hazy distance, a ‘swamp Merlin,’ and low numbers of Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, Cedar Waxwing, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco.

  It’s late August? Like birds, the time she flies, innit.