I travelled down from Carleton Place to hook up with my buddy Robin in
Newmarket and then off to Hamilton at 6:30 am for my target lifer the King
Eider. hell it was a slam dunk with 7 spotted the week before. We might even
pick up that elusive Barnacle (Bill as he is affectionately known).
We had near perfect weather in the AM except no sun as we did the Seaway, and
with a neat bit of luck got to the other side of the construction for a short
while. We also did the local pond and river and then onto various stops all
the way til Grimsby harbour.
We picked up 42 species, if you count "George " but more of him later. Twenty
odd ducks, highlights being all of the scoters, mergansers, redhead, pintails,
wood duck and Gadwall. The scoters were particular active providing full
courtship displays all seen at a close distance. Made the day. We also picked
up the 3 nightherons tucked by the rivers edge trying to stay warm.
On the gull front there were the usual suspects plus several lesser BBs.
Now back to George. As we pulled up by the water near grimsby harbour we
caught sight of what we were sure was barnacle Bill and proceeded to high five.
Minutes later he landed on the ice and we had a long look, except something
was wrong. Bill was huge, orange bill and legs, no sharp colour change on
chest, body colour wrong etc etc. We quickly concluded this was some kind of
hybrid but only the genes will tell.
Next the wind picked up and our calm lovely day turned into a bone chilling
exercise in returning along the coast to the seaway one stop at a time but with
out ever seeing a single eider.
Back at the seaway the white caps resulted in spray right across the end of the
pier where we huddled in one last frantic attempt to find my goal but no luck.
Did end the day by seeing the peregrine at his usual.
It was a wonderful day of birding, as we never get this many water fowl on a
Feb 5 in the Ottawa area. I even stopped at Presqu'ile PP on the way home on
Sat but no luck there eider.
Iain CO and Robin N1B
DSBC (NC)
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