January 16th, 2012
This pretty little bird is a female mountain bluebird, seen today (Sunday) in Puslinch Township, west of Morriston and east of Crief. It is far from home – breeding birds are found from the Yukon as far east as central Manitoba, and wintering takes place in southern BC, California, and Mexico. This individual was first sighted early in the new year, and has remained in the same vicinity since. I took a trip out today and was fortunate to find it, though it appeared and disappeared several times over a 2 hour period – as did a number of other interested birders!!
This is a “lifer” for me, the first of the species I’ve seen in the wild. All of the other observers I spoke with came from within an hour’s drive, though when a rare bird is spotted people will often travel great distances – at great expense – to record the bird on their “life list”. I have chased down a few in my time, but always in fairly local terms. And sometimes you make the trip, but don’t end up seeing the quarry, as was the case with a gull – I can’t even remember what kind – the “outdooredguys” pursued in the Niagara area about 10 years or so ago. And when you put Niagara and gull in the same sentence, you’re talking needle in a haystack.
Stuart McLean of Vinyl Cafe fame, narrated “The Bird” a few years ago, the story of a rare bird that showed up at Dave and Morley’s feeder one winter. The entire podcast is about birds – all of it great humour – but the story begins about halfway through.
Mountain Bluebird (female) January 15, 2012
Range map for mountain bluebird from Environment Canada’s Wildspace website
Here are a couple of links to local and Provincial bird sightings:
The Bird Studies Canada newsletter had this article about the extensive movement of snowy owls into southern Canada and the northern US this winter:
13 January 2012 – Spectacular Snowy Owls are on the move! The owls are irrupting well south of their usual winter range in Canada, with reports as far south as Kansas. To read more about the phenomenon in eBird, select this link. If you don’t see a Snowy Owl in your birding ventures, you can still appreciate how truly magnificent these birds are by selecting this link.