Day One:
On Saturday, we focused on Hamilton Harbour/Burlington Bay, where there are loads and loads of wintering ducks. On the way to LaSalle Marina, we made a slight detour to see the red-morph Eastern Screech Owl. Lucky for us, it was showing. It's so nice to have that owl around in an easy-to-see spot. At LaSalle Marina, there were many species, including 100+ Canvasback, ~40 Ring-necked Ducks, Common Goldeneye, White-winged Scoter, Bufflehead, Long-tailed Duck, and the usual group of Trumpeter Swans. Photo ops weren't very good, but I know Bruce was happy with seeing the species, especially the Canvasbacks.
![]() |
Red-morph Eastern Screech Owl: A long-time resident in Burlington |
![]() |
Long-tailed Duck eating a Zebra Mussel |
Day Two:
Sunday was the real birding day! Knowing there was a few thousand Sandhill Cranes and several hundred Tundra Swans wintering at Long Point, that was the easy choice for the day's destination. It even beat out a trip to see the Northern Hawk Owl up in Schomberg, mainly because we'd see many more species at Long Point. The weather forecast was pretty mixed: mainly cloudy with snow showers, possible freezing drizzle, morning fog, and occasional sunny periods! Perfect!
On the 85-minute drive from Hamilton to Long Point, we counted Red-tailed Hawks. I predicted we would get at least 12 before arriving at Long Point. We ended up with 15 or 16. Red-tailed Hawks are very common in southern Ontario 12 months of the year.
As we were approaching the corn fields where the Sandhills have been gathering, we spied a very dark raptor perched in a tree right beside the road. At first we thought it was the dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk that had been seen in the area, but upon closer inspection of photos, we discovered that it was a dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk. I only managed record shots, but still a nice bird to see.
![]() |
Dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk |
![]() |
Sandhill Crane: The lighting made the wingtips turn a slight bronze colour |
![]() |
Sandhill Cranes |
![]() |
Sandhill Cranes: Just some of the many flying over us |
![]() |
Sandhill Crane: My favourite photo from the trip |
Other Birds Too!
In addition to the scads of Sandhill Cranes, we saw several other species, including hundreds of Tundra Swans, thousands of Redhead Ducks, several Bald Eagles, a few Northern Harriers, a Pileated Woodpecker, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, Horned Larks, a Lapland Longspur, and even a Great Blue Heron.
![]() |
Some of the thousands of Redhead Ducks and Tundra Swans. Note the Bald Eagle in the right corner, waiting for an an opportunity to grab some lunch. |
![]() |
Just some of the hundreds of Tundra Swans we saw. |
So, all-in-all it was a great two days of birding with my brother. Sunday at Long Point was a standout day with so many birds to see and photograph.
To end this post, here's a snap of me taken by Bruce at LaSalle ... smiling with my new lens!
![]() |
Me with the new lens, all wrapped in camo! |
No comments:
Post a Comment