Ixoreus naevius = NO; Calcarius lapponicus, Plectrophenax nivalis, Eremophila alpestris = YES

Today was to be an important day for my Big Year. I was going to drive 200 kilometers to see a Varied Thrush and then come home. Yes, 400 kilometers for one bird. This is an important bird for me as my Big Year only includes birds seen within the province of Ontario. This bird, if you aren't a birder, generally sticks to the west coast in Canada. It's actually pretty common to see in Vancouver (I've seen it there many times). But here in Ontario, not so much.


I awoke at 6am this morning to the sound of my son crying my name. He's got a cold and isn't sleeping well, which means I'm also not sleeping well (even after 3 pints last night with our good friends Brad and Jude). Once we got moving and some breakfast into us we started to feel a bit better. Then I got a text message from Derek, the cameraman that was going to film me chasing the Thrush. He explained I should check the weather report. Though it looked fine in my hometown of Orono, Toronto was a mess. 6 inches of snow on the major highways and no sign of any plows. I logged onto a website that shows highway camera views along the route I'd need to take to see this bird. It was pretty ugly. This was clearly not going to happen today.


I was pissed off for sure. I mean, who knows how long this bird will stay. Especially with weather like that. My mother, who would be watching the kids today, said, "Just go tomorrow. I'll watch the kids again." Thanks mom. So, after much finagling, like finding a new cameraman as Derek would be working Sunday, I have the chance to go tomorrow provided the weather gets better. The forecast is good. We'll see.


On the bright side of things, I got to hang out with the kids at home, work a little on a project for DDB (my day job) and stay in Orono which is always better than leaving town. Then, I got an e-mail from one of the three birders I was out with on that trip last weekend to Niagara, Margaret Bain. She has hooked me up with a local e-mail list that talks about interesting bird sightings close to where I live. Turns out there was a large flock of birds containing three species I still needed about a 15 minute drive from home. It was just about time to put the kids down for a nap and though I was excruciatingly tired from such a short sleep Friday night, I decided to go get them.


I got 'em. The flock was probably about 200-250 birds strong, I did manage to see the three species that were said to be there. They are the first three of todays list. Not a long list, but a good one. I also stopped at a place north of Bowmanville that has tonnes of berries still on a large group of trees. There were lots of species I already have but the two sparrows were new this year.


Lapland Longspur
Snow Bunting
Horned Lark
American Tree Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow


Total birds to date: 52

C'mon Waterloo, give me your Ixoreus naevius

There had been a Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius) visiting Waterloo, Ontario in December. This bird shouldn't really be any further west than the very west part of Calgary according to most range maps. But there it was in little old Waterloo. And at someone's front yard feeder no less. Up until yesterday, one of the bird sighting lists I belong to had the bird showing up daily to grab some free grub. Sadly, yesterday, someone reported that it didn't show at the feeder. I was so hoping to go get this bird on Saturday. That's one of the tricky things about my big year. I have to work and it may cause me to miss really important birds like this Varied Thrush. I might get another one this year, but you never know. So c'mon Waterloo, show some avian hospitality and keep that Thrush where I need it until Saturday.

A trip to Wal-mart and a Lanius excubitor

I had to go to Wal-mart today. My wife will attest, I'd rather get a punch square in the face than go to that hell-hole. The trip was made bearable by 3 things. My wife was the company and I saw a Lanius excubitor (Norther Shrike for those non-birders) and a Blue Jay. The rest of the day was spent indoors with the twins. Family time. No birds allowed.


Jan 3rd - Day list


Blue Jay
Northern Shrike

PRBY - Jan 2, 2011 day list.

Sunday was a great day. Waking at 5 am. McMuffin breakfast. Standing in the cold for hours. Being crammed into a car with 5 other people. Freezing wind and snow blowing in my face all day. Like I said, Sunday was a great day. Except for the McDonalds breakfast, it was disgusting. I ate it as an homage to Morgan Spurlock. What made Sunday so great was spending 14 hours looking at birds. OK, we looked at birds for about 6 hours, the rest was spent driving from place to place.


I was lucky enough to be able to bird the Niagara/Hamilton area with some great people. Those people were Richard Pope, Margaret Bain and Hugh Currie. Richard is the author of a great book about his own big year titled, The Reluctant Twitcher. I highly recommend reading it. Even if you aren't a birder, he's a funny guy and it comes through in his writing. These three are great friends that bird together all the time. You can tell by the way they go at each other all day long. It was nice to have Richard take a shot at me here and there, making me feel like one of the gang. A highlight of the day was that I was first to find the day's last bird, a Little Gull, flying amongst hundreds of similar looking gulls. To that, Richard might say, "Oh, this again? Are we still going to be hearing about this Little Gull in December?"


Here's the days final list.

Canada Goose

American Crow

Bald Eagle

Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Common Goldeneye

White-winged Scoter

Red-breasted Merganser

Surf Scoter

Long-tailed Duck

Mallard

Common Merganser

American Goldfinch

Greater Scaup

Northern Pintail

King Eider

Glaucous Gull

Bonaparte's Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Iceland Gull

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Tufted Titmouse

House Finch

House Sparrow

White-breasted Nuthatch

Northern Cardinal

Slate-coloured Junco

Tundra Swan

Canvasback

American Coot

Thayer's Gull

Bufflehead

American Black Duck

Double-crested Cormorant

Hooded Merganser
Gadwall
Little Gull


Bird of the day would go to the Little Gull. Mostly because I found it. Richard, that's the last time you'll hear that from me.

Early worm gets the bird... I hope.

Sorry if this is a little quiet. I didn't want to wake my family up.

Day one bird list

Well, as I prepare to get to bed for a 6am wake-up call to go to Niagara and hunt for rare gulls, I leave you with the birds I saw today. Not a big list, but I really wasn't searching. These ones just happened to present themselves to me today.


PRBY - Jan 1, 2011

Rock Dove

Mourning Dove

European Starling

American Kestral

Red-Tailed Hawk

Black-Capped Chickadee

The bird of the day was the American Kestral. It was a male in all his Blue-grey and rusty brown glory. Sadly, he was hunting in a field that was about to be raped and turned into a mega neighbourhood called 'Chestnut falls' or something stupid like that. Next year, he'll need to find food elsewhere.


Looking forward to tomorrows trip, all except the part about leaving at 6am.


Paul Riss
Punk Rock Big Year

PRBY bird 1 = Columba livia

Last night my wife and I were lucky enough to have her sister watch the twins so we could spend the evening at Lee's Palace in Toronto watching three great bands. Those bands were Bradleyboy, Catl and Elliott Brood. It was an amazing night watching the bands from the green room. Great times were had by all.

Then there was the midnight kiss. And right after that, I went outside to start my Punk Rock Big Year. Surprisingly, I was unable to find a Rock Dove (Pigeon) when I went outside. This was crazy when you consider I've had them fly into head while riding my bike downtown. I walked all the way to the Bathurst subway station trying to find one. No luck. It didn't seem like a great way to start my Big Year. I returned to the show to watch some more great music. When things started winding down at 2am, I hung outside Lee's having a burrito with Rachel (my wife) Bradleyboy and Miss Jude (Bradleyboy's wife). Then I saw it. Two dirty, ratty looking Rock Doves huddled on an equally dirty window sil above the burrito joint. Ugly as they were, they represented my first bird species of the year. The first tattoo will read, "Columba livia."

Here's Bradleyboy ending his set.

Here's Catl ending their set.

And here's a bit of Elliott Brood. Along with a crazy drunk girl that kept getting up on stage. We found a cut out of a crow in the green room which was handed to me. can't count it but I'll get the real thing in a day or so.

Happy New Year everyone and good birding in 2011. If you're into that sort of thing.

Paul Riss