Wednesday 7 December 2011

Another run around the county

With no exams for over a week, I thought I would waste another day driving around the county looking for birds. As I was leaving my driveway, I got an email from the WELLbirds listserv about a Snowy Owl 5 minutes from my house. 4 minutes later I arrived, with the owl sitting on the hydro wire in plain site!

It appeared to be an adult male, but I didn't linger long so that I wouldn't scare it off.

Snowy Owl in natural habitat - Guelph

I headed up north, hoping to get a few new species. Sandhill Cranes were hanging around and I was hoping to run into them somewhere near Luther Marsh.

On the way up north, I stopped by the Arthur lagoons and had my first Horned Larks of the winter, as well as many gulls (all Herring and Ring-billed, unfortunately).

Horny Lark

Needless to say, I didn't get any Sandhill Cranes. However, there were a few highlights, such as a beautiful light morph Rough-legged Hawk that flew right over my car! I also had a flyover White-winged Crossbill while walking some random trails near Luther, and a Common Raven which was hanging out in a farm field.

Common Raven - southwest of Luther Marsh

showing off that wedge-shaped tail

Oh yeah almost forgot - I stopped at Guelph lake during the morning and found a rare for the county (and even rarer in winter) Red-necked Grebe. Cool! It was the only bird in that section of the lake.

Red-necked Grebe - Guelph Lake

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