Thursday 12 December 2013

Netitishi day 9

Introductory Post
Day 1 and 2 - October 24 and 25, 2013
Day 3 and 4 - October 26 and 27, 2013
Day 5 - October 28, 2013
Day 6 - October 29, 2013
Day 7 - October 30, 2013
Day 8 - October 31, 2013
Day 9 - November 1, 2013
Day 10 and 11 - November 2 and 3, 2013

November 1, 2013
Weather: between 5 and -5 degrees Celsius, overcast with occasional snowsqualls, winds NE to WNW 30-50 km/h.
31 species
Ebird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15560105

We had high hopes for this day given the weather conditions. The winds started out moderate from the northeast, shifting to the northwest later in the afternoon. With the temperature dropping below zero, it was pretty cold at the coast...

Alan and I finished the shelter that we had began a few days prior, right up against the spruces. Quite a bit of wind could still whip through the opening on the left side of the front wall, though unfortunately!

sea-watching shelter at Netitishi Point

We were still basking in the post-Townsend's Solitaire glow from the previous day, so anything else we observed on the remainder of the trip would just be bonus.

We had close to 1000 Brant and it was obvious that it was just the few remaining stragglers migrating past. We also watched a loose flock of 155 Red-throated Loons slowly fly on past. Their flight is quite unique - each bird is quite a ways apart from each other so a flight of 100+ birds takes up a good portion of the sky. This is one feature that can be used to identify them at a great distance.

We had our first King Eider of the trip, a bird I watched coming in from the middle of the bay before turning and flying east past Netitishi. It was good to get reacquainted with this species, a specialty of the area. There are not many places that you can observe King Eiders in northern Ontario.

New for the trip was an adult Bald Eagle that Alan and I observed independently from different locations. And the familiar juvenile Northern Goshawk made another brief appearance. Despite that we were now into November, a decent variety of shorebird species were still feeding on the flats between the spruces and the coast. Two Black-bellied Plovers and a Pectoral Sandpiper were notable.

We now had only one full day remaining on our 2013 edition Netitishi trip. I will finish this post with a few photos I grabbed around the cabins. No bird pics today!

my cabin at Netitishi Point


my cabin at Netitishi Point

my cabin at Netitishi Point


coastline

coastline

5 comments:

dwaynejava said...

Is that a bottle of 40 Creek? Only most basic essentials when your roughin' it in the wild! :-)

Anonymous said...

Definitely very, very cool!

Mike Baker

The Furry Gnome said...

Looks like quite an establishment out there!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely! It's the only way to survive two weeks in the wild with Alan Wormington. ;)

Anonymous said...

For sure, pretty excellent accommodations considering the remoteness of the location.