Amherst Island (Kingston area) - This bird just showed up yesterday and I was determined to try for it having missed others in Ontario over the years. A Western species, one shows up every few years somewhere but it was always too far. This one was within reach. Morning light was against me today so it was over an hour before I managed to get anything worthwhile and this, part of a sequence three hours later, was when I said goodbye. By the way, identified as male because it sang.
Val-d'Or – I was going through some of my trip files from northern Quebec earlier this month and recall the conditions when we found the ptarmigan. It was rough, a far cry from where we are today thankfully. Discovering a flock close to the road on the second day, after hours of searching was a thrill I'll always remember.
This bird eluded us for most of the winter but briefly reappeared in an area where we could observe it. The Great Gray is truly a woodland owl but likes to hunt the edges when it can. In this case it rarely came to the roadside. We identified it as a first year bird based on the pointed rather than rounded tail tips and pale rather than dark-tipped primaries. I last saw it early in January.