TOM'S HOME PAGE AUSTRALIA Oct/Nov 2008 NEWFOUNDLAND July 2008 OAXACA March 2008 SOUTH AFRICA Sept/Oct 2008 ECUADOR Feb 2008
December 2004 found Tom videotaping in southwestern Florida. Despite the distance from Ontario, Tom was constantly monitoring daily sightings reports via the internet. It was obvious that this was shaping up to be a great owl winter in Ontario, especially for GREAT GRAY OWLS. So when the long drive home was made in early January, Tom immediately began planning a winter owling trip. In the past, the possibility of seeing some rare northern owls had appealed to many folks. Tom had promised that when the opportunity came a knocking he would propose a short trip, and so he did.
Tom sent an email to folks in early January to see if there was any interest in a short trip through some of the prime sites in eastern and central Ontario. He received an overwhelming response and ended up doing four 4 day trips between January 13th and February 13th. A total of 27 participants from across the US and Canada converged upon Toronto over the next few weeks, and joined in a series of fun adventures with seven different owl species and a great selection of Canadian winter birds.
For most participants the clear highlight of the trip had to be the incredible number of GREAT GRAY OWLS. Numbers recorded varied from a "low" of 27 to a high of 50! Even more impressive were the spectacular views of many of these birds, often at point blank range right beside the road in good light. Two of the groups watched as the GREAT GRAYS scooped up feeder mice, sometimes within a few feet of the group. NORTHERN HAWK OWLS performed as well, though with much greater speed and agility.
Most groups saw seven species of owls without recording the two most regular Ontario winter species: great horned or eastern screech! All groups had superb views of all four northern owls: SNOWY, NORTHERN HAWK, GREAT GRAY AND BOREAL. For many long time birders, the BOREAL OWL was just as exciting as the great grays, if not more so. Certainly finding the BOREAL was more work and provided a great deal more satisfaction when the sighting came to fruition. This was to a large degree because the groups arrived on Amherst Island very early in the morning and were always the first group into the famous Owl Woods. This meant the groups had much better luck with LONG-EARED OWL and SHORT-EARED OWL than other groups but it also meant that they had to do ALL the work of finding the BOREAL OWLS (frequently when you arrive later in the day the location of the boreal owl will be known). Indeed on two occasions it took us nearly three hours to find this little sneak - and on one of those times it was a chilly minus 22C!!!!
The Ottawa area was where we had our best luck with large numbers of GREAT GRAY OWLS. It was also the area where SNOWY OWL proved most reliable. On two trips this was the only location where we would find SNOWY. The Ottawa area also provided BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS, GRAY PARTRIDGE and RUFFED GROUSE for some, but not all, of the groups.
Algonquin Provincial Park was as beautiful as ever. Although there was little snow in the rest of central Ontario, Algonquin had its fair share. Walking off the main trails was tough and often meant sinking down to near waist deep in snow - something that cut these forays short. It was not a classic big winter for finches in the park but there was enough to make it pretty exciting. All groups recorded WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS, and PINE GROSBEAKS, and COMMON REDPOLLS. Several had great scope views of some of these finches as well.
Algonquin did not give up its resident specialties without a fight. However all groups got GRAY JAY, and most recorded some or all of BOREAL CHICKADEE, BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER AND SPRUCE GROUSE. The latter species proved elusive for the first two groups but a gorgeous male performed well for the last two groups sitting up in the open eating spruce seeds.
We also managed to find a nice selection of other tough birds here and there including THAYER'S GULL, ICELAND GULLS, GLAUCOUS GULLS, LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, HARRIS'S SPARROW, NORTHERN GOSHAWK, NORTHERN SHRIKE and CACKLING GOOSE. In all the cumulative species total for all the groups was a respectable 74 species. Not bad for mid winter in the Great White North.
Weather is always a big question mark and this winter was no exception. Overall the weather was really good and we lost only a few hours of birding time in 16 total days in the field which is remarkable. Two trips were extremely cold recording early morning temperatures in Algonquin of -33 F and -30 F. On one of these days this was compounded with a breeze and then late morning light snow! The last two trips had more seasonable temperatures with one trip recording an incredible +42 F in Algonquin at the beginning of Spruce Bog trail (a difference of 74 F in just two weeks!!!). The good news was that weather had little impact on birding with all the troops bringing adequate to good winter gear and all being able to keep toasty warm (though those hand and foot warmers were loved by many). Despite the rash of winter snow storms this year we dodged all except for some light snow in Algonquin on one day - this is remarkable luck! Of course the downside is that Tom did get stuck in major backups due to weather on the 401 AFTER trips had wrapped up on his way home - once for four hours!!!
Everyone became intimately familiar with Tim Horton's coffee stops. No, Tom does not have stock in Tims. It just so happens that for birding they make an ideal stop because they are fast (except when the server is Joann), offer a good range of coffee break and lunch foods, and have decent bathrooms. He did ask folks to limit their coffee intake to reduce bathroom breaks! It didn't take a lot of convincing after the first stop when everyone realized what a pain it was to strip through off all those layers of clothing. Although this was advertised as an 'eating not dining' trip there were several quite nice evening meals. The Cottage Grill in Huntsville was a highlight (especially those lamb shanks) as was Alice's in Belleville (great ribeye).
Below is a selection of my personal photo highlights from the trips. Enjoy! In addition, you should take a look at trip participant John Van de Graaff's personal photo page.
If you are interested in owl tours in future years, please contact Tom at the email address below.
All photos Copyright Tom Hince. May not be used for ANY purpose, personal or commercial, without written permission from the owner.
For more information call Tom at (519) 825-9070 or peleetom@netcore.ca
TOM'S HOME PAGE AUSTRALIA Oct/Nov 2008 NEWFOUNDLAND July 2008 OAXACA March 2008 SOUTH AFRICA Sept/Oct 2008 ECUADOR Feb 2008