Team Hawksauce in Canada - Day 2: The battle from Niagara to Huntsville - Jan. 9, 2015

     Libby and I started out our day with a snowy trek to the B & B's dining room followed by an absolutely delicious breakfast made-to-order by the in-house chef at Niagara Grandview Manor!  I had a cheese, mushroom and pepperoni omelet (whites only) and Libby had a fruit crepe with a side of real maple syrup. From my seat at the breakfast table I could watch the gulls flying up and down the Niagara River gorge. The food and atmosphere was so perfect that we ended up dawdling over breakfast a little longer then anticipated and thus got a late start to our birding.  After we packed up the vehicle and I removed around 4-5 inches of snow from it, we were on our way to our first stop!

Niagara Grandview Manor in the snow! Our room was the one in the bottom right of the photo.

Our trek to breakfast.

The view of the gorge from the breakfast table.

My omelet

Fruit crepe

     We headed straight to an area that was said to have pretty reliable sightings of Snowy Owl and Short-eared Owls, but the only birds we saw were hundreds of American Tree Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, and of course an American Kestrel watching over them all. Our next stop was at Bayfront Park in Hamilton, Ontario where we spent almost an hour and a half enjoying the waterfowl. Although the wind was gusting pretty strongly and temperatures were in the low teens, the birds were active and beautiful! Seeing over 100 Common Goldeneyes was a real treat, along with a Cackling Goose, Greater Scaup, Common Mergansers, Red-breasted Mergansers, and four species of gull. My favorite was our lifer Glaucous Gull that swooped by at close range giving us great looks! In fact, we enjoyed this gull so much that both of us failed to get a photo of it.

Panorama of the Bayfront Park tundra situation. (Photo credit: E. Errickson)

     Our third stop of the day was at Lasalle Park and Marina in Burlington, Ontario. Here there were even more waterfowl, including Buffleheads, American Black Ducks, Northern Pintails, Mallards, Canvasbacks, Greater and Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneyes, Common Mergansers and American Coots. Best of all, there were many trumpeting Trumpeter Swans, all of which were wing-tagged for research! Although there are many signs around the marina saying not to feed the waterfowl, it was obvious that people still do it because the Mallards and Trumpeter Swans had no fear of us. I was literally able to walk past my lifer Trumpeter Swans (within two feet) without them even so much as flinching! There were also very cooperative black phase Gray Squirrels in this park which made me very happy.

LaSalle Park madness!

Pretty swan face.

Just chillin'.

This one has been digging in the mud.

These squirrels are the best!

Comparison of the normal versus the black phase of the Gray Squirrel

The cuteness is just overwhelming!

A clip of the LaSalle Park birding bonanza.

     We had inadvertently spent way too much time at our first two stops, so we were now pretty far behind schedule. However, it was impossible to not try for the male Painted Bunting that had been hanging out at a feeder in a residential area in Oakville - a suburb of Toronto. Besides, it was on our way. When we arrived at the Painted Bunting stakeout, there were a few birders and at least two photographers waiting for the bird to appear. Sadly, even after waiting for over 30 minutes the bird failed to appear for us. We learned from one of the bystanders that the bird had appeared at around 11am but hadn't been seen since. This was the 4th time in my life that I have failed to see a Painted Bunting. Thus, they remain a frustrating nemesis bird for me. At least we hadn't been standing in the cold since the late morning like some of the those guys!
     It was almost 4pm by the time we left the Painted Bunting stakeout and starting heading for our motel in Huntsville, Ontario. This was supposed to be an easy 2.5 hour drive...except today. We ended up in the middle of Toronto in Friday night rush hour traffic. Travel plans came to a crawl as we inched our way through the city. My on-board navigation system (aka Libby) was doing everything she could to see if we could reroute ourselves onto less busy roads, but there is not much you can do during rush hour. At least we weren't at a standstill. It took us 3 hours to just get through Toronto. To fight the boredom we spent the time trying to find real bird alpha codes in license plates and making up fake bird names for any combination of 4 letters that we spotted. The craziness was just starting to surface.
     Once we made it out of the greater Toronto metropolitan area we were able to make good time and the roads were in great condition. When it became dark enough to have to use the headlights I discovered that they looked very dim. Turns out that they were so crusted over with road salt that it was necessary to use some water from Libby's water bottle to wash them off. In fact, we ended up stopping at least twice to wipe them off. Once we reached Barrie we decided to make a quick stop for some dinner, which turned out to be the best decision of the night. If we hadn't taken the time to get some food the next few hours would have been absolutely grueling. Just north of Barrie we exited off Route 400 onto Route 11 to head towards Huntsville. Somewhere between Barrie and the next town (Orillia), it started snowing. The roads were still okay, and had obviously been plowed recently, but the snow intensified. By the time we realized just how intense this lake-effect snow was, the only way out of it was forward. We were forced to go no more than 25-30 mph, and visibility quickly decreased to 20-30ft in front of us. I flipped on my 4WD, turned on my 4-way flashers, and turned on my fog lights for the second time since I obtained this vehicle in 2010. The fog lights helped considerably, and showed me that pulling off onto the shoulder to wait it out was not an option. The shoulders (where I could see them) were either sheets of ice or covered with 5+ inches of snow. The exit ramps that I could see were not even touched by the plows. At least the road in front of me was plowed down the middle and sanded so I could have one front and one back tire on semi-cleared pavement. The only real problems occurred when large trucks or tractor trailers would zoom by me at 60+ mph and create snownados in their wake that decreased visibility to 5-10ft. Things could have been worse, it could have been a blizzard. At least I could still see the flashers of the person in front of me and the snow was a dry, powdery type that did not stick to the windshield at all. In fact, I didn't have to use the wipers at all during this whole ordeal. I thought I was home free when we finally got behind a snowplow, but it was going much faster than I and I eventually lost it.  When Libby wasn't gripping onto her seat for dear life she was checking her radar apps and keeping my spirits up by telling me how much further it was until we were out from under this lake-effect snow. She also called the inn a few times to advise them of our situation and anticipated time of arrival. It was nice to hear the hostess at the inn tell us that it was clear in Huntsville.
     We finally arrived at the Rainbow Inn in Huntsville at around 11:30 pm, and had to wake the innkeeper to check-in. Although she could have been very grumpy, she was super nice about everything and even had the gas fireplace started in our room when we walked in! The free wifi even worked great! I was very lucky to have a heavy 4WD vehicle since the area had gotten a fresh 6 inches of snow that day, and the parking lot was not only located off a steep hill, but it was also not plowed. We were just happy to have made it to Huntsville and to have a nice warm place to sleep.

Rainbow Inn from the main parking area. 

Stay tuned for our adventures in Algonquin Provincial Park!

Team Hawksauce in Canada - Day 1: Getting there - Jan. 8, 2015

     Sometime around the beginning of December I hatched an idea to take a birding trip to Ontario, Canada over a long weekend in January. Starting off 2015 with a few lifers in a country for which I had never submitted an eBird list sounded like the perfect adventure! I knew that the Niagara Falls area would be great for gulls and waterfowl, and had heard of some great birding spots along Lake Ontario in the Toronto area, including a continuing male Painted Bunting. I also knew that Algonquin Provincial Park, located about 3.5 hours north from Toronto would be a fantastic place to explore for winter finches, owls, and boreal specialties such as Boreal Chickadees and Gray Jays. However, I was not willing to do a trip like this alone, so I convinced the other half of Team Hawksauce (Libby) to come with me on this adventure. I told her in the very beginning of the trip - "I can't promise you birds, but I can promise adventure".

     Our drive from central Pennsylvania to Buffalo, NY was sunny with blue skies most of the way. It wasn't until we were about 25 miles away from Buffalo that the lake effect snow began to threaten our travel plans. Libby was tracking the snow on her many radar apps (birders always have more than one of these apps) as I was driving, and we were discussing whether to reroute ourselves and go around the "storm" or if we would be okay with our plan of crossing the border at the Peace Bridge. Since the snow was moving northwards, away from us, we decided to continue on our original path. The clouds looked ominous but we didn't actually see any snowfall until we were within a few miles of the border, and the only slippery roads were the ones between the border checkpoint and the entrance to the highway on the Canadian side. 

    Our border guard was a friendly chap who ultimately determined that two girls crazy enough to go look at birds in the winter in Canada were no harm to national security. When I handed him the passports he barely looked at them, but wanted to know what we were doing in Canada, where we were going, etc. etc. All normal questions. I told him that we were bird watchers and informed him of our plans to bird along the Niagara River, along the shores of Lake Ontario, and in Algonquin Provincial Park. He looked at me like I was telling him a wildly unbelievable story. Understandably, since it is winter, he had the misconception that there were no birds worth seeing. Thus, I had to explain to him that we were primarily looking for gulls and ducks in the Niagara area, rarities along the lake, and birds that do indeed spend the winter in Algonquin.  He accepted the notion of looking at ducks, he had seen those around; however, he didn't know what gulls were, and I refused to say the dreaded word "seagulls" (shiver). Luckily, Libby is slightly less adverse to this word and leaned across me to inform him that we were looking for seagulls. Now that he understood what kind of birds we were intending on looking at, he gave me yet another very confused, doubting look, and asked - "Why on earth would you be looking for seagulls? They are everywhere!" So now our conversation turned into a teaching moment where I explained a few things to him about bird movements and migration during winter months. He finally asked us what we do for a living. For simplicity's sake I told him we were both wildlife biologists. His response: "OH! THAT makes more sense! Ok, have a good time!" Apparently only people who do this for a living would be looking at birds in Canada in the winter. I hope he at least learned something from us and will spare the next vehicle of birders the look of ARE YOU HIGH?!?!

     We had begun our journey at 8:39 am, and were finally officially in Canada at 1:15 pm. Our first task was to scout out the Niagara River and get the touristy photos out of the way. We also managed to see a few birds, but the wind was howling, making using a scope nearly impossible, and we weren't dressed for single digit temperatures with negative windchills (F). Thus, we gave up on serious birding for the time being and decided to go find our lodging for the night. 

     I had gotten a great off-season deal for the Niagara Grandview Manor which is an adorable bed and breakfast with great views of the Niagara River gorge. To my delight, as soon as I pulled into the parking lot, a fat, fluffy black squirrel appeared on the tree in front of my vehicle! At that moment I knew that I had picked the right place to stay. Things just got better and better from then on. We were allowed to check in 2 hours early, and the lady who checked us in was very friendly and helpful. She even gave us many recommendations for places to eat that were out of the tourist area, and thus much, much cheaper. 

We had a the purple themed room at Niagara Grandview Manor!

 
      It was now almost 3 pm, and we probably should have used what little daylight was left to do some birding, but we hadn't eaten solid food since breakfast and really needed some lunch. We decided to try a place that our B & B girl had suggested, called Taps on Queen - Brewhouse and Grill. It was difficult to find at first because it doesn't face the main road and thus is easy to miss if you are driving down the road a certain direction. There was one girl running both the bar area and the sit-down area, but she was super nice and helped us choose menu items that would suit our tastes and dietary restrictions. My only complaint is that she erroneously told me that one of their breaded items was gluten free because it was coated with Panko breading. Luckily, I know what Panko breading is, and knew that she was wrong. Our waitress was also SHOCKED when she learned that we were going to Algonquin in the WINTER. Her words went something like this: "I hope you have really warm sleeping bags and bear proof containers! I know people who are no longer here because they went to Algonquin!". We assured her that we had a motel room reserved and would not be sleeping outdoors. She was very relieved and finally gave us her blessing to continue on our adventure. On the positive side, Libby and I both had our first plate of poutine here, which is basically loaded french fries with gravy. We also managed to have a delicious meal for under $20 CAD. 

Pizza Poutine with BBQ sandwich in the background. 

    There was still a bit of daylight left when we left Taps, so we decided to try and track down the Eurasian Tree Sparrow that had been hanging out at a private residence in Niagara-on-the-lake. Unfortunately we dipped hard on this bird (didn't see it), although the owner of the house was super nice and informed us that he had seen it the day before. By the time we got back to our B & B the sun had set so we took the time to unload the vehicle. We then gassed up my vehicle which was now encased in a thick crust of road salt, and drove around the tourist area a few times looking for cheap parking near Casino Niagara. 

The road salt was out of control!

    

Super crusty.

     The cheapest lot we could find cost $5/hour or $10 for the night, so we decided to make a night of it and went for the $10 rate. As soon as we got into Casino Niagara I headed straight for the cashier to exchange some of my USD for CAD since the rate of exchange is always best at a casino. Then we wandered around the slot machines looking for all the ones with birds on them, identifying them to species. After all, what else do two birders on a budget do at a casino? We also checked out the comedy club called Yuk Yuk's and decided to attend the show that night. With at least an hour to kill before the show started we bundled up, braved the frigid temperatures, and took a walk down to the falls to see them lit up at night. Once our hands and faces were numb we headed back to the casino to warm up. Going to the comedy show turned out to be a fantastic decision, and one that still has us laughing! 

American Falls

American Falls (left) and Horseshoe Falls (right)

     By the time we got out of the comedy club some serious snowfall was happening, with a couple of inches already on the ground. Driving back to the B & B proved to be slightly challenging, but thanks to the 4WD capabilities of my SUV we were able to make it without too many problems. We even stopped at a 24 hr doughnut shop that sold other random items such as soups, pepperoni rolls, cold sandwiches, etc., so Libby could pick up a late dinner. That place sure was busy for 11 pm on a weeknight! Perhaps it just seemed busy because there was one woman doing everything from taking money and orders to preparing food. It was definitely one of those places only the locals go. Looks like I already made good on the promise of adventure!

Niagara Falls, Canada 

Stay tuned for the story of our first full day in Canada!