I left and made a bee line for Rondeau. Luckily there was not much traffic and I made it there in record time. A few others were looking along the start of marsh trail, but to no avail. We stood at the spot it was seen earlier today for a bit, but then moved back towards the parking lot.
Keith Burk got ahead of us and soon Steve Charbonneau and I heard "GOT IT" from Keith.
It was right at the start of the trail, but we did not see it at first. I then spotted the bird moving in a Willow tree.
I fired off countless photos with the camera in hopes one would turn out.
This is what we saw at first:
It came into clearer view where I got half decent shots.
We never saw it again despite several of us taking vigil.
Hopefully it will be around tomorrow with the throngs of birders who will no doubt be present.
This is about as mega as it gets. I don't think there has been a record anywhere near here, let alone Ontario.
I was glad to make to the journey to Rondeau this afternoon and felt lucky to see this wonderful bird.
As a sidenote, it is interesting that a couple of days ago on iNaturalist, I just signed on as a follower of the finder of the bird. See:
https://www.inaturalist.org/users/501095
Glad you got to see this bird, Blake. When I snapped those photographs this morning, I had no idea they would cause such excitement. I was with a couple of other birders on the trail, and none of us knew what the bird was, but I didn't take that as evidence the bird was especially rare. (I've only been birding since May of this year. Plenty of locally common birds are still new to me.) I don't have a smart phone and am not online when I'm out in the field, so I was not able to look the bird up until I got home this afternoon. Imagine my surprise when "Birds of Ontario" offered no clues whatsoever and iNaturalist suggested a bird that doesn't normally venture north of Texas.
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