OFO Convention Weekend 2022

 This past weekend, many of us were pleased to return to an in-person Ontario Field Ornithologist's convention, after three years.  It was centred at Point Pelee.  Everything was pretty-much back to normal!  Indeed there was some concern with over 200 people mingling in a building, since COVID is still out there.  However, life must go on.

The convention is always a three day event where everyone is out birding in many different areas.  Friday evening has a dinner meeting with a speaker (this year:  Mike Cadman about the Breeding Bird Atlas), and a unique and famous bird quiz designed by Sarah Rupert.

Saturday evening is the main event with vendors and displays, a super dinner, bucket draw, AGM, Distinguished Ornithologist Award, Certificates of Appreciation and a keynote speaker.  It is a wonderful social event, and this year it was especially nice to see and talk to fellow birders after COVID shut things down two and a half years ago.

The bucket draw is especially popular, raising funds for the OFO.  I lucked out this year, winning three times!  I guess it made up for past years where I did not have have luck with me to get anything.

Besides winning a calendar from Hillardton Marsh, ironically, I won some things from Algonquin!

The keynote speaker was Merilyn Simonds, author of Woman, Watching, a biography of Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, an early citizen scientist who retreated in midlife to a log cabin in the bush to study songbirds.  Available on Amazon!  

After being home for one night from my recent trip, I started Friday by checking out the Mitchell's Bay South Shore nature trail.  There were a lot of warblers, but most were streaming north and difficult to ID.

Northern Parula

I then headed to Point Pelee for some birding. Around mid-day, things looked good for butterflies, so I checked out west beach trail south of the VC.  I walked the one section three times!

I found lots of Fiery Skippers (~12) and a few other things.

On my first pass, I noticed a brown skipper, but I was looking into the sun.  Hmm, there is not much choice this time of year for a brown skipper, but this one had longish wings.  I knew what it was!  I was looking at an Ocola Skipper!  A good rarity, but not entirely unexpected this time of year.

This was my third for Point Pelee, and fourth overall.  I once found one at Erieau Marsh trail, a first Chatham-Kent record.

Birding was fairly good the rest of the day.

Saturday was overcast most of the time and there were fewer birds around as we scoured the landscape.

Sunday was rainy (yep, the weekend!), so I headed to Erieau for a lakewatch with Steve Charbonneau.  The only highlight was a Trumpeter Swan, not all that common in C-K.

After some time, we decided to check out the Marsh trail, and it was a good choice!  The sun was coming out by this time, so it lightened the mood.

The OFO group was just starting there, so we forged ahead.  Just past the viewing stand, Steve got excited and shouted out Brant!  I took a look and it sure looked like one, a Holy S**t bird!  Good photos could not be obtained though.

I kept eyes on it, while Steve went back to the OFO group to inform them.  The Brant took flight and I lost it over the edge of the Bay.  We eventually found it further along, but views were not stellar.

The OFO group did manage to see it, thankfully.  It again took flight and we lost it.  Steve went to the church down the road to scope the shoreline, and sure enough it could be seen for others to tally.

Brant is really a mega-rarity for Chatham-Kent!  It is only seen every few years, and I think I have only seen it once when three were at Erieau in late October 2002.

It was seen again this morning for some local birders. I think it is the best bird of the convention!

With many birders scouring the area over the weekend, almost every bird out there will be recorded.  Although I do not have the totals, it may be a record tally for the convention.

Next year's convention is at Peterborough, where it was supposed to be in 2020 before the COVID mess shut things down.  Looking forward to that!

OFO official logo:

OFO Convention and Recent Trip

This past weekend was the annual Ontario Field Ornithologists Convention--the location being Long Point and Port Dover area. The conventions are always a big affair with numerous field trips, dinners, and comaraderie.  It used to be a one-day event, but for many years it has expanded into a three-day event.  I have gone to each one since 1997, with the exception of two. 

I arrived at Long Point about 09:30 Friday. It was already hot and humid, a sign of things to come.  I looked around a bit, walking Big Point Marsh trail, then after lunch joined a field trip at Long Point Bird Observatory Headquarters.
We first took a look out over the inner bay where there were many ducks and a few Common Gallinules.

Common Gallinule

Along the trail, we spotted a late migrant Olive-sided Flycatcher, which is uncommon at the location.  Ironically, someone asked about this species here a while before we saw this one!

Yes, it is an Olive-sided!

It seems there has been a good showing of them this fall migration, since I have seen several.

Next stop was Port Rowan Wetlands down a dead end road.  It is a former sewage lagoon, with a superb viewing stand (made of steel!) and a concrete ramp.  I visited this spot many moons ago.  Just on this same road is a boat repair facility (Ron Banks) which I worked at for a short period of time .
There were  few Green Herons here, and about ten Common Gallinules among other things.  Even a Sora was calling at one point in the muggy air.

Green Heron

The evening was spent in Port Dover.  The "Birds and Beers" is a fun event.  There were several speakers, one of which was Doug McRae humourosly recounting the time he and Jim Richards were stranded  on High Bluff Island at Presqu'ile back in 1986.

Saturday dawned warm and muggy, as I joined the field trip at Old Cut and the Provincial Park.  Birds were few and far between due to the "too nice" weather.

Birders On the Beach!

There was a good variety seen though, including one spot in the Provincial Park.

After lunch, I joined the field trip at Port Dover and Townsend Lagoons led by Adam Timpf and Tim Lucas.  First stop was Silver Lake in Port Dover where we saw lots of waterfowl and a good variety of shorebirds in the sizzling heat.  It was a new birding location for me.

Birders at Silver Lake, Port Dover

At one point I spotted this Wild Indigo Duskywing.

On to Townsend Lagoons....a place I briefly stopped at only once before many years ago.
As we got out of the air-conditioned car, a large kettle of Broad-winged Hawks was circling overhead, followed by a Peregrine Falcon.
There were quite a few ducks at the lagoons, but few shorebirds.  Naturally, the Buff-breasted Sandpiper from the previous day was long gone!
Three Eastern Meadowlarks were in and out of the grasses as the temperature climbed.

The evening was the main event at the Port Dover Community Centre. 
The distinguished ornithologist this year was Dan Strickland, who worked in Algonquin Park. Among other things, he is best known for his research on Gray Jays (more appropriately called Canada Jays).
Ron Tozer introduced Dan, with a presentation preceding.  The presentation focused quite a bit on Gray Jays.

Although more field trips were planned for Sunday, I headed out early for more interesting sights to beat the traffic.  The drive from Simcoe was good, taking only 3.5 hours to Huntsville.  My destination was Algonquin Park, which will be covered in the next post.