Over the years I’ve birded Quebec a number of times, always in the southern portion of the province crossing the border from northern NH, VT, or NY. And most typically my trips have been in the warmer months of June through September. I’ve avoided mid-winter birding there given how cold and snowy it can be in winter in this inland Canadian province. But to have a good Quebec list you can’t completely avoid birding in those cold winter months. As a compromise I birded southern Quebec in November 2015 picking up a number of winter species including Tree Sparrow, Common Redpoll, Rough-legged Hawk, and multiple species of waterfowl.
But that still left numerous gaps in my province list consisting of species that are almost only seen in those cold mid-winter months. Plus, since I’ve never birded anywhere in Canada in mid-winter, several of these would be new for my entire Canada list. Not to mention my Quebec list was at 198 – sure would be nice to exceed 200. So now with lots of spare time on my hands, I decided to plan a mid-March trip to Quebec. That is assuming I could find a 3-day window of time with no precipitation and temps that aren’t too cold. Luckily the long-term forecasts predicted some promising weather March 12 to 14, so the stars were starting to align.
Now it was time to start my planning efforts. I came up with a realistic list of nearly 20 targets, including some pretty exciting winter birds like Bohemian Waxwing, Pine Grosbeak, Snowy Owl, and Hoary Redpoll. Plus a few other rarer species that are out of season (White-crowned Sparrow), or rare for the area (Gray Partridge and Black-backed Woodpecker). I typically hope to find maybe half of my targets on these types of trips, and on this one I expected to be able to add perhaps 8 or 9 species to my Quebec list. I then reached out to my good birding friend David Donsker and he agreed to join me on this cross-border adventure. He had not birded in Quebec before, so everything would be a new species for him.
March 12 – Day 1
David and I headed out just after lunch on the 12th, and given the 4+ hour ride to the border, we would only have a couple hours of daylight to bird on Day 1. To maximize our birding time the plan was to bird the agricultural fields just across the border from VT, with multiple targets seen throughout the area – Snow Bunting, Snowy Owl, Wild Turkey, and Lapland Longspur. But perhaps our key target was the rare Gray Partridge recently seen in small numbers frequenting a small area of fields and homesteads.
As we neared the border we twice spotted flocks of Turkeys feeding in fields in northern VT, so we hoped that would bode well for at least this one target once we got into Quebec. Luckily our wait to get through customs was minimal, so we crossed the border just after 5. And within just a couple minutes we spotted a large flock of Snow Buntings along the roadside – Province bird #1 and new for my Canada list as well – a great start.
Next we reached Route 35 where a number of Snowy Owls had been reported recently. Our plan was to drive along as slowly as possible on this busy road keeping our eyes open for a Snowy Owl along the way. The fields were snow covered, so finding a white bird on a white background at 50 mph (or 80 km/hr) created a nearly impossible scenario for us, and we struck out at this first location. But this was just the first of many locations where Snowy’s had been reported recently, so we weren’t too worried.
We then headed toward the area where the Partridges had been reported, and as we drove along a small back road named Rang du Grand Bois, David yelled – “Turkeys!”. It took a couple minutes to find a safe spot to turnaround, but soon we were back at the spot and there was a flock of 6 Turkeys feeding in the ag field nearby – province bird #2. That meant we wouldn’t have to make stops at a couple other spots where Turkeys had been reported, freeing us up to spend more time looking for our other targets.
As we neared the Partridge location we came upon a small group of Horned Larks on the shoulder of Rang des Soixante. Just as we started to scan them they all took off out over the snow covered field. Luckily I had rolled down my window to try for a better view because I was able to hear the telltale rattle call of at least 1 Lapland Longspur mixed in with the higher pitched calls from the Larks (province bird #3). Unfortunately we never saw the bird, and David was unable to hear it since he was on the other side of the car. We waited a while, and a nice group of 20 Snow Buntings soon landed along the same exposed road shoulder, but the Longspur and Larks never returned.
A couple more miles down the road we reached the area where the Gray Partridges had been seen –a small flock had been spotted numerous times along a diamond of roadsides, fields, and homesteads. Though despite 3 slow tours around the diamond, we couldn’t come up with them. The reports were now about a week old, so maybe they had moved on. A consolation was finding a nice mixed flock of Buntings and Larks along a roadside with some extended (though distant) views of a Longspur mixed in.
It was now getting dark and we called it quits, making our way to the highway to head to our hotel. But then while driving along Route 10, up ahead we both spotted a bump on a light pole on the highway. It was far enough away that we weren’t sure if it was even a bird. As we got closer, we could tell it was a perched raptor, and as we passed almost directly below it, we could see that it was a Snowy Owl. Here’s a picture of the roadway just after we confirmed the Snowy.
What a way to end the day – 4th new province bird, and new for my Canada list.
March 13 – Day 2
Our first stop of the day was at Centre Ecologique Fernand-Seguin where there had been multiple reports of Hoary Redpolls, and two overwintering adult White-crowned Sparrows. Although one can be skeptical of the quality of Hoary ID’s, there were photos included in several of the eBird reports that looked good. Both the Redpolls and Sparrows were coming to feeders at the park – but there were apparently multiple feeders with limited details on the locations of each. Looks like we would have to do a bit of research when we get to the park.
Luckily when we arrived one of the first things we spotted was a park map. But the trails were a bit confusing, and we weren’t quite sure which feeder to head to. As we stood there scratching our heads, a worker from the park office (which wasn’t even open yet), walked over to us to offer help. She told us which feeders both of our targets frequented, and how to get to these feeders. We couldn’t have asked for better local directions!
Our first destination was the Swallow Feeder preferred by the Redpolls. After a short walk through the woods we could see a clearing up ahead, with a pole-mounted feeder. There were birds swirling about – a large flock of Redpolls. And the first bird we both put in our binocs was one perched on the feeder – it was a Hoary Redpoll (province bird #5, and new for Canada). We watched as the Redpolls flew all around us, sometimes flying mere feet from us. They were feeding on the ground, in the shrubs, and on the feeder. And there were multiple birds singing – I’ve never heard singing Redpolls outside of birds on their breeding grounds in Alaska. Over the next 15-20 minutes we estimated that we had at least 3 Hoary’s in with the flock of at least 50 Commons. Could have been even more.
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| Redpoll feeder |
Although we hated to leave the Redpoll show, it was on to search for the White-crowned Sparrows which were being seen at the Chickadee Feeder. After a short walk we came to this next feeder, where a photographer was already waiting. We watched Chickadees come and go, and a few Redpolls as well, but no sparrows. After a few minutes David noticed a bird skulking nearby which was a nice adult White-crowned Sparrow (province bird #6). Often wintering White-crowns in New England will be immatures so it was a bit surprising that this one was an adult. An excellent start to the day!
Next we were off to Technoparc Montreal and the adjacent Dorval Golf Course where there had been many reports of roosting owls – Short-eared, Great Horned, Long-eared, and Saw-whet, plus occasional Northern Shrike reports. The details were a bit sketchy, but I was finally able to figure out that most all of the owl sightings were at the golf course, even though most were entered into eBird at the Technoparc hotspot. Unfortunately when we arrived at the golf course we found out that it had recently been closed to the public since walking through the now melting snow cover could result in damage to the turf. And we never found any places to bird at the Technoparc. Frustrating…
The next stop was the eBird hotspot called Campus Macdonald where numerous Bohemian Waxwings had been recently reported. Unfortunately here too the spot(s) where the Waxwings were being seen couldn’t have been the location of the hotspot, which was in the middle of ag fields for a university. Instead we poked around one set of university buildings adjacent to the fields thinking this could be the spot, but never found any fruiting trees. Then we noticed signs for another part of the university campus a short distance away, so we though we’d give that a try. That part of the campus was very congested with cars and pedestrian students, complicated by roads narrowed by large snow and ice piles. After driving around for a while we finally found a small group of fruiting crabapple trees that looked to be likely candidates, but there were no frugivores in sight. After a great start we had come up completely empty on our next two locations.
Hoping for better luck, we headed to Barrage (dam in French) du Grand-Moulin, which was a small backwater on the Riviere des Mille Iles where several Glaucous and occasional Iceland Gulls had been reported. Interestingly, in this part of Quebec the most common wintering gull is typically the Great Black-backed, followed by Glaucous, then Herring, Iceland, and lastly Ring-billed. To get to the viewing spot we had to navigate around large snow and ice piles, and then take a short walk in waist-deep snow. Finally we got to the overlook, only to find less than 10 gulls on the water – just GBBG and Herring. Was this going to be yet another strikeout? Then we noticed a small group of gulls fly in to bathe on the river. Then another small flock. As more small groups came in we soon had critical mass and the first adult Glaucous Gull flew in (province bird #7). More birds kept pitching in, and eventually we found 3 adult and 1 1st/2nd year Glaucous. And just before we were going to leave, David spotted an adult Iceland (province bird #8).
Although the birds were distant I took these phonescoped shots of one of the adult Glaucous Gulls, perched near the left edge of the ice partially obscured. After I got home and looked more closely at the photos I noticed an adult gull in the water a short distance to the left of the Glaucous, which appears smaller than a Herring, and a bit darker backed. If only we had noticed it when we were there we could have focused our attention on this bird to try to turn it into a California.
Now that we were back in the “win column” we hoped our success would continue at the intersection of Rue d’Ivry et Avenue JJ Joubert in a rather urban portion of Laval Island to try for Pine Grosbeaks. There had been daily reports of a flock here at a church through 3/9, but there had been no reports (positive or negative) since then. Unfortunately there were no birds of any type when we arrived at the church – at least it was a small site and it only took us a few minutes to realize we were too late for our target.
So we quickly headed to our last stop of the day - Cimetieres Mt-Royal and Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal where both Bohemian Waxwings and Pine Grosbeaks had been occasionally reported. I birded this site a few years ago and remembered that the cemeteries are full of fruit trees, so we hoped to finally be successful finding these targets on our 3rd try. After getting some directions at the office, we started a slow ride through the cemetery. Roughly a half hour into our search we spotted a small group of 11 Robins roosting in a deciduous tree. And then with a more detailed look we spotted 3 Bohemian Waxwings in the flock (province bird #9, and also new for Canada). There was also a Cedar Waxwing mixed in, which is rarer than Bohemians in this area in winter. Elsewhere in the cemetery we found another flock of 7 Robins, but no more Waxwings, and no Grosbeaks. Interestingly, an eBirder reported a Pine Grosbeak there that day, but no Robins or Waxwings.
Day 3 – March 14
The key stop of the day was at the Bois Bon Air woodlands in the northeast part of Laval Island to search for a Black-backed Woodpecker that had been in these woods for over a month. Reports mentioned seeing the bird on the Deer Trail and near the marsh, but with no maps available on-line and no further instructions, David and I worried that we might not find the proper locations. So the first thing we did when we arrived in the area was to ask for directions at a skimobile shop nearby. They gave us a few suggestions to access the woods, though no further details on the Deer Trail or the marsh. A few minutes later we were walking toward the suggested access point, and up ahead we saw that 2 birders had just arrived. In somewhat broken English they said they knew where the bird was and would take us there. Suddenly we were much more positive about our chances. Despite this new-found optimism, and 3 hours walking through the deep snow, we never found our target bird. We saw lots of trees that had been de-barked by the Black-back, but it wasn’t to be. Here’s a shot typical of the woodlands we searched.
As we were leaving 2 other birders were just arriving; it turns out that they found the Woodpecker a couple hours later. Go figure.
Little did we know that our luck would get no better the rest of the day. Plus since we spent more time than planned at the Woodpecker spot, we had less time to bird other locations. We made a stop at the Aeroport de St-Hubert to try for a recently reported Northern Shrike with no luck, though did find a nice Snowy Owl. And one last stop at feeders that had daily reports of Pine Siskins mixed in with a Redpoll flock yielded just 2 Repolls. Interestingly the best bird of the day was one of our last birds - an early Turkey Vulture that was a flyover as we neared the border. It was also the only eBird rarity of the trip.
We ended the trip with 44 species - a respectable total for a late-winter trip to these inland locations. And although we missed a number of our targets, I was very happy to add 9 to my Quebec list, which was roughly what I expected before the trip started. My province list now stands at 207 which is 90% of the old ABA reportable threshold. That makes Quebec my best Canadian province list based on percentage of total birds on the province list. Plus 4 of these species were new for my overall Canada list, bringing my total to 379. By comparison, my Lower 48 US list of 737 is nearly twice that total. Needless to say there are a lot of species in south FL or TX that I’ll never see in Canada.
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