Birding review 2025
Another year has passed, and the Universe has grown older and wider. Our galaxy is hurtling toward Andromeda, and there is little we can do to stop it. On planet Earth everything obeys the laws of evolution, so simple and so powerful that no mass extinction can wipe out its organic life until the star it orbits explodes. And that will happen around the time Milky Way collides with Andromeda, which means that our descendants (whatever they may look like), will have a chance to live in a new supergalaxy, Milkomeda.
The year 5 000 000 001 before the Sun exploded began with the very interesting sighting of Tufted Duck, a completely Eurasian species, that is very rare in Ontario. The same day (Jan 12), but another location, I encountered another rarity, Glaucous Gull. Not so rare in winter, but still not a common bird in Toronto.
Glaucous Gull
That's pretty everything about January. Well, I also remember that it was cold and snowy, not so typical for Canada...
After January was February (which is also quite common in Toronto area) with the mega trip to Barbados. The detailed report is here: Барбадос - острів піратів. Йо-хо-хо! І бутилка рому.
My lifers from Barbados, 5 in total:
Antillean Crested Hummingbird
Barbados Bullfinch (the only endemic species in Barbados).
Carib Grackle
Caribbean Elaenia
Green-throated Carib (not a lifer, but very nice bird).
March 15. Another trip to Algonquin Park with Dima G., where we finally, after three years of chasing, have found Black-backed Woodpecker! Moreover, we saw two of them, a male (on the image below) and a female.
In addition to this gorgeous bird, we saw many other winter visitors and residents of the park:
Ruffed Grouse
Evening Grosbeak
Add to this Pine Siskins, Red Crossbills, the other regular stuff and even a Peregrine Falcon, which became the earliest recorded sighting of this bird in the Park's history! Sounds impressive?
April is the beginning of the great migration! Every day we see more and more birds, the parks sing all day, every tree is full of warblers. The mood is completely different!
Eastern Bluebird
Blackpoll Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Wilson's Snipe
American Kestrel
Broad-winged Hawk
On April 25th, I got another lifer, Blue Grosbeak. It was spotted in one of the provincial parks north of Toronto. Here it is:
Then came May, with even more birds and grass and leaves!
Cape May Warbler (female)
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Sandhill Cranes
Grasshopper Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
American Robin protects his country from migrants.
Most of these photos were taken on May 7th, during my trip to Point Pelee Provincial Park, where I was trying to fulfill one of my goals for the year, which was to see 100 species in one day. Unfortunately I failed, only missing 4 species! So close!
The reason for the failure was simple - bad weather. The forecast promised my right wind and all that, but everything changed literally overnight (classic Canada). The park was unusually quiet, probably most of the birds had flown north, but the newcomers had not yet arrived.
In mid-May we spent a week in Mexico (!) where I set a new record for the number of lifers in one trip - 58 species! A fantastic trip, which I wrote about here: Тропічний ліс не завжди вологий.
I'll post a few photos, just randomly, there are many more at the link above.
Great Kiskadee
Turqouise-browed Motmot
Altamira Oriole
White-fronted Amazon
Cinnamon Hummingbird
The second week of our vacation, my wife and I spent in New Jersey, at our friends' house. With them, of course. We had a great time, and I didn't forget about birds. I made another attempt to see 100 species in a day, in a very promising place - Sandy Hook Park. I failed again with the result only 87 species, but the day I spent there was wonderful. I wrote a post about this trip and other adventures in New Jersey: Нью Джерсі, друга половина відпустки.
I almost forgot about the pre-planned lifer in Sandy Hook, a Clapper Rail! No photo, only heard it's "song".
A few photos from the states:
American Oystercatcher
Too far away to identify, a group of small Sandpipers, or as they are called here, peeps.
Bald Eagle
Least Tern
In July, my wife and I went to Manitoulin Island, in the north of Lake Huron.There is a very high density of Black Bears on this island, although we didn't see any. Perhaps they saw us? On the way back to Toronto, we stopped at Killarney Provincial Park, with terrific scenery, but we have never had so many mosquitoes and black flies in Canada before!
However, according to the laws of birding and fishing, the more difficult the conditions, the greater the chance of catching something big. It was here, at the end of a very picturesque and full of mosquito-rich trail, that I saw an American Three-toed Woodpecker! It is quite rare in this area, so I was very lucky.
This is a very significant lifer, and let me tell you why. It was the last of all nine Ontario woodpeckers, and it took me exactly nine years to collect them. By "exactly" I mean microscopically precisely - it happened on July 1st, the very day we arrived in Canada, nine years ago!
The last lifer of the year became a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. These pretty sandpipers rarely visit southern Ontario during their migration and mostly stop in mowed fields. Usually single birds in mixes groups with other waders. They are very difficult to find in these conditions. But sometimes they show up in classic shorebird locations, such as lake shores, as it happened this time.
On September 22th, almost my birthday, I went to Presquille Provincial Park, where someone had found this bird about a week earlier. I found a small flock of Black-bellied Plovers, which my target bird used to associate with, but there was no Buff-breasted Sandpiper among them. It took me almost an hour to find the bird. It is so perfectly camouflaged in its surroundings that I can say I was very lucky to spot it!
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
A small island where Buff-breasted Sandpiper decided to take a break during its migration south.
His friends, Black-bellied Plovers.
In November we had a rare visit of a Razorbill, which spent about a week in one of Toronto's harbours.
And also, in late fall, I got three lifers doing literally nothing for it. This small but very nice gift from the Universe (eBird in particular) was the result of its annual taxonomy update. Let's briefly run through them.
1. Mangrove Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia). I saw it in Puerto Rico and Barbados:
2. Western Warbling Vireo (Vireo swainsoni). I was lucky to spot this bird in 2022 in British Columbia.
3. Hudsonian Whimbrel (Numenius hudsonicus). I saw this species in Canada and United States.
Photo from California (2023):
Winter began exactly on December 1st, with cold and snow. On December 18th, I added another, 127 species to the Seton Park list - Barred Owl.
Picture from other place, 2021.
А тепер, як завжди, я зроблю аналіз своїх досягнень за минулий рік і сподівань на наступний. Поїхали!
And now, as always, I will summarize my statistics for 2025.
Number of species overall - 296
Of these in Canada (Ontario) - 182
And in the US - 101.
2025 lifers - 68:
58 - Mexico
5 - Barbados
4 - Canada
1 - USA (Clapper Rail).
So, at the end of 2025, I have the following statistics:
World total - 760
Canada - 333
USA - 272
Ukraine - 269
And now it's interesting to see how I coped with the plans for 2025. Here they are, the plans postponed from 2024 due to the complete failure then:
1. Rich 330 species in Canada (third attempt) - Done! - 333
2. Bring the world list to 700 - Done! - 760
3. Finally see 100 species a day - Almost done - 96
For 2026, I have set myself the following goals:
1. To find a Yellow Rail in its nesting grounds (second half of May, Ontario).
2. To catch a Connecticut Warbler or Long-tailed Jaeger on migration (Ontario).
3. To see or to hear or to smell or, at least, to imagine 100 species a day!!!
On this optimistic note, we can probably conclude our birdwatching review for 2025.
I wish all of us the fulfillment of our plans and dreams in the coming year!