Pomarine Jaeger: New Life Bird

Great Black-backed Gull

It has proved fruitful for me to brave the cold, raw winds at the Burlington Lift Bridge this winter. Last week I again added a life bird at that locale - though I did not realize it right away.

I was watching the ducks and gulls at the canal as I often do on my lunch hour, and was particularly admiring the gulls. I got some of my best shots of a Great Black-backed Gull and was keeping an eye out for the Glaucous Gull or any other unusual gull or duck. The bay was a lot more free of ice than it had been earlier in the week and was no longer pushing ice through the canal and out into the lake.

Great Black-backed Gull

I tend to have more luck at the lake-end of the canal than the bay-end, so I was out by the lighthouse on the Hamilton side. With no ice coming through the canal the ducks and gulls weren't quite as close-at-hand as they had been last time I was there, but I managed to get some goos shots of a Black-backed swimming and flying fairly close by.

I was just looking at a group of gulls floating quite some distance out into the lake, when they all of a sudden flew up and into the canal as a group. The behaviour was different than when the Snowy Owl scattered the gulls earlier this winter - they didn't seem scared but there seemed to be something they didn't like or they just all felt it was time to come in closer. A few seconds later I saw something flying in over where the gulls were. Through my lens the body looked dark - much darker than I had ever seen on a gull, even a juvenile one.

Pomarine Jaeger

At first I thought it might be a juvenile Bald Eagle flying over to the bay to try its luck at fishing, but the beak was all wrong and though its wings were broader than most gulls, they weren't an eagles wings. I watched and photographed as the bird flew a circle over the canal, then flew off over the bay. It came in for one more flight over the canal, then flew off over the bay toward Hamilton.

I watched as it flew off, then looked at the pictures on my camera to see what it was. I was a bit disappointed to see that it looked quite like a gull in my camera and made a note to show it to Ron and Lynda when I got home. I forgot to show it to them that night, and though I meant to show it sometime on the weekend it slipped my mind as well

Pomarine Jaeger

Yesterday a report came in that a Pomarine Jaeger had been sighting off a beach in Hamilton, apparently driven in by East winds on the lake. Ron and Lynda forwarded the email to me, as they do when there is something interesting in the area, and that reminded me of my recent sighting. I sent an email back to the effect of "you won't believe it, but I think I saw this bird last week" and Ron agreed to look at my pictures when I got home.

Unfortunately my photographs were a bit distant, but after zooming in and looking at all the angles we agreed that it was indeed the Pomarine Jaeger, albeit an immature one. Apparently the Parasitic Jaeger (which I haven't seen) is much more common around here, and the Pomarine is relatively rare. I borrowed a lens yesterday that gives me an extra 100mm (which is huge when trying to photograph birds) and add Vibration Reduction to the mix, so I am going to attempt to get some better pictures this week. I am pleased with the pictures from an identification stand point, but it would be nice to some better ones to display.