A Few Fall Sightings and a Sudden Irruption of White-breasted Nuthatch

We had our first real snow fall around November 20th this year and overall, the months of October and November have been mild.  I haven't posted since summer so here are a few Fall highlights.

On October 10, we went for our usual drive to some of my favorite farm fields around Timmins.  We don't see many Snow Geese around here but sometimes we manage to see a few during migration.  We found a small group mixed with Canada Geese.

Snow Geese - Oie des neiges
Timmins (10 October 2016)

One of my favorite fall moment was when we were watching a big flock of Horned Larks and a Peregrine Falcon suddenly swooped by at an incredible speed!   My point and shoot camera is not fast enough for a clear photo of a Peregrine Falcon in flight... I mean, these birds fly unbelievably fast.  But I tried.

Peregrine Falcon / Faucon pèlerin
Timmins (10 October 2016)

It wasn't the only bird of prey around that day, there was a Red-tailed Hawk hunting the fields as well.

Red-tailed Hawk / Buse à queue rousse
Timmins (10 October 2016)

In October, an unusual amount of White-breasted Nuthatch have been observed in Northern Ontario.  I'm not sure how to explain this phenomenon; their normal range don't include our area, they are usually more south. We almost never see them around here and suddenly, there are about 5 different ones that are being observed, all in the same week, at different spots around Timmins, South Porcupine and Cochrane. A quick search on eBird shows us that this also took place on the Quebec side around La Sarre, Rouyn and Val d'Or.  The first Species Map shows the White-breasted Nuthatch sightings from 1900 to 2015 and the second map includes 2016. (Maps are from eBird.org and the red markers are the recent sightings)

White-breasted Nuthach sightings 1900 to 2015

White-breasted Nuthatch sightings 1900 to 2016

Some of the White-breasted Nuthatch sightings were reported on eBird but a lot of them were just shared on the Timmins Birding Facebook Group page so the eBird species map will not reflect how many we actually had in our area.  Most of them stayed until mid to late November and some of them are still present in December. Here is the one that visited my yard for a few weeks:

White-breasted Nuthatch / Sittelle à poitrine blanche
South Porcupine (26 October 2016)

On November 12, we spotted this pure white gull in a field.  It was the same size as the surrounding Herring Gulls and I believe it is a Leucistic Herring Gull (but when it comes to gulls, I know I still have a lot of learning to do so I might be wrong!)

Leucistic Herring Gull / Goéland argenté
Timmins (12 November 2016)