The weather when we started out today was horrible, It was 13 degrees, winds were blowing 40 K gusting to 70 K and the rain was driven by wind. Our leader  was wondering what he got himself into in leading a bird hike on a day like this and some of us were wondering why we had come at all. The weather however was the perfect storm to blow in the perfect bird into Miramichi Bay.  A Long-tailed Jaeger. This is the  first sighting of a Long-tailed Jaeger ever reported in Bruce County. We had a momentary reprieve in the rain when the bird was spotted. We were dazzled by the bird’s speed, its agility, the range it covered, the aggressiveness it displayed as it pursued gulls trying to steal their food and the shear beauty of this sleek, speed machine. We watched this bird zip around the bay flying left, right, coming close to us and flying away from us, repeating these patterns for about 20 to 30 minutes. Everyone got a good look at it and as we looked there was excitement and laughter. We had hit the jackpot. The gift bearing rain and wind was not so bad after all.

The Bruce Birding Club’s bimonthly trip sightings will be posted here. If you wish to have a list of today’s sightings and where the birds were seen, please make your request known to the email address below. You can also be put on a mailing list to receive these twice monthly birding reports.  If you wish to make some website comments, please contact birding@owensoundfieldnaturalists.ca.