2013: the top 5 moments

5: While watching songbirds in a reverse migration off Fish Point, Pelee Island in May, noticing a yellow-bellied kingbird in a flock of Eastern Kingbirds. Amazingly, as most the birds were turning back, we saw the bird again a few minutes later and were able to confirm that it was a Western Kingbird.

A different Western Kingbird from Hamilton in September

4: Watching and listening to thousands of cranes, swan, geese and ducks flying into Big Creek marsh for the night against the setting sun.

3: After a wet and buggy tramp through dense woods and over boggy meadows, coming out to a clearing to see the Great Gray Owl we'd been seeking sitting serenely in plain sight. Birds really don't come any better than this!

 2: Heading out one evening in August in the hope of seeing wolves at a location where they've been somewhat regular, and having our expectations far surpassed, as we watched one wolf howl from about 50 metres away, with the rest of the pack joining in no more than two or three times that distance beyond.

1: Standing in a clearing at Rondeau in for an hour one beautiful May evening. Against a background of Spring Peepers and Wood Thrush, I watched a male Hooded Warbler being uncharacteristically showy and an Eastern Red Bat foraging overhead in the fading light. As night fell, woodcocks began displaying overhead and a whip-poor-will serenaded me from the woods nearby as White-throated Sparrows began to pass through the treetops ahead of a perfect night for migration.