Lifer! Gray Partridge near the Brantford Airport

I chatted with Jeremy Hatt Friday after work, and stated that it was too bad there are no chaseable  birds around right now.  That night, the Hamilton Naturalists Club report came in on Ontbirds stating that the the "ever elusive Brantford Airport GRAY PARTRIDGE reared their heads" for the past couple of days.

After meeting Jeremy at the Tip parking lot in Point Pelee Saturday morning, we walked down to the tip where all we saw were distant Bald Eagles, Common Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes, and gulls that looked like blurs along the horizon, I turned to Jeremy and said:

"Want to go to Brandford for Gray Partridge?"

Thus began a road trip as we bid Blake Mann and Richard Carr farewell at the Tip parking lot, dumped Jeremy's car at my house, and hit the 401 which was abuzz with people out for the long Family Day weekend.

Luckily, there were a few people out looking for the Partridge, and after about a couple of hours we were looking at 13 of these footballs huddled in a field near the airport. We also had a great look at a Savannah Sparrow, while Common Redpoll flew over a few times as well.

Gray Partridge near the Brantford Airport. Photo i-scoped by Jeremy Hatt

This is my first time ever looking for Gray Partridge at Brantford Airport.  By the sounds of things, there are many people who have made repeated trips before finally having the partridge through their binoculars.

After a celebratory lunch in Burford, and celebratory purchase of beer at the local LCBO, we headed home down highway 3 with me driving through two snow squalls, while Jeremy obsessively made eBird lists for every county we drove through.

Also in birding news, the ABA added Purple Swamphen to the ABA checklist this week.  All the more reason for me to return to Florida for another birding trip :)
http://blog.aba.org/2013/02/977-purple-swamphen.html