Sunday, May 1, 2011

Decent birds but terrible weather!

Do the birding gods hate me? It rained all morning on the one morning I had to bird one one of the best weekends of the year. This May 1st pales in comparison to last years May 1st 2010 outing.

On  a more positive note, I got some good looks at Vireos today. If one excludes the weather as a factor, it wasn't that bad a day considering the fact that I had to leave at 11:30 am.


Blue headed Vireo
Yellow throated Vireo (Lifer #237)
Warbling Vireo
Least Flycatcher
Grey Catbird
Wood Thrush (I took shaky video as well)
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Swainson's Thrush (Friday)
Northern Flicker
Red belllied Woodpecker




Ok, is this a Swainson's Thrush? It has huge buffy eyerings, olive flanks, drab grey-brown back... Not a lifer though. I believe I saw one two years ago in Florida, although I didn't study its features as I did today. Hillman Marsh always seems to have good birds...

Other Passerines included:

Black and White
Yellow rumped
Black throated Blue
Black throated Green
Palm
Blue Grey Gnatcatcher
Even a Red Breasted Nuthatch was seen!

I missed a Worm-eating Warbler today at the tram loop... (&)(^%!!!
...

and the 25 other common birds mentioned on the last posting!



It was nice to see some great views of Blue headed Vireo today... that was the highlight for me :^)

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

PS:  May 2nd is my official 2-year birding anniversary.
PSS: Incredible birds are showing up at Point Pelee, YB Chats, Prothnotary Warblers and Worm Eating. Of course, I have not seen them.

5 comments:

  1. Do you mean Osama? :)

    I saw the Yellow-breasted Chat yesterday. Thank God there were experienced birders there to tip me off and tell me what the heck I was looking at. The rain sure did seem to bring the birds down with it.
    I missed (just) the Louisiana Waterthrush and also the Northern Waterthrush.

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  2. Happy Birding Anniversary!
    I hope you get to see the "specials" up at PP.

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  3. Fitcera, thanks for the comments. I can't believe I missed the YBC. I might go mid week just to try to find it. :-) Thanks for the anniversary wishes. The waterthrushes seem to forage in the sloughs, get spooked and go into the forest for 15 minutes, then go back. You might have to wait a while ... ask around and some people may point out a good slough for the day. - DM

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  4. I am also envious of your waterthrush sightings. I am really going to try to see one or both of them next time! I love that you post such excellent photos.

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  5. Kiki, thanks for the kind words. I'm very happy to post photos to my blog and share them with other people. Without posting them, they would probably be lost or forgotten. My photos pale in comparison to other photographers, but I dont use flash, tripod, or recordings. I take photos hand-held and usually with manual focusing. With the above in mind, I guess they're not bad :^).

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