Holiday Beach on Labour Day Weekend

A little tradition I started two years ago is to basically bird the forested area at Holiday Beach on Labour Day Weekend. I can almost say that the concentration of warblers, vireos and thrushes in this 200m strip of beach is consistently higher than any other place I've birded, including PPNP! (This statement only applies for the first week or two of September.) Today was a little quiet at Holiday Beach overall, even though the WNW winds were somewhat favorable to birds being found along the shore of Lake Erie.

The first three birds I saw today were a perched Kingfisher right on some rocks along the beach, an obligatory Northern Flicker and Blue grey Gnatcatcher. A Carolina Wren was singing loudly near the banding station, but I could not locate it. House Wrens and Black capped Chickadees scolded me as I walked the dunes of holiday beach in search of migrants.

 
I hit a really nice pocket of warblers along the beach today. It was a really nice 20 minutes of birding!  Outside of that small flock of warblers, it was pretty quiet. A few warblers seen include: Wilson's, Black and White, Blackburnian, Magnolia, Blackpoll, and American Redstarts. I had seen or photographed a few more but could not really ID them confidently.

Besides warblers, there were many Cedar Waxwings and Blue Jays. Raptors seen from the tower included several sharp shinned hawks, bald eagles, swallows, humingbirds and more (the daily report is sent out to Ontbirds Subscribe to or See: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/ONTB.html). I was only on the hawk tower for 20 minutes.

This Eagle flew over the bridge over big creek in Amherstburg.

Its amazing to read the Ontbirds reports and read about people's interactions with migrants along Lake Ontario, Huron and Erie. I've seen and read several reports about Jaegers in Hamilton and Sarnia... (drool). I think I might make the effort to get out there and see these guys (P & LT Jaegers). I'm due for a lifer!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava