Pelee Sunrise

I had taken a photo of the sun rising over the boardwalk, but I did not have my wide angle lens. I was told once that the sun rises directly over this boardwalk on May 1st. This photo is from the first week of May last year.

Birded Pelee today with the Ojibway Birding Group. This is the first time in a long time I was able to join the group on their outings. I arrived at Point Pelee early (6:45am) and walked the marsh trail first thing. One highlight (besides the sunrise through the light mist over the marsh) was the sound of Virginia Rail calling at one point along the boardwalk. Next, I walked Tilden's Trail to have another great highlight... A Waterthrush! I'm torn on the identification, I did not hear it make so much as a chip note! It foraged the slough along the northern boardwalk at north end of Tilden's Trail.  (David Sibley has a small writeup here on  differentiating Northern from Louisiana Waterthrushes: http://www.sibleyguides.com/2012/08/identification-of-waterthrushes/)

 

The Ojibway birding group met in the parking lot and walked the West Beach path northward. Some West beach highlights include:
Black and White Warbler
Brown Thrasher
Yellow Warbler
Yellow rumped Warbler

Amazing raptors flew overhead all afternoon... they included: Broad-winged Hawk, Coopers, N. Harriers, Bald Eagles... (No Kites!). Even Sandhill Cranes flew overhead on a few occasions.

After a quick lunch at Paula's Fish Place, Kory and I walked Northwest Beach where we found a small but nice pocket of warblers. We had:
Pine Warbler (my first in Canada?),
Black throated Green,
Palm Warbler,
Yellow rumped Warbler
Blue headed Vireo
Eastern Phoebe
House Wren (FOS)! ... Oddly, the House Wren was not calling when we saw it.

At 3:30, I left the park and dropped by Hillman Marsh. I had very little time to really bird the shorebird cell, but I did get a glimpse at a pair of Long billed Dowitchers, as well as many Dunlin, Black-bellied Plovers and  Caspian Terns.

Thanks to the Ojibway birding group for a great morning of birding. Birds were sparse today, but it was great to be out there!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava


http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13908493
68 species total