I was talking to a friend tonight over the phone and I mentioned to him that a work project that I involved myself with literally caused me to miss the second week of May birding. Its ok, I'm not even bitter but between Mothers day last Sunday to Friday night, I did not even pick up binoculars!
Yes, I missed alot of the mega-rarities that have shown up but I no longer get upset about it. Ken-tucky? Maybe next year? Scissor tailed? Not in a million years! I did have my own exciting noteworthy finds though. I saw several Canada Warblers this year (other years I had missed them or only obtained distant views). Several Philly Vireos were nice to see as well (prior years yielded singles and were discovered by others). I've seen two separate Yellow breasted Chats this season, and only 1 in the previous four years so that was amazing! Finally, I got really nice, soul satisfying views of a Prairie Warbler... a long sought-after species for myself, which I had incidentally lifered back in March in Florida.
So the following photos go back to May 10th, I had some highlights worth mentioning: Summer Tanager, Philadelphia Vireo, Prairie Warbler... Incredible birds!
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| Summer Tanager - Molting from Yellow to Red! |
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| Philadelphia Vireo - Note the yellow throat - a subtle distinction from the Warbling Vireo |
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| Prairie Warbler - My first of this species after birding Point Pelee for four years! |
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| Thanks Jeremy H for the heads up on this bird... Amazing... |
The Prairie was really nice. I had seen one in Florida this past March, but did you know Florida has its own endemic non-migrating species? So really, I had seen a Prairie Warbler sub-species and not the full fledged migrating version that you see above.
Later that day I was able to see 3 American Avocets at Hillman Marsh as well as a Prothonotary Warbler!
Other nature sightings include a FOS Painted Lady, a lifer mushroom at Cactus Field (Morel) and a Brown Snake!
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| American Lady Butterfly |
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| Cactus Field Fungi - Morel Mushroom |
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| DeKay's Brownsnake - A lifer snake - I did not even know these were at Point Pelee! |
I will post this past weekend's birding soon. (More Pelee, Kopagaron and Oak Openings (Ohio) birding)
Good birding!
Dwaynejava
Nice selection of captures Dwayne! Hey, and if I followed your example, all of my posts would have to be titled like this one... I just can't seem to post within a few days of taking the shots. "Too much" life happening! I missed your nice IDs in the picture watermark this time. :) Looking forward to your Pelee, etc post!
ReplyDeleteThanks Brian. I have been really busy as well lately with work and life, but I generally put a huge effort into birding during the first two weeks of May. I have added some image descriptors below the images for species identification. I usually label the images but I was short for time when I was posting this. Good birding!
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