May 11 & 12th Highlights - Kirtlands, Cerulean, Golden winged and More

On Wed May 11th, I went to Point Pelee after work as the daily report hinted that it was an excellent day to be at Pelee. Some birders hinted that it could have been the best day in ten years. It was good but I don't know if it was any better than a good day from last year. On Wed, I caught up with a Cerulean that was report at the Northwest Beach parking lot. Later, I went to the West beach footpath and had really close views of a Kirtland's Warbler! The Kirtlands was skulking around in some low lying dwarf juniper plants. Occasionally it would pop into view -at point blank range - then go into skulking mode again.

I took the day off on today, May 12th and had a pretty good day. I stopped off at Hillman first - and there was not much around in terms of shorebirds. So I went to Pelee. I had to park at Delaurier - and walk the anders footpath to tilden. Today was excellent for birding but of course, yesterdays volumes of birds were not present.

I saw this Northern Parula at eye level near Cactus Field. It was singing its heart out in the early morning light. Its so small, it took me a few moments just to find it.

I then took the tram to the tip - in hopes of finding a Cerulean and Yellow billed Cuckoo. The Cerulean was amazingly close to the trail, and singing its heart out. I took boat loads of photos but they were poor as the lighting was terrible.

Next- I ended up trying to go to "Dunes" which had a recent sighting of Golden Winged Warbler! I took the tram back to the VC and walked---- 2km??? Birding is great exercise isn't it? I was able to find the Golden Winged and later I ran into J.B. and Jeremy Bensette who were looking at YB Chat!

I birded with Jeremy and Tim(?) for the remainder of the afternoon. We attempted to see the Kirtlands again this afternoon but couldn't find it. Along west beach footpath, our consolation birds were: Wilson's, Cape May, Scarlet Tanager, and Morning Warbler!

Good birding!

Dwayne