Mid May to late July Sightings

 This Common Nighthawk was seen sleeping along the edge of Black Oak Heritage Park. Its symbolic of your blogger - sleeping on the job of regular postings!

A few noteworthy sightings from mid to late May include the following:

Canada Warbler at Black Oak Heritage Park

Cerulean Warbler at Black Oak Heritage Park

Red Headed Woodpecker at Black Oak Heritage Park

Olive sided Flycathcer(s) at Springarden area within the Ojibway Park Complex

In terms of mid-summer sightings, I didn't see too many noteworthy birds, but --- I did note a Brown Thrasher which may have been a local breeder from my back yard!

Some interesting Lep sightings (these three featured are endangered or threatened species) around my yard include the following:

• Dukes Skipper (Dukes’ Skipper | ontario.ca)
• Little Underwing (Species Little Underwing  - BugGuide.Net)
• Connubial Underwing (Species -Connubial Underwing - BugGuide.Net)

Little Underwing (Vulnerable) - This moth flew into 
our house in early July after my son opened our back sliding door. I caught it with a glass and a greeting card!

Connubial Underwing (endangered)

Duke's Skipper (endangered)

During the last week of July, I went to St John New Brunswick, as well as Portage River New Brunswick - and noted Black throated Green Warblers at a few different spots.  I didn't bird as much as I normally do as the trip was more about my family --- but it was cool to hear and see those warblers while hiking around various areas. An Alder flycatcher caught my attention as well while hiking along the Bay of Fundy Scenic trail.  The two photos provided were simply from my cell phone. I had no camera or binoculars!

I'm going to make an effort to bird around Windsor (S. Cameron Woodlot area) during the fall migration. I have seen some great birds, just by sitting on my back porch and observering in the mornings or evenings. 

 Good Birding (and naturalizing) !

Birding Sadler's Pond in Essex - May 23rd 2020

Sadler's Pond is a small natural area in the town of Essex Ontario. Its not particularly noteworthy in terms of size but there is one thing going for it. --- Its a small oasis of natural area surrounded by a monoculture of cash crops.

Today I was pleasantly surprised to see how good it was in May 23rd. There were several Canada, Wilson's, Tennessee, Mourning Warblers as well as Blue headed and Philadelphia Vireos, Scarlet Tanagers and even a Summer Tanager!

Even though I've been birding for about 10 years now, I think I am amazed at how good the birding still is in late May. I recall at Point Pelee a few years ago, everyone used to say migration is over on May 15th... That clearly is not the case!!!

Good birding!
Dwayne

Backtrack Birding: May 18th, 2019 at Ojibway Park

Sometimes, I will go look at some former postings - and I realized that I did not blog about an excellent day of birding that I had back in May  -- May 18th if I'm not mistaken -- at Ojibway Park.

Ojibway park is a large complex of parks in West Windsor that is probably a nice oasis of natural area in an otherwise human-altered landscape.

This past May - one birder reported a Cerulean Warbler around mid-May. Another young woman who is new to birding and nature photography had photographed a Worm-Eating Warbler --- but was unaware of its rarity factor -- having shown the photo to other birders at a later date.

On May 18th, I don't recall the details too much other than I had seen some great birds around Ojibway --- and one small flock of Warblers had a drab bird that I couldn't really figure out what it was at first.  A less experienced version of myself might have dismissed it as warbler sp. or but for some reason, this birds foraging efforts allowed me to watch it as it slowly moved from the right to the left along the pathway I was standing on. I switched between trying to photograph it and just trying to view it through my binoculars. It was really cool to slowly realize that this was a Golden winged Warbler... Perhaps one of my best finds this year!

This was my first self-found Golden winged Warbler in Essex County --- having only seen a handful of other sightings exclusively at Point Pelee which were usually pointed out to me by other birders.

As I recall - I caught up with this same group of warblers about an hour later and I was amazed to re-find the female Golden Winged --- this time in better sunlight.

Seeing Canada Warbler and a few Scarlet Tanagers made this outing pretty sweet. Its nice to know that this natural area - just minutes from where I live can attract such nice birds.

Good birding!

Not the best photo - but... Diagnostic!

Birding Holiday Beach on Labour Day Weekend + Black Witch at Point Pelee

I birded Holiday Beach for an hour or two this afternoon. It was cloudy and started raining, but I figured I would go for a walk with my umbrella!

As always - Labour Day Weekend is a great time to go birding in Essex County - with southbound warbler migration in full swing. Today, I had over 10 species of warblers at Holiday Beach. There were many birds to sort through and many went un-identified.  Blackburnian Warblers were abundant and seemed to greatly outnumber all the other species present.

I think I photographed an Olive sided Flycatcher - although I might be mistaken on its ID. It was a little more in the interior canopy than I am used to seeing them!

Rick from Leamington informed me on Saturday that there was a Black Witch Moth being seen at the Barn Swallow Canopy by the tip of Pelee. I was unable to twitch this moth but Rick was gracious in sharing his photo with the blog readers.  Thanks Rick!

Good birding!
-Dwayne