Birding Pointe Mouillee on Lake Erie's West Shore

The famous "Cell 3" at Pointe Mouillee. A great place to view shorebirds!

For the last three or so years, I've tried to do some shorebirding in late August at Pointe Mouillee (pronounced "puent moi-yee" - French for wet point) in Rockwood Michigan. I've had some awesome shorebirds here in the past... Marbled Godwits, Red Knots, Buff breasted Sandpipers and Phalaropes. Its about 30 minutes south of Detroit but right across the river from Amherstburg [Google Map, Gov Site, Gov Map].

This huge 4000 acre wetland has a man-made dyke that the US Army Engineers are using to store contaminated sediment from the Rouge River. I've learnt from experience that if you go, you need to bring a bike, water, granola, hats... Be prepared for a rigorous journey, because you are biking like 4 Miles (6.5KMs). I find that even with hat, water and snacks, I somehow get heat stroke when I go, but maybe I'm just out of shape!

Snowy Egrets at Pointe Mouillee

A recent trip gave looks at some pretty good birds. Some highlights were 5 Snowy Egrets, 1 American Avocet, 3 Wilsons Phalarope, 4 Red necked Phalaropes, 1 Black bellied Plover, 1 White rumped Sandpiper, 10 Stilt Sandpipers, 2-3 Probably LBDs (no LLBs) ... I think I saw over 50 species on this trip!

Wilsons & Red Necked Phalaropes at Pointe Mouillee

Stilt Sandpiper at Pointe Mouillee

Avocet, Wilsons Phalarope & White rumped Sandpiper at Pointe Mouillee

Grebes and Coots at Pointe Mouillee

A birder that I met out there asked me if I use E-bird, and I replied... "I want to"... Its just so daunting. I must have seen over 50 species though!

I will try to bird Pelee on Labour Day weekend, and then frequent the Holiday Beach Migration Observatory heavily during the fall. I also have 5-6 bird postings on the back burner. I'm just really busy right now with work and night school. Stay tuned!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Budding Birder

PS: I missed the Wheatley Brown Pelican, as I waited till Saturday morning to go see it (work). My son & I, along with Jeremy Bensette tried for it but found out it had gone back to Cleveland!

Curve-tailed Bush Katydid (Point Pelee)

Melospiza Melodia

 

I was planting tomatoes in my back yard this week and I heard baby birds chirping from a thicket in the back corner of my yard. As I approached, a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) popped out! Its been an interesting Spring/Early summer. I have not seen a single Hummingbird in my backyard, but I have a Song Sparrow singing its heart out every half hour or so. I think the Latin name for the sparrow is pretty cool as well... Melospiza melodia. Melospiza is a native Sparrow category and Melodia hints at melody ... Song Sparrow! If you do not know the sound of a Song Sparrows song, you owe it to yourself to listen to it from the allaboutbirds.org site.  I can see a certain pleasure in knowing the latin names of bird species but that would be a slow go. Props to Stuart (Citta Canadianis) for the keeping those scientific names on the forefront!

I've been walking Ojibway Park alot lately. Nothing really new or out of the ordinary to talk about. I still really enjoy just walking and seeing an Eastern Bluebird or Indigo Bunting. I seem to see them and hear them easily now.

 I would love to get a breathtaking photo of an eastern bluebird, but I can't seem to get much closer than 30m to this bird. To get better shots, I will either have to get really lucky or consider using a blind. These photos here are hand-held at 500mm, and heavily cropped. Any other suggestions?

I photographed what I think is a recently fledged Eastern Bluebird. Its colours are not so bright, and it has spots on its belly. 

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Some birds seen today include House Wren (feeding its babies), Eastern wood Pewee, and a Pied billed Grebe.

I'm not the world's biggest hockey fan, but I have to support Vancouver on their quest for the cup.

Two lifers at Holiday Beach

I've been reading about Broad Winged Hawk counts at various raptor migration hotspots all over Ontario all week, so I figured I would stop by Holiday Beach after work and join the party! Oddly enough, I did not see 4288 Broad winged Hawks like many other hawk counters have seen ... but rather, one (perched about 30m from the tower)!

Compared to last Friday, the bird activity seemed to be much quieter. I walked along the beach then walked toward the observation tower and hardly saw any birds. I wish I would have seen some Vireos such as Philly, and Blue Headed... but I have really seen any this fall. I have seen Red eyed & Warbling though on earlier fall birding trips.

I spent an hour or two on the Hawk Observation tower talking about birding, migration and photography with several other people. At one point, I was looking down to the scrubby brush near the tower and noticed a large-tailed bird... A Black billed Cuckoo!

Some birds seen tonight:
Broad Winged Hawk (1 juvenile lifer 202)
Bald Eagle (juvenile)

Black Billed Cuckoo (lifer -201)
Blue Grey Gnatcatcher
Yellow Rumped Warbler
Wood Thrush
Wilsons Warbler
White throated Sparrow
Magnolia Warbler
Cedar Waxwing
Black Capped Chickadee
Various Ducks
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret

I'm pretty excited! I am getting a pair of 10x42 Bushnell Sportsman Binoculars tomorrow! Hopefully I can get out a little more this weekend. I would love to stop by Hillman Marsh and photograph some late season shorebirds.

I don't know if I can use binoculars and a camera at the same time. That might seem difficult at first. I might focus (no pun intended) on using the binoculars rather than photography.

Good Birding!
Dwayne