Five recent birds - and a butterfly

 

A breeding pair of mockingbirds are showing off at Black Oak as of late.

We are in the midst of a wonderful time of year. To witness bird migration and see it unfold between April and May is pretty amazing. This year, I have not really left Windsor --- with the price of gas I have decided to just stay a little more local. I might treat myself to a trip still to pelee though... who knows.

I typically try to go birdwatching after work - maybe at 4pm. Its not the most ideal time to go... but you take what you can get. 

I could probably list out many birds I've seen but the following made the cut for this posting.

Sunday May 10th - backyard- Orange Crowned Warbler! I turned on merlin and this songster was the first to be ID'ed!

May 10th - Scarlet Tanager along the edge of ojibway park. The road - Broadway st. cuts along the north edge of the ojibway park forest and can be surprisingly good. Its like drive through birding. 

Thursday May 7th - Golden Winged Warbler

Ojibway park (Black oak) was eerily quiet as I walked into the park but a small pocket of wablers gave looks at Cape May warbler, along with some other common warbs. This golden winged was present for a brief moment and boom. I had lost sight of it. It wasnt singing.

Bird #4 - American Woodcock during the day!

This might be the first time I've seen one, during the day-  without instantly flushing, in my many years of birding.

Bird 5 - A bunch of seasonal warblers and vireos: 

Ok - so the butterfly sighting that I mentioned in the title is pretty exciting (in my opinion). On Friday May 8th, after work at 4pm - a friend and I walked into black oak heritage park and we flushed up an orange-brown butterfly. It landed after a moment and to my amazement - it was a Harvester!!! 

I have been a butterfly watcher since 2011 - and never even imagined seeing this species in Windsor! (Ihad seen it once at the pinery many years ago).

Carnivorous Cutie - Harvester Butterfly at Black Oak

Then, the following morning (Saturday).... A second Harvester at a nearby spot!

I was quite amazed at seeing this butterfly again and I had looked closely at both photos and they seem to be two different specimens. I had a chat with chatgpt and it suggested that this sighting is not a migrant, its a local colony! I asked chatgpt about the Alder hostplant and aphids and it suggested that Oak and Hickory have suitable aphids that this butterfly can dine on as well. Both seemed to enjoy the sandy soil pathway... but this is dangerous as many bikers and dog walkers could hurt this little lepodopteric gem.

So  --- I was pretty stoked to find this butterfly and to perhaps come to realize a small colony exists here. I am finding some good birds close to home even though I will likely miss out on the premium rarities that can be found at pelee.  My time and fuel budget are keeping me closer to home this season and I'm ok with that.

Good Birding!

Dwayne

Catching Up With Recent Birding Observations

***Editor's note: I attempted to use images from Ebird, ... I was struggling to transfer images to my linux based computer--- I don't like the look of these images so I will switch back to the regular image formatting on my next posting. ***

During the month of April - I had made an effort to walk at some of my local natural areas for about an hour per day. I plan to keep up this daily walk all the way into late May and beyond! (its healthy to walk!). 

One of my favorite birds to find in April Migration is a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker and having gone out daily to the Ojbway Park Complex (Malden Park, Tom Joy Woods, Spring Garden, and Black Oak Heritage Park) - I was able to see many.

Even for about 1 week in the middle of April - I had daily sightings of YBSS visible from my backyard!

I was almost tempted to do a posting in April called: "Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers: 100 photos" as I felt I had perhaps had that many photos --- but --- realistically I think most blog viewers would be interested in maybe my BEST TEN YELLOW BELLIED SAPSUCKER PHOTOS....

Late April surprise.... On April 25th 2025 - I was birding at Malden Park in Windsor and I was looking at Yellow-rumped, and Palm Warbler working the edge of a pond when amazingly --- I noted a PROTHONOTARY WARBLER come into view (Northern Waterthrush was also seen moments later). The following day, (April 26th) it was still there. According to Ebird sightings in 2025 - I was the first and only person that had seen that species this year in Canada!

May 25th Ebird Checklist with Prothonotary Warbler obs!
https://ebird.org/checklist/S229326841

I had gone to pelee a few times in early May. 

April 27th - https://ebird.org/checklist/S230127584 ( White eyed Vireo, Kentucky)

May 1st - (too twich the Scissor tailed Flycather) https://ebird.org/checklist/S231765696

I love birding and being out in nature. I conceed that Point Pelee has the absolute best chances of having huge bird diversity (the park has diverse habitats) ... But in my life at the current moment, driving 50-60 minutes both ways is still 'expensive' for me in terms of time and gas money.

But Ojibway Park can be incredibly rewarding to bird as well. 

Today for example - I had Indigo Buntings and Yellow Throated Vireos there and I'm not sure there was any of those seen at Pelee today! Even today on May 4th - Black Oak had Pine Warblers singing (Northern Parula, Pine, Palm, B&W, Yellow, Yellow Rumped, BTB, BTG warlbers).  Sure - Pelee will have Kentucky Warblers and Scissor tailed flycatchers --- but I'm almost just as happy with my meager sightings closer to home.

A recent walk at Spring Garden gave nice looks at Greater Yellowlegs, Wood Thrush and Scarlet Tanager. 

Migration Oddities:    I have seen Red breasted Nuthatches almost daily for the last 4 days - even though I don't think it was a big migration winter this year.
Also - I don't think I've seen a single Least Flycatcher this year yet!
I photographed a prothonotary warbler before photographing a yellow warbler!

So that is a little catching up on my bird watching efforts. I have had some great sightings that were just a little closer to home. 

Wishing you great bird watching in this incredible migration season we are witnessing!
Dwayne

Mid May Migrants - Recent Highlights + Bonus Astronomy Photo (Bode's Galaxy)

 

Over the last two weekends I tried to do a little birding - it is mid May after all - and migration is in peak swing. I have tried to bird a little closer to home this year - although --- I have made short trips to Holiday Beach, Rondeau and Pelee. 

I think the consensus is that things have been very slow this year. I keep thinking about an older birder who told me that many years ago, it was not uncommon to walk down Shuster Trail to the Tildens' Woods Pathway at Point Pelee and have 30+ species of birds. 

There is also the idea that migration happens in 3 waves - one around May 4-7, one around May 15th, and perhaps one last one around May 20th and outside of those three waves, migration trickles through.

A weekend trip to Rondeau last weekend resulted in seeing a Prairie Warbler found by Blake Mann. While the park was a little quiet that day, I did manage to find a few pockets of warblers and had some great looks at Northern Parulas and Magnolia Warblers --- which are both stunningly beautiful warblers.

Yesterday - May 15th, I went to Holiday Beach and had a pretty nice walk. I was amazed to see several Scarlet Tanagers - perhaps as many as 6, along with Prothonotary Warblers, Bay breasted Warblers, Philadelphia Vireo and Red Headed Woodpeckers to name a few. Of course, one birder that I was talking to mentioned that Friday the 14th with much better... Of course.

Today I headed towards Hillman Marsh and Pelee. One of my goals was to find a Neotropic Cormorant (which I have still not lifered) - but try as I might - I just could not pick it out from the large group of Double Crested Cormorants. Hillman Marsh shorebirds were sparse - I mainly noted Dunlin, SP Plovers and a pair of Sandhill Cranes. Kopegaron Woods was nice. A few pockets of warblers near the parking lot amuzed me for a while. Some birds included Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting, Bay Breasted, Blackbirnan, Magnolia, Black and White, and a brief look at what was perhaps a Hooded or Wilsons Warbler. 

A brief walk between Delarier and Cactus Field at Pelee was nice but a little quiet. I did see a few small pockets of warblers - including Northern Waterthrush, Black throated Blue, Black throated Green , Parulas, Chestnut sided, A highlight was a Blackpoll Warbler. A few Least Flycatchers were calling with their "chebeek" call. 

I am looking forward to the "third wave" warblers and migrants in the next week or so to kick off the migration season for 2021.  Some birds I hope to see include Canada Warblers, Connecticut as well as some later shorebirds such as Whimbrel, Red Knots and White rumped Sanpipers maybe?

Good birding!

Bonus Astronomy Note:

I went out on May 14th late at night to do some stargazing. I had heard about this pair of Galaxies that are visible in the constellation Ursa Major (big dipper). M81 and M82 are both pretty easily photographed if you have a tripod, 400mm lens and a star-map app (stellarium).  This photo below shows M81 (Bode's Galaxy) and M82 (Cigar Galaxy).  Bodes Galaxy is 12 million light years away. That means the photons my camera collected have travelled for 12 million years to make it to earth. Also --- here is another cool thought... Every single star that you can see in the sky is in our home Galaxy, the Milky Way. Our galaxy has 100 thousand million stars --- ( 100 Billion stars?) ... So that dim fuzzy ball of light you see below is not a star in our galaxy... its its own galaxy, 12 million light years away, hosting hundreds of billions of its own stars. I am proud to be a budding astronomer and that I have the ability and the basic equipment to make such observations!

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