Holiday Beach Hawkwatch on Sept 11th 2011

Birding in the Neighborhood

 

 A quick walk to the end of my street this morning (there is a small 2-acre forest there) netted a Warbling Vireo, Philadelphia Vireo (I think), Swainsons Thrush, Black Capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmouse.  I typically don't see Tufted Titmice too much over the summer as they seem to avoid bird feeders and are more secluded in the woods (IMHO). Also, I have not really seen Tufted Titmouse in Windsor outside of Ojibway Park, so to see them residing in the small forest near my house is pretty exciting. The feather molt on Tufted Titmice seems to really clean up nicely for the winter, so these birds will probably look a little nicer in November. They're probably juvi's as they don't have too much rust colour in their flanks.

Buffy spectacles and olive coloured flanks hint that this is a Swainson's Thrush. He's on his way to Central or South America for the Winter.

 

Tufted Titmouse... one of my favorite birds, and a Windsor specialty

Holiday Beach Hawkwatch
A mid-afternoon family trip to Holiday Beach had some nice looks at some raptors that are in-season in early September such as Sharp-shinned Hawks, American Kestrel and Osprey. Resident Bald Eagles were there as well.

Even though the forested beach  area was pretty well birdless, some of the trees next to the observation tower were pretty active with passerines. The trees had singles of Warbling and Philly Vireos along with Yellow, Magnolia, Nashville and Cape May Warblers.

I'm quite confident this is a Philadelphia Vireo, a lifer incredibly... at 281. I thought I had seen a Philly last fall, but many keen blog readers quickly pointed out the lack of yellow on the throat and chest (it was really a warbling vireo). One must ID a Philadelphia Vireo carefully as they are very similar in appearance to Warbling Vireos and (to a lesser extent) Red eyed Vireos. Philadelphia's are much more rare than Warbling Vireos as well... indeed, its taken me three years to finally see this bird!

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Lifer summary:  Philadelphia Vireo #281

PS: Common Nighthawks flying over the house tonight along with Swallows.

Decent birds but terrible weather!

Do the birding gods hate me? It rained all morning on the one morning I had to bird one one of the best weekends of the year. This May 1st pales in comparison to last years May 1st 2010 outing.

On  a more positive note, I got some good looks at Vireos today. If one excludes the weather as a factor, it wasn't that bad a day considering the fact that I had to leave at 11:30 am.

Blue headed Vireo
Yellow throated Vireo (Lifer #237)
Warbling Vireo
Least Flycatcher
Grey Catbird
Wood Thrush (I took shaky video as well)
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Swainson's Thrush (Friday)
Northern Flicker
Red belllied Woodpecker

Ok, is this a Swainson's Thrush? It has huge buffy eyerings, olive flanks, drab grey-brown back... Not a lifer though. I believe I saw one two years ago in Florida, although I didn't study its features as I did today. Hillman Marsh always seems to have good birds...

Other Passerines included:

Black and White
Yellow rumped
Black throated Blue
Black throated Green
Palm
Blue Grey Gnatcatcher
Even a Red Breasted Nuthatch was seen!

I missed a Worm-eating Warbler today at the tram loop... (&)(^%!!!
...

and the 25 other common birds mentioned on the last posting!

It was nice to see some great views of Blue headed Vireo today... that was the highlight for me :^)

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

PS:  May 2nd is my official 2-year birding anniversary.
PSS: Incredible birds are showing up at Point Pelee, YB Chats, Prothnotary Warblers and Worm Eating. Of course, I have not seen them.

The Warbler and the Vireo

I took a quick walk this morning in the Ojibway Prairie. Today was much more quiet than yesterday, but I was only there for a 1/2 hour. I basically saw nothing until I heard an Eastern Towhee off the beaten path, so I walked in its direction and I could not help but notice the looping flight of an Eastern Peewee Flycatcher. I snapped a few photos of it.

Then, in the same oak tree I noticed a Black Capped Chickadee, so I tried 'pishing' it to bring it closer into view. Then suddenly, a few tiny birds started flying around very actively and I took a few shots. I think I've photographed a female Blackburnian Warbler along with a Philadelphia Vireo (lifer). According to Tom Hince's book on birding this area, Vireos start returning in Mid August to Mid September. I think these two birds are jumping the gun a little!

***Update: This is a Warbling Vireo! Thanks Blake!

As usual, I might be mistaken on the identification so please let me know what you think (It could be a Warbling Vireo as well). Please excuse the lackluster photos. I should use flash more often, and whenever I point my lens up beyond parallel to the ground skyward, I get these grossly underexposed photos.

Good Birding! And Save Ojibway!
Dwayne

PPNP with Ojibway Birders Group

I joined the Ojibway Park birding group today led by Paul Pratt. We mainly walked the tip this morning and walked back to the PPNP visitor center as our main pathway. Two interesting lifers I saw/ photographed today were the Common Loon and a Wilson's Warbler. The weather this morning was warm, but very cloudy and scattered showers. I hate to blame the weather for my mediocre photos but I'm going to! This Wilson's below is a lifer. I think I'll have to wait till next year to get a better shot.

 Paul heard this Wilson's as we were walking on the road back to the visitor center, then pished it into view!

One of the most common migrants today were Cedar Waxwings. They flew around in large flocks and our birding group often joked that every bird we saw today was a Cedar Waxwing.

The final photo above is a Red-Eyed Vireo.(Click the photo for a larger view). There were also some Warbling Vireos,
Indigo Buntings,
Canada,
Blackburnian,
Bay Breasted,
Scarlet Tanager
Summer Tanager
Both Orioles
Black Tern
as well as an assortment of Flycatchers.

It's really incredible how quickly May goes by when you are a birder! I'm sad that it's basically over, but any longer and my wife would start to get fed up. I often think that Pelee Wings, after the birding rush of May should stop selling optics, and start offering marriage counselling! (joke... my wife is cool with me birding).

Happy Birding,
Dwayne