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

Birding Magee Marsh in Northwest Ohio

I birded Magee Marsh today after wanting to get check out their spring migration for the last two years. It was pretty amazing. I saw/photographed 23 Warbler Species! In fairness, the whole region around the great lakes basically had a "fallout" of migrants today. Small woodlots around Windsor were reporting incredible birds!

The 23 warbler species seen are:

1. Common Yellowthroat-10
2. Canada Warbler-1
3. Morning Warbler-1
4. Yellow Warbler-5
5. Prothonotary Warbler-1
6. Yellow breasted Chat -1
7. Chestnut sided Warbler - 5
8. Wilson's Warbler-2
9. Tennessee  Warbler-1
10. Nashville Warbler-5
11. Northern Parula-4
12. Magnolia Warbler-10
13. Black throated Blue Warbler - 15
14. Cape May Warbler - 5
15. Black throated Green Warbler - 10
16. Yellow Rumped Warbler - 10
17. Palm Warbler - 13
18. Blackburnian Warbler -2
19. Black and White Warbler -4
20. American Redstart - 20+
21. Bay Breasted (female) -1
22. Ovenbird -2
23. Northern Waterthrush - 2

As amazing as the day was, I didn't get any life birds! But I'm not complaining...Other highlights include:


Indigo Buntings- 2 (FOS)
Rose breasted Grosbeaks - 7
Bald Eagle Nest with two parents feeding babies
Screech Owl-1
Scarlet Tanagers - Male, Female and Orange Variant!
Yellow throated Vireo -1
Red eyed Vireo - 3
Warbling Vireo - 5
Veery -1
Swainson's Thrush -1
American Woodcock - 2 one on nest, and another struttin' along a waterway edge.

I don't want to compare Magee Marsh to Point Pelee or Rondeau or Long Point. They are all different and all amazing. I have to say though... The "density" of birds today was unbelievable. I literally saw 23 warblers in about 4 hours which is probably the best day of warbler viewing I have ever experienced. But, I was looking at Essex County's Ebird Rarities, and Pelee and Rondeau both had amazing days as well, and Pelee had many noteworthy rarities that I don't think Magee Marsh had (Worm-eating, Kentucky, Golden Winged- all life birds for me, as well as Prairie Warblers).

 

 Not a bad day at all!


Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Birding Ojibway Park in Late October

 

The photo above was taken with my cell phone in the tallgrass prairie section of the park. (See this link to read more about Ontario's Tallgrass habitat).

 This past Saturday Oct 20th, was a pretty good day to bird Ojibway Park. My wife, two kids and I went for a 1 hour walk at Ojibway. We walked the main path through the main forested area, and of course, I brought my camera. It was pretty quiet until I was blasted with "tea kettle tea kettle tea kettle" from a nearby Carolina Wren. I pished for a few moments (to the chagrin of my wife and son) and was able to coax a great photo of this awesome Carolinian species. Amazingly, I hear this bird alot when I'm out birding but only see this bird 5-10 times in a year.

Just moments later, I turned a corner, and was on a path that another family was traversing (with portrait photographer in tow) and five or so birds were flushed, I didn't know where to look but incredibly, a blue headed vireo was directly above me about 10-15ft over my head. I managed a crappy shot, this was actually after I adjust the exposure on my camera to +1.5 stops.

Some other birds seen during this walk included: Hermit Thrush, Eastern Phoebe, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker as well as three White-breasted Nuthatches.

A late Wilson's Warbler

 I stopped by the feeders with my wife and son, but not a single bird around... Except for a black-capped yellow warbler...Wilson's Warbler. Crappy photo but still a cool bird for late October.

I just realized that I've never tagged a photo of an American Crow, so I figure I will have my first Crow shot on my blog as this nice shot I took in the Tallgrass Prairie of Ojibway. Thousands of Crows are moving through Essex County this week.

An Eastern Towhee, or possibly several were singing their "Cheweet" song and called my attention to them. For a brief moment, I thought this may be a Spotted Towhee, but no... Its an Eastern.

This birding walk had some great birds, especially considering I was pushing a stroller for most of this walk! The Blue headed Vireo was really nice, its actually my first self-found fall BHV. The Wilson's Warbler was a nice surprise as well. Hairy Woodpecker and Carolina Wren are residents at Ojibway but not often seen.

 This week after work, I had a Black Capped Chickadee eat some sunflower seeds out of my hand. I have video of it, but will post some other time... I can't find it on my youtube account!


Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Nice looks at Yellow & Black billed Cuckoos

Birded Pelee again today (Saturday), really hoping to see more variety in warblers but left the park disappointed. As I left Pelee, I thought about going to Rondeau, but I realized I had a conscientious objection with paying $17 to walk around a park and bird. But much to my chagrin, upon arriving at home, I read the the daily report from Rondeau (which is about 1 hour north of Point Pelee) describing the warbler concentration as: "Warblers were dripping from the trees" ... Should of went there! Also, other birding reports today from Ontario have small municipal parks in Toronto (Colonel Samuel Smith Park?) with seemingly better numbers than I've been experiencing at Pelee.

On a good note, I did see lots of non-warbler passerines. Indigo Buntings, Cedar Waxwings, Rose breasted Grosbecks, both Cuckoos  (black billed self discovered). Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos were seen and heard. Another highlight for the day was watching a Red-eyed Vireo preen for several minutes in Sparrow Field.  Regarding shorebirds, Semipalmated Plovers were seen in numbers at Hillman, but not much else has changed in the mix there.

Is it just me or are things slow this year? Where are the warblers this year? Wilson's Warbler was nice to see today, but, not as nice as a Canada, Cape May or Bay Breasted Warbler. Maybe it was early leaf-out, or I'm getting lazier, not looking up as much, or the ban on pishing!

 

Last year on the 15th of May, I had an incredible birding trip to Hillman Marsh. That may have been one of the best warbler viewing days in my short three years of birding. Click here to revisit that amazing day...

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava

PS: St Lawrence Islands National Park is using some of my photography in their printed materials!
PSS: I took these sunrise shots with my latest lens, the Canon 10-22mm!