Prothonotary Warbler!

#239

Just a brief posting today. I got up very early today and headed out to Point Pelee with high hopes. It was a little bit of a let-down! I did not see many birds today... well I did, but not as much as one would expect on May 7th. Let's just say that I didn't walk into the visitor center with my 100 species list demanding my 100 species pin! :^)

One nice highlight for today was the Prothonotary Warbler on Woodland Nature Trail. A well known birder, Mr. Pike kindly pointed it out to me at about 10 AM. This golden bird was only 6 meters from me, but was behind a vast network of branches.This bird is endangered in Canada, (SW ontario is on the northern fringe of its range) due to loss of habitat. (Read ROM article)

Some notable birds seen today:
Red Headed Woodpecker
Warbling Vireo
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Baltimore Oriole
Red Breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Red bellied Woodpecker
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut Sided Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Blue Grey Gnatcatcher
Least Flycatcher
Sandhill Crane (noisy fly-over)

Eastern Fox Snake near the Delaurier Homestead path

Earlier this week:
Ojibway Park provided some regulars for the week on earlier walks:
*Eastern Bluebirds
*Palm Warblers

 I guess the new Ojibway Nature Center is open. This is great news! A quick walk today netted few birds. I guess the skulking Rose breasted Grosbeak was a highlight.

I actually left Point Pelee at noon-ish... I just wasn't feel'in it today.


Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Orange Variant Scarlet Tanager

How rare is an Orange-Variant Scarlet Tanager? I have many photos of this wonderful bird. Here you can see the primaries, secondaries and terts! Scapulars and Coverts are all there in plain view.

The Scarlet Tanager was a weird occurrence tonight. An older gentleman waived me over to a spot on Tilden's Trail. I went over and saw this gorgeous, Orange Variant Scarlet Tanager. It was uncanny, it was so tame, it must have been hungry or distressed. I took many photos of it, then walked away from it. It would just sit on ground level branches just meters off the trail. It even landed on the trail itself and just stood there for a while. Three or four lucky birders along with myself just watched him flutter around in amazement. I even have a photo of this bird with a little shiny green Six-Spotted Green Tiger Beetle.

I stopped by PPNP tonight after work, and was a little let down with the lack of avifauna. My night was ruined by an annoying woman who was demanding that her son "Play da Song Patrick!!" to bring out a YBC. Then, the woman walked off the path stomping on the horsetail? plants along Shuster Trail. I called her out on leaving the path. I'm like, "You're not allowed to do that!  Just wait 10 minutes and it will be out again!".

Later, I saw a guy with not one, but two tripods (one on each shoulder) with DSLR's, Better Beamer Flash Heads Screens, Whimberley heads. Seriously... two???

"A bit of feathered sunshine. In his plumes dwells the gold of the sun. In his voice, his brightness and good cheer." – Frank Chapman 1907. 

I guess I'm guilty of being a photographer, but honestly, I make every effort to follow honest birding ethics. H. Oneil's book touched on the lack of etiquette that seems to be increasing each year.

The photos below are mediocre, but were taken with No Flash, No Tripod, No Ipod, No Blinds or set up posing stuctures.

 

 

 

My goal for driving out to PPNP was really to walk Woodland Nature Trail (WNT) and see the Prothonotary Warbler that has been reported over the last few days, but I did not see it. I wonder if somebody is confusing a Yellow for the later. Sora was seen on WNT by others but I was unable to find it. Somebody also pointed out a cute little Robin's Nest, complete with little baby Robin birds being fed by their mother.

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava

PS: Another birder pointed up and said, "there are purple finches in this tree". I'm yet to see a convincing male!

 

Great crested Flycatcher is a cool bird, but I just can't seem to get a great view on the bird.

Yellow Breasted Chat and some other great warblers at Pt Pelee

I was reading a posting from the Friends of Point Pelee today about a Yellow breasted Chat that was at Point Pelee, and couldn't resist going to check it out. Surprisingly, I found it with very little wait and with little effort.

 

 This Yellow breasted Chat is lifer #238. How exciting.
The yellow-ness of this bird's breast is incredible!

Oddly enough, I was only at Point Pelee for about 1.5 hours. I only had time to walk Shuster Trail and the east side of Tildens Trial.  In hindsight, I wish I had walked Woodland Nature Trail, as an awesome little yellow bird was seen there (Prothonotary).

I was walking alone on a Tildens footpath and flushed about 6 birds and I just waited patiently for some of them to return to view. A Louisiana Waterthrush came back into a tree just meters from me and belted out some songs!! It then hopped down into the slough and foraged completely ignoring me!

  My first (Male) Hooded Warbler. Very cool. I saw a female at Ojibway Park last spring.

An ovenbird made a quick appearance, but quickly flitted away. I've only seen this cool little warbler once before (last year) at Rondeau. Veery was all over the place today, and incredibly tame. Many that I saw tonight were only 15m from the path and not very shy. They would pose for me!

 I almost grew Weary of Veery. Not!

 Nashville Warbler was the most numerous Warbler tonight!

As I photographed the Hooded Warbler, I looked up and saw some Heron -like birds overhead. I noticed a different shape and gestalt to them and realized they were probably Sandhill Cranes! I would hear the cranes calling in the distance and it was pretty amazing. It echoed through the forest and was very cool and haunting.

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Did you know Humans eat Sumac? I am a fan of the many great lebanese restaurants in Windsor, and there is a pink-purple spice on fattoush salad that gives it a bitter kick... Below, a Brown Thrasher was the subject of my exposure tests before the Chat arrived. Not a bad bird to practice on... but hey... its Pelee.

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.