Dickcissel at Pelee

(Note: this was posted for Wed May 11th, 2011. The labels somehow became corrupted, so a recent fix reposted this as a new posting... I've corrected the date back to the 11th of May)

I've made an effort to go to Pelee at least weekly from late April to late May, and during peak season, I even plan on stopping in mid-week. I went to Pelee for about 2.5 hours tonight and spent most of the time on the west-side paths. This was suggested by the daily Pelee birding report due to the strong East winds.

The highlight of todays trip was stopping off at Pelee Wings and seeing Dickcissel (lifer #240) hop around on the grass below the feeders. Along with Dickcissel, Baltimore Orioles were taking advantage of the sugar-water feeders and a Red headed Woodpecker was eating from the feeder as well. Incredible!

At the park, I saw very few warblers today. I saw many sparrows and orioles though.

Even though I saw few Warblers today, I did see some great birds. Some (from memory) include:
Lincoln's Sparrow (on 3 seperate occasions)
White Crowned Sparrow
Orchard Oriole (many)
Baltimore Oriole (many)
Red Headed Woodpecker
Winter Wren
House Wren
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Waterthrush
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Ruby throated Humingbird
Rose breasted Grosbeak
Veery
Yellow Warbler (many)
Nashville Warbler (many)
Ovenbird

 

I also made an honest attempt to see the Pacific Loon that has been around Pelee, but can't say I could see it. Where are all the warblers??? I've been hard-pressed to find a black throated green this season!

Good Birding!
Dwaynejava

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.