Unofficial OFO Pelee Birding , Ojibway Park Birding in Late September + New Yard Bird - Northern Mockingbird!

This weekend was a surprisingly excellent weekend of birding in Essex County. The weather was fantastic and the birding was excellent as well. On Saturday, I went to Point Pelee and it just so happened that it was the OFO (Ontario Field Ornithologists) bird weekend there. At about noon, after I had birded Delaurier and Cactus Field, someone pointed out a pair of white pelicans that were soaring over west beach of point pelee.

West beach footpath was a nice walk as usual. Black Saddlebags and Carolina Saddlebags were abundant. Monarchs constantly fluttered overhead. Singles of Eastern Comma and Question Mark butterflies, as well as a worn Spicebush Swallowtail were noted. A few warblers were seen as well as some Southbound Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers.

Sparrow field had some of the best warbler birding for the day, and some trees in the field had Cape May, Wilsons, Nashville, Blackpoll, Bay Breasted warblers easily seen. Eastern Wood Pewee, and a sleeping Common Nighthawk delighted birders as well. I had seen my first southbound blue headed vireo as well in Sparrow Field. It was actually singing/vocalizing in a deciduous tree on the outer edge of the field. On the shore next to Sparrow field, a group of 5 Sanderlings noted but soon flushed by beach walkers.

Of course, raptors were constantly flying overhead. We had nice looks at Eagles, Red Tailed and Broadwing Hawks, Coopers and Sharp Shinned hawks, Peregrine and Merlin Falcons flew overhead as well. At one point, a Merlin flew clumsily over a group of OFO birders with a fluttering woodpecker in its talons.

See below for a writeup on my walk at Ojibway today...

Turbulent Phospila - a Pinstriped Caterpillar crossing the road at PPNP

Today at Ojibway - I walked at Black Oak Heritage Park in West Windsor. I walked for a while without seeing many birds but eventually hit nice pockets of birds. At one point, I had seen about 20-30 Cedar Waxwings with about 10 or so Purple Finches! I then saw about 10 or so warblers and vireos. Some warblers go unidentified at times as I just cant figure out what they are! I had stunning views of Blue Headed Vireo and Scarlet Tanager ... which was a huge highlight. Red breasted Nuthatches were surprisingly abundant as well.  Later on at the main Ojibway Park forest - where I had met up with my wife and two kids, we ended up seeing two separate groups of warblers as well. There could have been 30-40 birds in total. Some birds seen were bay-poll warblers, American Redstart, Black throated Green, Nashville, Tennessee, and some Ruby crowned Kinglets.

I feel like I've seen many Philadelphia Vireos this year, both north and south bound. 

Good birding!

PS:  I was out on my back porch today looking out at the hedgerow behind my house. Blue Jays, European Starlings and Crows were making a rucous. At one point today, I had my binoculars and noted a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD on my back fence. I did not have my camera nearby so I attempted to digiscope the sighting with my cellphone and binoculars! I took video with my phone's camera - hoping it would increase my chances of documenting the bird.  I've included a 6 second video of my sighting!

Shorebirding at Pointe Mouillee in Late August

Buff breasted Sandpiper

Just a quick post for tonight. I birded Pointe Mouillee State Gaming Area on Saturday morning. Pointe Moo-yay[link][map] is a 4000 Acre wetland habitat along Lake Erie's Western Shore. It is a wetland nestled between the Huron River and the Fermi Nuclear Power plant... Just across the river from Holiday Beach in Amherstburg. I had about 50 species but some highlights were:

Buff breasted Sandpiper
Willet
Yellow headed Blackbird
Marbled Godwit
White rumped Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper

Many birders I had met had also seen: American Avocet, Whimbrel and Red Knot but I did not see these excellent species. In fairness, there is alot of ground to cover when you are at a 4000 acre wetland!

How to get there from Windsor

Willet

Marbled Godwit

Yellow Sweet Clover

The mudflat in Cell 3 could be measured in square miles... Its contaminated river bottom dredgings from the Rouge River and local shipping channels.

Stilt Sandpipers and Short billed Dowitchers

I've attempted to make an annual trip to this great site and look forward to visiting again next summer. Just a note that it is closed to the public on Sept 1 - Nov 15 for duck hunting.

Good Birding!

American White Pelicans at Big Creek in Amherstburg V3

4,5,6...7 American White Pelicans? My first for Ontario. Heavily cropped...

After reading about the reported White Pelicans and Little Blue Heron at Holiday Beach this week, I felt I should go and check it out.  It was reported that the Egret numbers at Holiday Beach/Big Creek might be the largest recorded Egret roost numbers in Canada. This morning, I was unable to find a juvenile Little Blue Heron, as most Great Egrets were very far from the hawk watching tower, and my scope is just not sharp enough to see beak detail to distinguish a LBH from a Great Egret.

Or is this a Juvenile Herring Gull?

Recent walks of Point Pelee beaches gave views of Bonaparte's Gulls and Lesser (?) black-backed Gulls. I was hoping to see a Little Gull, but I haven't convincingly seen one yet. I can't honestly differentiate between a greater and lesser gull at this point, so I usually go by what is more statistically abundant. Ebird charts for Essex County hint that Greater black backed Gulls are much more abundant than Lesser black backed Gulls.

A quick kayak trip into Point Pelee's Marsh resulted in surprisingly low numbers of shorebirds. I was expecting more to be honest. On the various islands of mudflats I saw:
2 Semipalmated Sandpipers
5 Killdeer
1 Juv Spotted Sandpiper
3 Short billed Dowitchers
15 Canada Geese
25 Black Terns (in the Lilypads)

I should enter this into e-bird. I should go out at least one more time into the marsh. Probably in the second week of August.

Any thoughts on the subspecies of this SBD? Hendersoni?

Lots of butterflies around at Point Pelee along west Beach. Common Buckeye and American Snout are very abundant, but Giant Swallowtails, Red Spotted Purples, Viceroy, Monarch, Painted Lady and even Variegated Fritillary. I was hoping to see an Olive Hairstreak this week but dipped.

 

 

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava

Long Dash Skipper? ... Probably Pecks

Birding in Calgary AB

 

After being in BC for a week, and enjoying sunny, 78 degree weather in Banff National Park, Calgary was comparatively just another city. I must say I thought it would be nicer than it was, considering the oil boom and low taxes and low unemployment. We had two days in Calgary, hitting the Calgary Stampede along with the Calgary Zoo. We tried to bird the Isherwood Bird Sanctuary which was discussed in Stuart's Sitta Canadianis blog but my wife and son were being eaten by mosquitoes. We did not get to really bird the site very well, but from our short time there, we did not see much beyond birds that would be seen out East. 

Birds seen include:

Black Capped Chickadee (my fourth Chickadee Species on this trip... I should receive a medal or something!)
Black billed Magpie
Cedar Waxwings
Robins
House Wrens
American White Pelican (first in Canada... pretty cool)
American Wigeon  (or Baldplate... a rare duck for me...)
Wood Ducks
Deer

I photographed a bird that I figured could have been a Cassin's Finch... Could it be? I looked at the Ebird.ca bar charts and this species was not even on it. Also Cassin's Finch has an eyering and this bird does not seem to have one. But, it just seems that Purple Finches that I've seen are more brown/white in the face, and this is clearly not a House Finch. Is anyone voting for Cassins?

The Calgary Zoo had some Hawks and Owls in Captivity that were interesting to see. Also, on my way to the airport, I think I saw a Swainson's Hawk perched on a wire as well as a Yellow Headed Blackbird, but I think my wife would have killed me if I stopped for a better look. Speaking of wanting to stop while driving, there is a Beautiful Bow River that meanders through Calgary, and there were small gravel/mud islands occasionally that were covered with gulls. I think I could have also seen a Franklin's Gull had I been able to stop.


Painful West Coast Misses:
Stellars Jay
Gray Jay
Varied Thrush (Heard but not seen)
Bullock's Oriole
Harliquin Duck
American Dipper

Well, this concludes my BC Trip!
Good birding,
Dwaynejava