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

White Faced Ibis at Big Creek... and a few warbling friends...

 

Wow, I left work today and headed out to Amherstburg... Big Creek Marsh and Holiday Beach to do some mid-week birding. Much to my delight, the Ontbirds notices of a White Faced Ibis from three days ago were still relevant! Sure enough, I saw parked cars, tripods, scopes and geeked out birders!

The real birders stood at a great distance, letting the bird wade in peace, while some locals walked as close as they possibly could to shot photos... Where is the birding etiquette?

 (Besides the Ibis, there were hundreds of Great Blue Heron in the background.)

It was a nice day out, but as soon as I arrived to Big Creek, the grey, cloudy skies rolled in with dingy, photography-killing light. Then it even started to rain!  The White Faced Ibis is a lifer for me... and the link below http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-faced_Ibis/lifehistory has a range map that really lets an ontario birder know just how 'accidental' this species is!!!

Next I stopped by Holiday Beach, and much to my happiness, the gate was open. I slowly drove down the the entrance road and stopped my car at one point when I heard lots of warbling.

Yellow Warbler!!! I have the feeling there were many around because I could hear them all along the drive into the park. Also, I basically took this from inside my car!

Holiday Beach was absolutely gorgeous. All the sloughs were flooded... I can just imagine that it will be humming with birds over the course of the next few weeks.

Next, I walked around near the observation tower, but did not see anything exciting. A few tree swallows, a cardinal, your obligatory grackels, robins and starlings.

Yesterday (Wednesdsay), I stopped by Point Pelee from 3-5pm and did not see much. I did see my first local warbler in spring molt.

The Yellow-Rumped Warbler was found at Blue Heron picnic area.

Hermit Thrushes are easy to spot in Woodland Trail this week. I ran into on loud Eastern Towhee, and MANY White Throated Sparrows.

Finally, I birded Ojibway quickly on Tuesday this week and did not see much. I did happen to run into a Tufted Titmouse, House finch and American Goldfinch.

Happy Birding!

American Wigeon ... just by chance

I attended a family friends' birthday party in Amherstburg today, so I left a little early and stopped by Holiday Beach to check out the ducks on Big Creek. I was shocked at how low the water was! I kayaked Big Creek last June and well, from Holiday beach, it looked like mudflats!You would not be able to launch a kayak into it!!! Big Creek closer to the bridge on Highway 18 had a little more water, but seemed very shallow as well.

I snapped a photos from the side of the road thinking they were just mallards and to my pleasent suprise... Lifers! I've never seen the green-faced, white crowned american wigeon! Upon looking up this duck on Allaboutbirds.org , I was amazed that its range is really on the western side of the continent. It only stopped here in migration. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Wigeon/lifehistory

Some Northern Shovelers were out as well.

I photographed a black capped chickadee, and was shocked at how cute it looked. I also noted that its rusty flanks are not present. Could it be a Carolina Chickadee? Or just a young, immature black capped chickadee. I guess I'll just assume the later.