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

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.