Blackburnian Warblers and other Neotropical Migrants at Point Pelee

Had a great afternoon at Pelee today. The footpaths along the east side of the tip gave amazing views of warblers this afternoon. Magnolia, Blackburnian, and Chestnut sided along with others were foraging at eye level along the pathways. At times, you might have two Blackburnian warblers, and a Magnolia in the same small tree... amazing.

Happy Mother's Day to all those mama's out there...
Good birding!

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Late September Birding in Amherstburg

 

Not much happening birdwise for me this last week. I got out to Holiday Beach this past Friday (after work) and saw some expected seasonal raptors (Coopers, Sharp-shinned, Kestrels, Osprey etc).  A few passerines seen include a Black throated Blue warbler, a Catbird, Carolina Wren, Eastern Phoebe, Wilsons, American Redstart, Magnolia as well as Hundreds of Blue Jays flying over the Holiday Beach Observation Tower. I found it harder to see passerines this year at the hawk tower because an Owl decoy was placed on top of the tower in an effort to get raptors to dive in towards the decoy.

I've wanted to go out to Ridgetown and Blenhiem Lagoons to see some shorebirds, but I've been really busy. Almost a hiatus-like busy-ness. I'm taking another night course at the U of Windsor, as well as working full time and spending time with the family.

A Red Phalarope was seen at Pelee Sunday, but I missed the Ontbirds report... it went to my junk mail folder... I would have easily chased that lifer.  But, it wasn't to be. I might try to see them closer to the east coast in the summer some time in the future. 

Common Buckey, Grey Hairstreak and even this Summer Azure still hanging out at Holiday Beach

Mid to late September is a great time to watch thousands of Blue Jays migrate along Lake Erie's North shore.

I'm looking forward to October. I am really hoping to see Nothern Saw-whet Owls as well as American Pipits which have both eluded me in my first three years of birding. Purple Sandpiper would be nice to see as well. Any winter finches would be a nice addition to my life list as well.

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava

Labour Day Weekend Birding v2

Hackberry Emporer - On a Hackberry! There must have been 15 Emporers on this tree alone!

I got up early on Monday and headed out to Point Pelee. I briefly stopped at the northmost parking lot and found it to be quiet with the exception of an unidentified flycatcher (Acadian Perhaps?) perched on the powerlines. Moving on, a quick stop at Delaurier Trail was very birdy, but the hot, humid air had my camera optics all fogged up. Cedar Waxwings, Least Flycatcher and a mix of Warblers were fluttering around in the sun-lit tree tops. My next stop was the visitor center parking lot. The sunlit east side of the parking lot was crawling with birds. Sadly, my camera had an "Error 30" message, that indicated the shutter was jamming.

I spent more time fumbling with my camera than I wanted to, but some birds seen were Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Magnolia Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Red breasted Nuthatch, Scarlet Tanager, and Yellow bellied Flycatcher! At one point, I gave up on my camera and just looked at a pair of Red breasted Nuthatches fluttering and skylarking over the parking lot through my binoculars. It was cool to see them flying with their stubby blunt tails. Very cool and exciting to see what everyone else is noticing on Ontbirds... There seems to be a Red breasted Nuthatch invasion!

Red breasted Nuthatch Invasion!

Yellow bellied Flycatcher

The beak of this bird hints at Scarlet Tanager... Thoughts?

A walk along west beach was a little bit of a letdown, with only a few butterflies and birds. Sharp shinned Hawks, Merlin and American Kestreal were abundant overhead. A Common Yellowthroat, Magnolia, Peewee, were seen along with a pair of noisy Kingfishers. Closer to the tip, American Redstarts and Blackpoll and possibly Cape May Warblers were seen.

Spicebush Swallowtail along West Beach

South end of NW Beach Parking Lot offered a Grey Hairstreak among many others...

At the tip of Point Pelee, a Merlin was perched at the top of a tree, giving nice close looks at this beautiful raptor. Overhead, Falcons and Accipiters flew at high altitudes. A Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo) flew over at a pretty low level.

 

After Pelee, I went to Hillman Marsh to see if there might be any shorebirds in the wetland cell. There were some good shorebirds behind the visitor center, due to very low water levels. Another Blackpoll warbler was seen in the scrubby area along the wetland cell. Some birds seen include:

10 + Yellowlegs
10 + White Rumped
1 Green Heron
1 Juv Black Crowned Night Heron
25 Great Egrets
5 Red Knots (?)
10 Semipalmated Plovers
5 American Black Ducks

Blackpoll Warbler

Cedar Creek in Kingsville was visited while driving between Leamington and Amherstburg.  An Osprey overhead caught my eye. But my time was limited so I continued on...

My last stop was Holiday Beach. Upon arrival I saw a birder at a picnic table photographing birds. I joined him and to my amazement, warblers just went by almost as if they were in a parade.  Black and white, Chestnut sided warbler, Magnolia, Black throated Blue, Eastern Pewee, Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos abundant as well. All the while, more Hackberry Emporers were abundant and even landing on me!

I stopped by the banding station at Holiday Beach and Paul Pratt invited me to watch how he recorded specs for a Swainson's Thrush. They were very busy so I continued on to the tower. Red-eyed Vireo and Magnolia were seen in the mist nets while exiting the banding area. At the hawk tower, I met the official counter (Todd Pepper), and Kory & Sarah again. A few seasonal raptors had gone by ... but I had to go. My time at Holiday Beach was short as I had to be home for 3pm... But overall a great day of birding!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Point Pelee's OFO Convention Birding

I stopped into PPNP this morning for a short birding walk. As usual, I only had a precious two hours to bird the park, so I rolled the dice and decided to walk the Delaurier Path. This path has been really good in the past, especially in the fall because there is lots of edge habitat (forest/field and forest/marsh) as well as several wet sloughs. The area around the sloughs (the elevated boardwalk & octagon platform) are loaded with dogwood berries, wild grapes, sumac and jewelweed.

The Delaurier parking lot provided a brief look at a (house?) Wren, and a few warblers were seen along the path, but really, I hardly saw much as I rounded the Delarier path. I did have good looks at Northern Flicker and many overhead Sharp Shinned Hawks. Perhaps that's why nothing was really out in the open. Even though birds were hardly seen, it was cool to see so many Ruby throated hummingbirds. Along the path, batches of Jewelweed would be guarded by a perched Hummingbird (see above photo). I must have seen about 15 hummingbirds along this path. 

Then, just as I rounded the Delaurier path, I ran into a group of birders from the OFO convention that was talking place this weekend at Point Pelee. I think the group was led by Bruce DiLabio, and his son Ben (the leader calling his son Ben tipped me off). Bruce and the group quickly spotted a Grey Cheeked Thrush which would have been a lifer. Another group member mentioned seeing a flycatcher skulking in the same bush. Ben later mentioned seeing a Yellow bellied Flycatcher as well (another potential lifer)!

Yellow bellied Flycatcher. An unexpected and exciting lifer.

I did not really see any birds at first, and I then followed the group along Ander's Path to see some hard-fought warblers, Magnolia, Black throated Blue, and a Blue headed Vireo, preening in a pine. The group quickly left Ander's Footpath shortly after (they rushed off to NW Beach). As I was about to leave myself, I tried one more time for the Grey Cheeked thrush and luckily, it perched out into the open, along with the yellow bellied flycatcher... Both lifers at #282 & #283.

A Grey cheeked Thrush. Do you see it's gray facial features? Its almost identical to a Hermit Thrush!

While exciting to get two more lifers, I must say it was a cautious excitement because these two particular birds are tough to identify. The flycatchers are so similar I really am not 100% sure of what I'm looking at when I see one. Also, the spot-breasted Thrushes are all very similar as well. But I'm quite confident the identification is correct. The thrush above is obviously not a Swainson's Thush.  Lifers are few and far between as you approach 300!

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

PS: I checked the onion fields for American Golden Plover (they were reported there yesterday) but no such luck. I think I'm the only birder in Ontario who has not yet seen an Am G. Plover!

Lifer summary:
Grey cheeked Thrush #282
Yellow bellied Flycatcher #283

Birding Holiday Beach during Fall migration

Yours truly -  holding a Chestnut sided Warbler compliments of the Holiday Beach banding station

What a wonderful morning at Holiday Beach! I met up with the Ojibway Nature Center birding group and had the pleasure of seeing many great people today. As you can see in the photo above, I held the first bird (Chestnut sided Warbler) in my life!

I spent the first 30 minutes on the Hawk Tower and observed a few Mallard and Wood Ducks as well as a Pied Billed Grebe. A Great Blue Heron as well as some Swans that graced Big Creek with their presence. A  juvenile Bald Eagle flew by and dazzled the group as it glided by with its talons hanging! It was very windy (25mph winds) and at least at 8am, there were few raptors flying by. Raptors show up with Northwesterly winds. A great website to learn more about Holiday Beach Migration is http://www.hbmo.org/ (Holiday Beach Migration Observatory).

The highlight of my day was just walking down to the small forested area along the beach which is crawling with Warblers at this time of year. I would almost say, the concentration of warblers in this tiny woodland is was almost as high as any other place I've birded, even in May!

Least Flycatcher

Some birds seen at Holiday Beach this morning include:
Black throated Blue Warbler
American Redstart
Chestnut sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black and White Warbler
Black throated Green
Blackpoll Warbler
Cape May Warbler
?  Pine Warbler

Least Flycatcher
Black Capped Chickadee

Grey Catbird
Robins
Cedar Waxwing

Bald Eagle
Small Falcon near "malden corners"

Mallard
Wood Ducks
Pied-billed Grebe
Great blue Heron

~Butterflies~
Monarch
Viceroy
Painted Lady
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

I must say, I found myself confused trying to identify warblers in their fall/immature plumage. In fact, I'm not even too confident in labeling some of these warblers that I've added below. Any ideas?

Black throated Blue (female)

Blackpoll? (1)

Magnolia Warbler ... my best guess anyway!

          

Blackpoll first winter female?(2)

American Redstart

Cape May Warbler? Not sure (3)

(Cape May?)  Its hard to tell, even with Sibley Guide in hand (4)

Anyway, it was a great day. For the second weekend in a row, I got to experience the wonder of Fall migration. Holiday beach, really is an incredible migrant trap. It was too windy this morning to see raptors, but I will be back a few more times over the next month or two to witness the spectacle of fall Migration.

I think a trip to Ohio will be happening very soon... stay tuned!

Good Birding!
Dwayne
 

Point Pelee May 13th ... providing a generous helping of lifers!

Even with cloudy rainy weather, I talked myself into driving about 1 hour to Point Pelee after work.  In a twist of good luck the sun slowly came out as I arrived in Leamington. I walked Tildens Trail and really got a look at some great birds! I also ran into a good birding friend, Rick. Birders are always such nice people. They're willing to take you under their wing! (joke). Four lifers I got today are Bay Breasted, Wood Thrush, Common Nighthawk, and Lincoln's Sparrow.

Anyway, for a fleeting moment, I photographed a Bay Breasted Warbler! (Lifer!) At the same time, I photographed my second Canada Warbler.

Blackburnian, Nashville and Tennessee Warblers were abundant! In one area of Tildens, Tennessee was literally just sitting around at low range, posing for photographers. A Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher was getting food for and bringing it to its nest. I also saw a nesting Robin family.

 Rick pointed out a gorgeous Black Throated Blue, which hopped around the same tree for 10 minutes while I took many photos of this wonderful bird.

I even photographed a cool looking sparrow, which afterword, I identified as a Lincoln's Sparrow (Lifer!) I knew there was something special about it because it had really nice chestnut browns and light brown streaks on its sides. It also had a rust coloured mohawk. I must slowly becoming a better birder, because in 2009, I swore I would never get into sparrow identification... I thought it was too boring, but now that I have a few under my belt... I realize they're pretty cool! I photographed a White-Crowned as well, but I've already posted a few of those already.

One really nice thing during tonight's walk was the constant (new) sound of Wood Thrushes. It is a really nice, distinct call. But, for the two hours I've walked, I could not see one. Until at the very end of my walk, I finally saw the polka-dot breasted Wood Thrush! (Lifer... but really, I saw a dead one at my parent's house last year... but a dead bird doesn't count by my stringent lifer criteria)  In the same slough, Rick pointed out a Veery at close range. Just a wonderful after-work walk.

We also saw Cape May Warbler, Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, Blue Grey Gnatcatcher, Chestnut Sided, Palm, Great Horned Owls in their nest, And just to throw in one more lifer.... Common Nighthawk!!!

Good birding to you all!
Dwayne