Hudsonian Whimbrel ... at Black Oak Heritage Park?

 

One less butterfly... can anyone id the caterpillar?

I birded Black Oak Herritage park with 2-3 target species today:

Yellow Bellied Flycatcher

Olive sided Flycatcher

Whimbrel

I had been speaking to another birder (black oak) recently saying that hudsonian godwits are common at Pointe Mouillee in late may - which is in Michigan about 20km south of detroit. So ... if whimbrell are 20 km due south of Black oak (which borders the detroit river corridor) could some whimbrel go through the detroit river - up towards lake st clair then up towards lake huron? My birding friend suggested no - they go towards point pelee to lake erie and lake ontario.

 So I was birding at black oak today and it was pretty birdy. Lots of bird song... and lots of leaves! I had a generous look at a mourning warbler, as well as a mid forest butteo hawk which was a broad winged hawk!

Willow Flycatcher

Well - I stood along the detroit river and attempted to do a 10 minute shorebird sit. Nothing of much interest. Then a Willow Flycatcher caught my ear. I was photographing it when I noticed a flock of migrants streaming overhead. After waiting what felt like an eternity, my focus kicked in and I snapped as many photos of this flock of birds as I could. Photograph first - id later!

Well low and behold... your blogger's whimbrel wishes came true. His hypothesis was correct. Whimbrel at pointe mouillee can go towards point pelee as well as use the detroit river corridor to continue migrating north.

I was pretty amazed. Nobody in all the years of ebird had seen whimbrel here until my sighting today.  I feel like I made some onitholgical history. I guess every dog has his day. 

Good birding!

Dwayne

Tropicana - Tropical Kingbird in Windsor + some Orange Crowned Warblers Return

 

Over the last few weeks, I have enjoyed birding, just in my back yard - watching the fall migration take place.

On weekends in September - I had observed a few large kettles of hawks fly overhead.

Over the last two weekends, I was able to find at least one Orange Crowned Warbler in the hedgerow behind my house.

I was sitting in my living room this past weekend, and heard a "bang" sound on my window. I was amazed to see a small warbler on the ground below the window. I was sad to see that an Ovenbird struck my window.  I gently placed it on a small structure off the ground, just in case maybe it would recover, and perhaps avoid being eaten by a cat or some other predator while it recovered. It was gone the following morning - so it either recovered or was predated by another animal. 

I have seen Lincoln's Sparrows in my back yard

Back in August, even had a new lifer butterfly - a Zabulon Skipper - which I have never seen until this year.

But over the last day or two --- a level 5 rarity showed up just minutes away from my home in Windsor. I could almost ride my bike to see this bird -- a Tropical Kingbird!  I feel I have seen these birds during my trip to South East Arizona - so its not a lifer for me - but still-  its a great bird to behold - especially if one lives in Windsor.

Good Birding!

Dwayne

Holiday Beach Hawkfest birding

Every year during the second and third weekends in September - the Holiday Beach Migration Oberservatory (HBMO) has a Hawk Festival. This past Saturday - I was eager to go because there was a major drop in temperature and strong North Winds. Thousands of Broadwing Hawks flew overhead along with clouds of Blue Jays. Lots of warblers were present - and the banding station was able to catch and band many warblers such as American Redstart, Blackpoll, Tennessee, and Magnolia. At one point, Bob Hall-Brooks offered to have me release a freshly banded Magnolia Warbler. He placed the bird in my hand and amazingly - I just chilled out for a few minutes!


Today - I went for a walk at Point Pelee - expecting tonnes of warblers to be present but amazingly - it was a little quiet! I did get a few interesting birds that I miss some years - such as Merlin and Lincoln's Sparrow. Lots of Northern Flicker's were present - and at one point - I think I saw 6 or more in a tree! Even though the birding was a little slow this afternoon - it was quite gorgeous out. The sun, cool breeze and 10 km of walking makes for a great afternoon of nature appreciation!

Good birding!

Broad winged Hawk Migration at Holiday Beach

A few days ago, (Thursday Sept 18th, 2014) I went to Holiday Beach after work because there was a nice north wind blowing and I had a hunch that it might be a good hawk-watching day. Sure enough, as I was birding and casually walking around at Holiday Beach, I looked up into the sky with my binoculars and saw huge kettles of Broad Winged Hawks (the scene above is barely visible to the naked eye - you need optics and a good zoom lens to appreciate such kettles - especially later in the day when the flight elevation rises). It was a great afternoon - 22, 600 raptors has flown over the hawkwatching tower - a huge day for Broad winged Hawks and a great diversity of raptors as well.

A pair of Snowy Egrets that have been ongoing gave nice views and posed nicely next to Great Egrets in the pond below the tower. Several Common Nighthawks flew overhead as well. Several American Kestrels flew by the tower eating Green Darner Dragonflies.

Nom Nom Nom - Kestrel munching on freshly caught dragonfly

This Peregrine falcon knows he's at the top of the food chain. This bird took a few swoops at other raptors nearby.

More kettles some with 50 to 100, some the 500+ birds went by for the next 2 hours. Amazing to witness. I think every birder should witness this Broad winged Hawk migration ... the problem is timing though. I would suggest keeping an eye out on hawkwatching reports during mid-September, and go within 1-2 days of an increased surge of Broad wings. Another thing to consider is that North / Northwest winds always make for a good day of hawkwatching in Mid-September as well.

More Kettles - I only had my 250mm lens... Not my 400mm

Saturday morning, I went to Point Pelee and it was surprisingly quiet - at least for me. I ended up walking Delaurier/Cactus Trail and noticed a few warblers, my first southbound Ruby crowned Kinglet and a few of the more common warblers.  I took the tram to the tip and met Jeremy Bensette on the way. Josh Vandermeulen, Dave Szmyr, Jeremy Hatt and Blake Mann were doing a lake watch with great results on SE winds. I must admit, I don't have too much patience for lake watching... and I didn't have a scope like the rest of the group but Josh soon called out a nice Parasitic Jaeger that was surprisingly close to the west beach path that we were standing on.

Nice find Josh! My second Parasitic Jaeger and first at Point Pelee

I left Pelee at about noon. I tried to bird the new Juniper Savanah near the parking lot but it was quiet. Lots of Sharped Shinned Hawks flying overhead.  I ended up just looking at some very common butterflies. A single Monarch was present. They had a pretty big flight... earlier in the week.

I've never really confidently identified an Orange Sulphur from a Clouded... Two very common butterflies - But this one seems to be an easy ID - if you have a net or a camera with a fast shutter rate.

Cabbage White on Sky blue Aster?

Good birding!
Dwaynejava


PS:

Did you know that September 6th was World Shorebird Day? Check out this video that Cornell Ornithology posted about Bar tailed Godwit migration research.

Early October Birding at Point Pelee & Holiday Beach

Sure enough, once last week's low pressure system moved off to the east, trailing north winds followed this counter-clockwise spinning weather system. Birding Point Pelee's West beach towards the tip had fall-out numbers ( 'fallout' is the most overused term of birders, but ya... I said it!) of late season warblers. This posting describes Saturday at Point Pelee and Sunday at Holiday Beach.

Hillman Marsh***
Hillman was my first stop, and it was cold, windy and just barely raining. I walked from the parking lot to the shorebird cell, only to see nothing until my walk back to the parking lot. As I walked back to the lot, I think I flushed a small Rail of some sort. It was very dark and I recall seeing redish in its wings or scapulars. Really weird, it was about the size of a red-winged blackbird with an upright posture. I have no idea what it was! I then flushed a Ring necked Pheasant. No photos...

Point Pelee's Delaurier Trail***
It was quiet on this path, but probably because there were raptors everywhere overhead.  Sharp shinned, Coopers, even Bald Eagles were constantly criss-crossing the area.  A Solitary Sandpiper greeted me in the parking lot. The snickering call of Belted Kingfishers was heard all day if you were anywhere near water. Along west beach, along the North Dyke road, and even the wet sloughs of Delarier trail had many Kingfishers (see top photo).  Thrushes and a small pocket of warblers were seen near the Delaurier Home.

 

The Tip and West Beach Footpaths***
Merlins, Sharp Shinned, Coopers, Bald Eagles were easily seen overhead, and along the scrubby trees along west beach, Grey-Cheeked Thrushes and Swainsons Thrushes were everywhere. White crowned Sparrows along with Yellow-Rumped and Palm Warblers (hundreds seemingly) with lesser numbers of Black throated Green, Magnolia and Common Yellowthroat warblers. This was great birding, I can't recall seeing so many birds at the tip of Point Pelee, even though it was lots of birds with little variety.

 

Southernmost Sanderling. Two Sanderlings and a Rudy Turnstone ignored visitors at the tip.

Holiday Beach***
Sunday, I stopped by Holiday Beach with my wife and son, and we saw many of the same warblers along the beach, Norther Parula and Red eyed Vireo were nice along with a FOS (first of season) Eastern Phoebe. Kestrels, Sharp Shinned, Coopers, Broad winged, TV's, and Bald Eagles constantly streamed over the tower. We only visited for a short time though.

Shake your Buteo. Broad winged Hawk with its Spade-shaped belly markings.

Probably added too many photos in this posting... Oddly enough, the most common bird (yellow rumped warbler) was not featured in this posting.

Good birding!
Dwaynejava