Early Egret v2

Great Egret on the west side of the River Canard Bridge in LaSalle ON. According to the Essex County Ebird Stats, its at least a month early!

A recent Ontbirds report from a LaSalle area birder mentioned a Great Egret in Turkey Creek near the Front Rd Bridge. This birder also mentioned a Catbird, Kingfisher and Mockingbird in the area as well. So, having some extra time,  I tried this afternoon to go see this bird for myself. I missed the Egret from the reported spot, so I figured I would drive up to River Canard, even if no birds were around, its a really beautiful drive. Long story short,  the Great Egret was seen, along with two Great Blue Herons just off to the west from the bridge that crosses over River Canard.

Also seen was an Adult Bald Eagle on its nest on Fighting Island in the Detroit River. This is visible from the LaSalle Park at the foot of Laurier Dr and Front Rd.

Great Egret Range Map from Allaboutbirds.org.
It seems the summer range is woefully wrong...

The Cost of Birding
With gasoline selling at 1.22/L, I realized recently that even with a fuel efficient car, gas costs about $0.10 per KM! To drive from Windsor to Point Pelee and back would cost about $10! I don't know if I'm being cheap here, but 10$ for a drive to PPNP seems pretty steep. I guess I never tried to break down the cost until recently. Rondeau on the other hand would be about $15 in gas (round trip) plus $17 to enter the park. So, if I go to Rondeau Park in May, I am basically coughing up $32.... Seriously? That is major money!!! Is there any other county (Essex, Kent & Lambton Counties) in North America that has 3%** original forest cover due to agriculture, then charges people to walk around in whats left of the rare forest habitat?
 
Life List Wishlist
As I approach my 3rd year of birding, I think I will put less emphasis on my life list which I think is a natural progression for birders. But, I am presently sitting at about 290 species of birds, and I think it would be really fun to count the next ten as I approach 300 species. Even though its an arbitrary number, I think some celebration is in order.

There are so many birds that I still would love to see, its hard to make a list of ten or so. There are some Southwestern Species I would love to add to this list, but I will try to keep it a little more realistic with Eastern birds that I have a slight chance of seeing a little more locally.

American Bittern
Virginia Rail
Upland Sandpiper
Whimbrel
Black Scoter
Prairie Warbler
Worm Eating Warbler
Kirtland's Warbler
Barred Owl
Little Gull
American Pipit
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Gray Jay
Common Redpoll
White winged Crossbill

To see any of the above species, I think I'm going to really have to study the stats and range maps from Ebird.ca. Many of the others may require some travel over the summer. Others may need outright chasing. It will be interesting!


Good birding,
Dwaynejava


**3% is a statistic but I don't really have a source, it may have been at the PPNP VC, Ojibway Park or informal conversation with other nature lovers. Here is a map, compliments of ERCA that shows the tiny amount of woodland that remains in Essex county. Take out your magnifying glass!

http://www.erca.org/downloads/natural_areas_map.pdf

Baltimore Checkerspot and the quest for Shorebird Habitat in Windsor

A recent posting by Josh V. (Ontario Birds and Herps) had featured beautiful Baltimore Checkerspot butterflies, a species that I've never seen in person before, so I figured I would go out and see for myself. Sure enough, just minutes after entering the Provincial Ojibway Reserve (across the road from the visitor center) I spotted the Checkerspot. Oddly enough, I saw it again days later at the exact same spot along the path. It's a very tame butterfly in my short experience with it. You can almost walk right up to it. When it flies, it hardly tries to avoid you, almost running into you. And in both cases, I walked away from it. It's not shy.

I have been trying to get out to the Spring-garden area in West Windsor which is part of the Ojibway Complex. It is well reputed as being a great spot for butterflies as well. The Mourning Cloak butterfly above was seen there as well as many uncooperative Giant Swallowtails. Black Oak Heritage Park has been good for butterflies and birds as well.

When you approach Ojibway, make a point of looking in the pond as you drive in. Saturday, I saw a female Wood Duck with 11 or so baby ducklings.

Belted Kingfisher on the Owl Nestboxes of the Ojibway pond. Always interesting to see. The Wood Ducks and the Kingfisher were taken from inside my car as entered the park.

I also brought my wife and son to see the new Ojibway Nature Center this Saturday (it was really our first walk through the new center). My son is two years old and I hope he can learn so much from the staff, programs and resources at Ojibway. My son already enjoys bird watching! We look at Robins and American Goldfinches in our back yard and he points at them, smiles and says: "bir-bie!". In my front yard, I have a fruit-bearing Mulberry tree which has attracted many birds as of late. This week I have my first Cedar Waxwing as a yard bird. I also have been given great views of House Finches, Goldfinches, and Robins.

Shorebird Habitat in LaSalle?

On Father's Day, I visited relatives in LaSalle, just near the corner of Huron Church Rd and Cousineau (Near Windsor Crossing or St Clair College). There is a school with a stormwater detention pond (map) and soccer fields next to it. It seems like this pond has been a little bit of a  migrant trap or an oasis in an otherwise urbanized / monoculture farmland environment. Today, I spotted a Mallard Duck family, Great Egret, Killdeer (many), and Spotted Sandpipers (many) ! This seems to be pretty nice shorebird habitat, and I think I will keep an eye on it more in the late summer/fall (or pay my little nephew to keep an eye out for me).

Is this the only shorebird habitat in Windsor/LaSalle? I'm not aware of any other spot that has mudflats in Windsor!

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

PS:

I've recently purchased a butterfly field guide from the Ojibway Nature Center, so if I've been painfully botching some of my identifications, I hope to be a little more accurate.  :^)

Birding Hillman Marsh

I'm dying to add American Bitterns and/or Least Bitterns to my life list... But these are really difficult birds to spot. I've been to St Clair NWA once last year, and for a few minutes this year, and I did not really see anything either time. I contacted someone from ebird.com that posts in the Essex county area and he liked Hillman Marsh as a place to possibly see them.

So last night, I went to Hillman Marsh to see what I could see in the Marsh area. I was hoping to also go to Point Pelee, but there was just not enough time. That's the funny thing about birding and being from Windsor. If you want to go birding in the Leamington area, St Clair, or Rondeau, you have at least 2 hours of driving time (round trip). And its a huge gamble because sometimes, you do not end up seeing much! I recall going to Point Pelee in March and thinking that I typically see more at Ojibway. Whats the point of going outside of peak migration times?


Upon arriving, I met a wildlife photographer, named Brad who pointed out a perched Kingfisher nearby.

I continued past the Hillman Marsh main entrance to the side road just past HMCA, with the famed bridge over a side marsh. I was hoping to surprise an American Bittern there but not this time.
I then went into the HMCA area and parked and walked a little. As I walked, I kept upsetting a Killdeer that made it very apparent that a human was walking around! I did get a chance to get a close up look at a Least Spotted Sandpiper (Juvies). I think these guys did not realize I was there on the muddy beach, because they came within 8' of me!  (Great link for southbound shorebird identification http://www.ofo.ca/reportsandarticles/southboundshorebirds.php )

I then did a quick walk on the wooden boardwalk on mainly saw Wood Duck Families scrambling to get away. I did see some flycatchers, (I'll say they were least flycatchers). I did not walk much farther than 25m each way on the dyke. From fhat location though, I did see some Common Moorhens and Black Crowned Night Herons, both mature and immature which hints that they might be breeding at HMCA.

A quick summarized list is:
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Black Crowned Night Heron
Belted Kingfisher
Least Sandpiper
Killdeer
Common Moorhen
Wood Duck
Least Flycatcher

I would appreciate any advice on seeing Least/American Bitterns. Is it too late this summer to even bother seeing them?

Good Birding, Butterflying and Herping!