Hillman Hudsonian

Just a quick posting for today.

Having heard of some good birds at the Comber Flooded Fields during the work week , I went over there this morning to see if I could pick up some good shorebirds. Upon arrival to the flooded field, I had a chance to meet Kory Renaud and Dave Martin from Amherstburg. I had read about Daves great sightings for quite a while from WEPBIRDS ... but only met him today! I was amazed to hear that he reads this blog! We scanned the flooded field habitat for quite a while but could not pick out anything significant beyond yellowlegs and Dunlin.

I then moved on to Hillman Marsh. Kit M. texted me earlier in the day that he would be there so I joined him. Again, we saw similar birds at Hillman Marsh shorebird cell. But at one point, I had noticed a single shorebird flying and after taking many pictures of it in flight - came to realize that it might be a Hudsonian Godwit!  The strange thing about this sighting is that it was so fleeting - perhaps less than a minute - and I think I simply lost track of the bird or it might have flow up high and out of sight. I did not see it land or I did not see it resting on the ground.

It was nice to see it because it was my target bird for the day. When Kit and I left the Hillman Parking lot,  we spoke briefly to a birder from Michigan - Carl Overman - whose name I see a lot on Ebird reports. He confirmed that my photos were most likely Hudsonian Godwit as well.

Now that I look at the photos from the comfort of my kitchen table and laptop monitor - many details are much more evident - such as the bi-coloured bill, warm brown tones in the plumage, bright white rump with bordering black plumage etc.

I sometimes joke around with other birders that I'm just a mediocre birder who only finds obvious birds like blue jays or cardinals. I am a sub-200 species/year ebirder - not even making the top 100 in my own home county .... But maybe once a year I find a decent bird.  It just goes to show that every dog has his day!

Good birding!
-Dwayne

PS:  I can't help but reminisce about the "Flock" of 20 or so Hudsonian Godwits I had seen back on Oct 14th, 2011.

http://dwaynejava.blogspot.com/2011/10/comber-shorebirding-still-excellent.html

Blenheim White-rumped Sandpipers & Some Vitamin N

White rumped Sandpiper at Blenheim

White rumped Sandpiper at Blenheim

Huge numbers of  White rumped Sandpipers have been showing up in Ontario during their southbound migration this year. Their main migratory path is through the central provinces and states. Ontario's blogosphere (See Mike Burrell's White Rumped Sandpiper Posting) and Ebird hinted unprecedented numbers --- flocks as 100-300 were seen throughout Ontario over the last month (sightings of 1-10 birds are normally expected). I wanted to witness this specticle over the last two or three weeks, but couldn't make it out to any good shorebird habitat till this weekend. I thought I had missed the boat - but a recent e-bird posting from just this past Wednesday hinted that many were still around, as many as 60 at Blenheim SL. So after work on Friday, I checked out Blenheim and was happy to see that there were still some good shorebirds to be seen. It was very windy and very cold. It almost felt like it was going to snow actually.

White rumped Sandpipers in flight - Their long primaries extend past their tails when at rest.

Birds seen include Willet, Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral, Dunlin, and of course --- White rumped Sandpipers. Several American Pipits were very present as well. Savannah Sparrows were seen as well as hundreds of Rudy Ducks and Northern Shovelers in the deeper ponds.

Blenheim Shorebirds - Labeled!

American Pipit

Img Src: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-rumped_Sandpiper/lifehistory

White rumped Sandpipers have one of the farthest migrations imaginable - They breed in Canada's Arctic and they fly all the way to the southern reaches of South America during the winter.  Some cool things that these birds might observe in the Arctic Circle is the Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights. They might also witness the "midnight sun" which the arctic circle experiences - Several months of daylight - uninterrupted by a sunset and night time due to the tilt of the earth's axis.  It seems cool to think about how they chase the sun --- they are always in a constant Spring-Summer-Fall-Migrate cycle.  They arrive late in the springtime - as late as June and migrate south a little later as well. Its amazing to think that these birds , weighing only 1.4–2.1 oz (allaboutbirds) make all this effort to avoid winter and to have access to food. Its just part of their nature. Amazing.

Img Src: http://www.astro.washington.edu/courses/astro270/On-LineLectures/astro101s03_whereonearth.html

Img Src: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora

The local Essex County Field Naturalists group forwarded this video about "Vitamin N" (N for nature). Its a 10 minute presentation from an MBA grad student about nature. Its pretty good, and if you are reading this page... I'm sure you would agree whole heartedly with his message. One of the nature scenes that he provides looks to be Nova Scotia's Cabot trail if I'm not mistaken.

Click here for the link to the video: http://www.slideshare.net/StanfordBusiness/unplug-recharge-how-spending-time-in-nature-can-change-your-life

This article in the Windsor Star was about students planting Dense Blazing star in a small tallgrass prairie behind St Clair College.
http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/threatened-prairie-plant-gets-boost-at-st-clair-college


Good birding!
Dwayne

Yellowlegs

Hillman Marsh & Point Pelee in Late September

 Wing-tagged Egret 10E at Hillman

Even though my birding travails as of late have been basically fruitless, I couldn't help but stop by Hillman Marsh this morning. When I arrived, I walked over to the bridge over Hillman Creek,  and I quickly noticed a wing-tagged Egret! I was going to add a caption.. "don't label me" (to the photo above)... but when I add captions lately, it prevents the reader from seeing the larger version of the photo. Some Yellowlegs and some peeps were around Hillman this morning, but nothing overly exciting.

 I might be wrong on the ID here, but this shorebird was quite larger than those around it and has a slightly upturned bill. The Sibley field guide to Eastern N American birds statest that the bill length of a Greater Yellowlegs is about 1.5x the length of its head (Lesser has a bill length equal to the length of its head). Having seen many Solitary Sandpipers lately, I'm actually amazed at how similar they look to the Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs!

I then proceeded to Point Pelee and headed straight to the visitor center. I had read on the Point Pelee Twitter page that there were many Kinglets and Vireos lately. I was hoping the sightings book would hint at where to find them. But the sightings book listed exclusive raptors over the last few days.  I figured I would go to the tip of the park. There seemed to be very birds on my last two PPNP trips. Are the raptors scaring them away or am I just missing them???


The tip of Point Pelee was very sparse this morning when I went,  and I saw very little with the exception of one small pocket of passerines along the east beach about 20m south of the 42 parallel path.

  Yellow Rumped in great light and razor sharp focus... Click for larger view...

In a fleeting 2 minutes I saw:
Red Breasted Nuthatch
Flycatcher
Yellow Rumped Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Nashville Warbler
American Redstart
Blue Jays

Above them were
Red Tailed Hawks
Turkey Vultures
Sharp Shinned Hawks
Merlin/Peregrin Falcon

 I ran into Rick from Leamington as I was leaving the park and we quickly checked out Delaurier for some Golden Crowned Kinglets that he had seen earlier. Rick has taken some incredible photos and video footage since I've seen him last. I would like to publish some of his video or at least link to them if he puts them online.

Merlin or Peregrine Falcon? My field guide isn't helping on this one.

Overall, I find that the passerine migration has really slowed down, at least from my meager observations. I wish I would have seen a Lincoln's Sparrow or some Vireos, but I guess some Raptors and a tiny group of warblers will do.

Good Birding!
Dwayne

Bonus: Last night after work, I saw this Solitary Sandpiper at Ojibway Park. ... But not much else!

Shorebirding at Hillman Marsh

Last Sunday (Sept 12th), I stopped by Hillman Marsh & Point Pelee National Park.  Hillman Marsh had many Herons and Egrets as well as many shorebirds.  The shorebird cell basically looks like a giant field. I don't really see how this is a shorebird cell, but maybe next Spring, I will see if it is. I'm not a biologist, but Pointe Mouillee seems like a great shorebird habitat and looks nothing like Hillman's shorebird field. I hope my sceptical view of this field is changed next spring! Anyway, there was good shorebird habitat near the small barn as you cross the first major dyke about 400m past the parking lot.

I did see Yellowlegs (Greater?) as well as Stilt Sandpipers (which I originally thought were White-rumped sandpipers because they were showing major white rumpage). I also saw many small peeps closer to the visitor center but did not really spend much time in that location.

Next I drove through the onion fields, to Point Pelee NP. I did not see much as I drove through the onion fields... nor the north dyke road. Point Pelee seemed quiet for birds Sunday morning. Maybe I just got unlucky and did not cross many pockets of migrants. As I walked through Delaurier Trail, Sharp Shinned Hawks flew overhead every 3 minutes.

Possibly these preying raptors grounded many of the migrants I was looking for. I did see a flycatcher though.

Tildens Trail was silent as well. I did notice a few RT Hummingbirds though.

Spicebush Swallowtail & Question Mark butterflies near the Delaurier parking lot. 

This was uneventful yet mildly exciting walk ... so I figured I would post it, even if its a week late! :-)

Good birding!
Dwayne