Selected Photos While Birding at Point Pelee May 7th

I walked the park today from about 7am-12 noon. I left feeling disappointed --- it seemed dead, but there was some diversity to be found singles of several warbler species. In hindsight, it wasn't too bad.

This might be a Grey cheeked Thrush, not a Hermit Thrush. Any thoughts?

This Red Trillium was seen at Kopegaron Woods, not Pelee

These little white flowers were found at Ojibway Park this week. My Audubon's Botany guide (donated by reader Irene) indicates that these flowers are named Pussytoes because the little white flowers look like a kittens paws... That is botany for you ... :p

Labour Day Weekend Birding - Pelee Birding & Snowy Egrets at Holiday Beach

This could be a  is a Least Flycatcher  (ignore the image label)

Labour Day weekend is usually such a great weekend for birding. Southbound migration is in full swing and its the last long weekend of Summer.  I decided to go birding at Point Pelee and my first stop in the park was at Delaurier Trail. I found a really nice pocket of flycatchers and warblers just north of the parking lot. This recently managed area has lots of open cedar savannah with lots of brush piles. Blue grey Gnatcatchers, Nashville, Bay-Poll warblers were seen here as well as Eastern Phoebe, Yellow bellied Flycatcher (could have been a Least to be honest) and Eastern Wood Pewee were seen and heard. Overhead, three or four Common Nighthawks were foraging with spectacular arial maneuvers and showing there nicely marked white bars on their long wings. The octagon area of the Delaurier trail was nice as well with a few more warbler species (black and white), Hummingbirds and more Flycatchers.

Later at Cactus Field - I noted that it was birdy as well. Its really grown in since its grand opening this spring. Its hard to find the trail under all the Goldenrod. Lots of Blue Jays, Carolina and House Wrens, Common Grackels, Goldfinch, Cardinals were around. A Least Flycatcher posed nicely for me but my camera was at a +1 exposure, overexposing this beautiful little avian gem.

Hackberry Emperor in the White Pine Parking Lot.

 

 

 



I saw many birders at the park today including Steve Pike, Blake, Alan, Jeremy B & Josh. Josh and Jeremy invited me to go out to Holiday Beach with them so I joined, because I wanted to get better looks at Snowy Egrets than I had gotten in the last week or two.  On the way, I stopped in Kingsville to see a Common Checkered Skipper colony that is behind the McDonalds lot.

Sure enough at Holiday Beach - Trumpeter Swans were a highlight as well as a Solitary Sandpiper, Green Heron, Kingfishers ... but no Snowy Egrets in sight.  Until we were leaving... Josh called the Snowy in flight - as it landed in the pond adjacent to the hawk watching tower.

I only saw one Snowy Egret, but Kory, Josh and Jeremy had seen two as they left the park.

Good Birding!
Dwayne

Black Necked Stilts and Ontario's Endangered Species Act

Birding has been slow with the lingering low pressure system to the south of us and the gorgeous weather we've been getting but its still been pretty interesting. Saturday this past weekend, it was slow but some cool birds were seen. One was a Least Flycatcher (Empidonax Minimus) that I was able to hear calling (It makes a scratchy Che Bec sound) and watch flycatch from just one or two feet above the forest floor. This is the first time I've seen this species on its northbound migration, (a small victory for me as a birder... ) and a great way to learn its call. Woodland Nature trail gave some nice looks at Veery, Yellow throated Vireo, Blackburnian Warbler, Blue winged, Yellow and Nashville. The Vireo and Blackburnian were FOS and very exciting to see.

Sunday afternoon, Todd Pepper ontbirded an extremely rare (locally) shorebird, Black necked Stilts, and I couldn't help but go see it. I actually took my 3 year old son with me to see these birds, but at the time we were present, they were very distant. Still, with my new scope in tow, I had pretty satisfying looks at the birds. Later on Sunday night, the Stilts moved back to the shorebird cell giving front-lit, fetal-position-inducing views of these mega rare, mega giant shorebirds. Funny thing that happened was that I had set up my scope, found the birds, and person after person walked by wanting to see the birds, I graciously invited people to look, when one lady was like ... "Oh... they just took off... they're long gone". Note to self, don't be so friendly with scope :-)

 What's your impression of Chris Hadfield's recent photo of Southern Ontario? https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield . One thing I noticed was the lack of forest cover. Its pathetic no? You can actually see the Pinery, Point Pelee, Rondeau and Cedar Creek amounst the farm fields. The most damning thing as well is to compare Michigan to Ontario along the Sarnia River. Wow.

 

A concluding link for any Ontario Nature lovers that are reading this blog: Please check out David Suzuki's link and campaign to raise awareness of new laws that will undo any laws that were made six years ago regarding endangered species protection. I have personally visited the link and signed the petition, I encourage any other bloggers to re-tweet this, and perhaps even start to follow David Suzuki's Facebook page.  Funny how the media never mentioned anything about dismantling the Endangered Species Act!?!?!?

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/panther-lounge/2013/05/last-change-to-salvage/

https://www.facebook.com/DavidSuzuki

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Black necked Stilts - 331

Henslow's Sparrow and Other Early May Migrants

Wow, its been a great spring migration so far. Of course, work has been getting in the way of me being able to spend large swaths of time at Point Pelee, but I still have made an attempt to get out and bird every day (if only locally) for the last week or two. On Tuesday April 30th, I stopped by Point Pelee after work, mainly to try and find a Worm eating Warbler at Kopagaron Woods (unsuccessful) but then went to PPNP to walk the West Beach Footpath from the visitor center to the tip parking lot (and perhaps take the tram back). Lots of cool birds to look at. It wasn't crawling with birds, but there were some nice birds every now and then. Savannah Sparrow, White crowned, brief looks at Red headed Woodpeckers, White eyed and Blue headed Vireos, Brown Thrashers and Palm Warblers were nice birds to see. But, just as I was nearing the tip parking lot, I saw David Bell waving me over  to see what Josh and himself had found... A Henslow's Sparrow crawling through the grass! What a beautiful Sparrow. It was difficult to photograph because it was never really out in the open, and also, my lens has a 3.5m minimal focus length.

I faintly saw the white tram through the woods make its last trip to the visitor center and realized I was going to have to briskly walk the 2.5km walk back to the visitor center, (I was hungry and I knew my wife would be a little upset about me getting home late) ... but how could I complain? This is a bird I had conceded that I would probably never have found... A mega rarity... So Dave and Josh ...thanks!

According to ROM, the Henslow's Sparrow is endangered in Canada and Ontario, due to loss of old-field habitat from changing agricultural practices, urbanization and succession of grasslands to forests. I encourage anyone to read more about this bird at the following two links. Perhaps more awareness could increase the chance that suitable habitats could either be preserved or regenerated.

http://www.rom.on.ca/ontario/risk.php?doc_type=fact&id=130
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Henslows_Sparrow/lifehistory

Josh mentioned seeing a Northern Goshawk, moments before I had arrived, and I had myself noted a few Accipiter Hawk species flying overhead... I'm not sure but perhaps we had seen the same bird? I'm inviting any corrections or confirmations on this bird... Goshawk? My caution in the ID stems in the lack of marking on the lower belly, but, it does seem to have a faint white eyebrow, as well as buteo-like wings.

I could be wrong! :-)

Another post-work Pelee walk this week (on Thursday May 2nd) had shown a noticeable increase in bird diversity. I had my own awesome moments viewing: Wood Thrushes, Veery, Winter Wren, Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Nashville Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Black and white Warbler, Least Flycatcher (my first northbound), Brown Thrashers, Scarlet Tanagers, Eastern Kingbird among many others. Many self found!

I've noticed that Blue headed Vireos are have been abundant this year, I don't know if I have just gotten better at finding them, or if my timing was better, but I had never seen this many in any of my previous three years of birding.

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Henslows Sparrow - 330

23,480 Broad winged Hawks today at Holiday Beach

I stopped by Holiday Beach today after work (Friday Sept 16th). I figured it would be a good day as I drove down Howard Ave and noticed roadside flags blowing in a Southeasterly direction indicating North-West winds. Also the weather on Friday was dramatically colder which may encourage some movement as well.

Upon arrival to Holiday Beach, I started off by scanning the forest edge along the beach, but not much was  seen. Later from the hawk tower, 16 species of warblers continually streamed by the trees bordering the area around the tower. Several flycatchers were noticed as they perched on a leaf-less branches. The one below might be a Least Flycatcher. Red eyed Vireos, various Thrushes and Cardinals were present as well.

A Least Flycatcher

Some raptors seen today ... well so many were seen... Merlins, Coopers, Sharp Shinned, Bald Eagles, Osprey, Broad winged Hawks, Common Nighthawks, and Northern Harriers... wow... that was in one hour that I was on the tower! Five Wilson's Snipe passed over the tower at one point and obviously ducks and herons were everpresent.

I had forgotten my binoculars, so I could not really enjoy the numerous kettles of Broad winged Hawks, but at times, some were low enough to see with the naked eye, and I attempted to take some photos. Even at 5:30pm, streams of Broadwings were still going overhead.

 

This video... well, it's not that good, but is worth watching if you've never seen a good kettle of hawks. When I take video with my camera, I must hold the camera away from my face, as I must look at the preview screen. With the heavy lens and manual focusing, it really makes it too wobbly to make for decent video footage. Still pretty cool though.


Good birding,
Dwaynejava