Pelee Sunrise

I had taken a photo of the sun rising over the boardwalk, but I did not have my wide angle lens. I was told once that the sun rises directly over this boardwalk on May 1st. This photo is from the first week of May last year.

Birded Pelee today with the Ojibway Birding Group. This is the first time in a long time I was able to join the group on their outings. I arrived at Point Pelee early (6:45am) and walked the marsh trail first thing. One highlight (besides the sunrise through the light mist over the marsh) was the sound of Virginia Rail calling at one point along the boardwalk. Next, I walked Tilden's Trail to have another great highlight... A Waterthrush! I'm torn on the identification, I did not hear it make so much as a chip note! It foraged the slough along the northern boardwalk at north end of Tilden's Trail.  (David Sibley has a small writeup here on  differentiating Northern from Louisiana Waterthrushes: http://www.sibleyguides.com/2012/08/identification-of-waterthrushes/)

 

The Ojibway birding group met in the parking lot and walked the West Beach path northward. Some West beach highlights include:
Black and White Warbler
Brown Thrasher
Yellow Warbler
Yellow rumped Warbler

Amazing raptors flew overhead all afternoon... they included: Broad-winged Hawk, Coopers, N. Harriers, Bald Eagles... (No Kites!). Even Sandhill Cranes flew overhead on a few occasions.

After a quick lunch at Paula's Fish Place, Kory and I walked Northwest Beach where we found a small but nice pocket of warblers. We had:
Pine Warbler (my first in Canada?),
Black throated Green,
Palm Warbler,
Yellow rumped Warbler
Blue headed Vireo
Eastern Phoebe
House Wren (FOS)! ... Oddly, the House Wren was not calling when we saw it.

At 3:30, I left the park and dropped by Hillman Marsh. I had very little time to really bird the shorebird cell, but I did get a glimpse at a pair of Long billed Dowitchers, as well as many Dunlin, Black-bellied Plovers and  Caspian Terns.

Thanks to the Ojibway birding group for a great morning of birding. Birds were sparse today, but it was great to be out there!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava


http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13908493
68 species total

Early May Birding at Pelee

So many things to talk about bird-wise! Took a personal day on Friday (May 4th) and spent a good day birding Point Pelee. Some personal highlights for me were seeing Red headed Woodpeckers and 5 species of Vireo ( White eyed, Yellow throated, Warbling, Red eyed, Blue headed) along with... 80 species of birds. I didn't really count or list them, but you get the point.

Some Random Thoughts (in point form for brevity and clarity):

• I was mucking around with my "blog templates" and irreversibly changed my original template to the "newer style" of templates.  I really liked my old template, so I spent much time trying to customize my new template to look like my old one, but still... its not the same. :-(
• I must have 70 photos that I would like to share, but I only chose 8 or so to add to this posting. 
• I just bought a new cellphone and this was the first time I was birding while texting. More on the subject of "Technobirding" later.
• Butterflies are everywhere this year. Amazing variety and its only the first week of May.
• Its amazing how different people will see a completely different set of birds. A flickr friend had YB Chats and Summer Tanagers on this same Friday May 4th. 
• Every year, it seems different birds seem to be more present than others. Last year, I hardly saw any Black throated blue Warblers, where this year, I've seen many. Same with Yellow throated Vireos. I guess its this randomness that keeps things interesting. 
• Lots of variety at Pelee, but seemingly low numbers. It seems that each bird was hard fought for this year. It seems also to be slower than previous years, but perhaps things are the same, the only change being the lack of 'life bird rush' that I was getting in the previous years.
• I did not hear or see a Wood Thrush yet this season... Seems odd no? I did see Hermit, Veery and Swainson's.

I had breathtaking looks at this beautiful yellow throated vireo... nuff said.

 

I was on West Beach Trail when I heard a "Fitz-Bew" call of a Flycatcher. I pished a little and a few warblers came to inspect the noise. I must have taken 15 photos of this white eyed vireo each as amazing as the next. What an amazing bird... I never saw the flycatcher until further down the path. I think it was a Least Flycatcher, based on the eye-rings.

A Point Pelee Specialty... Also seen at Ojibway in Windsor

Even though pretty common, and a local breeder, its always nice to see GCFs.

 Hillman Marsh

After Pelee, I drove over to Hillman Marsh proudly bearing a scope over my shoulder. Nothing super rare I guess, but a few nice birds included Green winged Teal, seasonal Terns, Black bellied Plover in stunning breeding plumage.  American Golden Plovers and Long billed Dowitcher were the highlights, and seeing them through my new scope was awesome.

American Golden Plover in a heavily cropped photo. Notice the greenish golden coloured plovers behind the horizontal row of bonaparte's gulls & terns. Black bellied Plovers in the foreground.

While shorebirding at Hillman, I realized I was standing next to and talking to Jean Iron. Wow! I realized it was her as she had mentioned Blenheim SL and I had just read her Ontbirds posting a few hours earlier.  The birding community is pretty small isn't it?

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Comber Shorebirding Still Excellent...v3

There are five Species in this photo... You gotta love shorebirding!

Ok, this is my last Comber Shorebirding posting... I promise!!! :-)   I went after work on Thursday this week. It was cloudy but I figured I'd go anyway. I figured shorebirding will give some variety that I am not getting so much of at Holiday Beach's Raptor Festival (aka Hawktoberfest). Anyway, I walked through the muddy field in Comber to see what was out there and well... It's still pretty good! 20 Hudsonian Godwits, and 7 Long billed Dowitchers along with hundreds of Black bellied Plovers and fewer Golden Plovers in the mix.  White rumped Sandpipers, a single Juv Baird's along with Pectoral Sandpipers were around as well.

This photo below is pretty cool. The resting shorebirds flew up at one point and I took a few photos. I left this full size and uncropped. I enjoy just scanning through this image and seeing how many birds I can see. Blogger has been implementing a feature to browse the images in a given posting, but I prefer just seeing the original. If you want to see the original even in that tool, you can click the link that is referenced at the bottom of the page to see the original. 

Sleeping (Juv) White rumped Sandpipers

7 Long billed Dowitchers.  A Black bellied Plover on the left and a Golden on the right.

Juv Baird's Sandpiper.

Its funny how during my 1-hr birding session, I didn't see a single person. I didn't say a single word. I just made my way out into this field, chosing a path that best allowed me not to get muddy and also would be the best approach in an effort not to flush the resting shorebirds. I would walk 10m then stop, look around through binoculars, consider a 'path' to take then walk another 10m, crouch down, stay crouched, take photos, and so on. One cool thing I noticed about shorebirding was that if you just stand there (at 30m or so) and just wait, some birds will leave periodically and some will arrive making the viewing experience surprisingly dynamic. The "Bairds" above (I might be mistaken... it could be a white rumped) was not in this group of birds but just ended up flying in by itself. It orientated itself with the other birds and went on its way with foraging etc. So cool to witness nature like this. So few other people do it... its what makes birding so fun in my opinion.

 

Next weekend I will go back to Holiday Beach and hopefully see some late October raptors. I'm really hoping to see a Saw-whet Owl this fall.  Even though this posting is a little repetitive from the last, I still like posting some photos online or else they are easily forgotten. Also, one day I am going to go through and put all my birding trips into E-Bird.
Good birding!-Dwaynejava

As requested: Map Directions. Sorry I didn't post this earlier, I assumed readers had the original Ontbirds Posting.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=42.285040+,+-82.548441&hl=en&ll=42.287897,-82.549124&spn=0.008191,0.01929&sll=42.285993,-82.548051&sspn=0.008191,0.01929&vpsrc=0&gl=ca&t=h&z=16

About 20 Godwits congregated after being flushed by a Northern Harrier

American Avocet in Leamington

While driving on hwy #3 today, I noticed a large shorebird in a newly excavated area in field about 400m west of Talbot Rd East in Leamington.  I stopped to check it out and wow... American Avocet. I wanted to high-five somebody when I saw this bird, but I was by myself on the shoulder of highway three... lol.



I think this is a female Avocet. Female Avocets have a sharp curve near the last 1/3rd of their bills, as opposed to males that have an upward curve through the whole bill. Any thoughts?

It was a tricky day for photography, every 5 minutes it went from being sunny and bright to cloudy and dark. I found myself constantly switching my white balance from cloudy to sunny, then ISO from 200 <-->800. I've never worked so hard to take a photo of a bird! These Avocet photos are not that great, but at least they are diagnostic.

More on the American Avocet : http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Avocet/lifehistory.


I went on to look at Hillman Marsh which had many Egrets and Herons, but not much else of interest. The shorebird cell is completely dry. I can't understand why the shorebird cell is dry with major migration taking place in August and September. Does it cost ERCA money to flood this field?

***

Earlier on in the day, I visited Tilbury S.L., which had a good assortment of shorebirds... Nothing new though.

Some included...

Long billed Dowitcher
Short billed Dowitcher
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper

Good Birding!
Dwaynejava

Lifer Summary:
Lesser Black Backed Gull (correction, never counted #276)
Semipalmated Plover (Correction, never counted #277)
American Avocet #278

Birding Esquimalt Lagoon in Victoria BC

Esquimalt Lagoon, looking Southwest towards the Juan de Fuca Strait

 I've spent the last 10 days traveling around the West coast of Canada... and it was awesome! The trip started off in Victoria BC and continued to Vancouver, then East to the Okanogan Valley, then Revelstoke, Banff National Park and then the trip ended in Calgary Alberta. I racked up about 35 lifers, which was good considering it wasn't an all out birding vacation. I did all the touristy things with my wife and son but tried to get up early and hit the local birding hotspots. I've never been to Canada's West Coast before. A friend of mine from Windsor has been bugging me to go out to BC for three years now, so I figured it was time to go this summer. My one target species was a Lewis's Woodpecker for this whole trip... and I found one by accident. Interesting story! Some blog postings I hope to writeup soon would be:

Birding Esquimalt Lagoon in Victoria BC
Birding the Okanogan Valley in BC (Lewis's Woodpecker Story)
Birding the Okanogan Valley in BC (White lake area)
Birding in Revelstoke National Park (Skunk Cabage Trail )
Birding in Lake Louise Banff Alberta
Birding in Calgary (Ingelwood Bird Sactuary)

In Victoria BC, which is on the Southern tip of Vancouver Island, there is a Navy Base called Esquimalt. There is an adjacent small lagoon (Esquimalt Lagoon) which is an IBA and I figured that while visiting my friend, I would stop by and check it out. I did some ebird.ca research on local hotspots in Victoria and was saddened to see that in mid-July, there was not much happening at this lagoon!

Upon arrival at the lagoon, it first appeared that nothing was really around. A few gulls, pigeons, Canada Geese were present but not much else. This "natural area" seemed to be hardened by dog-walkers and man-made gravel that may have been added to prevent erosion. Then, a closer look around had revealed that the gulls were Glaucous-Winged, the blackbirds were Brewer's Blackbirds, and obligatory Bald Eagles and Belted Kingfishers were perched on bordering trees.

Black Turnstones and Black Oystercatchers were supposed to be year-round residents, and neither were found until my last evening there. I found Black Oystercatchers, Long billed Dowitcher, and even a Pigeon Guillemot which I new was an "Auck" when I found it but was a lifer I had to look up in the old field guide. A flock of shorebirds flew by and I took some photos, but I was unable to confidently identify them. Western Sandpipers perhaps?

Other exciting lifers found adjacent to the Lagoon were Chestnut-Backed Chickadees and Spotted Towhee.

Vancouver Birding

Swan Lake Nature Area (http://www.swanlake.bc.ca/)

-This was a nice little location in Victoria with a great visitor center and one of the few places I spoke to an employee that was knowledgeable on the topic of birding.   Bushtit and Bewick's Wren along with many hummingbirds were seen. I swear I saw a Black headed Grosbeck, but I'm not certain enough to call it a lifer.

Stanley Park (http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/)
-Pelagic Cormorant

Goldstream Park (http://www.goldstreampark.com/)
-Western (Winter) Wren... does this count as a lifer?

Lynn Canyon Park  (http://lynncanyon.ca/)
-Missed out on American Dippers nesting near visitor center!

Buchart Gardens (http://www.butchartgardens.com)
-Violet-green Swallow

Ferry Ride from Victoria to Vancouver (http://www.bcferries.com/)
-A few unidentified shorebirds
-Seals
-Brandt's Cormorant

Maplewood bird sanctuary in North Vancouver - (http://birdinginvancouver.wordpress.com/site-guides/maplewood-conservation-area/)
-Western Pewee (Pacific Slope?)
-Rufous Hummingbird

I saw hummingbirds everyday on this vacation, but this is the only decent photo I was able to obtain...

There is so much more I could talk about, but I will end this posting here. My birding trip to the Okanogan Valley was mind-blowing... possibly the best day of birding in my two years of birding.  I will try to write up that posting shortly!

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

PS: Here is a lifer summary just from Victoria and Vancouver:

243-Brewer's Blackbird
244-Long billed Dowitcher
245-Black Oystercatcher
246-Chestnut backed Chickadee
247-Spotted Towhee
248-Glaucous-winged Gull
249-Bushtit
250-Bewick's Wren
251-Rufous Hummingbird
252-Pigeon Guillemot
253-Green Violet Swift
254-Brandts Cormorant
255-Pelagic Cormorant
256-Pacific Slope Flycatcher
257-Common Raven
258-Northwestern Crow
259-Pacific Wren