Louisiana Waterthrush in Late March?

 

A local birder (Kelly M) found a great bird this morning at Point Pelee and I figured --- I need the walk. 

It was a sight for sore eyes --- to see this early warbler walking around the paths at Point Pelee. Occasionally - it would find a worm on the gravel (dried) and and ate it. He sang occasionally too which was nice.  I took some photos and let it be. Several walkers at flushed it while I was there, but it seems to love to hand out on the path. 

I think the previous early sighting of this bird was March 28th - so this was a record early find for Kelly.

Good Birding!

Backtrack birding - Late April at Point Pelee

Back in late April of this year, I had joined the Essex County Field Naturalists on a field trip to Pelee Island [link]. But before I boarded the ferry at 9am... I did a quick walk at Pelee in the early morning hours. I hindsight, I had a pretty good morning. (lol!)

Some highlights included: Rusty Blackbird, Orange Crowned Warbler, Blue winged Warbler, both Waterthrushes and a few other goodies...

Bloodroot  

On the ferry ride home from Pelee Island, I had read that a Black neck Stilt was found in the onion fields near Hillman Marsh. This was my second Stilt that I've seen near Hillman Marsh. A fantastic shorebird for sure!

Good Birding!

Early April Migrants at Pelee

The Ojibway Birding Group met up at Point Pelee this morning so I figured I would attempt to join them for a little birding, comradery and exercise. The weather today was excellent! One almost didn't need to wear a coat!

Wilson's Snipe - Dowitching!

But before arrived at Pelee, I wanted to check out another migrant that was reported, some Golden Plovers on Road E. At 7:30 am I noted three or four Wilson's Snipes along with many Blue winged Teal. On a telephone wire along the road, a (FOS) Tree Swallow was noted!

At the tip parking lot, the Ojibway group was observing many species of ducks, common loons, Surf Scoters, Northern Flickers and more. Breeding plumaged Bonapartes Gulls were nice to see. Song and Savannah Sparrows were seen along the tip along with singles of Eastern Phoebe.

The birding group continued on to Delaurier Trail, but I had another trail that I wanted to visit. I had limited time and decided to branch off from the group to see Rusty Blackbirds and Yellow bellied Sapsuckers. Those two birds are more likely seen at Woodland Nature Trail, since it offers flooded forest habitat as opposed to more open scruby habitat that Delaurier offers. My WNT walk resulted in neither of those target birds! But, I did see a Winter Wren, Yellow rumped Warbler, Lots of Kinglets (40 Golden crowned, 5 Ruby crowned), a few Hermit Thrushes (10 or so). Many Robins, Red shouldered Blackbirds Red winged Blackbird (thanks Alan) and Common Grackels! An Eastern Comma butterfly was noted. I believe I acknowledged Spring Peepers calling along Woodland Nature Trail as well today.

Winter Wren in this photo... Can you see him?

My best bird though was a Louisiana Waterthrush! It was on the gravel path and hopped along the path as I walked back towards the Visitor Center! I noticed it not by its plumage, but by its behavior. It was wagging its tail up and down and eating bugs along the gravel path. This bird is well known for migrating well ahead of its similar looking cousin, the Northern Waterthrush. Usually this bird is seen in the wetter slough areas so this was a nice surprise to see it on a drier part of the trail!

Louisiana Waterthrush - Woodland Nature Trail - April 12, 2014

Stopped by Hillman shorebirds cell after Pelee. I noted several shorebird species from the comfort of the new viewing blind. 6 pectoral,10 golden plovers, 10 killdeer, 2 greater yellowlegs. Shoveler, green and blue teal were abundant.

Greater or Lesser? Hard to tell! I'm thinking greater!

I didn't get to see my target birds of Rusty Blackbirds and YBSS, but I think next weekend, I will have another chance!  


Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Yellow Breasted Chat and some other great warblers at Pt Pelee

I was reading a posting from the Friends of Point Pelee today about a Yellow breasted Chat that was at Point Pelee, and couldn't resist going to check it out. Surprisingly, I found it with very little wait and with little effort.

 

 This Yellow breasted Chat is lifer #238. How exciting.
The yellow-ness of this bird's breast is incredible!

Oddly enough, I was only at Point Pelee for about 1.5 hours. I only had time to walk Shuster Trail and the east side of Tildens Trial.  In hindsight, I wish I had walked Woodland Nature Trail, as an awesome little yellow bird was seen there (Prothonotary).

I was walking alone on a Tildens footpath and flushed about 6 birds and I just waited patiently for some of them to return to view. A Louisiana Waterthrush came back into a tree just meters from me and belted out some songs!! It then hopped down into the slough and foraged completely ignoring me!

  My first (Male) Hooded Warbler. Very cool. I saw a female at Ojibway Park last spring.

An ovenbird made a quick appearance, but quickly flitted away. I've only seen this cool little warbler once before (last year) at Rondeau. Veery was all over the place today, and incredibly tame. Many that I saw tonight were only 15m from the path and not very shy. They would pose for me!

 I almost grew Weary of Veery. Not!

 Nashville Warbler was the most numerous Warbler tonight!

As I photographed the Hooded Warbler, I looked up and saw some Heron -like birds overhead. I noticed a different shape and gestalt to them and realized they were probably Sandhill Cranes! I would hear the cranes calling in the distance and it was pretty amazing. It echoed through the forest and was very cool and haunting.

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Did you know Humans eat Sumac? I am a fan of the many great lebanese restaurants in Windsor, and there is a pink-purple spice on fattoush salad that gives it a bitter kick... Below, a Brown Thrasher was the subject of my exposure tests before the Chat arrived. Not a bad bird to practice on... but hey... its Pelee.

Weekend of birder's discontent...

Today's weather blows/blew (literally and figuratively). 3-5 degrees celcius and 40Km/h winds with gusts of 50-60km. It wasn't fun to be outside. But I went out anyway!!!

Hillman Marsh had many Bonapartes Gulls, Terns and Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead and Green winged Teal. Double Crested Cormorants were everywhere! Some shorebirds were out there but I saw them more in flight and was unable to identify them.

 

Louisiana Waterthrush (lifer #235) on Point Pelee's Woodland Nature Trail. Terrible photo. I know. I had about three fleeting seconds to see this bird and 2.75 of those seconds were with me fumbling with my camera. Thanks to Blake for finding it on Friday.

 

Blue Winged Teal were in the North Dyke ditch. (behind Phragmites)

 I also saw a Northern Flicker clinging to a telephone pole in the onion fields as well. I think it was tired of trying to fly in 60 KM/H winds.

This was about all I saw in the Redbud Footpath today.

Ojibway Park (from earlier in the week)

I took this photo of the moon while searching for american woodcock this week. It may be the only good photo in this particular posting!

I made a few more (final) attempts to see an American Woodcock this week but left each evening disappointed. I figured I might photograph the moon as its pretty easy to photograph. It is well lit and not moving and simple to maintain focus on.

The Ojibway Prairie has the same birds as I've been blogging about all week, but during my last walk, I saw two separate Garter Snakes. One had a red stripe on it, but I did not get a photo of it.

I followed up on a recent Ojibway Park posting about an Eagles Nests at the foot of Laurier Drive and found it. The two photos below give some context of the nest from mainland.

Ring Billed Gulls are a "blog" lifer (I've never posted or tagged this species). There are several species I have not photographed or tagged because of their common-ness.  American Crows for example are a bird that I see all the time, but have not bothered to photograph or tag.

Well, next weekend promises to be better. It can't possibly be worse than this weekend.  I will even go to Kopegaron woods and see the spring flowers from this ecological gem of a forest. It's one of the few areas in SW Ontario that did not get logged. Another location I plan on visiting will be Colasanti's... I keep forgetting to pick up some of their cinnamon doughnuts.

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava