Windsor's Malden Park - Mid April Migrants

I stopped by Malden Park on the way home today after work, and was pleasantly surprised to see some nice migrants. One highlite was hearing a Brown Thrasher singing its heart out, with its paired sounds. I was listening to its calls for a few minutes before I was able to spot the bird - and one can't help but smile when one hears its song. 

A few other common birds were around, Black capped Chickadees, Flickers and Downy Woodpeckers - but a familiar woodpecker call graced my ears as I walked along the forest -field habitat - perhaps my favorite bird - a Red Headed Woodpecker!

Blue grey Gnatcatchers were seen and heard today, along with a pair of Yellow-rumped Warblers and my FOS Black throated Green Warblers! A flyby raptor seems to have fields marks that hint at Broad-winged Hawk.

This past weekend, while visiting the in-laws, my kids found this snake on the road. Sadly, it was not moving even though it did not appear to be crushed by road traffic. I grabbed a stick nearby and gave it a more dignified resting place in the grass along the side of the road. Perhaps a sharp eyed raptor will eat this little fellow.

I photographed this snake assuming that it was simply a common Garter Snake, but remembered a field mark that I had heard about for the "Butlers" subspecies of Garter Snake. The field mark is a bright yellow scale in front of the snake's eyes. I had asked herp expert Josh V for a confirmation and he agreed on the ID. Regarding the ID of this snake Josh noted: 'Of note are the small head (its neck is the same width as the head), relatively short and stocky appearance, reddish brown coloration along its sides, and pale crescent in front of the eye (a feature not noted in most field guides, but something I have noticed over the years).' I've seen many snakes over the last few years of nature observation but this is my first confirmed look at a Butler's Garter Snake. It was found on a residential road that bisects the South Cameron Woodlot forest in Windsor. Sadly, I've seen many dead snakes on this road over the years.




Good birding, herping, leping, and botanizing!
Dwayne

Malden Park - West Windsor's Little Migrant Trap

I've tried to bird almost every day since late May April, but my birding is typically limited to after work on weekdays. Of course, I would love to get out to Pelee, but for me, Pelee is at least a 4 hour commitment. Malden Park (which is part of the Ojibway Complex in Windsor) is just minutes from where I live so for me, this one of my best local options.

Malden park has a little parking lot and two little ponds that are adjacent to a small forest. Malden Park has a big "hill" that used to be a garbage dump! It can be surprising productive though - Breeding Green Herons, breeding Kingfishers, breeding Great Horned Owls. Not bad for a little park in Windsor! A couple of years ago, a birder found a Yellow Crowned Night Heron along the edge of one of its ponds. Malden Park is one of the best places to find a Northern Shrike in November as well!

In early May, the trees along the edge of the ponds are always crawling with warblers - lots of them - but I must admit, generally low diversity. In early may, (last week) I had tonnes of Yellow Rumped, Yellow, and Palm Warblers. I always seem to find Warbling Vireos here almost before I see them at Pelee! I also had a Carolina Wren blasting me with its song last week, nice to hear after the coldest Winter that Essex County has on record!

Tonight after work, I'm quite certain that I saw a Summer Tanager! My looks at this bird were fleeting, but my first look at it through binoculars was that it was a solid red bird, it quickly moved away to a higher elevation and this is about the best diagnostic shot that I could get of the bird. It seemed to quickly move on from the forest edge where I was and the photo below is about the best documenting shot of it that I could get. This might be my first self discovered summer tanager!

Summer Tanager

A pretty awesome bird at my local birding patch!

Good birding!
DM

Birding Malden Park During Spring Migration

I birded Malden Park in West Windsor this week on Monday and Tuesday afternoon and was pretty amazed at the density of migrating birds! This park has two small ponds that attract Green Herons year after year which I find pretty amazing! I watched this Heron snap branches off a tree and then carry them back to another to make a nest. Amazing!

Huge numbers of Palm Warblers, Yellow Warblers, and Yellow-rumped are present this week. Amazingly, I noted two Ovenbirds, one Nashville, one Black throated Green and a Wood Thrush! Somehow, Wood Thrushes are a bird I never see, and more often hear singing from a distance - So it was amazing to get a momentary glimpse of one this week.

I'm cutting this posting short for tonight.

Good birding!
Dwayne

Northern Bobwhite at Malden Park

With recent ontbirds postings about Northern Bobwhite at the Dow Wetlands in Sarnia, I had been wanting to drive out there to see it, but couldn't work up the motivation to drive out there (ozone action days). Luckily, an ontbirds posting mentioned Northern Bobwhites at Malden Park, of the Ojibway Complex in west Windsor. Since Malden Park is just minutes from my home, I stopped by Malden Park to see if I could find this awesome bird myself.

With very little effort, I found it this morning on the north end of the park, where the bike path runs along the backyard fences of a row of about 15 or so homes. The bird was seen about near the fourth house from the west-most home. I heard it calling before I saw it. It was calling "White!" without the "Bob-ba" preceding it. Northern Bobwhite is not a lifer for me as I did see it in Florida at the Babcock web reserve. This is my first photo of this bird though!

Note:Northern Bobwhite is a species at risk in Ontario. The link below mentions that harsh winters with lots of snowfall seem to kill off any natural popluations of this bird. Natural populations are basically limited to areas around Walpole Island where Lake Huron flows into Lake St Clair.  This is probably a captive released bird  http://www.rom.on.ca/ontario/risk.php?doc_type=fact&id=110&lang=en

The Green Heron fledglings seem to be doing very well as they were foraging for food this morning. Belted Kingfishers and Spotted Sandpipers were seen as well.

I spotted a Spotted Sandpiper...

My first Android Application- Tickle Tufted Titmouse!

Actual Screenshot from my HTC Sensations 4G phone. I'm running Android 403 (AKA Ice-cream Sandwich)

I picked up a book recently on how to create android apps for touch-screen smartphones. I've had it sitting around for a month or so but finally started reading it yesterday. I read the first 150 pages and created my first app. Instead of petting a kitten and hearing meow, I decided to have a Tufted Titmouse and have it make its call: "Peter Peter Peter".

One app I would like to create is one that might take verbal dictation out in the field, convert it to text and then possibly create a text file (.CSV) that could be uploaded directly to E-bird. That might be too ambitious but its something to shot for. 

Visual IDE environtment of AppInventor. Expereimenting with Speech Recognition

Good Birding!
Dwaynejava

PS: The wildflower show is about to begin!

Turks-Cap Lily or Carolina Lily ... Ojibway Park Tallgrass Prairie

Malden Park Treasures

Malden Park is an old municipal garbage dump that has been turned into a beautiful grassy, scrubby park. It has two small lakes (near the Malden Rd Parking lots) that, year after year, attracted Belted Kingfishers and Green Herons as breeders. So, during a recent walk at Malden Park I heard a Belted Kingfisher making its loud laughing call, and saw it flying from one perch to another perch on the long, narrow pond near the parking lot. I had no camera so I made a note of returning.


View Larger Map

Upon returning this last weekend with my Camera, I did not find the Kingfisher right away, but instead, found a nesting pair of Green Herons! Yes, a Green Heron sitting on a nest... Very cool! Later on, I heard, then visually found my target species, the Belted Kingfisher. I usually find Green Herons at Ojibway Park, but have not seen them there yet this season. Ojibway Park is just down the road from Malden Park.

Also, another cool West-Windsor bird has been the mating Peregrine Falcons at the Bridge. Last year, if I went to the bridge to find the Peregrine family, it seemed like it was easy to see the mother, father and the fledglings. This year, they have been low key (difficult to spot), or I am just not going at the opportune times?

This weekend, I finally saw one perched on the drain pipes under the bridge.  I'm not sure if the new Peregrine falcons have fledged. The local paper has not really followed these birds very much this year. I know these are not super-rarities, but still very nice birds for West-Windsor industrial wasteland.

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Northern Shrike at Malden Park

Click for larger view

Wow, what an exciting lifer! This beautiful bird is #214 on my life list.... spotted after 1.5 years of birding. I almost dropped my camera when I realized what I was looking at!

I learned about this bird during a Mid-Summer walk that I took with the Essex Field Naturalists group in 2009. The group leader (his name escapes me) told us that Northern Shrikes could be heard singing at Malden Park during the Winter if they 'erupt'. A local birder posted a sighting about 1-2 weeks ago and this encouraged me to come out and find it for myself.

This morning was relatively quiet at Malden Park. I saw the usual suspects: American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal, Downy Woodpeckers and Dark eyed Juncos. I was on my way out of the park and figured I would check a small stand of evergreens for a Saw Whet Owl. Then I heard a warbling bird call I've never heard before so I checked out a 'lump' in a nearby tree with my binoculars. Sure enough, this masked northern- butcher-watchman was perched about 50 ft from me! These are the moments that birders cherish. I'm new to birding but this just seems like a very rare bird in Windsor. How exciting!

Anyway, I used a nearby evergreen as a blind and took a bunch of photos and left him alone to continue hunting for food. Hopefully this bird overwinters here! More info on the Northern Shrike can be found here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Shrike/id (right click, open in new tab)


Good birding!
Dwayne

PS: If you stand at the top of Malden Park's hill in West Windsor and look due West, you will see "Zug Island" which is a steel refinery on the American side of the Detroit River. This along with chemical plants and Oil refineries are within 5KM of west Windsor. It dawned on me only in my 20's that these plants were positioned so that the downwind communities were Windsorites that (I'm guessing) had little input on the location of these plants. Brighton Beach is the white box in the left-bottom of this photo. The new DRIC Bridge crossing will be just to the left of Brighton Beach Power Generation offering nice views to international travellers.

Searching for Northern Shrike at Malden...

Is it just me or do Golden crowned Kinglets always look upset? LOL! Anyway, I read with amazement on Friday night that a Northern Shrike was spotted at Malden Park. Wow! I went as early as I could on Saturday morning, but had no luck finding it!

I will go back and check throughout the Winter. I would love to see a Northern Shrike. I've seen a Loggerhead Shrike in Florida, but they are almost easy to see if you go to Titusville, one hour east of Orlando.

Anyway, on my search, I took some photos of common birds including:
Downy Woodpecker
Golden Crowned Kinglet
House Finch
Tufted Titmouse
American Tree sparrow (first for this Fall)
and some others.

I did not see my Northern Shrike. I will have to continue looking!

Good birding!
Dwayne

PS: Here is a Loggerhead Shrike I saw in Florida in March 2010: