Lawrences Warbler "Lifer" at Point Pelee

Today at Point Pelee - things seemed to be a little "slow". There seemed to be fewer birds in the park than it seemed that were present earlier in the week. Yet, even still, there were some great birding opportunities.

Some highlights for the day include Northern Waterthrush, Prothonotary Warbler, Lawrence's Warbler [link], Worm eating Warbler and Kentucky Warbler!

The Lawrence's Warbler is a hybrid between Golden-winged and Blue winged Warbler, but occurs much less frequently than the Brewsers Warbler (someone mentioned 1/16 ... but I'm not sure if that is correct). I noticed this bird while eating a sausage at a picnic table near the visitor center tram loop.  I noticed the warbler (which I thought was a "brewsters") and went to notify Josh who was sitting nearby. It flushed behind the VC and was found again by Tim Arthur [link] and Paul Nicholson [link] seemed to have found it and alerted us about the bird. I think hundreds of people had a nice chance to see the bird. Just a heads up that Laurences Warbler can't officially count as a lifer, as it is not a distinct species. But still, its a mega rarity!!!

I ended up with about 80 species, and I did not really go see Hillman Marsh, Wheatley or scan the water for waterfowl species. 

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45332848

Good birding!

Dwayne

Wed May 6th 2015 - Pelee Fallout?

This past Wednesday, I decided after work to drive out to Point Pelee after reading the daily report that is sent out through Ontbirds. The report always sound "optimistic" but I could tell by the wording that it was a great day to be out birding.

I birded the park for a humble 3.5 hours - between 3:30-7:00. I parked at White Pine and headed towards Cactus Trail, Chinquapin Trail and the Tildens Footpath and back, ... and I had almost 70 species! To be honest, I'm counting some of the shorebirds seen just outside the park, but still, this is one of my most populous PPNP checklists. Some people who were there all day mentioned that some people had over 100 species! One report that I read (once I got home) was that there were hundreds of American Golden Plovers near Hillman Marsh... I would have loved to have seen that!

At Cactus Field, I ran into a friend who mentioned that an Eastern Whip Poor Will was seen along Tildens Footpath! He then proceeded to point out a Northern Parula which was just meters away from where we were standing. 

One amazing bird that I saw near the Whip was a Golden winged Warbler that JB pointed out to me. The bird was skulky but it moved along the Tildens footpath and at one point, the Golden Winged Warbler was right next to the Whip! I tried to take a photo just to document the two birds in the same frame ... A Cape May Warbler was foraging in a tree just meters above the Golden winged!

This is my first Golden winged Warbler at Pelee! Looks like a female

Lots of Thrush species around - Robins, Veery and Wood Thrush filled the air with song. To end off the night I went back to my car at White Pine to have some birders point out another Cape May, Blue headed Vireo and a Prairie Warbler at very close range, and in beautiful golden sunlight. 

One of my favorite birds - a Prairie Warbler at White Pine. 

The Tiger Warbler - I have gone many spring migrations without seeing this beauty...

My first Northbound Orange-crowned Warbler

I stopped by Delaurier on the way out as I heard there was another Kentucky Warbler spotted. I was unable to spot this elusive warbler but a woman pointed out this Orange crowned Warbler!

A great evening of birding for sure. Great birds and great people!

Good birding,

Dwayne

PS: Summer Tanager and Eared Grebe from last weekend!

Anecdotal Late April Birding Thoughts

Have you ever seen pink Dutchman's Breeches?

an·ec·do·tal

ˌanikˈdōtl/ adjective adjective: anecdotal

1.

(of an account) not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research.

Crappy photo of Spring Azure

I once read in Tom Hince's book "A Birders Guide to Point Pelee"  that you will always here birders say "Where have all the birds gone?". He dispels that comment by reminding readers that Point Pelee is a migration trap. Migration traps birding observations (he states) may not be the best place to make overall assumptions about the health of a bird population because factors that allow a bird to show well one year are not necessarily going to be present another year. Some years, the flight of various species may pass right over the park if conditions are right. Even my own meager observations are subject to the five day work-week, and not really optimal weather conditions that are well reported by other bloggers. The random weekend date/ weather mix changes year to year thus giving me a varied/random/intermittent view of migration that I have to take into consideration every year.

My only YBSS this season!

But that being said, I've only seen like 3-4 Eastern Phoebes this April! 1 Yellow Bellied Sapsucker! I haven't seen a single blue headed vireo whereas last year I had seen many by this point! (Actually, last year I felt I had seen abundant blue headed vireos during the earlier part of migration) I can't say I've seen a rusty blackbird this April along the sloughs of Point Pelee's wetter forest trails.  Is anyone else sensing low numbers for these birds? Maybe migration is a little late because temperatures are so low?

Today, I was able to stop by the park for a short 4 hour walk.  A few good birds seen include: Nashville, Palm, Yellow Rumped were well seen as well as my FOS Northern Waterthrush along Woodland Nature Trail. Two young kids asked me what I was looking at and I pointed out this warbler to them. They had a field guide and looked up the bird. It was nice to help them get this life bird.

Northern Waterthrush - Tossing leaf litter!

I thought about driving by the Hillman Shorebird cell as I left Point Pelee to Windsor but decided not to due to fatigue. Bad idea... 12 Marbled Godwits hanging out! Note to self: Don't sleep in during late April and don't skip Hillman at this time of year.:-)

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

Point Pelee - Post Woods Trail... Post-work Posting

After work on Friday, I went down to Point Pelee for a Post-work walk on the "Post woods" trail. Its incredible to say this but I've never walked the post-woods trail! I haven't really walked the west beach trail much either. If I birded the tip of Point Pelee, I would often just take the tram back to the visitor center and typically walk Tildens Woods and Woodland Nature Trail.

 I had face-melting views of this Yellow-Rumped Warbler on Tildens'

My first walk covered Tilden's Woods and I saw Rusty Blackbirds as well as Northern Waterthrushes foraging the sloughs. White throated Sparrows patriotically sang "oh sweet Canada" as the occasional paserine flew overhead. One Winter Wren bounced around the path but my camera was unable to get any focus on it. I walked from Tildens Trail to the beach, and all the way up the beach to Sparrow Field. That must have been about 1-2 Km? Along the beach though, I saw front-lit Horned Grebes at 10-20m off the shore, along with all kinds of Gulls, Cormorants, Ducks and Scoters. I photographed some close Terns and later ID'd them as Forster's Terns (lifer #236). I have not really taken much time to really ID terns... I have assumed they were Common or Caspian. I saw deer venture out the forest and drink water from the beach shoreline. Chipping and Field Sparrows hopped along the sand catching little bugs. Seeing the newly cleared Sparrow Field was pretty cool. True to its name, I saw 4 sparrow species (chipping, field, white crowned and white throated).

I then walked the "Post Woods" trail North towards the visitor center. Black throated Green, Black-and-White warblers, along with a tree-top Blue headed Vireo were seen.  A Brown Thrasher was spooked as I walked northward. Blue-Grey Gnatcathers and Cedar Waxwings were seen. None in great quantity, but it seemed like everything around made itself known. As post-woods trail became the Woodland Nature Trail I saw one Blue Headed Vireo and several Palm Warblers foraging the treetops as the sun was setting to the west.

 Forsters' Tern above, Surf Scoters below

Did you ever see a Field Sparrow in Sparrow Field?

Hillman Marsh had thousands of Dunlin, typical Gulls and Ducks. Noteworthy birds were about 4 Willets and 3 Black Bellied Plovers. A Thrush near the parking lot had huge buffy eyerings. I can't help but think its a Swainsons. Its probably a Hermit Thrush! 

Saturday, I spent the day with family and friends in Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan. We went on the "Thomas the Train" train ride. Good times! Tomorrow, (Sunday) I will try to be at PPNP to watch the sun rise!

Good Birding!
Dwaynejava