Backdated Birding and Blogging (May 8-10th)

I was talking to a friend tonight over the phone and I mentioned to him that a work project that I involved myself with literally caused me to miss the second week of May birding. Its ok, I'm not even bitter but between Mothers day last Sunday to Friday night, I did not even pick up binoculars!

Yes, I missed alot of the mega-rarities that have shown up but I no longer get upset about it. Ken-tucky? Maybe next year? Scissor tailed? Not in a million years! I did have my own exciting noteworthy finds though. I saw several Canada Warblers this year (other years I had missed them or only obtained distant views). Several Philly Vireos were nice to see as well (prior years yielded singles and were discovered by others). I've seen two separate Yellow breasted Chats this season, and only 1 in the previous four years so that was amazing! Finally, I got really nice, soul satisfying views of a Prairie Warbler... a long sought-after species for myself, which I had incidentally lifered back in March in Florida.

So the following photos go back to May 10th, I had some highlights worth mentioning: Summer Tanager, Philadelphia Vireo, Prairie Warbler... Incredible birds!

Summer Tanager - Molting from Yellow to Red!

Philadelphia Vireo - Note the yellow throat - a subtle distinction from the Warbling Vireo

Prairie Warbler - My first of this species after birding Point Pelee for four years!

Thanks Jeremy H for the heads up on this bird... Amazing...

The Prairie was really nice. I had seen one in Florida this past March, but did you know Florida has its own endemic non-migrating species? So really, I had seen a Prairie Warbler sub-species and not the full fledged migrating version that you see above.

Later that day I was able to see 3 American Avocets at Hillman Marsh as well as a Prothonotary Warbler!
Other nature sightings include a FOS Painted Lady, a lifer mushroom at Cactus Field (Morel) and a Brown Snake!

American Lady Butterfly

Cactus Field Fungi - Morel Mushroom

DeKay's Brownsnake - A lifer snake - I did not even know these were at Point Pelee!

I will post this past weekend's birding soon. (More Pelee, Kopagaron and Oak Openings (Ohio) birding)

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Windsor's Peregrine Falcon Fledglings & Venus Eclipse

Fredie & Voltaire

Not much happening bird-wise this week. I've had a few brief walks at Ojibway, but the 6 Peregrine Falcons at the bridge are the big story. According to Patrick from the Canadian Peregrine Foundation, here are some names/stats for the four new Peregrine Fledglings (summer 2012):

Name	Colour Band	Band ID
Viper (female)	Blue Band	23/W
Twitter (female)	Yellow Band	S/23
General Brock (male)	Red Band	22/V
Eddy (?)	Green Band	S/24

 

What a difference a day makes

This next four or so photos are taken over the span of a week (May 28 to June 6th). Soon they will be learning how to fly, hunt and perform aerial displays at the foot of the ambassador bridge. Six Falcons? Very Cool!

May 28th

May 31st

June 5th  - Twitter (yellow) & General Brock (red)

June 7th - Viper (blue)

It was pretty cool to see 6 Peregrine Falcons today while standing next to the bridge in Windsor. Twitter & General Brock have started flying and are perched about while their parents try to feed all four fledglings.

Twitter dropped part of a dead bird, so parent has to go pick it up.

I feel strange calling one of the meanest, fastest most fearsome birds on earth "twitter". LOL. I read somewhere recently that Falcons are closer (genetically) to Parrots than to Hawks.  Strange no?


A quick walk at the Ojbiway Prairie had nice looks at Baltimore Checkerspots & Orchard Orioles among others. The Baltimore Checkerspot was in the exact same spot I saw it last year! Other birds seen at Ojibway this week are Eastern Towhee, Northern Flicker, Field Sparrows, Indigo Buntings, plus you most common and basic birds. I'm saddened not to see any Eastern Bluebirds. Usually I hear and see them easily at this time of year.

This summer, I will try to pay more attention to Skippers and Hairstreaks. I have a butterfly guide now!

The tiny Least Skipper. Least only in name.

Here is a cool video about Peregrine Falcons and how they kill their prey:




I'd love to go out to Hamilton to see the breeding Prairie Warblers, but I just do not have the time.  I might save seeing a Prairie Warbler for retirement...

Good birding!
Dwayne

Raymond Barlow shot this incredible photo of a Peregrine Falcon. You owe it to yourself to check it out:

http://www.pbase.com/raymondjbarlow/image/142337407

 Or Jerry Peltier's once in a lifetime photo of a Peregrine Falcon destroying a blue-jay in mid air.http://www.mybirdingplace.com/details.php?pic_id=3338



Bonus: Venus Eclipse!

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hinode spacecraft captured this stunning view of the transit of Venus.

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

Point Pelee walk with the Ojibway Birding Group

The southern-most Racoon in Canada? This is how I feel when I have to get up early!

This morning I joined the excellent Ojibway Birders Group (OBG?) led by Paul Pratt.  The morning consisted of a great group of people, keen birders along with fantastic weather .... mix these things together and you're having a great morning. My morning started out late, I did not meet the group at the 8:00am meeting time, but  luckily I met up with them later at the tip of Point Pelee. At the tip, Tom Preney kindly pointed out the controversial Yellow-legged Gull / Herring Gull and I was able to snap a photo of it ... check it out ... (outrageous, isn't it?).  Along with great birds today, I saw Rick, Kelly, Sil, and Fitcetera (Karen) at Point Pelee... Great People!

Is this a Yellow Legged Gull? A new lifer?

After hanging out near the tip, we had moved northward towards the tram loop when we noticed a Scarlet Tanager. We followed it southward back towards the tip. One group member likened our reversal in direction as "reverse migration" LOL!!!

 At one point, Paul, our group leader mentioned Indigo Buntings and Prothonotary Warblers near the tip... I thought he was joking but no... This P.W. was foraging along branches and in the undergrowth. One usually expects this bird near a bug-infested slough.

Red eyed Vireos are a beautiful bird, very common, but rarely seen. On any summertime walk, if you hear this song: "Here I am.... (pause) Where are you?.... Here I am....Where are you?". This bird is often a victim of cowbird parasitism. Read more here....   Red Eyed Vireos were very numerous today.

Today was a wonderful day at PPNP, and there were some nice birds out, but one had to work. There wasn't a great density but overall a nice mix for the later end of the migration season. The OBG (Ojibway Birding Group) later went into the visitor center, where the park interpreter Sarah generously doled out "100 Species" pins to some of the OBG members that had a "+100 Big Day" earlier in the week. I just couldn't take one... I've never even come close to 100 species in a day... I'm just not there yet. My senses aren't sharp enough yet. Every Empidonax Flycatcher is a least flycatcher to me.... Every Gull is a Ring-billed... I'm just not there yet! :^)

Northern Parula had been heard on several occasions throughout May but not seen until today. I actually had several views but this one was the best. He was just perched on a branch, not moving, about 7m up in the air... not bad... but he was in the shade.

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Indigo Buntings at Ojibway

A recent twitter post from Ojibway Park indicated that Indigo Buntings were back on territory at the park, so I figured I would go and see if I could find some. As luck would have it, one of the first trees I inspected had several males chasing each other (possibly in an effort to set up breeding territory). I stood by quietly watching and noticing the birds would often perch on a nearby side tree out in the open. How awesome. I got 'smashing' views of these gorgeous birds with such little effort!

I walked away from these indigo beauties and then looked up into another large Oak in the Ojibway Prairie and again... stood by the tree in amazement. A non-birder may have just walked by this large tree, but to a birder, it was thriving with activity. A close inspection gave nice views of Cedar Waxwings, Orchard Orioles, Chestnut sided Warblers, Swallows, Eastern Kingbird and ... more Indigo Buntings! Not bad!

I also saw a fresh Black Swallowtail as well as a Six spotted Tiger Beetle, which is a pretty common bug you might notice on a nature path that always seems to stay 10 feet ahead of you as you walk.

The Tallgrass Prarie was a nice walk as well with songs of Wood Thrush, as well as many other birds filling the air. I had a brief view of a Canada Warbler... this bird has eluded me this year! Three brief views but no photos.

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Birding with the Fam... Pt 3 of 3

My wife and I were wondering what to do this Saturday, I figured trying to ask her to walk a few paths at Pelee. Even though the weather promissed to rain, we went anyway and the rain held off.

We walked Tildens Trail which was quiet today when we walked through. I saw a sleeping Common Nighthawk, several Grey Catbirds, some Epidonax Flycatchers as well as a precious few warblers: Blackburnian, Chestnut sided and Magnolia.

We also walked the Marsh Boardwalk which was not very exciting. I must say though, the new boardwalk is beatifully constructed. Its almost worth walking to see the woodwork! I did see a nice, singing Swamp Sparrow but nothing too exciting beyond that.

Is this the peak of bird migration??? I've had a good month of May with some unique/cool birds, but I still feel like its been an uneventful season. Maybe I'm idealizing my memories from last year... but again, I've only seen one Black throated Green. I guess I should remind myself that hey... its about getting out and enjoying nature. One does not need to see 140 species in a single day to enjoy the ritual of spring migration. As long as we can get out there and breath fresh air and meet some great people. Take a good photo or two... thats what its about!

Good birding!
Dwayneajava