Red headed Woodpecker graces yard, along with hummingbirds

On September weekend mornings, I like to sit on my back porch and observe birdlife in the hedgerow behind my yard.

This morning, I was looking at common birds when I heard a northern flicker call, then soon after I heard something that sounded like A red headed woodpecker. "It would be nice, but its just my imagination" - I thought this to myself as I sipped my coffee. Then, to my amazement, my favorire bird briefly alighted on a treetop behind my house. Wow!

But, it was only for a brief moment. 

I have had easy views of hummingbirds daily since late august when I put up my new feeder. Here are some photos:

I slowly noticed that hummingbirds would often perch withing 10 feet of my back porch,,, allowing for great views, especially with my 600mm telephoto lens.

Good fall birding!

Dwayne

Holiday Beach on Labour Day Weekend

 I had a wonderful morning of birding on this past labour day weekend.  I had several warbler species as well as flycatcher species.  The photo above shows the lake erie beach dune habitat. 

Holiday beach has the classic lake erie scrub/swamp habitat thay migrants love to visit during migration. I spent two hours sorting through tonnes of birds. These photos are some that I managed to photograph...

As a final note - I have had a new hummingbird feeder that immediately attracted hummingbirds. There are three or four that I see fighting over access to the feeder. Amazingly i have noted that they perch in a tree close to my back deck, affording incredible photos occasionally. 

 

I have also noted two different olive sided flycatchers over the last week or so as well. ... Just from my back yard!

Good birding!

Dwayne

Late May Birding - Whimbrel at Hillman Marsh

 

The last week or two have been busy with work and life, so its been a while since my last posting. I've enjoyed watching a Robin's Nest outside my front window, and watching humingbirds visit my hummingbird feeder in my back yard. Occasionally while I'm outside, (perhaps BBQ'ing) I am sometimes blasted by the song of a chipping sparrow on my neighbor's roof!

Three new Peregrine Falcons at the bridge...

I've also looked for some local breeders at Ojibway Park but things seem to be a little late this year. I only saw (and heard) my first Indigo Bunting on Wednesday this week. The falcons at the bridge have nested again and have three fledglings. Always neat to stop by and see them. 

I was informed that there was a Black-headed Gull at Wheatley this week, so I tried on Thursday to go find it. I figured if I missed the target bird, I should find something interesting at the Hillman Shorebird Cell.

While driving into Wheatly from the 401, I drove past Two Creeks Conservation Area and noticed a Bluebird Perched on a wire. I'm still amazed by bluebirds. They are rare to me... I might only see them a few times in a year. (Note: I just noticed on the link to Two Creeks Conservation Area... they used one of my warbler photos without asking me! I recognize that Bay-Breasted Warbler!)

At Wheatley Marina, I arrived to find hundreds of gulls and shorebirds on the beach, and just as I was walking around a sand dune to get better looks, a woman with a dog flushed every single gull... I saw many black headed gulls, but did not convincingly see a Black-headed Gull.  I found myself confused looking at the various gulls. I was assuming the Black-headed Gull would be a breeding-plumaged male, with a dark-red bill and a crescent-shaped white eye-ring. No such luck, but I did get breathtaking looks at Ruddy Turnstones and breeding plumaged Semipalmated Sandpipers.
  

I figured I would try the Hillman Marsh Shorebird Cell to see if anything good was around, and to my amazement, there were 23 Whimbrel! I had just done a very brief count and quickly ontbirded my finding with a conservative count of 15 birds. Jeremy Bensette and Rick had just arrived as I was leaving, and they did a better study than I did. (I only had 20 minutes there). Another cool bird seen was a treetop flycatcher, probably a Willow or Alder Flycatcher. I found myself on that path to the shorebird viewing platform, hearing a raspy flycatcher call, but being unable to find the tree it was perched on. I must have spent a minute trying to find the bird, and just when I found it, I bolted! Alder Flycatcher would still be a lifer for me.

I just can't seem to get a good photo of Whimbrel!

DESIRED OFO & SUMMER TRIPS

I wanted to go to the Carden Alvar Trip this year, but I screwed up the dates!?!?! Reading the trip report by Jean Iron was painful, as they had three potential lifers (Golden-winged Warbler, Vesper and Grasshopper Sparrows)... but I guess I will try again for next year.  Even Ivana (my wife) felt bad ... She has encouraged me to go to Skunk's Misery OFO Trip this weekend. Perhaps seeing an Acadian Flycatcher will be a consolation. I also wanted to go to the Napanee Trip, but getting there is almost logistically impossible from Windsor if one is unable to take time off work.

Two other trips that I'm thinking about are a Sisters Oregon Woodpecker festival in mid June. This weekend features almost every Western Woodpecker (11 species), including Williamson's Sapsucker and Lewis's and White-headed Woodpeckers. One blogger had 70 species on a scouting tour of the area, 20 of which would be lifers.  ... I think I would die of happiness attending this festival. Another dream trip would be the Gulf-Coast States... Where Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are common summer breeders.

Good birding!
Dwayne

A local radio-tower field often has Bobolinks, Meadowlarks and Savannah Sparrows

New Binoculars!

Guess which lenses are coated...

 

About two years ago, I purchased my first pair of binoculars, Bushnell Sportsman 10x42s! I've been really impressed with them, but my recent intrest in butterflies highlighted their main shortcoming, the close focus distance of over 7 meters! Amazingly, I only paid $30 for those binoculars! They were marketed at Nascar Fans that might pick up a pair of bright roof-prism binos at Wal-mart in the states. (My new binoculars are marketed towards hunters... I can't afford binoculars marketed to birders). The old pair of binos will be my spare binos that I leave in my trunk just in case!

This week, I picked up a pair of Bushnell XLT Trophy binoculars, which were only $150. They are a little brighter than my original pair, and colours seem a little brighter, but they are a little heavier. The close focus distance of these binoculars is only 2 meters, so they are much better for butterfly watching. I really think that if you take any pair of 10x42 roof-prism binoculars you have a great tool to go birding. Check out the optical specifications for $500, $150, $30 binoculars. The XLT wins on all measures except for weight!

ELITE

XLT Trophy

Sportsman

Magnification X Obj Lens

10 x 42

10 x 42

10 x 42

Close Focus (ft/m)

8.2 / 2.5

8 / 2.4

23 / 7

Lens Coating

Fully Multi

Fully Multi & XTR

Multi

Field of View ft@1000yds / m@1000m

325 / 108

314 / 104.7

305 /

RainGuard® HD

No

no

Eyecups

Twist-Up

Twist-up

Twist-up

Eye Relief

15.2

15.5

13.6

Adapt to Tripod

Yes

Yes

Yes

Focus System

Center

Center

Center

Exit Pupil (mm)

4.2

4.2

4

Prism Glass

BaK-4

BaK-4

BK-7

Water/Fog Proof

Yes

Yes

No

Prism System

Roof

Roof

Roof

Weight (oz/g)

25 / 765

26.1 / 740

22.2

Model

234210

620142ED

141042

Size Class

Standard

Standard

Standard

More Butterfly Watching... Mainly from the Spring garden area of Ojibway

Male and Female Fiery Skipper - Common at Spring garden

Long-dash Skipper

Tawny edged Skipper

Wild Indigo Duskywing

Male Sachem, Unmistakable with large stigma on the upper forwing.

Birding has been slow, although I did notice a (juv?) Humingbird perched in my backyard near my feeder, as well as my first southbound Warbler, which was associating with some Black Capped Chickadees today.

 

My first South-bound warbler for the season. Cool!

Good birding (& Butterfly Watching!)
Dwaynejava

Common Checkered Skipper ... is Common at Spring Garden!

Point Pelee's OFO Convention Birding

I stopped into PPNP this morning for a short birding walk. As usual, I only had a precious two hours to bird the park, so I rolled the dice and decided to walk the Delaurier Path. This path has been really good in the past, especially in the fall because there is lots of edge habitat (forest/field and forest/marsh) as well as several wet sloughs. The area around the sloughs (the elevated boardwalk & octagon platform) are loaded with dogwood berries, wild grapes, sumac and jewelweed.

The Delaurier parking lot provided a brief look at a (house?) Wren, and a few warblers were seen along the path, but really, I hardly saw much as I rounded the Delarier path. I did have good looks at Northern Flicker and many overhead Sharp Shinned Hawks. Perhaps that's why nothing was really out in the open. Even though birds were hardly seen, it was cool to see so many Ruby throated hummingbirds. Along the path, batches of Jewelweed would be guarded by a perched Hummingbird (see above photo). I must have seen about 15 hummingbirds along this path. 

Then, just as I rounded the Delaurier path, I ran into a group of birders from the OFO convention that was talking place this weekend at Point Pelee. I think the group was led by Bruce DiLabio, and his son Ben (the leader calling his son Ben tipped me off). Bruce and the group quickly spotted a Grey Cheeked Thrush which would have been a lifer. Another group member mentioned seeing a flycatcher skulking in the same bush. Ben later mentioned seeing a Yellow bellied Flycatcher as well (another potential lifer)!

Yellow bellied Flycatcher. An unexpected and exciting lifer.

I did not really see any birds at first, and I then followed the group along Ander's Path to see some hard-fought warblers, Magnolia, Black throated Blue, and a Blue headed Vireo, preening in a pine. The group quickly left Ander's Footpath shortly after (they rushed off to NW Beach). As I was about to leave myself, I tried one more time for the Grey Cheeked thrush and luckily, it perched out into the open, along with the yellow bellied flycatcher... Both lifers at #282 & #283.

A Grey cheeked Thrush. Do you see it's gray facial features? Its almost identical to a Hermit Thrush!

While exciting to get two more lifers, I must say it was a cautious excitement because these two particular birds are tough to identify. The flycatchers are so similar I really am not 100% sure of what I'm looking at when I see one. Also, the spot-breasted Thrushes are all very similar as well. But I'm quite confident the identification is correct. The thrush above is obviously not a Swainson's Thush.  Lifers are few and far between as you approach 300!

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

PS: I checked the onion fields for American Golden Plover (they were reported there yesterday) but no such luck. I think I'm the only birder in Ontario who has not yet seen an Am G. Plover!

Lifer summary:
Grey cheeked Thrush #282
Yellow bellied Flycatcher #283