Yellow bellied Sapsuckers at Black Oak Heritage Park in Windsor

Saturday, I stopped by Ojibway Park hoping to see Yellow bellied Sapsuckers and eventually found some (3!) at Black Oak Heritage Park. Seeing this particular species during spring migration brings great joy. They are common enough that you will most likely see them yet rare enough that you might need to look for them or perhaps know their call.

I went to Point Pelee today with high hopes of seeing several new migrants but Pelee was a little quieter (bird wise) than I was expecting!

Forster's Terns and Common Loons up close were nice to see at Leamington Marina.  Rusty Blackbirds, Fox Sparrow and a Rick M sighting were Pelee highlights. I had my first of year Spring Azures which was exciting to see.

Good birding, botanizing and leping!
Dwayne

More Late April Birding + Bonus Botany & Herp Observations

Yellow Warbler - A little bundle of sunshine and happiness :p

I've really made an effort to go birding every day after work for the last week or two and its been really neat seeing what "comes in" day by day. I've been mainly visiting Malden Park which is really close to my house.

Malden Park never has the variety of Pelee - but time after time I'm amazed at how consistently you will see Warblers at this time of year. This week, I've seen Yellow, Yellow Rumped, Palm, Nashville, Blue headed Vireo within 50m of where I parked my car. Last year, I picked out a Summer Tanager at Malden, so rarities can happen. A Yellow crowned Night Heron was found here as well a while ago.

I stopped by Oakwood Park a few weeks ago and while the birding was good, I kept noticing that there are some interesting flowers present. Trout Lily and White Trillium are present, along with several other flowers - but one caught my eye below and I took a photo of it in hopes of identifying it later. Patrick's Blog had featured a Sharp-lobed Hepatica recently, and oddly enough, it looked like my unidentified flower I had taken with my phone. Steve Pike even mentioned this species to me last weekend at Pelee and at the time I was unaware of this flower. Allen Woodliffe weighed in on the ID of this flower below- which is clearly a Hepatica Species. The Round lobed and Sharp lobed are not easily distinguished. The Ontario Wildflower website suggests that the differentiating factor is not in the flower, but the green clover-shaped leaves surrounding the flowers. If the green leaves have a point, its sharp lobed, and if they are rounded - you get rounded. The second photo of the hepatica shows a clover shaped leave lobe with a slight point - hinting at Sharp-lobed Hepatica.

http://ontariowildflowers.com/main/species.php?id=176 (Round-lobed Hepatica- Anemone americana)
http://ontariowildflowers.com/main/species.php?id=175 (Sharp-lobed Hepatica- Anemone acutiloba)

Oakwood had some great birds as well, pretty well the same that were seen at Malden. I had caught a glimpse at my FOY Least Flycatcher at Oakwood. Lastly- my son and I caught a glimpse of this Melanistic Garter Snake at Oakwood as well (let me know if I'm wrong on the ID).

I will be heading out to Pelee Island this weekend. Wish me luck! I've heard that the birding is always good on the Lake Erie archipelago... 

Good Birding!

Dwayne