Shorebirding at Pointe Mouillee in Late August

Buff breasted Sandpiper

Just a quick post for tonight. I birded Pointe Mouillee State Gaming Area on Saturday morning. Pointe Moo-yay[link][map] is a 4000 Acre wetland habitat along Lake Erie's Western Shore. It is a wetland nestled between the Huron River and the Fermi Nuclear Power plant... Just across the river from Holiday Beach in Amherstburg. I had about 50 species but some highlights were:

Buff breasted Sandpiper
Willet
Yellow headed Blackbird
Marbled Godwit
White rumped Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper

Many birders I had met had also seen: American Avocet, Whimbrel and Red Knot but I did not see these excellent species. In fairness, there is alot of ground to cover when you are at a 4000 acre wetland!

How to get there from Windsor

Willet

Marbled Godwit

Yellow Sweet Clover

The mudflat in Cell 3 could be measured in square miles... Its contaminated river bottom dredgings from the Rouge River and local shipping channels.

Stilt Sandpipers and Short billed Dowitchers

I've attempted to make an annual trip to this great site and look forward to visiting again next summer. Just a note that it is closed to the public on Sept 1 - Nov 15 for duck hunting.

Good Birding!

Birding Pointe Mouillee on Lake Erie's West Shore

The famous "Cell 3" at Pointe Mouillee. A great place to view shorebirds!

For the last three or so years, I've tried to do some shorebirding in late August at Pointe Mouillee (pronounced "puent moi-yee" - French for wet point) in Rockwood Michigan. I've had some awesome shorebirds here in the past... Marbled Godwits, Red Knots, Buff breasted Sandpipers and Phalaropes. Its about 30 minutes south of Detroit but right across the river from Amherstburg [Google Map, Gov Site, Gov Map].

This huge 4000 acre wetland has a man-made dyke that the US Army Engineers are using to store contaminated sediment from the Rouge River. I've learnt from experience that if you go, you need to bring a bike, water, granola, hats... Be prepared for a rigorous journey, because you are biking like 4 Miles (6.5KMs). I find that even with hat, water and snacks, I somehow get heat stroke when I go, but maybe I'm just out of shape!

Snowy Egrets at Pointe Mouillee

A recent trip gave looks at some pretty good birds. Some highlights were 5 Snowy Egrets, 1 American Avocet, 3 Wilsons Phalarope, 4 Red necked Phalaropes, 1 Black bellied Plover, 1 White rumped Sandpiper, 10 Stilt Sandpipers, 2-3 Probably LBDs (no LLBs) ... I think I saw over 50 species on this trip!

Wilsons & Red Necked Phalaropes at Pointe Mouillee

Stilt Sandpiper at Pointe Mouillee

Avocet, Wilsons Phalarope & White rumped Sandpiper at Pointe Mouillee

Grebes and Coots at Pointe Mouillee

A birder that I met out there asked me if I use E-bird, and I replied... "I want to"... Its just so daunting. I must have seen over 50 species though!

I will try to bird Pelee on Labour Day weekend, and then frequent the Holiday Beach Migration Observatory heavily during the fall. I also have 5-6 bird postings on the back burner. I'm just really busy right now with work and night school. Stay tuned!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Budding Birder

PS: I missed the Wheatley Brown Pelican, as I waited till Saturday morning to go see it (work). My son & I, along with Jeremy Bensette tried for it but found out it had gone back to Cleveland!

Curve-tailed Bush Katydid (Point Pelee)

After Work Avocet at Hillman Marsh

After work today, I stopped by Hillman Marsh in hopes of getting a look at some shorebirds at a location I had never even heard of... Couture Dyke in the Northeast corner of Hillman Marsh. Josh Vandermeulen had found an American Avocet (along with a Yellow crowned night Heron) three days ago, and posted its presence on Ontbirds. Oddly enough, Josh was walking the dyke when I arrived on site, and I joined him on the long walk out to the Avocet's location.

View Larger Map

While walking the dyke, I noticed a nice female Bronze Copper. I thought I was very lucky to see this butterfly again, but to my amazement, I saw 40 or more of these butterflies! They are abundant on the Hillman Marsh dykes! Viceroy, Monarch, Fiery Skippers, Eastern Tailed Blue, Grey Hairstreak, Checkered Skipper were all very present as well.

Every few steps, Leopard Frogs jumped out of our path as we walked the dyke.

Leopard Frog - Taken at Hillman (from kayak) on a previos date.

Last Weekend...
Other birds seen last weekend at Hillman include abundant shorebirds such as Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Green and Black crowned night Herons. Richard Carr pointed out a Sora foraging along a distant edge of reeds. Belted Kingfisher flew in from somewhere and perched very close giving nice looks as well.

Stilt Sandpipers

 

Foraging Sora. White balance in this photo is not very good... Sora about that.

 

Just driving around Essex Co this last week, I've seen hawks and falcons:

 

Juvi Red Shouldered Hawk?

Good birding!
Dwayne

Black billed Cuckoo, just by chance!

I woke up early today and did the typical Tilbury/ Hillman Marsh/ Point Pelee circuit with little to show for it!

Its hard to beleive that last year at about this time, I saw my 200th bird, the Solitary Sandpiper. I've painstakingly added 78 more species since then... will I make it to 300? :^)

Tilbury - As Blake mentioned, the shorebird cell is almost completely dry, just a few square meters of water left, concentrating the few shorebirds to a small area near the dyke road. Nothing new or noteworthy. Long billed Dowitchers, Solitary Sandpipers, Least and Stilt Sandpipers with two species of Plover.  I noted several Horned Larks (with Killdeers) on the gravel roadway as well.

Hillman Marsh - Many Egrets, GB Herons, Green Herons, Belted Kingfishers, were around. No surprises or rarities seen. A Common Yellowthroat and a Marsh Wren were making noise in a Phragmites thicket near the wetland cell.

Point Pelee's Marsh - I kayaked Point Pelee's Marsh and saw all the same birds as last week. Black bellied Plover (no Golden Plover yet!), Short billed Dowitcher, Stilt Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper were seen. West Cranberry Pond had an assortment of gulls, shorebirds as well as hundreds of Cormorants were seen. Two raptors seen in the marsh were a distant Northern Harrier and a Juvi Bald Eagle which flew almost 20m over my head. Pretty cool but not shocking... . I wanted to bird other parts of Pelee, possibly to find a rare flycatcher (yellow bellied or olive sided would be lifers) but as usual, I ran out of time. 

I spotted a spotless spotted sandpiper. The baring on its back is diagnostic for juvi's.

The highlight of the day was driving through the onion fields and noticing my friend Rick from Leamington. We drove by each other and then Rick did a three point turn. We pulled up to each other and talked a little about life and work. As we spoke, I noticed a large, skulking bird with an oddly horizontal posture. Black billed Cuckoo, photographed from my car. Notice the red eye ring and long tail extending below the branch!

Next weekend, I would like to check out Holiday Beach for warblers and possibly a trip to Pointe Mouillee in Michigan for some shorebirds. Last years trip netted 10 lifers... Buff breasted Sandpipers and Marbled Godwits to name a few.

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Shorebirding at Hillman Marsh

Last Sunday (Sept 12th), I stopped by Hillman Marsh & Point Pelee National Park.  Hillman Marsh had many Herons and Egrets as well as many shorebirds.  The shorebird cell basically looks like a giant field. I don't really see how this is a shorebird cell, but maybe next Spring, I will see if it is. I'm not a biologist, but Pointe Mouillee seems like a great shorebird habitat and looks nothing like Hillman's shorebird field. I hope my sceptical view of this field is changed next spring! Anyway, there was good shorebird habitat near the small barn as you cross the first major dyke about 400m past the parking lot.

I did see Yellowlegs (Greater?) as well as Stilt Sandpipers (which I originally thought were White-rumped sandpipers because they were showing major white rumpage). I also saw many small peeps closer to the visitor center but did not really spend much time in that location.

Next I drove through the onion fields, to Point Pelee NP. I did not see much as I drove through the onion fields... nor the north dyke road. Point Pelee seemed quiet for birds Sunday morning. Maybe I just got unlucky and did not cross many pockets of migrants. As I walked through Delaurier Trail, Sharp Shinned Hawks flew overhead every 3 minutes.

Possibly these preying raptors grounded many of the migrants I was looking for. I did see a flycatcher though.

Tildens Trail was silent as well. I did notice a few RT Hummingbirds though.

Spicebush Swallowtail & Question Mark butterflies near the Delaurier parking lot. 

This was uneventful yet mildly exciting walk ... so I figured I would post it, even if its a week late! :-)

Good birding!
Dwayne