Ducks in the D --- Winter birding on the Detroit River

White-winged Scoter at close range - Previously taken in 2011!

The Detroit River has been the highlight of my winter birding efforts over the years and this year is no different. This winter, there has been huge numbers of White-winged Scoters on the river. I've only been birding for 4 years, but I have never seen more than one or two White-winged Scoters along the Detroit river. This year, I've seen rafts of 20 ww-scoters in two or three different locations along the river! Long-tailed ducks are also extreme rarities along the Detroit river --- even though tens of thousands of these ducks are easily seen along the Sarnia River / Port Huron just one hour north of here.

White winged Scoters --- record numbers?

Sleeping Oldsquaw in Olde Sandwich Towne --- Ultra Rare!

During this last week, a Black Scoter was photographed at a park in West Windsor called McKee Park, just 200m west of the Ambassador Bridge. I tried to catch up the Scoter, only to come up empty-handed but was able to see this sleeping Long-tailed Duck instead. *Quick historical note* The area west of the bridge in Windsor is one of the oldest communities in Ontario. This house below, just one block from McKee Park is the Duff-Baby house built in 1798 --- It has changed ownership many times since it was built but this house was rumored to have hosted Chief Tecumseh and was at one time raided by the American army during the war of 1812! I had to throw in the historical reference --- Oldsquaw in Olde Sandwich Towne...

I also attended a nature outing held by the Essex County Field Naturalists which was held last weekend. While touring the Black-oak Heritage Park in West Windsor, we toured the last remaining undeveloped shoreline in Windsor --- a small strip of land called Ojibway Shores [map]. Our group saw some of the more common birds that one would expect to find in the forest and along the river --- our main highlight was some Glaucous Gulls always a pleasure to see. It was surreal to watch these gulls in front of the Zug Island industrial complex which one sees when standing on the shores of Ojibway! (Side note about Ojibway Shores: The Windsor Port Authority owns this land and was about to bulldoze it to store aggregate for a new bridge crossing over the Detroit River. A few hundred people protested and the port authority backed down -They promised not to destroy that last remaining natural area along the water for "two years").

My son and I walked up on this Eagle at Ojibway Shores on Family Day

A couple more scoter rafts above. Can you find the Surf Scoter?

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Pelee Sunrise

I had taken a photo of the sun rising over the boardwalk, but I did not have my wide angle lens. I was told once that the sun rises directly over this boardwalk on May 1st. This photo is from the first week of May last year.

Birded Pelee today with the Ojibway Birding Group. This is the first time in a long time I was able to join the group on their outings. I arrived at Point Pelee early (6:45am) and walked the marsh trail first thing. One highlight (besides the sunrise through the light mist over the marsh) was the sound of Virginia Rail calling at one point along the boardwalk. Next, I walked Tilden's Trail to have another great highlight... A Waterthrush! I'm torn on the identification, I did not hear it make so much as a chip note! It foraged the slough along the northern boardwalk at north end of Tilden's Trail.  (David Sibley has a small writeup here on  differentiating Northern from Louisiana Waterthrushes: http://www.sibleyguides.com/2012/08/identification-of-waterthrushes/)

 

The Ojibway birding group met in the parking lot and walked the West Beach path northward. Some West beach highlights include:
Black and White Warbler
Brown Thrasher
Yellow Warbler
Yellow rumped Warbler

Amazing raptors flew overhead all afternoon... they included: Broad-winged Hawk, Coopers, N. Harriers, Bald Eagles... (No Kites!). Even Sandhill Cranes flew overhead on a few occasions.

After a quick lunch at Paula's Fish Place, Kory and I walked Northwest Beach where we found a small but nice pocket of warblers. We had:
Pine Warbler (my first in Canada?),
Black throated Green,
Palm Warbler,
Yellow rumped Warbler
Blue headed Vireo
Eastern Phoebe
House Wren (FOS)! ... Oddly, the House Wren was not calling when we saw it.

At 3:30, I left the park and dropped by Hillman Marsh. I had very little time to really bird the shorebird cell, but I did get a glimpse at a pair of Long billed Dowitchers, as well as many Dunlin, Black-bellied Plovers and  Caspian Terns.

Thanks to the Ojibway birding group for a great morning of birding. Birds were sparse today, but it was great to be out there!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava


http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13908493
68 species total

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

More Point Pelee Birding

Happy Easter & Earth Day!

I just thought I would give a really great link to a Youtube video that Jenna (100 birds in a year blog) posted and I can't help but re-post it:

It's only 6 minutes long but very well worth the time. It was produced by the Cornell University Ornithology department on  the one-year anniversary of the BP Gulf Oil spill. Right click link (open in new tab)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLVCr9-ZFQw&feature=feedu

Ruddy Ducks

Well, today (Saturday) was a pretty great day out. The weather forecast for this long holiday weekend was initially really glum, but Saturday just really opened up for us at the last minute! I'm a little sun-burnt from today's walk! Today I did my typical Hillman Marsh/ Point Pelee trip with an added stop off at Kopegaron Woods.

This is the very first photo and blog lifer for a Horned Grebe. I was approaching the Shorebird Cell at Hillman Marsh and noticed many Rudy Ducks fly away as I approached the edge of the cell. I was thinking... "I wish they would install some blinds so birder could enjoy some birds without the use of a scope... Every time I walk up to this field, everything within 100m flushes. Perhaps a local greenhouse can take some scrap polyethylene sheeting and some posts and create a cheap, makeshift blind". Just as I finished with that thought, I notice a single lone duck (Grebe) just 20-30m from me. Awesome! (I ended up seeing another Grebe 20m off shore at the West Beach... very cool!).

Hillman Marsh:
Horned Grebe
American Coots,
Great Blue Herons
Blue Winged Teal
Ruddy Ducks
Spotted Sandpiper
Northern Shoveler
Northern Harrier

I spotted this "lump" driving through the onion fields. It is a lifer... #235

Looking for loons in all the wrong places....

This Common Loon was spotted in a ditch near the Lakeside Dr road where the Hillman Marsh sign is. Its funny how I spotted it. I noticed about 8 Great Egrets on a ditch to the right, and two Great Blue Herons in the drainage ditch to the left about 15ft away from me. One GBH was about to "spear" his dinner, so I was setting up my camera to take video, (from my car) when in my peripheral vision, I see a strange, Black object. It was so surreal, it must have taken 10 seconds for me to realize what I was looking at. The first time I saw a Common Loon, it was from about 50m off the west beach of Point Pelee and it was pointed out to me by someone else. It was also in non-breeding plumage. Seeing this today blew my mind!!!

View Larger Map
Onion Fields:
Great Egret
Common Loon
Great Blue Herons
Ring necked Pheasant (Lifer #235)

Surf Scoter -... I had confused these with Black Scoter

Point Pelee:
Surf Scoter 
Great horned Owl
Northern Watherthrush
Yellow bellied Sapsucker
Blue grey Gnatcatcher
Rusty Blackbird (or Possible Brewer's?)
Horned Grebe
Lesser Scaup
Hermit Thrush
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Golden Crowned Kinglet
Red Breasted Merganser
Brown Creeper
Northern Flicker
Yellow Rumped Warbler
Sharp Shinned Hawk
Double Crested Cormorant
Various Terns & Gulls
Tree Swallow
Field Sparrows

One great thing about today's PPNP visit was meeting up with Rick, my good birding friend from Leamington. It was also nice to see John, one of the park employees, who informed me about the short-lived flowering of the Bloodroot plant found on Woodland Nature Trail. John informed me that this plant only flowers for about 3 days then the flower petals fall off.

~~~Frustrating Birding Observation~~~
Have you ever spotted a bird skulking in a thicket, and spent great amounts of time and effort to pish it into view and then realize that its a Darked Eyed Junco? I've come to almost dislike this bird at this point in the year. Its like ... migrate north already!!!
~~~End of rant~~~

This thrush has strong spotting, all the way down its belly. I don't quite think its a Wood Thrush (too early?), but seems too heavily spotted for a Hermit Thrush. Does not seem to be a Swainsons... Does it default to being just a Hermit thrush?

~~~Final thought for the day~~~
I think many people this year at Point Pelee are going to take the 100 species challenge. This naturally will involve birders keeping lists... But is there a list of local birds that should be assumed? For example, did see Red winged Blackbirds today but did not mention them above. Hence, I propose the base assumed list for your 100 count:

1. American Robin
2. House Finch
3. American Crow
4. Blue Jay
5. Northern Cardinal
6. European Starling
7. House Sparrow
8. Dark Eyed Junco
9. Field Sparrow
10. Song Sparrow
11. American Goldfinch
12. Ring billed Gull
13. Red winged Blackbird
14. Brown headed Cowbird
15. Common Grackle
16. Black Capped Chickadee
17. Red Tailed Hawk (hwy 3)
18. Turkey Vulture
19. Downy Woodpecker
20. Tufted Titmouse (If you start at ojibway)
21. Red Bellied Woodpecker (If you start at ojibway)
22. Mallard
23. Killdeer
24. Morning Dove
25. Rock Pigeon

There... now you only need to find another 75 bird species!

Good Birding!
Dwaynejava