Erieau Harlequin Ducks + Breeding Carolina Wrens?

Easter Monday is traditionally one of my first days of spring birding --- but this year, I had relatives visiting from Ottawa --- so an afternoon of viewing early migrants was not in the works for me. But as you might have guessed from the title of this posting, I woke up early (ok 8:30) and headed out to Erieau Point to see if I could luck out with the recently found Harlequin Ducks. Blake, Allen and Ken had described them well in their blogs and since this was a lifer - I was almost obligated to go out and find them.


When I got to Erieau, it was cold, windy and rainy. I scanned the watery lake Erie lakescape and pretty well assumed I was not going to see them. But somehow, I picked out some dark ducks that had white facial spots. There were some false alarms with some female buffleheads but I think I have diagnostic photos of Harlequins here. A life bird at 398!

Breeding Carolina Wren Habitat

On Easter Sunday, I was at my dads house in Windsor.... and while hanging out in the back yard with family, a Carolina Wren started belting out its tell tale Tea-Kettle Tea Kettle Tea Kettle song! I walked around to the back area of my dads yard (behind his shed) and saw a Carolina Wren singing its heart out! I ran to my car and grabbed my binoculars and Bino-scoped it singing. The first ten seconds of this video are blurry but the remaining twenty seconds after that are not too bad. The wren jumped down to a pile of twigs and I had great views of it in my binos when low and behold, a second wren was bouncing around as well (his lady friend perhaps?). Its quite probable that these birds are breeding somewhere in the messy piles of sticks and twigs in my dads back yard!




Its not a total surprise though... I've seen / heard Carolina Wren at my parents house in Windsor on several occasions. Some readers may remember this wren I photographed on an icicle. It was drinking water dropplets melting off the barn roof! That was back in 2011.

I think that whether you are a pro birder or just starting out --- if you are having a drink at a family get-together and find nesting Carolina Wrens in you back yard.... and you're in Canada.... thats pretty cool.

Shuster Trail at Point Pelee? Nope --- my parents' house

Good birding!

PS: I dropped my old honda civic off at a local junk yard in Windsor and could not help but notice a little yellow flower in the gravel driveway... Dandelion? No... I think it could be Colts - Foot! A chance botanical discovery!

Mid March Nature Sightings

Do you see an Owl's Nest ? I've been looking at it all Winter!

For the last couple of months, I noticed a large "nest" about 80 meters directly behind my house. I had some free time last Saturday, I put the scope on the nest to find... a nesting pair of Great Horned Owls! Another great observation I've made is that there are tonnes of American Woodcock "peenting" and timberdoodling directly behind my house. Woodcocks are going crazy, and its gotten to the point that when I go outside after sunset, I will hear peenting and twittering flight displays.  I've had Song Sparrows and Killdear in my backyard for over a week now.






Today, I had the day off and I went to Point Pelee with my two boys. Upon arrival at the gate, I ended up buying a two year "Blue Pass" for $75 - letting me skip the line to get into the park for the next two years --- sweet!  Anyway, the woman at the gate informed me that there were "scavenger hunts", camp fires, marshmallows and crafts for the kids. I met up with my friend Rick from Leamington who  joined us on our scavenger hunt journey. At one point, Rick and I noticed a butterfly patrolling the path we were on and it soon landed about 20 feet away from us. Rick snapped this diagnostic photo - which is a record early sighting* for Point Pelee - and perhaps the province of Ontario (Thanks to Alan Wormington's meticulous record keeping). Thanks to Rick for sharing this photo! One usually sees a Red Admiral in May ---- Not mid March! Rick and I must have seen about 5-6 snakes sunning along the path as well.

Good Birding!
Dwayne


PS:
Cornell University's Ornithology Lab has some "Nest-Cam" video of a great horned owl nest.... much better than what I can obtain...

Warwick Gyrfalcon & Merlin

Warwick Gyrfalcon

Blake's blog recently featured an excellent lingering rarity - the Warwick Gyrfalcon! As the work-week ended - I talked to Rick and Jeremy H about carpooling to see this bird and joined up with Jerermy H with high hopes of seeing this bird. I wanted to carpool to reduce my carbon footprint and also to have more eyes on the bird - not to mention good company. Soon after arriving in the prescribed area, we caught sight of this fantastic arctic beauty.  A life bird for Jeremy and myself!

Even though this photos are not too good, I had soul-satisfying views of this bird through Jeremy's scope. It soon flew off and even watching fly away was nice. Its a great bird!


An alternative post title was going to be: Gyr, Mer, Brr, & Jer!!!

Just as the Gyrfalcon flew off, a Merlin flew in for some nice looks though our scope.

Gyr, Jer and I spent some time looking for other good birds in the area such as Snowy Owl and Northern Shrike but were content to return home. Snow Buntings, Northern Harriers and Red tailed Hawks were abundant along the roadways. It has been a while since I've seen Snow Buntings so it was nice to see them. Did you know that the "all about birds" main photo for Snow Buntings is one of mine? See it here: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snow_Bunting/id .

Good Birding!
Dwayne

Recent Life List Additions:

Mississippi Kite 394
Grey Flycatcher 395
Sabine's Gull 396

Gyrfalcon 397

Snowy Owl Caps off Another Great Year of Birding - 2015 in Review

Looking back at 2015...

And ahead to 2016

For the last 5 years, I've written a year end reflection on the previous year of birding and nature viewing. So this year, I've continued with tradition. This year was a lot more restrained compared to say 2014 when I took several ambitious trips (Florida, Michigan, Oregon, Carden Alvar).  My family moved into a new home this year, so I felt that having a major trip in March or over the summer was not economically responsible. So instead, we stayed closer to home this year, with a trip to Ottawa to visit family and a day trips to St Thomas and the Pinery Provincial Park in Grand Bend.

I don't really have too many birding highlights this year (although there were some) but I must say that I attempted to broaden my appreciation of the natural world by starting to seek out and list plants formally -  which has been fun!  Patrick & Allen have awesome blogs that have encouraged me to seek out some great plants. Some highlights include:

Colic Root
Culver's Root
Tall Ironweed
Tall Boneset
Prairie Dock
Indian Pipe
Fringed Gentian
Closed Gentian
Big Bluestem

Little Bluestem
Prairie Cordgrass
Indian Grass
Sullivants Milkweed
Prairie & Michigan Lily
Nodding Ladies Tresses
Eastern Fringed Prairie Orchid
... and many more

One plant I really wanted to see was Purple Twayblade Orchid.  I might have started to look for it way past its flowering stage (late July) so next summer, I will start looking for it in June when hopefully it is flowering. There are a handful of other flowers that I would like to see but this one stands out as one I should find with a little effort and luck.

Lepidopteric Highlights from 2015:

Grey Hairstreak (Point Pelee - rare is some years)
Leonards Skipper (Grand Bend ON)
Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Strathroy, Ottawa)
Zebra Swallowtail (Portsmouth OH)

I still have not seen a Mulberry Winged or Dion Skipper convincingly so I will be looking for these next summer.


Instead of doing a month by month breakdown of birding... I will just list out and comment on several seasonal highlights:

April visit to Shawnee State Forest in Southern Ohio- Three life list birds were added on this trip - Carolina Chickadee, Worm eating Warbler and Kentucky Warbler. Shawnee State Park is a beautiful park located about 4 hours south of Windsor/Detroit. It is located on the southern border of Ohio, bordering the state of Kentucky! I wanted to get butterflies on this trip, but the cold rainy weather put a damper on butterfly action. Still, I picked up a Zebra Swallowtail and a Horaces Duskywing.

May Migration at Pelee- I had a couple of great days in May at Point Pelee. May 6th was an excellent day that I won't soon forget. At one point, I was looking at a Golden Winged Warbler, an Eastern Whip poor will and a Cape May Warbler, all within a few feet of each other.  All three goatsucker species were pretty easily seen this year. I had a fleeting look at Mississippi Kite and nice looks at Pacific Loon which was pretty amazing. Gray Kingbird was pretty awesome to see along the eastern edge of Hillman Marsh. Finding a Summer Tanager at Malden Park in Windsor was exciting as well. I am convinced that I also saw an Acadian Flycatcher that same afternoon but well.. you know...

Summer Birding- I think the birding highlight of the summer would by my accidental discovery of a Hooded Warbler at Ojibway Park in the later part of June. A Scarlet Tanager that was nearby was also a pretty cool bird to see. Another summer highlight was just sitting in my back yard and witnessing the birds that appeared consistently through the summer as well as the birds that stopped by during their southbound migration. I had Common Checkered Skippers and Common Sootywing in my back yard which was pretty cool to see.

Visiting the Canard Valley - I visited Canard Valley Conservation Area for the first time. It is a little hidden jem that I had neglected to discover until this summer. A dimorphic pair of Dukes Skippers were a highlight.

Ottawa Area- A trip to Ottawa this summer had limited nature viewing opportunities, but a drive through Larose Forest in Limoges Ontario was pretty nice. Milbert's Tortoiseshell and Meadow Fritillary were nice to see. Butterflies were mysteriously difficult to find this summer in Ottawa.

Fall & Winter Birding - Highlights here are two gull species that were excellent to see. Sabine's Gull & a first winter plumaged Franklin's Gull was a great find at Wheatly Harbour. I found a Common Redpoll at Pelee which is really really rare in my opinion. A Snow Goose as well as White Fronted Geese were seen in Lasalle by my friend Karen but I was unable to twitch these birds. She also spotted a Gyrfalcon at Vollmer Ponds. Needless to say, two rare flycatcher species that were seen in Chatham-Kent were: Says Phobe and Vermilion Flycatcher.

Birding from my own backyard was really fun. I built a deck on the back of my house and on a daily basis, I typically see decent birds. I saw Blue headed Vireo, Wilsons Warbler, Nashville,  American Redstart, Palm , Eastern Bluebird & Fox Sparrow migrating through among others! (I need to compile a list!)

Late November to December was not very birdy for me, but some highlights were Golden Eagles, Rough legged and Red shouldered Hawks at Holiday Beach. A pair of Great horned Owls during the Point Pelee CBC and and an end of year Snowy Owl seen in Harrow capped off a great year of birding!

A pair of Great Horned Owls at Point Pelee

Snowy Owl in Harrow

I wanted to end off this posting with some thoughts on Ojibway Park --- but again, I can't find the words. Sadly, without an intervention from the Ministry of the Environment or the unlikely chance that a local philanthropist steps in --- the 'dozers will be brought in any time now and Ontario's best tallgrass prairie ecosystem will be further fragmented and impacted by a Coco Paving's planned Wal-Mart Plaza. Windsor's municipal politicians don't even realize how special Ojibway Park is.

Have a great 2016...
Dwayne

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