Labour Day Weekend Birding v2

Hackberry Emporer - On a Hackberry! There must have been 15 Emporers on this tree alone!

I got up early on Monday and headed out to Point Pelee. I briefly stopped at the northmost parking lot and found it to be quiet with the exception of an unidentified flycatcher (Acadian Perhaps?) perched on the powerlines. Moving on, a quick stop at Delaurier Trail was very birdy, but the hot, humid air had my camera optics all fogged up. Cedar Waxwings, Least Flycatcher and a mix of Warblers were fluttering around in the sun-lit tree tops. My next stop was the visitor center parking lot. The sunlit east side of the parking lot was crawling with birds. Sadly, my camera had an "Error 30" message, that indicated the shutter was jamming.

I spent more time fumbling with my camera than I wanted to, but some birds seen were Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Magnolia Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Red breasted Nuthatch, Scarlet Tanager, and Yellow bellied Flycatcher! At one point, I gave up on my camera and just looked at a pair of Red breasted Nuthatches fluttering and skylarking over the parking lot through my binoculars. It was cool to see them flying with their stubby blunt tails. Very cool and exciting to see what everyone else is noticing on Ontbirds... There seems to be a Red breasted Nuthatch invasion!

Red breasted Nuthatch Invasion!

Yellow bellied Flycatcher

The beak of this bird hints at Scarlet Tanager... Thoughts?

A walk along west beach was a little bit of a letdown, with only a few butterflies and birds. Sharp shinned Hawks, Merlin and American Kestreal were abundant overhead. A Common Yellowthroat, Magnolia, Peewee, were seen along with a pair of noisy Kingfishers. Closer to the tip, American Redstarts and Blackpoll and possibly Cape May Warblers were seen.

Spicebush Swallowtail along West Beach

South end of NW Beach Parking Lot offered a Grey Hairstreak among many others...

At the tip of Point Pelee, a Merlin was perched at the top of a tree, giving nice close looks at this beautiful raptor. Overhead, Falcons and Accipiters flew at high altitudes. A Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo) flew over at a pretty low level.

 

After Pelee, I went to Hillman Marsh to see if there might be any shorebirds in the wetland cell. There were some good shorebirds behind the visitor center, due to very low water levels. Another Blackpoll warbler was seen in the scrubby area along the wetland cell. Some birds seen include:

10 + Yellowlegs
10 + White Rumped
1 Green Heron
1 Juv Black Crowned Night Heron
25 Great Egrets
5 Red Knots (?)
10 Semipalmated Plovers
5 American Black Ducks

Blackpoll Warbler

Cedar Creek in Kingsville was visited while driving between Leamington and Amherstburg.  An Osprey overhead caught my eye. But my time was limited so I continued on...

My last stop was Holiday Beach. Upon arrival I saw a birder at a picnic table photographing birds. I joined him and to my amazement, warblers just went by almost as if they were in a parade.  Black and white, Chestnut sided warbler, Magnolia, Black throated Blue, Eastern Pewee, Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos abundant as well. All the while, more Hackberry Emporers were abundant and even landing on me!

I stopped by the banding station at Holiday Beach and Paul Pratt invited me to watch how he recorded specs for a Swainson's Thrush. They were very busy so I continued on to the tower. Red-eyed Vireo and Magnolia were seen in the mist nets while exiting the banding area. At the hawk tower, I met the official counter (Todd Pepper), and Kory & Sarah again. A few seasonal raptors had gone by ... but I had to go. My time at Holiday Beach was short as I had to be home for 3pm... But overall a great day of birding!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Quick, three beers! Olive sided Flycatcher at Ojibway Prairie

  

After work today, I drove to the Ojibway Tallgrass Prairie for a relaxing walk. I was hoping to see some interesting butterflies, but did not really see any rarities. (Monarch, Buckeyes, Eastern Tailed Blues, Pearl Crescent etc.) I really had been hoping to find an Olive sided Flycatcher this season, and recent sightings by Blake Mann and Paul Pratt reminded me that indeed, they are in season! I was not expecting to see one at Ojibway tonight, but to my utter amazement, one was perched at the top of a dead, leafless tree in the Ojibway Tallgrass Prairie! I am quite confident that I'm identifying it properly, I had mis-identified some Eastern Pewees in the past as Olive sided Flycatchers. This bird was large, had barely visible dusky wingbars, perched at the top of any tree it was perched in. I wish I had heard its call ("quick three beers"), but it was not vocalizing.

The Olive sided Flycatcher is yet another species at risk. According to ROM, its status is "Special Concern Provincially, Threatened Nationally". See http://www.rom.on.ca/ontario/risk.php?doc_type=fact&lang=&id=329 for more details. According to the Ibird App on my phone, it indicates that breeding bird surveys are showing alarming negative trends. Its estimated that its population has declined 72% between 1966-2002! Its a life bird at #305. The MNR has another PDF fact sheet here: http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/stdprodconsume/groups/lr/@mnr/@species/documents/document/276684.pdf

Anyone know what tree this is?

Some birds seen this week at Ojibway:
Northern Flicker 1
White breasted Nuthatch 1
Robins 2
Red Breasted Grosbeck 2
Olive Sided Flycatcher 1
Eastern Pewee 4
Eastern Bluebird 2
Common Nighthawk 2
Cedar Waxwings 50
Blue Jays 10
RT Humingbird 2 (chasing a nuthatch!)
Field Sparrow 2
American Goldfinch 10
Blue grey Gnatcatcher 2
Red eyed Vireo 1


While walking back to my car, I noticed a tree that was loaded with berries, and birds! Cedar waxwings were flying in and out of this tree, and a Vireo and BG Gnatcatcher were seen as well.

I took the photo below while picking up my son at my mother in laws house. It was in a residential neighborhood!

Just found: Checkered skipper, looking fresh and blue-ish in my mother-in-laws garden! Taken with my cell-phone!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Last six lifers:

American Bittern #300
Willow Flycatcher #301
Upland Sandpiper #302
Bank Swallow #303
Cliff Swallow #304
Olive Sided Flycatcher #305


PS: This was a posting from Sunday that I never published, but will add as a post-script to this posting.

 

While waiting to get my hair cut last week, I noticed a bird-related Subaru advertisement behind the cover of a recent Macleans magazine. I went to take a photo of it with my cell phone, but realized I left it in my car. This week, the ABA had a blog posting about the ad, so I couldn't help but re-post.

I've attempted to bird Holiday Beach on Friday (Aug 24, 2012) after work, but not much of note was seen. The place was crawling with Cedar Waxwings. Other birds seen include:
Eastern Pewees,
Downy Woodpeckers
Black capped Chickadees
Warbling and Red eyed Vireos
Black and White Warbler
Blue grey gnatcatcher
Yellow warblers
Northern Flickers
Belted Kingfisher
Bald Eagle (flushing many ducks, egrets and herons)


I was hoping to see an Olive-sided Flycatcher, but no luck! Maybe the birding gods are punishing me, with no lifers in several months!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Red necked Phalarope at Point Pelee's Lake Pond

With numerous Ontbirds postings over the last week about Red necked Phalaropes I figured I would make an attempt (my last for the season) to kayak Point Pelee's Marsh (Lake Pond) and find them myself. Sure enough, a pair was spotted at one of the first "Islands" that I visited. The black streak across the eye is easily seen from great distance! One of the two Phalaropes had some golden highlights in its plumage, and the other was monochromatic.

Like I've said many time before, it seems shorebirds ignore people when they are in a kayak. I was about 5 meters away from these two Phalaropes, a Greater Yellowlegs and a few Semi-Sandpipers. At one point, they flushed because of a Northern Harrier that flew by, but then returned immediately.

Some birds that I saw today (Saturday) include:

Red necked Phalarope  2
Short billed Dowitchers 20
Black bellied Plovers 3
Least Sandpipers 30
Semipalmated Sandpipers 30
Yellowlegs Sp. 6
Semipalmated Plovers 5
Spotted Sandpiper 5
Killdeer 10

Perhaps more diversity could have been found by navigating to other areas of Point Pelee's Marsh (see map), such as West and East Cranberry Pond, but as usual, I only had a few precious hours to bird on Saturday.

I was hoping this was a Western Sandpiper, but no, its Semipalmated.

Yellow legs

Butterfly Watching
 
A ditch on the nortwest side of the road leading to Point Pelee had about 20 meters of Purple Loostrife and many butterflies had taken notice. Whites, Sulphurs, Painted Lady, Monarch, Common Buckeye, Grey Hairstreak, Fiery and Sachem Skippers were all present. 

Earlier on in the week, I had photographed this Duskywing below. I had heard about some duskywings having a plume on their hindlegs, so I thought I had found something interesting here.  An online book I found while researching (Butterflies of Canada) mentioned that the following duskywings have such plumes: "Male duskywings of Icelus (Dreamy Duskywing - Too late in the season), zarucco, Funeralis, Persius (Persius Duskywing), Lucilius (Columbine), Afranius (Afranius Duskywing), and Baptisiae (Wild Indigo) have hair plumes on their hindlegs. So, considering the time and location, I think its just a Wild Indigo that had its wing oriented with the sun in a way to show some really nice iridecsence. The four white spots are hardly visible in this photo, but in others they are visible from the underside of the forwing.

Iridescent Wild Indigo Duskywing, with plumes on hindleg

Ventral View of a Tawny Emporer

Sunday Visit to Holiday Beach

Some of my best birding trips in my short three years of birding have been at Holiday Beach (Warblers peaking on Labour Day Weekend), and today gave me a little taste of what is to come over the next two or three weeks. Since May was a such a letdown in the warbler department, I look forward to enjoying vireos, flycatchers and warblers, as well as Raptors on their Southbound migration over the next month. Holiday Beach is one of North America's best Raptor Migration hotspots.

Some birds seen at Holiday Beach include:

Hundreds of Great Egrets
Many Great Blue Herons
Heard Carolina Wrens (many)
Cedar Waxwings (many)
Eastern Wood Pewee
Alder Flycatcher
Black and White Warbler
Cape May (or Magnolia) Warbler
Yellow Warbler

Hundreds of Egrets are still at Big Creek. This is a split photo, the top looking north from the big creek bridge, the bottom looking south. I looked for wing-tags but saw none.

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava

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!