Chronicles of an Ontario Birder: Pelee Episode V

Pelee Episode V - A New Vireo

The conditions during the night and on the morning of May 11th were similar to the previous day, with clear skies and southwest winds. Again, the flight started off fairly strong, but unlike the 10th it started to die down a lot quicker. I spent the first hour at the tip, but then I decided to try something new and watch the reverse from half way up the tower at the tip. This turned out to be pretty fun, although getting photos was exceedingly more challenging... as the birds were flying towards me and below me, vs kind of beside/above at the tip. At one point a male Cerulean Warbler whipped by, my first time seeing this species in morning flight. Totals and highlights from the watch below (new birds in bold);

- 28 Rudy-throated Hummingbirds

- 8 Black-bellied Plovers

- 6 Ruddy Turnstones

- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

- 1 Common Loon

- 6 Red-headed Woodpeckers

- 3 Great Crested Flycatchers

- 22 Eastern Kingbirds

- 2 Yellow-throated Vireos

- 3 Blue-headed Vireos

- 8 Warbling Vireos

- 25 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers

- 2 Eastern Bluebirds

- 21 Bobolink

- 5 Orchard Orioles

- 82 Baltimore Orioles (considerably less than the 10th)

- 1 Northern Waterthrush (rarely seen in vismig here)

- 41 Northern Parulas

- 20 Nashville Warblers

- 7 Magnolia Warblers

- 12 Bay-breasted Warblers

- 9 Blackburnian Warblers

- 97 Yellow Warblers

- 14 Chestnut-sided Warblers

- 2 Blackpoll Warblers

- 5 Black-throated Green Warblers

- 2 Canada Warblers

- 5 Black-throated Blue Warblers

- 38 Scarlet Tanagers

- 47 Indigo Buntings

- 20 warbler species, 1,470 birds total

As you can see the totals were considerably different than the 10th... Less orioles by far, but higher numbers of warblers and Scarlet Tanagers. One of the things I really enjoyed about spending a month at Pelee was being able to experience the daily fluctuations in bird numbers, one day a certain species will be abundant and the next it will be scarce. Anyways here are some reverse shots..

- Blackpoll Warbler

- Canada Warbler

- Yellow & Black-throated Green Warbs

- Lesser Black-backed Gull

- Blue-headed Vireo

- Black-throated Blue Warbler

- Bobolinks

- Chestnut-sided Warbler

- Bay-breasted Warbler

- Great Crested Flycatcher

- Scarlet Tanager

After prying myself away from the tip, I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon walking the trails of the park (basically all of West Beach, plus Tildens). This turned out to be quite productive, as there were lots of new migrants to be found. I racked up 6 new yearbirds; Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Mourning Warbler and Wilson's Warbler. Black-billed Cuckoo had the honor of being my 300th species for the year, a milestone that I was not originally hoping to hit for another two weeks!

For a bit of comparison... in 2012 Josh hit 300 on May 19th, and in 2017 Jeremy got there on June 9th

- Yellow-billed Cuckoo

- Mourning Warbler

- Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

Some other highlights from the day included; 17 Surf Scoters, 2 Northern Mockingbirds, 2 Blue-winged Warblers and 1 Acadian Flycatcher. Some photos below...

- Northern Mockingbird

- Northern Parula

- Cape May Warbler

- Acadian Flycatcher

There were also some interesting non avian lifeforms...

- Raccoon

- Five-lined Skink

- Melanistic Eastern Garter Snake

That evening around dusk, I drove over to Hillman Marsh with William, Alessandra and Ezra to walk the dike trail there. Our main target was Least Bittern, which we all needed for the year and had been reported there a few days before and. It was calm and still relatively warm out when darkness started creeping in, as we made our way out through the marsh. Sure enough after a few minutes of listening we heard the distinctive, almost laugh like "ruck-ruck-ruck-ruck" call of a Least Bittern coming from the reeds beside us. This was my 9th new bird of the day, not a bad haul!

The following day the winds shifted to the north, which meant that there wasn't much reverse action at the tip. While there weren't many birds flying off the point, there were still some highlights around the tip area, including; Eastern Meadowlark, Black Scoter, Northern Mockingbird and Prairie Warbler.

- Prairie Warbler

- Black Scoter

Since the tip area wasn't hopping, I only stayed for half an hour before moving on, compared to 3 or more hours on a good day. Starting near the entrance of the park, I walked Northwest beach with Alessandra, which actually turned out to be quite birdy with large numbers of songbirds along the beach. There had obviously been a large influx in certain species overnight, as we had nearly 50 Magnolia Warblers and almost as many Chestnut-sided Warblers and Swainson's Thrushes. I stopped to take some photos of the common birds along the way...

- Eastern Kingbird

- Blackburnian Warbler

- There were some Gray-cheeked Thrushs with the swainson's

- Bay-breasted Warbler

- Scarlet Tanager

Around noon I hadn't seen a new bird yet, and was beginning to wonder if my streak (which had been going since the 28th of April) was about to end, when a Whatsapp alert came in for a Bell's Vireo along West Beach footpath. There are only around 12 records of Bell's for Ontario, and none since 2018... so this was a no miss situation. We ran back to the car, drove over to White Pine and then ran the remaining 500 meters down the path. Along the way I saw a few birders out of breath, going full speed on their bikes to get there quickly.

By the time we arrived at the vireo there were close to 50 people there, all lined up beside the path taking photos of a bird in the junipers... Yes, it was the Bell's Vireo! For the next half hour I watched it (along with the mob, which now numbered close to 200) flitting around the shrubs on the beach, appearing more like a kinglet than a vireo. This was the rarest bird I saw at Pelee during the spring, and it was also a lifer for me. My record shots are pretty trash... but you can tell what it is!