You know how I said that I would be caught up on the blog before I leave for Rainy River? Well I leave for the Northwest tomorrow so that is not happening! I just have too many Pelee things to share! Also a quick side note that I didn't mention in my last post, I'm sitting at 325 species for the year as of June 10th! If you are ever curious what I'm at, just look at the right hand side of the screen, I keep an updated species list there : )
May 13th was another phenomenal day of birding at the point, and I ended up with 103 species in the park without too much effort. I stayed at the tip from sunrise until around noon, as the birding was quite good and I was just enjoying the stationary watch. For the majority of my watch I was on the 4th level of the tip tower, watching the reverse migration with Dutch birders Hans, Ruud and Bas (The same guys who found the Bell's Vireo the day before). It was another strong flight, with some highlights including; American Pipit, Yellow-throated Vireo, Golden-winged Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, 100 Baltimore Orioles, 35 Scarlet Tanagers, Northern Mockingbird and good warbler numbers... with the dominant species being Yellow, Bay-breasted, Tennessee and Nashville (around 30-40 of each).
Photos...
 |
| - Bay-breasted Warbler |
 |
| - Orchard Oriole |
 |
| - Red-headed Woodpecker |
 |
| - American Pipit |
 |
| - Merlin |
 |
| - Northern Parula |
 |
| - Tennessee Warbler |
 |
| - Horned Lark |
 |
| - Cape May Warbler |
 |
| - Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
 |
| - Yellow-throated Vireo |
Birding on the tower however had quite a peaceful vibe. Compared to the tip there wasn't a massive crowd of people and for most of the morning it was only the 4 of us. I was quite impressed with how good the Dutch folks were at identifying birds on the wing, especially considering it was only their second visit to Ontario. Around 9:30am the flight was still going strong, and on top of the songbirds we were starting to see the first raptors of the day (TVs and a Broad-winged Hawk). I was saying how after a few days of south winds it was the perfect time to get a Mississippi Kite, and not 10 minutes later a report comes in of a kite going south at the Visitor Center. Our once quiet tower was suddenly inundated with birders, as everyone who was in the vicinity of the tip rushed up the stairs with hopes of seeing the kite go over. Soon every level on the tower had a row of birders facing north, cameras and spotting scopes trained on the sky. A minute or two passed, then I spotted a distant raptor circling with a kettle of Turkey Vultures way up the point... Mississippi! I watched it for several minutes as it circled out over the lake, then came back over the land and disappeared out of sight to the north. The views were quite distant, but it is such a distinctive bird in flight... with a buoyant, yet steady flight, a squared off tail and long, thin wings that taper to a a point at the end... Almost like a falcon crossed with a harrier. This was another one of my big Pelee targets, plus raptors are among my favourite birds, so needless to say I was pretty excited!
The rest of the day at the park went by without any major highlights, save for a White-eyed Vireo and the always exciting Prothonotary Warblers. In the afternoon I went hunting for shorebirds around the concession roads outside of Pelee, stopping to scan any puddle of water I came across. While I didn't see anything rare, I did add 3 yearbirds... Semipalmated Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher and Solitary Sandpiper. Solitary Sand migration peaks in early to mid April, and this is always when I see my first ones back in Bruce, however somehow this year they had avoided me. It would have been a sad miss for the spring, and I was lucky to get it as it turned out to be the only one I saw all May!
The morning of the 14th started off like any other morning at Pelee... I biked out to the tip and started birding, working my way along the west side towards the tip. It became clear within the first half hour that there wasn't going to be much of a reverse migration though, and overall things seemed quieter than the previous few days. Then a mind blowing discord alert came in... Markus Legzdins and Ben Oldfield had found a Hepatic Tanager at Shell Park in Halton County! This represents the first record of this species for Ontario, and only the third for Canada.
 |
| - Hepatic Tanager records on eBird |
 |
| - Hepatic Tanager |
After enjoying the tanager for awhile I drove back to Pelee.. and that was the day!
Ontario yearlist @ May 14th - 308
As I'm writing this, I'm packing to leave for Rainy River tomorrow morning for an 8 day trip with Ezra Campanelli... with 5 main targets in mind. They are: Black-billed Magpie, LeConte's Sparrow, Marbled Godwit, Western Meadowlark and Western Kingbird. Hopefully something else rare too!
Good luck! It looks like you can get Nelson's sparrow as well.
ReplyDelete