Every year the Ontario Field Ornithologists hosts a convention during the last week of September, during which time the members are invited to an interesting area of Ontario for a weekend of birding hikes and a banquet. This year, after a two-year Covid imposed hiatus, the OFO brought the convention back... with the destination this time being Point Pelee.
From a big year perspective, it made sense to go to the convention since so many birders in one place makes the rarity potential pretty high. On top of that, I had agreed to lead a bird walk at Holiday Beach with Alessandra on Friday, and she also had one on Sunday at Point Pelee.
We arrived at Holiday Beach late on Thursday evening and settled down for the night at the Holiday Beach Inn (Chevy Cobalt edition). While the location of this hotel is quite ideal for birding, the beds, bathroom and room service leave much to be desired for.
The next morning, we met our hike participants at 9:00am and started off the day with a walk around the forested trail system there. A steady stream of Blue Jays was already passing overhead at that point, and some Broad-winged Hawks were taking off from the trees that they had roosted in overnight. Songbirds were also around in decent numbers, with some highlights including Orange-crowned Warbler, Philadelphia Vireo, Rusty Blackbird and Purple Finch. Among the 14 birders that turned out were some familiar faces from the Bruce Birding Club, so I enjoyed catching up with some friends from home during the day.
Around 11:00am we moved over to the Holiday Beach Hawkwatch Tower, a spot I have only briefly visited once before but have always wanted to spend time at. The conditions were basically perfect for hawkwatching, cool temperatures, a nice North wind and a blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds (nice to spot raptors against). Just after arriving up the tower, a kettle of around 500 Broad-winged Hawks was spotted heading south. For a Bruce County birder such as myself, seeing over 20 hawks at once is pretty exciting... so these larger numbers were a blast. We ended up staying there with the group until after 2:30, during which time we enjoyed one of the best Broad-wing flights since the the 1990s! It was so lucky for the tour... managing to chance into the best day of the fall at Holiday. Our group saw a few less since we didn't stay the whole time, but the days total was over 33,000 birds!! A Truely amazing spectacle to behold. The last kettle was over 4,000 birds strong, and in perfect light too. No words honestly.... just wow. Other highlights included: 87 sharp-shinned hawks, 27 Northern Harriers, 27 American Kestrels and a Peregrine Falcon. Also 80,000 Blue Jays!! We ended with around 85 species for the day, so a pretty successful hike! Definitely the best hawk flight I have ever witnessed.
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| - Broad-wing Madness |
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| - Peregrine Falcon |
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| - More Broad-wings |
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| - Blackpoll Warbler |
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| - Northern Harrier |
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| - Yellow-rumped Warbler |
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| - Broad-winged Hawk |
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| - Scarlet Tanager |
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| - Natural birding stance |
On Saturday Alessandra and I joined a hike lead by my good pal Quinten Wiegersma at Lake St. Clair NWA. The weather wasn't as nice as it was on the previous day, and throughout the day we experienced several bouts of rain. In spite of that it was a pleasant day in the field with a friendly group of birders. `As far as the birding went it was pretty decent and we ended with over 80 species... including Peregrine Falcon, American Golden-plover, Orange-crowned Warbler and over 300 Broad-winged Hawks. Just for fun we showed up black tie for the hike... This was the result.
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| - Peak birding attire |
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| - Quinten not posing at all |
That evening I spent exploring Point Pelee with Alessandra and had a gourmet dinner of squash soup and pasta on the cookstove. It was a fairly quiet evening for birds in the park, but a nice highlight was spending some quality time with a juvenile Piping Plover that had been hanging around the tip for a few days.
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| - Piping Plover |
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- Tip birding in style
 | - Alessandra photoing the plover
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On Sunday morning Alessandra lead a hike Point Pelee, so I tagged along and scanned the lake for rarities since the wind was promising. It had been raining for much of the night, and when we arrived at the Visitor center it was still quite miserable... which coupled with it being the last day of the convention meant that very few birders turned up... a total of three for the hike! Ironically it cleared up quite fast, and within half an hour the rain was over, and it actually turned into a warm & sunny day! Over 70 species total, including the continuing juvenile Piping Plover. There were also a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a late season Common Tern at the tip, and a late Canada Warbler at Sparrow Field.
Around noon a Brant was found by Steve Charbonneau at Erieau, conveniently just as the hike was wrapping up. In an hour we were over scanning the bay at Erieau, where a small goose with an all-dark neck was hunkered down with a flock of Canadas. #344! Basically, on the way home too, so it wasn't even an out of the way chase.
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| - Brant |
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| - Brant scanning |
As soon as we returned back to Guelph, Michael McAllister had the nerve to find a Red Phalarope at Pelee... Too late in the day to drive back too.... Grrrr.... How it goes sometimes though!
Ontario Yearlist @ Setpember 27th - 344
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