Southwest Winds!

Birding at the Tip (photo by Steve T. Pike)

I ventured down to Point Pelee today to check out the Tip on southwest winds. The wind was quite strong more out of the WSW and almost west for a while. There was lots of activity, but once again, no rarities! There was the threat of rain (90%), but as usual, the weather forecast was wrong. It was sunny for quite a bit of the time and not a drop of rain!

Winds up to 60 km/h are forecast for Sunday! It was supposed to be about 40 km/h out of the west, so who knows anymore. NW winds at gale force are predicted for Monday. But again, who knows. Every time I look at the forecast, it is different. Today's forecast was dead wrong from what I saw!

I walked down the road to the Tip. Of note on the way was a late Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher.

Anyway, hundreds of Bonaparte's Gulls were flying down the west side of the Tip. Later on, the wind switched more west, and the gulls were flying down the east side!

Some Horned Grebes were around, and a lone Pied-billed Grebe was swimming on the east side near the Tip. At one point, a Peregrine Falcon showed up and checked out the grebe, but decided it was not worth touching.

When I arrived at the Tip, I checked out the gulls on the spit, and picked out a hybrid HerringXGreat Black-backed Gull. It stayed around for a while.

hybrid gull (not the one at Pelee!). The Pelee bird was slightly lighter in mantle colour and had a red spot on bill only.


Just before Steve Pike arrived, I saw three meadowlarks head out toward Pelee Island.
Ducks included hundreds of Red-breasted Mergansers, some Surf and Black Scoters, and scaup.

scaup pair

I walked back up the East Beach and joined Steve Pike near the end of Shuster Trail. There were quite a few birds, including Yellow-rumped Warblers, White-throated Sparrows, Juncos, Eastern Phoebes, and a couple of Eastern Bluebirds.
A large number of Robins were flying over the visitor centre.
At De Laurier, about ten Bluebirds were hanging around the parking lot with some sparrows, including Chipping, Tree, and White-crowned. At least three Phoebes were here as well.
Behind the Day's Inn, shorebirds were on the mud including many Dunlin, Greater Yellowlegs, and a couple of Long-billed Dowitchers.

Herring Gull at Wheatley