Birding May 12-15

I spent the last few days birding from Rondeau Park to Point Pelee Park.  With this wacky weather lately, I managed to dodge the worst of it.
Wednesday May 12 was good at Rondeau.  At the end of the day, my total species count was 125.  I was rather surprised as I was not trying to do a Big Day.  And, that was only within the park boundary!  There were some blatant misses, but I saw a good variety.

Blackburnian Warbler (very plentiful!)

After checking out south point trail, I headed up to take a look at the Blue Grosbeak.  You do not get those every year, so why not?  Apparently this is actually a female, after seeing it for real.  The two females I have seen previously were all uniform brown.  Must be due to age.

Blue Grosbeak

Warblers were fewer than on Sunday, but I picked up the first Mourning of the year.  I also had two Orange-crowned (which seem to be plentiful this spring).  Lots of Black-throated Green Warblers were all over.

Blanding's Turtle

One of my goals was to walk out Marsh trail in the evening.  I did fairly well under a nice clear-sky evening.  It had cleared up, despite the forecast.  Obviously the forecast was wrong again.  Surprisingly, I had no rails or Whip-Poor-Wills or Sandhill Cranes.  I did however, get Green and Black-crowned Night-Heron as well as American Bittern (2).

Green Heron 

I counted at least 8 Sedge Wrens and four Clay-colored Sparrows. 

Two Clay-colored Sparrows at Dusk

Turns out Clay-colored are very plentiful this year!  I had two others on South Point Trail in the afternoon. More to come!
White-crowned Sparrows were around by the dozens.
Ducks included Greater Scaup, Red-breasted and Common Merganser, Wood and Mallard.

Next morning I did a bit of birding before the rain hit. Yet again, the strong easterly winds kicked in.  I headed out early and sat at Erieau pier for an hour.  Lots of gulls and terns were flying around.  They kept coming in.  There was a total of 3 Little Gulls.  In the oddity department, a leucistic Bonaparte's Gull made an appearance!
It was time to head to Point Pelee and by the time I got to Wheatley, the rain stopped.  However around Hillman, there was a torrential downpour.  It was brief, and by the time I got into the park, it started to clear up.  It was a very nice afternoon and evening.  The weather forecast was wrong again!  (Had to mention that).
I camped with the Lambton Wildlife group. We tried for Whip-Poor-Wills in the evening, but were unsuccessful.  Where are they??

It rained most of the night, but stopped by 05:00h and fog rolled in.  Perfect!!  It was a fabulous day in the park for birding with birds everywhere.  There was a fallout of sorts, but not like the "old days".  Many birds are becoming fewer and fewer, folks.
We got the first tram to the Tip and spent all morning in that area.  It was too good to leave!  Highlight was a first year male Kirtland's Warbler.  It had been discovered earlier, but then disappeared for a bit.  We were all standing in one spot looking for it, then Andrew Keaveney and I heard it start singing and we found it again.  Great views of this rare bird!  Unfortunately I did not bring my camera for the morning as it was so damp and foggy.  Too bad, as I would have had some nice photos after the sun came out.  Some birds were nice and low.
We encountered another Clay-colored Sparrow north of Post Woods.
I saw several Orange-crowned Warblers throughout the day. 

Least Bittern!

Late in the day I decided to walk West Beach Trail from West Beach Parking Lot up to Sleepy Hollow.  There were a few birds along the trail, but a surprise awaited me.  I flushed up a Least Bittern just south of Black Willow.  This happens on occasion when they are in migration it seems.  It happened so quickly, I did not get a good photo.
On my return walk, I had a brief but definitive Marianne sighting at De Laurier!

The night was very clear and I knew most of the birds would head out.  There were still lots of birds in the park the next morning, but a far cry from the previous day.  Some Sanderlings were added to the year list at the Tip.  A Clay-colored Sparrow was there, and I encountered another by the old concession stand area.

On the way home, I stopped at Hillman Marsh to look at a few shorebirds.  They were unsettled and flying around....lots of Black-bellied Plover, one Turnstone, one dowitcher species and some Dunlin.

I ended up with at least 157 species for this outing.  It was nice to meet many birding friends!