Saturday, May 21, 2011

Sunny Rondeau

Well finally a nice day of weather.  Not a heck of a lot of birds though.  With the nice weather, birds will be motoring north quickly.  Some butterflies today too!  Birded with Steve Charbonneau and Jim Burk.
I tallied a total of 22 species of warblers today, but still no Cape May for this year.  How bizzarre not to have a Cape May by this date. 
Canada Warblers seem to be plentiful lately.
Blackpolls are increasing in numbers--a sure sign of late May. 
Mourning Warblers have not been plentiful though--I only saw one today.




Find the Mourning Warbler:








Lots of female warblers today.

Black-throated Blue

Scarlet Tanagers were all over, but no other types.  There was a report of the Western Tanager again, but it was basically bogus.  We checked SPT thoroughly this morning and even walked up Harrison to the V.C. and back the road.  Lots of Scarlets, but no Westerns.

Sparrows have thinned out, but a few White-crowned and White-throated still around.


There was not a lot of singing today for some reason.  Warblers and others were scattered around, but silently working the trees.
We spotted an Olive-sided Flycatcher off Bennett, just sitting there.  You would think it would be ordering three beers on this hot day!

Thrushes were in good numbers especially Swainson's. Gray-cheeked were around as well.



Blenheim S. L. has several shorebirds including 100+ Dunlin, 3 Short-billed Dowitchers, 2 Semipalmated Plovers, a few Least and a few Semipalmated Sandpipers.  The "Grippers" had a Wilson's Snipe which I did not detect.














Butterflies included Gray Hairstreak, Tiger Swallowtail, Monarch, and Black Swallowtail. 

Gray Hairstreak on Grey car

2 comments:

  1. Nice posting Blake. I haven't seen any Cape May this spring either. There must not have been many Spruce budworm outbreaks in the boreal forests last summer. I think I'm the only birder in Ontario that hasn't many Canada Warblers... where are they?

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  2. I'll trade you my umpteen Cape Mays for your one Mourning! :D

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