'Burg Birder: Rondeau and Point Pelee and more "Audubon's" Yellow-rumped Warblers

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Rondeau and Point Pelee and more "Audubon's" Yellow-rumped Warblers

With nice weather finally upon us, I was anxious to get out and about this weekend. No doubt many birds are sailing right on through with the clear nights and suitable weather. Perhaps that was the case at Rondeau on Saturday as I did not see a single warbler in six hours!
There were other birds to look at as sparrows are building in numbers, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets are more evident.
I walked with Steve Charbonneau the first few hours.

Barn Swallow at marsh tower

Horny Grebe

Hermit Thrushes are becoming plentiful and other thrushes will soon arrive.

The warm weather has drawn out butterflies. I saw my first Spring Azure yesterday behind Rondeau's maintenance compound. It was not too co-operative though!

Wildflowers are starting to pop up and this Bloodroot was near the Azure.

More sparrows were in.

chippie

One of 5 Savannah Sparrows

I headed home after six hours and arrived to see this photo on my email.

photo by Sharon Nethercott

Sharon and Deryl Nethercott found an "Audubon's" Yellow-rumped at Sarnia along Front Street opposite the Bay area!
Interestingly, a similar bird was found at Point Pelee as well.

Saturday evening was the Lambton Wildlife annual dinner at Camlachie, so I headed up that way. I stopped at Wawanosh Wetlands to get my Yellow-rumped fix for the day. I found four right away!
Guest speaker at the LWI dinner was Jean Iron. She talked about the Arctic and Iceland and Greenland.

Sunday I planned to go to Point Pelee. Things got a bit mixed up as a running event was held from the VC to the Tip. Not to knock the worthwhile cause, but this is at least the fourth time my plans have been altered! There is a small window of opportunity of times that I can get to Point Pelee, so it can be frustrating.

However, I met up with Jeremy Hatt and Marianne Reid and we checked out Woodland Trail, walked up West beach trail, into Tilden's Woods, up to Black Willow and down to White Pine. A large number of Ruby-crowned Kinglets were around, but not as many as the previous day.

We saw several Yellow-rumped Warblers, but none with a yellow throat. Along the way, we got word that Steve Pike refound the "Audubon's" at the Tip.

Lots of ducks were off the west side towards the Tip, including all three scoters.

I went off on my own after Jeremy and Marianne left, and decided to check out the Sanctuary area while much of the crowd dispersed. More kinglets and Hermit Thrushes. As I got close to the north end of Sanctuary, I caught site of a Northern Parula (male of course). It was obvious in the brief sighting, but it flew into the sun and south and I lost sight of it. I did not relocate it, but while looking I did hear it sing once.
Certainly a neat sighting at this date considering that Yellow-rumped and Pine are just arriving. My earliest sighting of a parula is 18 April 2010 at Rondeau's spicebush trail. I was with Jim Burk at the time.

I got word from Dwayne Murphy that he was looking at the "Audubon's" Yellow-rumped, so I thought I would head down. The road was not yet open so I walked down west beach trail. I actually met Dwayne as he was walking back. I arrived at the specified location, and could hear the call note repeatedly. The note is distinct from the "Myrtle" Yellow-rumped. It took some time to locate the bird, but there it was.