Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Recent May Birding

It has been an interesting spring with the up and down weather and movements of birds.  Sunday I headed back to Rondeau.  It was a nice day, but slow for finding birds.  Rondeau's rarity, the White-winged Dove was still making its rounds, as it was today, May 11.

A couple of male Hooded Warblers were near the 'pony barn' creating some attraction among birders.



Late day saw quite an effort to find any birds.



Monday dawned nicely with a good influx of new migrants.  Palm Warblers were plentiful, and we found a "Yellow" Palm Warbler on south point trail.  However, it was very early in the morning and lighting was no good for a photo opportunity.  The regular Palms were all over the park.



Sparrow also came in, and a couple of Clay-colored Sparrows were at the start of marsh trail--a usual spot.



A Grasshopper Sparrow was also not far down from the start of the trail.

An obliging Yellow-billed Cuckoo was near the start of the marsh trail as well.  It has no concern of our presence.



After lunch, I headed towards Pelee.  A stop at Wheatley Harbour beach revealed 6 Willets.



I then stopped at Hillman Marsh shorebird cell for a peak, but nothing of note was in.  The "afternoon shift" was just getting off.

First stop within Point Pelee park was just inside the gate where a Kirtland's Warbler was moving along the beach.  It was found earlier by Mike Bouman.



After that, I walked with Mike down to Sanctuary where the trails were littered with Palm Warblers and Common Yellowthroats.  Other warblers and vireos were mixed in to some degree.



Tuesday saw undesirable weather.  Mike and I walked the seasonal trails north of White Pine.  A good variety of warblers was present, among other birds, but numbers were low.



While on my own, I spotted a Golden-winged Warbler just past the south end of Dunes parking lot.  This general area was better than others.  At one point I heard a Prairie Warbler sing, but could not get a look at it high in a Pine.  I also had an Orange-crowned at Dunes.

Scarlet T.

I left around noon due to the rain and lack of birds.

Late in the day it cleared a bit and I checked out Peers Wetland, Wallaceburg.  A good variety of birds was present, including another "Yellow" Palm Warbler.  I usually do not have a camera Peers!

Today, Wednesday started out windy and cloudy, but turned out to be a nice sunny day.  There were certainly some new birds in with a good variety.  I walked with Steve Charbonneau and Keith Burk.



A male Prairie Warbler was a very nice find at one point, but it was very active.  We noted the first Blackpoll Warbler of the season at maintenance.
Early afternoon was surprisingly decent on south point trail.  Our first White-eyed Vireo was along the trail.  This species is becoming more scarce as time goes one it seems.



Along the shoreline, our Red-throated Loon was in close.  Perhaps this bird is not entirely well.  We first saw the bird a week ago.


6 comments:

  1. Blake, a couple of months ago, the birdtrax author mentioned that the google server that hosted the birdtrax files was no longer going to host birdtrax. The problem can be fixed by just editing one line of html in your gadget. See the "Birdtrax" update instructions on this page: http://www.accubirder.com/gadgets.php - Dwayne

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dwayne!
      I did not get the memo earlier. It was easy to change.

      Delete
  2. Awesome shots, I especially like the Yellow-billed Cuckoo! Although that Kirtlands is pretty great too! Nice work Blake.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks, Nate. The Kirtland's is always nice to see.

      Delete
  3. Great job catching the Kirtlands Blake! I missed it by just 10 minutes that day. Beautiful Vireo photo too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I was not sure that I would see the bird, but I made an effort anyway and lucked out!

      Delete