Pelee Passage

Point Pelee was on the agenda today.  It was a clear and calm day, unusual for a Saturday, so it was an excellent day for being out birdwatching.

A mixed flock of blackbirds has been hanging out along Point Pelee Drive near Freddy's, so I headed there on my way in.  I took concession C road and remarkably, the flock just flew in as I approached the end of the road back of Freddy's!  It is a good mixed flock with at least one Brewer's Blackbird.

Approaching the Gate

The Tip parking lot is rather small for some reason....

After that I headed into the park and met up with Kory Renaud at Sparrow Field.  A number of wintering birds were there including Yellow-rumped Warblers, Hermit Thrushes, two Fox Sparrows, a Northern Flicker and a Purple Finch among others.

One of many Hermits

Of course, lots of American Robins are throughout the park.
As one would expect, there is a lot of snow built up along the west side.  Might be June before it all melts!

Attempting to walk the west side would be an adventure!

Lots of White-throated Sparrows were along the road throughout the park.  A few American Tree Sparrows were feeding as well.

One bat is still clinging to the Tip washroom wall.  I was tempted to poke it to see if it was frozen!

We then headed to the Wayne and Shuster Trail were a number of similar birds were feeding.

Hardy Yellow-rumped Warbler

I went ahead to the end where there are several kilometres of open water.  Lake Erie is not entirely frozen!

Meanwhile, Kory met up with Jeremy Bensette and Josh Vandermeulen and we then headed down the trail to check out the ducks.  There were several, including Long-tailed.  Several Bald Eagles were out and about and four went over providing stellar photo opportunities.

Kory and I headed up to Blue Heron to have lunch in the picnic shelter.  A few robins were there as well.
A red morph Screech-owl was taking advantage of the rare sunlight!  I know Rick the owl whisperer saw it too!

I headed out and noted the blackbird flock again just south of Freddy's.
I saw a Red-shouldered Hawk along Mersea Road 2 just east of the bridge.  It was a juvenile and likely the one that has been around all winter.
Near Wheatley, I caught up with the 'afternoon shift'. (Afterall it was after lunch).

The drive home was pleasant, but I did not see much of interest.  Not many hawks around this winter...I only saw one dark morph Rough-legged west of Grande Pointe.  It was about as dark as they come!

Tomorrow I will check Sarnia where there is apparently an insane number of Long-tailed Ducks in the river.  There are also several grebes.  These birds were undoubtedly forced out of the lake due to the ice.  Many of the ducks usually tend to stay out on the lake, but numbers have been building all winter.  Many ducks in the river are having a tough time getting food.  Some have been dying.  Perhaps the Canvasback on the road yesterday was a weak one.

Bittersweet

Duck Clouds

Today seemed too predictable--few birds!  (Even though I probably saw over 100,000 birds).  The weather was just too nice.  I went to Pelee instead of Rondeau today.  Probably a better choice as reports from Rondeau were essentially entitled "Birdless".

I arrived at the Tip after being a bit delayed by dense fog in the Wallaceburg area, but that made no difference.  Marianne Reid, Bob Cermak and Mike Tate were staking out the Tip upon my arrival. 

Many Red-breasted Mergansers were moving around (35,000+??).  I only saw two Common Loons and no apparent Pacific Loon.

Merganser Mess

Just after Marianne left for parts unknown, I spotted an adult Little Gull coming down the west side.  Been a while since I have seen one of those.  They have been quite scarce this year.

On the walk back, I caught a glimpse of the red morph Screech-owl.

I lingered longer than the others then walked up the west side trail a bit.  A huge number of scaup (+others) has been hanging around.  It is estimated around 60,000 with the bulk being Greater.  At one point they all got up for an impressive sight.  I only had the big lens on, so you can see only a small fraction of them!

Some ducks were in close north of the Serengetti tree.

Scoters and Scaups

(Hey Josh, there's a Tufted Duck in there somewhere!)

Very few things flying over today, but I did hear a couple of Common Redpolls and some siskins.

I then headed up to the VC and met up with Marianne where we checked out the group campground.  Campers were absent of course, but so were the birds!  I think we heard a Chickadee (Pelee Chickadee that is).  

We then walked behind the VC and heard a Northern Cardinal.  Wow!

Lone TV

My next stop was De Laurier and the old maintenance field.  A few birds were back there including a Yellow-rumped Warbler and various sparrows.  Another redpoll flyover !  I saw one Green Darner dragonfly there.

The red morph Screech-owl at the De Laurier location was not visible.  However last Thursday Mike Bouman was lucky enough to get a shot of it.

My next stop was the south end of NW Beach parking lot.  In fact I walked the whole area up into Sanctuary.  As I walked over, I heard what was perhaps a Red Crossbill fly over.  It was not the typical flight call, but I could not pin it to any other bird.  

A few birds around plus about 5 Green Darners.

Highlight was a very fresh-looking Red Admiral.  Getting late!  It was the only butterfly of the day, but later I found out Marianne had a Common Buckeye in the same spot!

I checked out the mud at Hillman, but the shorebirds were near the bridge on Mersea Rd. 2.  There were lots of Killdeer and Dunlin.  Lighting was bad,, but that is all I made out.

Up the road I checked out 4 Long-eared Owls roosting in the cedars.  They have been there in past years as well.

I stopped at Mitchell's Bay on the way home.  Lots of gulls but no shorebirds.  On Friday, a friend photographed a Greater Yellowlegs (with bad leg) there.