Beautiful Weather, but......

Sunrise off the Tip October 9

I spent Saturday and Sunday at Point Pelee, camping overnight with a great group of people from Michigan.  I got involved through Steve Pike, and these people have been doing this for many years in both spring and fall.  One of the people there was Kathy Watson, a former park naturalist now living in Calgary.

Just my luck, there were practically no birds!  The weather was way too nice and no winds lately to move anything.  Even the butterflies had vacated the place!  Almost anyways.  In any event I had a good time.

Mornings always started at the Tip to watch the sunrise.

colours were beautiful this morning!

There was a fair bit of activity yesterday first thing, but nothing unusual.  Lots of Horned Grebes went by (20+), and Bonaparte's Gulls.
Warblers and vireos were absent yesterday (I only saw one Yellow-rumped and one Blackpoll!!).  However, lots of hawks were moving, especially Sharp-shinned.






I checked for butterflies and found very few.  The only skipper was a Silver-spotted.  I met Bob Yukich and his wife Karen several times, and they found it terribly slow as well.  I decided to go up to Shoeless Joe's field to find Common-checkered Skippers and Fiery Skippers.
At least they were numerous.  Also present were two singles of Black Swallowtails, which are getting late in this season.

Common Checkered-Skipper

Fiery Skipper at Shoeless Joe's

Early evening we could hear Great-horned and Screech Owls calling near the campground.  Good conversations were held around the evening campfire.  Sarah Rupert even stopped by to say hello.  She mentioned the Snowy Egret (adult) up at Lighthouse Cove that she and Steve Kolbe saw in the afternoon.

A beautiful sunrise greeted us at the Tip this morning. Best bird was a Tufted Titmouse that appeared and sat in a tree for a while. A titmouse is rather rare in Point Pelee for those who do not know!

I wandered off and checked for butterflies later.  I managed to find a Gray Hairstreak and a Wild Indigo Duskywing.  The duskywing is fairly late, as there is not a record after mid October to my knowledge.

Wild Indigo Duskywing

Gray Hairstreak

After a quick lunch, I headed up to north of Comber where the shorebirds were reported.  It is next to a cannin g factory and the field has been flooded.  It was an incredible sight to behold with well over 1000 shorebirds.  Most were Golden Plover, but others mixed in including Hudsonian Godwits.
I motored on to Lighthouse Cove in hopes of finding a good heron.  Immediately upon arrival I saw a smallish heron (Great Egret next to it for comparison) that I thought was a Little Blue.  (Last Wednesday a Little Blue was reported!).  I was sure of it, but something just bothered me about it.

"The" heron

The bill was grayish and more thin and pointy than what you would see in Little Blue.  As well the yellow lores were obvious.  Legs were all greenish yellow, and in certain positions, the feet were a bit more yellow.  On second thought, I realized it was a juv Snowy.

After doing some research at home and hearing from a couple of people, it was undoubtedly a fresh juvenile Snowy Egret.  Indeed a colour combination I have not seen before!
I have seen several Snowy Egrets in the past (found four myself!), but not like this.  It has been quite a few years since I have even seen a Snowy!

Almost forgot.... I encountered a young Fox Snake on the road yesterday in the park.  I pulled it off the road since it was certain to get smushed.  Park staff were asking motorists to go only 20 km/h this weekend in hopes of making people aware of moving Fox Snakes.  BTW, Kathy Watson studied Fox Snakes in PPNP so she was jealous I saw one!