Halloween Birding

I decided to go to Point Pelee today, as Rondeau was somewhat disappointing yesterday and I did not foresee much change.  Ran into some terribly dense ice fog this morning south of Wallaceburg which lasted until almost Pain Court.  Must have come off Lake St. Clair.  Good thing it ended as I was tempted to just sit at Pain Court!

Lots of stuff was at the Tip first thing, but it dropped off very quickly.  A good number of
Bonaparte's Gulls, but that was it.  A few Horned Grebes and Common Loons were swimming around, but no rarities.  Things were desperate enough we tried to make one Horned into a Western!
The only warbler was a Blackpoll at the Tip.  (Yellow-rumped farther up the park).

I was with Marianne and Alan, so we went up to De Laurier to watch for flyovers.  More Pine
Siskins and Purple Finches.  Lots of Cedar Waxwings today.

Nothing much really, but later I went back down to West Beach Trail to look for...whatever.
I managed to find six species of butterflies--ones you would expect this time of year.  Buckeye was most numerous (~10).
A few Giant Green Darners were flying plus one Autumn (?) Meadowhawk dragonfly.




Along the way I watched for hawks, and they seemed to have started to move.  There were quite a few, mostly Red-tailed plus Red-shouldered, Cooper's and Sharp-shinned.  I even saw one juv Golden Eagle.

I decided to go back to De Laurier since there were hawks.  More Red-tailed plus a Rough-legged.  I also went down to the old maintenance area and looked for sparrows.  While there I had a Northern Goshawk (imm.) fly over among other things.  Eastern Bluebirds were around plus Blue-headed Vireo.

On the way home, I stopped at Tilbury Lagoon just for curiosity.  Just ducks and grebes (1 Horned and 3 Pied-billed) plus 2 Great Blue Herons.

 Near the mouth of Baptiste Creek there was a Great Egret.  Most have left as it was the first one I have seen in a while.

It is going to be warm for a few days, so not much movement with regards to birds. Perhaps some rare flycatcher will pop up this week.  We need some good birds down this way rather than at Hamilton or Ottawa!! (not for lack of trying).