Saturday, April 28, 2012

Then There Were Two


Headed down to Rondeau in this typical weekend weather.  Hardly a migrant bird to be found!  A week from now there should be a flood of birds. (but we said that last week).
On the way in I heard a Wood Thrush (FOY) singing, but not much else.  I walked the entire south point trail (8 km) and came up with 10 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 1 Common Yellowthroat, 4 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 10 White-throated Sparrows and perhaps 6 Hermit Thrushes.  Also a snipe.  Pretty sad for this time of year.
Near maintenance there were a couple of Black-throated Green, one Nashville, one Black-and-
White and a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers. That's it.  Nothing in between!

I went down to the McArthur's place to look for the Yellow-throated Warbler.  It finally came in after a while.  I went closer to get some photos.....but wait......there are two of them!  (didn't get a shot of both together though).




Since the sexes are rather similar and I am not sure if this a mated pair.  I would suspect it is since last week one bird was observed carrying nesting material and acting territorial.
different bird from above--female?--less colour
(photo by Josh R. Bouman)

I am not sure about last year's bird(s) but there were two hanging around for a while.  Perhaps one was scouting for the following year! There is not a nesting record for Yellow-throated Warbler in Ontario as far as I know, so it is something to look into.

Blenheim Lagoons had a number of common shorebirds, mostly Dunlin.  Likely 350 Dunlin.  Steve Charbonneau and I watched a Pergrine chasing birds for while.  Interesting to observe!


Rusty Blackbird

No comments:

Post a Comment