Downburst At Rondeau

 Well, that did not last long!  We are back to brisk north winds again.

This past Friday looked promising for good birding at Rondeau.  And it was.  However, in the wee hours of the morning, a strong storm hit Chatham-Kent.  Worst of it was in the south part of the county.  Apparently it was deemed a downburst with high winds.

Around 02:00, I awoke with rain pounding on the roof.  Eventually it got worse with windy conditions and hail as well as lots of lightning.  This happens, but it was worse farther south.

I got up early and headed to Rondeau Park and passed the gate just before 06:00, not realizing the extent of the storm.  Just past the campground entrance, a tree, pole (with transformer) and wires were down blocking the road.

Along with a couple of birding friends, we weaved our way through north of the campground and down Lakeshore Road.  The road was blocked north of Bennett, so we managed to get down Rondeau Road dodging tree limbs and branches.  It was fine south of Gardiner.

We heard lots of birds along the way, then started walking at south point trail.  It was alive with birds!

In fact, it was the best we have seen in years.

There was not much in the way of photo opportunities, but some decent finds included two Cerulean Warblers, Hooded Warblers, Golden-winged Warbler, and Yellow-breasted Chat among others.

best I could do for the Golden-winged!

Prothonotary Warbler

Singing Hooded Warbler

At the end of Harrison, our first Acadian Flycatcher of the spring was calling for pizza!

We ended up spending over 3.5h on south point trail, which was quite enjoyable for a change.

Afterwards, we split up to divide and conquer.

I ended up with 115 species in the park by the time I left, including some first-of-year birds.  A total of five Hooded Warblers were in my tally.  There were lots of birds everywhere in the park.

I did not realize until later that the park had been closed for safety reasons just after we entered early in the morning.  Glad I made it to the park to enjoy the fallout.

Saturday I stayed fairly close to home.  In the morning, I helped out with trail maintenance at Wallaceburg Pawpaw Woods on the east side of town.  This is a unique little woodlot that was spared from housing development a long time ago. 

True to its name, it contains several Pawpaw trees, as well as other species such as Black Walnut.

Sunday, I headed down to Hillman Marsh and Point Pelee.  I did fairly well with birds, including a Neotropic Cormorant that was at the marsh for a few days.

A couple of Wilson's Phalaropes were in the shorebird cell as a highlight in the shorebird department. 

Point Pelee was fairly good, but I was too late to see the Marbled Godwits and Red Knot at the Tip.  An immature Little Gull was the only highlight on the Tip during my time.

As always, it was a nice social time, meeting several people I know.

Today, I headed down to Rondeau and took the long walk down South point trail west, and out the south beach.

At the end of the main trail, this Virginia Opossum greeted me.

It is a long but interesting walk out the beach.

There were lots of shorebirds, but nothing rare.  This is the time of year we see large number of shorebirds, so the potential is always there.

Least Sandpiper

Sanderling

Semipalmated Plover

The bulk of the shorebirds were Dunlin.

There were not many passing birds, but some Black Terns went by at one point.

My eyes are sometimes looking down.  As usual, I look for mussels.  One of the rarer ones included this Eastern Pondmussel.  Its unique shape was obvious to me.

The following is a scene along the trail where the old Dillon Trail came out.  Not that anyone else would recognize it!

Afterwards, I went to Blenheim lagoons.  Several shorebirds were there, but not some of the ones from the previous day.

Short-billed Dowitchers

The prettiest one was a Wilson's Phalarope.

Late May is still an exciting time of year!