An Early Influx

 Sunday looked promising for a fallout of migrants with the warm southerly winds finally kicking in.  Even the bird radar looked quite impressive.  Indeed, it turned out to be a wonderful day to look for spring migrants along Lake Erie.

I was down to Rondeau quite early Sunday morning in anticipation of some good birds.  We started at south point trail, east.

Warblers were not overly abundant, but a good variety was tallied by late morning.  It was some other passerines that actually took the show.

Activity was best closer to the lakeshore it seemed, and we soon found some flycatchers, with some personal early dates I might add!

Steve and I got on a flycatcher that seemed a bit different.  We chased it around a bit taking careful notes.  Although it did not vocalize, all the boxes were checked for Acadian.  Very early for one and probably record early for here!  We often do not look for them until the second week of May.  It did not co-operate for a photo though.

Soon after, Dolan spotted a Great-crested Flycatcher in the tree tops.  Another early date!  It too did not want to be photographed.

Could be record early here as well!

We soon found several Least Flycatchers as well.

The star of the morning for us was a Summer Tanager!  It appeared to be an female with a reddish tone.  Some do look like this.

Probably record early for Rondeau, but I do not have the data.

Several first-of-year warblers were tallied, as well as thrushes and sparrows.

There was a sighting of a Worm-eating Warbler farther down south point west, so we walked that trail to the lake next. 

This turned out to be thrush alley, with numerous Swainson's Thrushes, Hermit Thrushes, a Veery and a few Wood Thrushes.  Swainson's were  exceptionally numerous for this date.

We never turned up the Worm-eating, but it was an enjoyable walk sorting through the numerous birds (mostly kinglets!), some first of year.

Orioles, Indigo Buntings and hummingirds also came in, along with Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.  We did not see a Baltimore, but a couple of Orchard were around.  These too were a few days earlier than usual.

Point Pelee also had stellar birding, but I was quite happy with the day at Rondeau Park.

Butterflies were out too.  We saw five species.

American Painted-Lady

It is Starting

The spring rush is just beginning.  Some good birds are being reported.
Today started out miserable again--rain and cold temps.  A far cry from yesterday.  It is now quite nice, but starting at Rondeau this morning was depressing.  Not a good day for photography.
The only thing new were two Pine Warblers on South Point Trail.
Just after seeing absolutely nothing on Tulip Tree Trail, I got a call from Irene about a Neotropic Cormorant at Wheatley.  Having nothing to lose, I headed over there with Jim Burk in about 40 minutes and saw it right away.
I missed the last one there due to my usual bad luck, so it was nice to get a life bird for a change.

I headed into Pelee for a bit and picked up (new for the year) a Great-crested Flycatcher on west beach trail.  A Palm Warbler was at West Beach parking lot, also new for the year.

There were birds all the way to the Tip, but not many.  I thought I heard a Worm-eating Warbler at one point, but it only sang once.  I waited but never heard it again nor saw it.
I came across Brandon Holden (finder of the Neotropic Cormorant) and we walked back the west beach trail.  Nothing of note on the way back.
I also checked out the Willets near Hillman Marsh.  Too far away for me to determine if they were really the Western type.
A snowy Egret was also reported at Pelee.  All I found were some Great Egrets.  Two, here in a field were with a Great Blue Heron.  One egret appeared to be a tad smaller.

Lots of wet spots in fields, but the birds are just not here in numbers yet.  Some yellowlegs and Dunlin were near Wallaceburg.

Not a stellar day for photography!