A Mouse-Gray Coloured Bird at Pelee and a New Book

 The last few days have been uneventful with dismal weather and very few birds to see.  (looks like a quiet winter!).  Today, Sunday, was the most dismal with fog and later rain.  But I did get a highlight at Point Pelee to brighten things up.

Point Pelee National Park was closed all this past week for deer herd management, but opened back up on Saturday.  Paul Pratt's group managed to spot a Townsend's Solitaire at De Laurier yesterday.  Obviously it was the continuing bird that was found back on November 20 at that location.

With nothing else to do today, I made my way through the fog to Point Pelee and first stopped at De Laurier.  I lurked around the parking lot and homestead area for some time, and even walked the trail without detecting the subject thrush.

After walking the trail, I stood just into the start of the trail at the north end.  I heard a high-pitched whistle which I instantly recognized as the call of a Townsend's Solitaire.  I changed my position and found the bird atop at tree along the driveway.  Lighting was poor and I did not get satisfactory photos, but mission accomplished!

I moved on and checked out the Tip and Sparrow Field area.  It was too foggy to see any distance, and birds were scarce.

Horned Grebe in fog

I then walked the cemetery and cactus field area before moving on.

I thought one more try for the solitaire was in order.  Upon arrival, the said thrush was right at the parking lot!  It was eating hackberries and cedar berries, but came down right in front of me at one point.

This time, I got decent photos!

Point Pelee has had several records of Townsend's Solitaire, mainly in the cold months.  Several are in the De Laurier area, which is quite ideally suited with berry trees and the open area.  There are at least eight other records in the park, and this was my third for the park.  (First was in the middle of May, 2002).

Later, I stopped by Hillman Marsh for a short walk, but did not see much.  The dense fog did not help matters!

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Recently, a new book was published on North American Flycatchers.  This volume was the second in the series covering Empidonax (or "empids") and Peewees.  With the recent event at Rondeau, I had to order one!  It came Friday evening.

The book looks very simple, but is actually packed full of information on each species; everything you want to know.  Each species is shown, with descriptions, range maps and sonograms.  As well, comparisons are made to similar-looking species.

This has come in handy with the recent Western Flycatcher at Rondeau.  The Rondeau bird fits Western to a 'T' when one checks out the features covered in this book.  There is no doubt we had a Western Flycatcher at Rondeau in my opinion!

More Holiday Weekend Birding

Sunday was a decent day for birds at Rondeau Park.  There was a good influx of various warblers such as Tennessee, Canada, Wilson's and Mourning, as well as various flycatchers.  The holiday weekend in May often sees a good showing of flycatchers, especially Willow, Alder, Acadian and more of the others.  Interestingly, I did not find any Acadian, despite looking in the appropriate spots.  Hopefully more are to come in.

Eastern Kingbird

I did a long walk from maintenance area down Rondeau Road, across Bennett and back up Harrison.  I found a good variety of warblers including several Canada and Wilson's.
I heard that south point trail was good, so I headed there next.  It was slow going due to the deep water, but worth the effort.  Perhaps two dozen species of warblers were seen, plus lots of flycatchers.  Alders and Willows were calling, and more Leasts were in.  However, I never came across my favourite, the Olive-sided.  Other birders reported it though. ( I did finally find one at Peers Wetland in the evening!).

Indigo Bunting

After many hours in the park, I headed west along the lake shore hoping to see some Whimbrel.  The holiday weekend always seems to be the peak time for them.  After a brief stop at Wheatley Harbour where there were no Whimbrel, I moved over to Hillman Marsh shorebird cell.  Mostly Dunlin were in, but 4 Short-billed Dowitchers, some Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers and a single of both yellowlegs rounded out the shorebirds.
Perhaps just as I was leaving, a Stilt Sandpiper came in, going by the reports.  This species is rare in spring migration in our area.

I stopped by Wheatley Harbour once more and lucked out with Whimbrel.  Far to the east I spotted a flock coming in.

It circled a few times, landed on the beach, circled again, landed again, and took off.

Whimbrel often seem to be nervous and in a hurry during spring migration.

This flock was difficult to count, but I thought there were 58.  Interestingly, Deryl Nethercott reported the same number at Erieau less than two hours previous.  That flock headed west, so likely it was the same group!

Today I headed back to Rondeau for a more leisurely birding time.  The park had very few people--unprecedented for the Victoria Day holiday.  The closure of the campground, likely the first in its history, cut down on the number of people in the park.  Birders loved this situation!

Warbler of Canada

I started on south point first thing.  I had the trail to myself.  It was obvious that there were fewer birds today, but that is expected at this point.  The migrants will move very quickly at this time of the month.

Blackpoll Warbler female

There was good variety and I ended up with about 21 species of warblers.

Cape May Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

I went as far as the "washout" area where there has been severe erosion over the past few years.  The trail used to be way out in the lake here!

Layers of Time

There were still lots of Swainson's Thrushes.  I had close to 40 today.  It has been a banner year for them in migration.

Later, I checked out maintenance area, then Bennett.
I walked the maintenance loop "extension", a trail we used to do often many years ago.

A few birds were back in, including several Canada Warblers.

On the way home, I stopped by Blenheim Lagoons.  Water was high in the sprinklers, but there were lots of small shorebirds on the pipes.

Perhaps over 300 birds were present, the bulk of which were Dunlin, with some Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers and at least 4 White-rumped.

A male Wilson's Phalarope was in the back.

There will still be some birds moving through in the next ten days, but the bulk of them have gone north.

Rondeau Remnants

Holiday Heydey at Rondeau

Sunrise at Rondeau yesterday

Yesterday and especially today saw a big influx of vireos and flycatchers.  Today especially it was evident as many types of flycatchers were all over and vireos, mainly the Philly type, were everywhere at Rondeau.
The weather was quite pleasant along the lake this weekend, but farther inland it was almost unbearably hot! The weather this month certainly has been wacky, as last week it was unbearably cold!  Too many east winds too.

However it was a joy to be out looking for birds today.  There were lots of birds to look at and it was even better than yesterday.  Steve Charbonneau and I cleaned up on all the regular flycatchers this morning, both migrant and resident.  Several Yellow-bellied were seen and some Alder up near maintenance were calling.
I decided on a hunch that we better check spicebush trail for Acadian.  Sure enough the same one from last year was calling in the same area.  It had that odd call, not your typical Acadian call, that gave it away.  A second one was nearby as well.
We did get a look at an Olive-sided atop a dead tree also.  It was not calling unfortunately, but it was obvious what it was.

"Quick-Three-Beers!"

A good variety of warblers was around yesterday and today with lots of Magnolia, Blackburnian, American Redstart, Chestnut-sided, etc.  A number of Yellow-rumped are still hanging around too.  There was no shortage of warblers today as well.  Several spots in the park were  excellent for viewing.

crappy photo of a Philly Vireo

The last couple of days saw an influx of Blackpoll and Mourning Warblers.  To be expected at this time, but a sign things are coming to an end.

female Blackpoll

Mourning in the Morning

Yesterday afternoon I decided to walk out the south beach.  Hardly a thing was on the lake!

Rondeau Marsh

I did see a Sandhill Crane flying over the marsh, but not much else.  At one point I found a few shorebirds that included a couple of Short-billed Dowitchers among others. In the distance were a few Whimbrel.  Eight species total.

There were a couple of Philadelphia Vireos way out the beach on my walk.  The woody areas (very little left due to severe erosian) quite often hold passerines and it is interesting what we find out there.  A couple of times we have come across Prothonotary Warblers for example.

On spicebush trail today we were intrigued by a Pileated Woodpecker.

This afternoon I stopped at Blenheim Lagoons.  Nothing new really, but lots of shorebirds have been in the sprinklers lately.  I met up with Mike Nelson there and we looked over the lot.  Three Ruddy Turnstones were of interest.  Only two Wilson's Phalaropes today.

Managed to get a good photo of a Savannah Sparrow...

Yellow-billed Cuckoo from yesterday....