Kilally Meadows Birding (May 19, 2020)

Its cold and snowy outside, so time to reminisce about more colourful times... 

I never got around to blogging about it apparently, but last spring (May 19, 2020), I had one of my best birding days in the city of London. I birded the Kilally Meadows ESA in North London, with hopes of coming across one of the reported Golden-winged Warblers. As it would turn out, I saw everything but! 

I arrived at the park shortly before 6:30am. After locking up my bike, I began taking in the sights and sounds of spring. 

The warblers stole the show of course. I ended up with 20 species, a total that is comparable to Rondeau or Point Pelee! Conditions overnight had resulted in large numbers of birds, and I easily had close to 400 individuals. I tried to remain conservative in my counting, so I undoubtfully missed a few! The most numerous species were Yellow Warbler, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Blackburnian Warbler, and Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Canada Warbler

Northern Parula

Magnolia Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

Thrushes made a decent showing. A few Veery and Swainson's, as well as four Gray-cheeked.

Veery

Swainson's Thrush

Gray-cheeked Thrush

I didn't have a ton of flycatchers, but my first Olive-sided Flycatcher of the year was nice to see.

Eastern Phoebe

There was an abundance of Carolina Wrens, as there were plenty of fledged young. I came up with 17 individuals.

Many Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were around, with some beginning to build nests

In total, I spent nearly 6 hours birding, and tallied 76 species. Although just a few days prior I had recorded 80 species in the Rondeau campground in about an hour's time, I think that my total is awfully good for the location! You can see the eBird checklist here.

Only a few more months!