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!

London CBC4Kids 2017

This past Saturday was the 4th annual Christmas Bird Count for Kids here in London. This is my third year participating, and my second year as a group leader.

I didn't take any pictures this time around, so I will be digging some out of the archive!

The group met at the Civic Garden Complex in Springbank Park for a quick presentation on the common birds of Springbank Park. Soon after, we were divided into groups, and headed out to find some birds!

Almost immediately, we found a group of Black-capped Chickadees and Golden-crowned Kinglets. The younger participants tried to hand feed them, but I guess the chickadees weren't hungry!

Flashback to when they were hungry!

Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Blue Jays kept us entertained with their non-stop calling and caching of food in the trees.

Waterfowl were hard to find, that is until we got to the duck pond! One of the participants took the time to count 134 Mallards!

On the way back, a highlight for the group was 5 singing Carolina Wrens.

Once we got back to the complex, we tallied up the group totals.

1. Canada Goose: 534
2. American Black Duck: 4
3. Mallard: 223
4. Common Merganser: 2
5. Red-tailed Hawk: 2
6. Bald Eagle: 0 (!)
7. Ring-billed Gull: 3
8. Downy Woodpecker: 2
9. Red-bellied Woodpecker: 8
10. Belted Kingfisher: 1
11. Blue Jay: 27
12. American Crow: 6
13. Black-capped Chickadee: 31
14. Red-breasted Nuthatch: 5
15. White-breasted Nuthatch: 2
16. Carolina Wren: 8
17. Golden-crowned Kinglet: 8
18. European Starling: 33
19. Northern Cardinal: 14
20. Song Sparrow: 1
21. American Tree Sparrow: 1
22. House Sparrow: 42
23. Dark-eyed Junco: 10
24. American Goldfinch: 18

TOTAL:

24 species

1040 individuals

My Group saw 18 species of the 24 species, which was one of the higher group tallies!

Overall, it was a "slow day", but I think that the participants really enjoyed it.

The "real" CBC season starts on the 16th! Let the madness begin!

 

To find a count near you, please check out this link!

Easter Weekend Nature: Photos

Here are some photos from the past few days...I'll get around to writing a full post soon.

Eastern Phoebe

Brown-headed Cowbirds

Spring Azure (lifer!)

Carolina Wren

Mallard

Cooper's Hawk

House Wren (early migrant)

Bloodroot

Mayapple

FOY sightings include Green Darner, Barn Swallow, and Brown Thrasher.