Early May Migrants

Things have been slow to show up so far this spring, and I can only anticipate things won't be exactly hurrying to get here by the looks of the weather forecast! Nevertheless, I have gotten out every day for at least a couple hours to see what is out and about.

The first couple days of May were a bit disappointing to say the least. A few new things came in here and there, but for the most part it was quiet. May 2nd especially!

Yellow Warbler

A few hawks were moving through on the first and second.

Broad-winged Hawk

Red-tailed Hawks

Some of the local species posed for photos. Its getting to that time of year where we're seeing baby waterfowl again.

Red-winged Blackbird

Canada Geese

Mallard

Turkey Vulture

I've found a screech-owl that seems to be hanging around. It offered a decent photo op.

The Virginia Rails I first found a couple weeks ago are still hanging around. They've been coming out in the open more, but that doesn't mean they are easy to photograph (especially in the low light conditions of early in the morning).

Vroom

May 3rd finally saw some "good" movement, and was my first day I hit 60 species in a morning in my neighborhood this year. Hopefully that result will be duplicated several more times this May!

Savannah Sparrow

There was a slightly early Lincoln's Sparrow, which was fun to see.

I had a couple more Great Black-backed Gulls fly overhead.

I FINALLY saw my first of year Palm Warblers on the third as well. Took long enough!

This morning things weren't looking great, with temperatures below zero first thing. Despite this, I went out early. I am sure glad I did! It wasn't crazy with new songbird migrants, but I did manage six warbler species (Nashville, Black-throated Green, Yellow-rumped, Yellow, Palm, and Common Yellowthroat).

Yellow-rumped "Myrtle" Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Baltimore Orioles and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have arrived within the last few days. I saw my first Ruby-throated Hummingbird a couple days ago as well.

Baltimore Oriole

Sparrows are coming through, mostly White-throateds, but more and more White-crowneds have been showing up as well.

White-crowned Sparrow

Perhaps the biggest highlight was the good migration of Common Loons. I tallied a grand total of 299! I only fell one short of 300!!

Another highlight was getting to watch a Bald Eagle pursue an Osprey that had caught a large catfish. American Crows were also in hot pursuit.

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully some more birds coming our way!

Some More Birds and Toads

This morning I went back out to the nieghbourhood to see what was up.

At my first stop, my impression at first was that there were far fewer birds than yesterday. But after nearly an hour of looking, things started to look up, with several new migrants popping up, including Black-and-white Warblers, Pine Warbler, Eastern Towhees, many more White-throated Sparrows, a couple Hermit Thrushes, a Wood Thrush, and lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Nice to see some movement!

At my next stop, I was quite pleased to find more warblers, including all the aforementioned species and a Black-throated Green Warbler. A couple Blue-headed Vireos popped up, and so did an early Warbling Vireo. The trend of Hermit Thrushes and White-throated Sparrows continued. I was also quite pleased to find an Eastern Screech-owl, my second for the neighbourhood.

It started to rain quite heavily while I was out. I put up with it for about an hour, but eventually I decided to head home.

This evening I went back out for a short walk around some of my favourite haunts. I was pleased to finally see my first Field Sparrow of the year, as well as a White-crowned Sparrow. I managed to turn up the Virginia Rail, which I missed in the morning. There were lots of Amerocan Toads mating, and their calls were deafening!

Just before it got dark, I went to try and see the American Bittern which has been hanging around. It was there upon my arrival.

Looks like a lot of rain moving through the northeast tonight, so may put a damper on migration. Nevertheless, I seem to have a lot of time on my hands these days, so I'll be back out there! Things are heating up!

Elgin Excursions

Since getting back from my trip up north, I have made a couple jaunts down to Elgin county.

Last Thursday, I went to Port Stanley in hopes of finding the reported Black Vultures, as I have never seen one actually in Ontario. I have seen the ones in Niagara on the American side from Canada, but I took them off my Ontario list awhile back since it'd be easy enough just to see them in the province.

When I arrived, the fog was quite low, and it was looking grim, but on my second pass through the town, I found a gathering of vultures sitting in a tree, and with them was the target bird.

Today, I had Eurasian Wigeon on the mind, so I decided to check out the Aylmer Sewage Lagoons. No dice on a Eurasian though...will have to keep looking!

When I first arrived, there was no waterfowl visible. Thankfully, it seemed that they were all just hunkered down in the furthest cell. They were disturbed by my presence but soon settled down again.

Oh yeah, saw this Coyote.

There was a good assortment of waterfowl to sort through. Nothing rare, but plenty of Common Mergansers, Ring-necked Ducks, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, and Redhead. There were lesser numbers of American Wigeon, Gadwall, Hooded Merganser, Ruddy Duck, Canvasback, and Northern Shoveler, to name a few.

Common Merganser

American Wigeon

Redhead

Gadwall

Lesser Scaup

There were a few Great Blue Herons.

A few Ring-billed Gulls were flying around, so they seem to be migrating back. A few Bonaparte's Gulls as well.

From what I have heard, the Tundra Swans moved through quite quickly. There were a few stragglers.

Some Horned Larks landed closeby. This one was in a plumage I don't see too often.

Best birds were a couple of Trumpeter Swans. This is a species that is still quite uncommon in the southwest of the province away from the GTA (though those birds are a whole other matter). They are probably overlooked though.

Onward with Spring...

Bonus: I found a nice Eastern Screech-Owl in my neighborhood a couple weeks ago. Here is a photo.