Long Point Adventure

Yesterday I took a little trip down to the Long Point area. We started in Old Cut, where it was apparently a slow day for banding. The only birds I saw banded were Baltimore Oriole, Gray Catbird, Veery, and an American Redstart. Bird life around the station was present, but not abundant. A Cape May was the only warbler other than the redstart.

Cape May

There was a family of Green Herons in a Blue Spruce near the Old Cut marsh.

Olive-sided Flycatcher was one of the better birds.

I caught and tagged my first Monarch of the season...although she looks a bit weathered, I am being optimistic. It was great to practice the procedure of tagging.

We spent a couple hours at Old Cut, then went to Big Creek NWA where we found a vocal Virginia Rail.

After lunch, we went to the Port Rowan Wetlands. The target here was Common Gallinule (formally known as Common Moorhen), which called as soon as we got there. Pied-billed Grebes and Blue-winged Teal were also present.

Pied-billed Grebe

After about an hour of searching I finally found a group of about 10 gallinules. Many juveniles were with them.

A Least Bittern caught me off guard when it flushed from the side of the wetland. I managed to get one blurry photo as it disappeared into the reeds.

Hahn Marsh was somewhat of a disappointment, however I still managed to find 17 Sandhill Cranes.

I caught this little Eastern Gartersnake at Hahn Marsh as well...quite feisty!

Another visit to Old Cut was due to try for the King Rail. Despite waiting (and waiting, and waiting), it never did vocalize. The 15,000+ swallows made up for it, however. The majority were Bank Swallows, but Barn, Tree, Northern Rough-winged, and Purple Martin were mixed in as well.

At one point a fairly large group of Great Egrets flew over. On eBird, anything over 6 is flagged!

The Green Heron nestlings were equally entertaining.

Despite missing the King Rail, I was still happy with what I saw. It was a great trip (despite being bitten by a Dog Tick)!

In and Around Wallaceburg

Yesterday, my family headed to my cousin's optometry practice in Wallaceburg, and I tagged along as there were a few birding places I wanted to check out.

The day started off nice, but started spitting a little bit after dropping off my entry form for the Western Fair photo contest. Soon on the 401, it was looking like this:

When we emerged from the downpour, it was like nothing ever happened.

They have no idea what they're driving into...

At least that was the case until we reached another pocket:

But, like before, we drove a few kilometers and it looked all sunny again.

Here's the rain pocket from above...thankfully heading away from us.

Soon we arrived at Peers Wetland. The Burg' Birder recently wrote a post on this location, which can be viewed here.

A few Silver-spotted Skippers were flying around.

I saw a lot of Monarchs in the area, and the wetland had four or five. I never get tired of seeing this endangered species.

Eastern-tailed Blue, Red-spotted Purple, mating Pearl Crescents, Clouded Sulphurs, and a Red Admiral completed the butterfly bunch.

Red-spotted Purple

Pearl Cresents

Eastern Pondhawks, Green Darners, Widow Skimmers, and Ruby Meadowhawks were some of the dragonflies observed. Damsels included some bluets I didn't even try to ID and a couple Fragile Forktails.

Pondhawk Female

Widow Skimmer Female

Ruby Meadowhawk Male

As for birds, there were a number of Morning Doves.

Three Green Herons were flying around.

I finally saw a Black-crowned Night-heron! I did not get any photos as I just had a few seconds to view it in my bins before it flew into thick vegetation. BCNH was the target bird of the trip.

A couple of Northern Flickers successfully managed to scare the crap out of me by exploding out of the brush.

Here's the eBird checklist.

After Peers, it was into Wallaceburg (which is holding it's annual WAMBO this weekend). Birding along the river consisted of Ring-billed Gulls, Rock Pigeons, and a headless owl.

It was soon time for lunch.

After consuming a chicken BURGer in The Burg' (see what I did there?), we headed down to Angler Line.

Well...target birds are a hit-and-miss. That was the case for the Yellow-headed Blackbirds. I'm afraid this was the closest I could get.

We walked the Mitchell's Bay south nature trail. Song Sparrows, Canada Geese, Killdeer, herons and Swallows were just some of the birds seen. View the eBird checklist here.

Killdeer

Tree Swallow

Barn Swallow in foreground, and Tree in Background

Green Heron (almost all my sightings are silhouettes!)

Great Egret on left, and Great Blue Heron on right.

I saw my first Bald Eagle since May :)

Pickerel Weed and Duck Potato could be found growing in the marshy areas.

My first Jewelweed flower of the year was found near the above plants as well. These flowers are really attractive to hummingbirds, and last year at Hawk Cliff we saw at least four in a stand of these beautiful flowers.

I couldn't help but photograph this.

The Tulip Tree that's no more!

One more quick stop at the north nature trail didn't yield the Common Gallinules I was hoping for, but I did find a few hundred swallows and a Great Horned Owl.

We'll be heading back to Wallaceburg way soon to pick-up some eyeglasses, so maybe we'll check in on some of these spots again!