Point Pelee Big Day! (Part 1)

On Saturday May 13th, I embarked on one of my most daring birding endeavours that I've ever done so far in my birding career...a big day in the Point Pelee Birding Area. My mission was to complete the 100 species challenge in less than a day. I had not completed the challenge in years past, so I was determined to make this the year that I succeeded. My hard work paid off, and by 10:30 pm, I had reached a total of 107 species. Mission complete!

It all started at 1:15 am on Saturday, when the bleeping of my alarm woke me up. We spent the next hour packing and getting everything in place before taking off around 2:30. For the next two and a half hours we drove (almost) non-stop to Point Pelee. Although it is the smallest national park in Canada, it probably is one of the most biodiverse ones!

Upon arrival, we quickly added American Robin, Chipping Sparrow (surprisingly the only one of the day), Common Yellowthroat, and Red-winged Blackbird. I also heard a flyover Ovenbird, which turned out to be the 150th species on my Weekend Big Year. At the VC, White-crowned Sparrow, American Woodcock, Common Grackles, Tree Swallow and Yellow Warblers were picked up. Around this point we had just over a dozen species...and it was only 5:20 am!

I didn't go to the tip first thing, which as it turned out wasn't a bad decision, as the tip was pretty quiet that morning, except for a couple good birds. Instead, I opted for Tilden's. It was a good decision, as I found some decent birds there. Although I missed the Least Bittern (which would have been a lifer), I did find a Peregrine Falcon, which was my only one for the day.

And hey, the sunrise wasn't too bad from the east beach.

I also turned up a Lincoln's Sparrow within a group of White-crowned Sparrows.

Warblers on Tilden's first thing included Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-rumped, Bay-breasted, Northern Parula, Nashville, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Cape May, Palm, American Redstart, and Blackburnian. Not a bad start to the day!

Yellow

Common Yellowthroat

Blackburnian

Yellow-rumped

Quite a few other birds could be found as well on Tilden's.

Baltimore Oriole

Wood Thrush

After Tilden's, it was off to Woodland Nature Trail. My main target there was Prothonotary Warbler, which would not only be a good bird for the park, but also a lifer.

Bird life was abundant along the trail.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Least Flycatcher

Gray Catbird

Yellow Warblers

As I neared bridge A, I started to see why the Prothonotary liked this part of the trail. The sloughs (pronounced "slew") were filled with more water than usual, creating the perfect habitat for Prothonotary Warblers.

I was a bit discouraged that there was nothing where it was supposed to be, so I kept going up the trail to see if the bird would appear. I was beginning to lose hope, but then I spotted a male singing in a tree! Nemesis bird no more!

The female and another male eventually showed up, so the chances of breeding are high. However, the one nest box the Prothonotarys seemed to like and were using had been apparently taken over by a Tree Swallow pair.

The female wasn't happy, and was repeatedly diving at and scolding the swallows.

After waiting awhile, one male finally came close enough for some decent photos. I'm quite happy with them, and within the span of no more than 2 minutes I used up a sixth of my memory card snapping photos of this exciting lifer.

After tearing myself away from the Prothonotary Warblers, I continued down the trail.

Nashville Warbler

American Robins

White-crowned Sparrow

At bridge F, the Tree Swallows had taken over another Prothonotary box which I was told was trying to be used by it's intended occupant. Of all the boxes, the swallows had to choose those ones!

I heard another singing male, which brought the count up to 4...3 males and 1 female. 

After the WNT, I decided to head down Shuster. There were many birders there when I got there looking for a Golden-winged Warbler, but it seemed that no one was able to find it!

I caught up with some birders whom I met at the unsuccessful Little Blue Heron twitch, and I hung out with them for the next couple hours. It was with this group that I was told some depressing news...there was a freaking WILLOW PTARMIGAN in TORONTO of all places!!!! I was also told it was in full winter plumage and giving POINT BLANK views. I'm sure that day was the first time in history that birders wished they were in Toronto instead of Point Pelee in the middle of May.

Just to show how crazy this is, here is the range map of the bird. The red dot is roughly the bird's location. Quite far off course!

It turned out that it was the Tommy Thompson Bird Festival, so there was a conspiracy theory going around that the park planted the ptarmigan to give Point Pelee a run for it's money.

We heard that the Golden-winged and a Hooded Warbler had been found on the seasonal trail, so that is where we went. However, they were nowhere to be seen.

Continuing down the trail, I added a few more birds to the list, including FOY Red-eyed Vireo and Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Gray Catbird

Red-headed Woodpecker

Blackburnian Warbler

Soon we ran into a birder who informed us that the Hooded and Golden-winged had not been seen on the seasonal trail we had just walked, but the one that was another 100 meters up the trail, so that is where we ended up.

But....we were told that the Hooded and Golden-winged had been lost! At least we got to see a Hairy Woodpecker, which was a park first for members of the group, and my third or fourth for Point Pelee. Hairys, along with Pileateds, are surprisingly rare in the park.

We heard reports of Orange-crowned and Tennessee Warblers along the boardwalk, so we went to check it out. In almost no time flat we got on the birds. Orange-crowned Warblers are one of the harder warblers to come across in spring.

Orange-crowned Warbler

While we were soaking up the warblers mentioned above, we heard that the Hooded and Golden-winged were being viewed on the trail of which we had just walked less then 5 minutes ago. The birder informed us that as we spoke, they were being seen. We wasted no time getting to the location, where there were probably already 30 people.

After some difficultly, we located both warblers...FOY Hooded and lifer Golden-winged.

Hooded Warbler

I also found a first of trip Raccoon :-)

Well, this concludes part one of this epic birding saga. Part two will cover all the birdy (and scaly) happenings after consuming my egg salad sandwich.

Bruce Birding Weekend: Part One

On May 20-22, I went on a Nature London field trip with my father up to the Bruce Peninsula. I have so much to talk about, that I decided to split the story into 2 blog posts. Part one will highlight Friday Evening and Saturday up to lunch, while part two will be about Saturday afternoon until our departure late Sunday afternoon. I saw a total of 116 bird species, and all my life birds will be in bold print. Hope you enjoy!

Friday was a lot of driving. What was supposed to be a 4 hour trip turned out to be closer to 6! The best birds on the way up were a pair of Sandhill Cranes near Wiarton.

As soon as we got to our campsite, I instantly saw and heard Blackburnian, Northern Parula, Black-and-white, and Magnolia Warblers. American Redstart was the last warbler species I saw before departing.

Northern Parula

Blackburnian

American Redstart

Magnolia

We met up with the group and the leader briefed us, I left it to my dad to get the info, and began to wander around. I noticed movement in a cedar, and bam! The first Cape May Warbler of the trip was observed. A few others managed to see this pretty bird.

The Sunset was beautiful.

After the briefing, we got into the car and drove over to Little Cove road to listen for the American Woodcocks. By this point, it was too dark for photos. When we pulled up, Ovenbirds were singing. A White-throated Sparrow gave one of the most beautiful oh sweet Canada Canada Canada I've ever heard. Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Common Yellowthroat was observed as well.

The woodcocks started peenting, and soon enough there were four of them along the short stretch of road. While enjoying the aerial display of our target bird, someone called out "Whip-poor-wills!" I tuned out of Woodcock Radio, and into the Whip-poor-will talk show. Finally, it was faint, but I heard the Eastern Whip-poor-will. Even better, it wasn't only one...but three! Since this bird is s threatened species in both Ontario and Canada, hearing all of them was pretty cool. As we moved up the road toward our cars, their song grew much louder. It was around 9:45 pm when we were talking about what the plan was tomorrow morning when an American Bittern flew over. There was a moment of confusion when this silhouette went overhead, as I said "Green Heron" (it sounded like one), and another said "Night Heron". But, as the bins went up, bittern was agreed upon.

To top the night off, just a minute or two after the bittern, a pack of Eastern Coyotes started making a racket. This is apparently the first time they've had Coyotes (or Whip-poor-wills!) on this trip. We decided to meet at 7:00 am the next day for a hike.

That night the campground was quite quiet, both human-wise and bird-wise. The only recognizable bird that night was a woodcock.

The next morning, we woke at around 5:00 am to the sound of  various Warblers, Robins and a lone Veery (species of thrush). We walked down to the beach around 5:30 am to catch the sunrise. Nothing much except for a couple Mallards. A lone Common Loon was spotted way out on the lake (bay?). I didn't have the camera on me as I had just given to my dad. I always seem to give him the camera right before a good shot! In Point Pelee, I'd just given him the camera, and an Ovenbird flies right in front of me and perched! Anyway, the sunrise was nice (Photo Credit: Dad)

A quick stop at Light House Point yielded a Great Blue Heron, Double-crested Cormorants, and a few American Redstarts.

GB Heron

DC Cormorant

3...2...1...

Blast off!

This sign was a nice thing to see at 6:30 in the morning!

We met up for a hike, and the first warbler I saw was a male Chestnut-sided. The second bird I found was a male Blackburnian Warbler, which a few members of the group managed to see.

Chestnut-sided

Blackburnian

Starting down the road, we saw may Barn Swallows and Blue Jays. The first warbler that gave good views was a Cape May.

The next warbler to do the same was American Redstart. American Redstart became the joke of the weekend, as it was the most common warbler by far. It was easy to get over three dozen in a single hike! I pointed out that most days in Pelee we say "It's just a yellow", while here we were all saying "It's just a redstart". "It's a Redstart" was the Bruce Birding Weekend 2016 motto!

Most of the Redstarts seen would have moved further north in search of breeding territory. In Ontario, this species northern limit is around James Bay.

A Snowshoe Hare allowed us to get quite close, making for great photos.

Bird-wise, warblers were everywhere (but not as many as the next day, highlighted in part 2!). Chestnut-sided, Black-and-white, Yellow-rumped, and Palm, and American Redstart were seen the most. Ovenbird was heard, and I got my eyes on one Bay-breasted Warbler. Surprisingly, there was only one Yellow Warbler! Myself and one or two others saw it.

Female Cape May

Palm Warbler

Pine Siskins, the first of the trip, were seen along with a female Cape May.

Cape May

Pine Siskin

Afterword, we had breakfast. I walked around outside, and found the first two Common Terns of the trip. Solitary Sandpiper was also heard. I had no luck finding any other swallows with the barn, but I'm sure there were some tree or cliff in there somewhere. A single Eastern Kingbird was seen on top of a tree, but flew before others could see it.

Ring-billed Gull

Red-winged Blackbird

Eastern Kingbird

Barn Swallow

Next stop, Mermaid Cove. The first bird seen here was a Hermit Thrush. As we went along the trail, Yellow-rumped, Bay-breasted, Blackburnian, Redstart, Black-and-white, Black-throated Greenn, and Chestnut-sided Warblers were quite common. A Female Pine Warbler was seen for a couple seconds, then flew off.

Bay-breasted

Butter butt

Female Yellow-rumped

At the cove, a single male Mallard was swimming, and a few Common Mergansers flew over. I got bored, so I started to climb across the rocks, where I stumbled upon Spotted Sandpiper, Common Tern, and four Black-throated Blue Warblers. The group got to view the first two, but the Warblers didn't want to come out into the open (luckily, an adult male was seen later).

Common Tern

The way back was pretty quiet, until we hit this "hotspot". Four or Five species of warbler were seen here, including that male Black-throated blue, which in my opinion, was the best out of the others.

Black-throated Blue

Black-and-white Warbler

We then drove around the backroads. This kettle of raptors was quite nice. You might need to click on the image for a better view!

Turkey Vultures, Broad-winged, and Red-tailed Hawks

We stopped by a little marsh by the road side, where three of us heard some Common Loons. We tried for a Sora, but no luck.

We came to this park-type area, and walked into it. The first birds heard/seen were Common Yellowthroats, Redstarts, and Magnolia Warblers.

Common Yellowthroat

Redstart

I accidently flushed a Great Blue Heron before the rest of the group saw it, but made up for it by finding a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (only one all weekend). Baltimore Oriole was seen along with some Song Sparrows.

Baltimore Oriole

This Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) was quite pretty. It was only seen on two occasions that I can remember that weekend. Indian Paintbrush isn't too rare in Ontario, but it sure is uncommon.

Next up, and the last stop before lunch, was the Tobermory Landfill. There were a whole bunch of Herring Gulls, but we couldn't find any other species.

A couple Common Ravens and about a dozen American Crows were milling around.

Common Raven

We noticed a buteo (hawk) sitting in a tree, and after training almost every scope the group had (including mine), called it a Broad-winged Hawk.

Away form the garbage there were some other nice birds as well. Cedar Waxwings, Red-eyed Vireos, and Great-crested Flycatcher to name a few.

Waxwings

After the dump, we headed to lunch. I saw a Warbling Vireo and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which was first of the year (FOY). Other than that, the meal was fairly quiet.

As stated before, part one covers up until lunch, so this is it for now.

To read part two, click here.