As I mentioned in my last post I'm trying to catch myself up, and with May being my busiest month so far I'm breaking it out into 3 different posts, 1 for Pelee which I posted a couple of days ago, this one running down the rest of May, and a 3rd dedicated to the Great Canadian Birdathon. This rundown includes 2 lifers and 2 great experiences I'd had this last May, hope you enjoy.
We’re gonna start off with the 2 life birds. Hepatic Tanager and American Avocet.
Hepatic Tanager - May 14th
This was a crazy cool bird! And honestly super easy. The bird was found earlier in the day when I was banding and what a find too, first Ontario record! I drove all the way from Ruthven to Shell Park.
I originally wasn’t sure where to look for this bird. I’d never been to the back side of Shell Park before. Thankfully this bird, being a mega, was highly coveted by a lot of birders. I and a friend of mine were there looking along a soccer field where the bird had been seen last. A small bush was along the backside. Immediately after getting there, we saw a few birders inside the forest. There were some small trails leading back. We watched towards the top of the tree as Tanagers are tree-top birds. We searched for a few minutes when a bird flew over us, it was confirmed it was the Tanager!
I quickly rushed over to where the bird was flying to and low and behold there it was, this very gray bird with an orangey face and vent. I was astonished! What a bird! Likely the rarest bird I’d ever encountered. Lots of people got on that bird, anyone who could spare the time, and gas money to do so. A spectacular feeling for a spectacular bird.
American Avocet - May 31st
This was a bird I’d always dreamed of seeing one day. The long beautiful bill, rusty head and striking black wings. Anyone who knows me knows that shorebirds are among my favourite birds. I have to see a rare shorebird when they show up, and this one happened to be right in my 5MR too!
I heard about it hours beforehand while at work. Thankfully being at the end of May I had lots of time to go see it. The only problem is traffic. Getting from Hagersville to Burlington is far enough but then there was a crazy amount of traffic along the 403, that I wasn’t aware of… This put me back by 20 minutes, yes it was that bad.
Upon arriving at LaSalle Park, where the bird had been for the last how many hours, I ran down to the beach, excited but also nervous that I was going to miss this beauty! Luckily a lot of birders had reassured me that the bird was still there. I walked up and there it was… standing amongst swans and geese, spectacular. It’s one of the largest shorebirds I’ve ever seen, but it had a sort of elegance and grace to the way it waded in the shallow water. Then it did something I wasn’t expecting at all, it started to swim!
Now, I’d seen Phalaropes before and Lesser Yellowlegs swimming so it wasn’t a weird concept to me, I just didn’t even think that Avocets would! Swimming away I was taken aback by this very interesting behaviour. It swam for a few minutes before coming back to land again. I took off my binoculars and laid down in the sand, eye level with this crazy bird and took some of my favourite pictures from 2022!
Now time to talk about a couple of more Notable sightings even for more common species.
Starting off strong with 2 different sightings of 1 species – Willet.
These large shorebirds are annual visitors of Ontario but typically I only see 1-2 a year. This year I saw 27, this included a self-found flock of 25!
The story behind the 25 is kind of short, I was walking along with my girlfriend in the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) along the marsh boardwalk towards the marsh lookout. I had been making this route for the last few weeks looking for rare dabblers like Eurasian Wigeon (with no luck, unfortunately). I saw a flock of birds in the distance flying towards the marsh but thought nothing of it, thought maybe they were some small gulls or something, but they were distant so I didn’t get a real good look. I scanned the marsh and just saw the usual; Green-winged Teal, Mallard, Wood Duck, Canada Goose, then the flock rounded the corner of Bull’s Point. Immediately I knew they were shorebirds, I got my bins on them and bright white wing patches, Willet!! I raised my camera and snapped a couple of photos, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… 25! This is by far the highest count I’ve ever had of Willet ever! This marked the first true rarity I’d found in my 5MR this year!
There was one other experience I’d had with Willet in May this year. I was heading out to go watch for Whimbrel at Bronte Beach (which I ended up seeing far out into the lake), and I honestly forgot about a bird that was being seen, but it was a welcome surprise so close! Willet is one of those birds that just do not care that you’re there at all. I sat and watched for Whimbrel intermittently taking pictures of the Willet and the crazy amount of Dunlin around as well! This wasn’t one of those storied encounters of Willet but just this spring I’d seen 27 Willet so it was a good time either way!
Warblers in a Weird Place
Another experience I can’t go without talking about was a day looking at warblers somewhere I would never have thought to look…Windermere Basin.
I was looking for something to do after banding that morning so I figured I’d go look for shorebirds and might as well check for some birds like Alder and Willow Flycatchers as well as they love the basin. I always start by walking the trail going around, it can bring in some good birds, including Great Black-backed Gull and Black-crowned Night-Heron, but this time was a weirder experience than normal. I was surrounded by thin trees and bushes, hearing Warbling Vireo and Yellow Warbler everywhere when I see a small black-and-white bird zip across the path in front of me, I get closer and there it was a male Blackpoll Warbler! These birds are always easier to find in the fall so I’m always happy to find them in the spring. After some pishing other warblers filed in; Magnolia, Bay-breasted, Chestnut-sided, Redstart, Tennessee, and even a Blue-winged! I had 10 species of warbler when I moved up a little path along the edge of the trees, I pished some more and out popped this gorgeous Canada Warbler! It sat on a branch and I’d managed to get the best looks and photos I’d ever gotten of this species! Turning back a little way I saw something skulking in the low brush, a little yellow bird with a black cap, Wilson’s Warbler! Holy crap I went 2 for 2 on Cardellina warblers in the place I’d least expect to see either of them!
There’s 1 other installment of my May rundown that will talk all about my Great Canadian Birdathon and all the cool experiences I had during that. I expect to get that out soon!
