I can't believe I haven't wrote a post in MONTHS, so sorry to my followers haha!
I’m going to be writing a couple of posts to help catch myself up here. I’m going to start with my Spring Rundown, this post is going to be in a couple of phases since May was a busy month!
Phase 1: Noteworthy birds Point Pelee - 06-May to 09-May
Point Pelee in May is a must-do for birders and bird enthusiasts alike, when you can be out in one place for a day and possibly see 100+ species there just aren’t many places you can do that. So you can see why I would take the first weekend in May to go down there for 4 straight days.
Since this was MONTHS ago I’m only going to run down my favourites from the weekend.
06-May-22
My first day in Pelee was long, wet, and cold. I left my apartment at around 3 a.m. knowing I was going to get to the park just around sunrise. This was going to be a long day, knowing I would be out until almost sunset, but it was going to be a lot of fun with a lot of fun songbirds, especially warblers.
Upon arriving at the park the rain had just started, barely, but enough for me to put on my jacket. I step out of my car and immediately hear the peent of an American Woodcock calling from the woods just north of the Visitor Center. This was a great first bird for the weekend, though not a first of the year for me.
After waiting a while for the Tram to come back I birded the parking lot, adding 15 species before the sun even poked above the trees. Once at The Tip the birds hadn’t been all that crazy. The rain kind of keeping everything down, and not migrating. After getting back to the Visitor Center I trekked out into the trails just south of the Tram landing. Immediately picking out an American Redstart flitting in the trees close. I was on a mission though, to find a bright orange-yellow bird, Prothonotary Warbler. They are seen and breed in Point Pelee a lot and they tend to be not all that fearful of the birders around them, and man this was not a disappointment! Upon finding my first Prothonotary of the year it wasn’t just sitting 40-50 ft away belting out its loud booming song, it was quite literally hopping along the ground only feet from me! That, I was not prepared for and I managed the best photos I’ve ever taken of Prothonotary Warbler to date.
After nailing my first target I stumbled upon my other target for the first day. On the walk back to the car, still raining, a small bird was hopping along the ground right beside the trail, Hooded Warbler! These are another one of our bold birds that breed in the southern part of the province. While somewhat common in the Long Point area and certain places in the HSA, it’s always a bird I’m all in favour of seeing! This one was a gorgeous male, with a bold black hood and yellow mask it sure is a stunning bird!
Back at the Visitor Center, I caught wind of an LBJ (little brown job) that I always like to see in May, a Clay-coloured Sparrow. These little birds are always found with Chipping Sparrow, which can be confusing at times as at certain times of the year they are almost identical. Thankfully in spring, they are quite different looking from one another! This was the easiest “rare” bird I could find in the park. There were 2 individuals hanging out right beside a bathroom with a flock of 30-40 Chippings. Again, managed some great photos of the birds. They were fun to watch too, the slightest movement and they would spook up into the bushes beside the washroom, then back down in the dusty gravel, ah sparrows.
There is 1 bird I want to make a shoutout to that I actually never managed to find… Worm-eating Warbler. This skittish green-brown bird was one I managed to find myself a few years ago back home but have not seen since. After catching wind of the bird via Discord I sat for what felt like forever trying to locate it, along with a plethora of other birders. I would go back multiple times over the weekend and never managed to find it!!! It was frustrating as anything, but hey, that’s birding for you.
Not much else really happened that day but did manage a couple of FOYs:
180. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
181. American Redstart
182. Hooded Warbler
183. Prothonotary Warbler
184. Ovenbird
185. Baltimore Oriole
186. Clay-coloured Sparrow
187. Marsh Wren
188. Cliff Swallow
189. Black-throated Blue Warbler
190. Tennessee Warbler
While none of these birds are unexpected it was nice to manage to find them on the first day, especially with the rainy weather.
I ended the day seeing 72 species which is insanely low for Point Pelee.
07-May-22
This was it. My 25th birthday! While most people would be fired up to go to a club or go drinking, I was up early drinking coffee and rushing into my own party, birding!
The morning was so much nicer than yesterday. The sun was shining and a lot warmer. Again started at The Tip, but nothing really exciting came out of it. Where the excitement started on the Deslauriers Homestead Trails. Not self-found of course but there was a Yellow-breasted Chat. These genetically confusing birds are a yearly visitor to the province and are likely one of the loudest birds I’ve ever seen myself. We walked toward the reports and scoured the treeline for this bright but elusive bird. After a couple of minutes, it popped up on a branch close to the base of a tree. No photos of this bird, unfortunately too far away for my lens. This was the only real bird of note for the morning.
The next bird I went to find was an Eastern Whip-poor-will, these well-hidden nocturnal birds are quite common in the night in certain places in Southern Ontario but they’re still a bird you don’t want to miss in the daylight! You can always see where rare birds are in Pelee, there are always 20+ people watching the same bird. That was no different for this bird, I managed to see it but I decided not to get photos because of the lack of room for me to even get photos.
Now, we’re gonna go on about one of the two lifers from the day, the second year in a row with a life bird on my birthday! The first lifer was a Louisiana Waterthrush! This was a looooong overdue lifer for me. This was one I was honestly surprised I saw, most of them were gone by now. The bird was just in a little puddle just south of the Visitor Center, the bold white supercilium stood out immediately. I watched it for a few minutes before it tucked out of sight. No pictures of this one either because I was way too distracted at the moment.
The final lifer of the day was a distant Eared Grebe off of Point Pelee Drive. It had been hanging around for a couple of days but I still managed to get my scope on it. I did it, two lifers, 1 day!
FOYs for the day:
191. Indigo Bunting
192. Yellow-breasted Chat
193. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
194. Veery
195. Eastern Whip-poor-will
196. Chestnut-sided Warbler
197. Orange-crowned Warbler
198. Louisiana Waterthrush
199. Swainson’s Thrush
200. Red-headed Woodpecker
201. Eared Grebe
I ended the 7th of May with 95 species, so an uptick from yesterday!
08-May-22
Keeping on with the noteworthy birds segment I’m going to talk only about two birds here since it was overall a slow day on the 8th.
The first bird was reported along the Dunes in the park and it’s a bird I’ve seen two years in a row now, Prairie Warbler. Another regular visitor to Ontario it’s typically an overshoot migrant in the spring and they are very warblery in the sense they do not like to be out in the open too much and are always moving around. This was right in line with this bird. It was tucked back into a brushy area along a small path. The bird was very flighty and twitchy and kind of far again. And for a small yellow bird who would not sit still, cameras don’t really do a good job of focusing on them.
The second isn’t a rare bird in most of Ontario, I’ve seen a lot of them over my tenure as a birder, however, it is a good bird for Point Pelee, the Pileated Woodpecker. These massive woodpeckers are the largest in North America and honestly the second most uncommon of the big 7 woodpecker species we get in Southern Ontario, the easiest 2 being Red-bellied and Downy. I couldn’t believe they were as hard as they are in Pelee and they actually reported when they show up. Along the trail between The Tip and Visitor Center, it stood out to me immediately! This one I actually got photos of, not my best photos but still better ones of Pileateds, for such big birds, they quite camera shy!
FOYs for the 8th:
202. Prairie Warbler
203. Orchard Oriole
204. Ruddy Turnstone
205. Black-bellied Plover
I ended the 8th of May with another day of 95 species.
09-May-22
May 9th was an interesting day, my original plan was to go to Rondeau today but I was convinced by a couple of people I know to stay for at least part of the day.
I started again at The Tip, this time a little differently. I was watching something I’d never witnessed before, reverse migration off the tip of the park. Basically, watching birds move north to south rather than the typical south to north this time of year. This actually was interesting and it showed how truly terrible I am at vismig haha! It’s something I’ll need to work on, but we did manage a few new birds that were for my year including a beautiful Blackburnian Warbler and a nice Bobolink! Although whilst on my way back I got a couple of notifications, 1 was a Yellow-breasted Chat along the road in Pelee and the other was a Kirtland’s Warbler in Rondeau! I weighed my options and decided to go for the Warbler. Leaving Pelee behind for another year with 131 species over 3.25 days. I felt pretty good about it all in all!
Now, Rondeau, I’d only been there once before and so I kind of knew where to look for certain birds. I checked for the Kirtland with no luck, I don’t think anyone else got on the bird other than the original finder. I also missed out on Sedge Wren which I checked a couple of places for.
The only thing I actually got excited about was not a bird at all, it was a snake! Rondeau and Pelee are both known for their odd weather compared to most of the rest of Ontario, with crazy good Carolinian species including cacti and skinks, they also are home to Ribbon Snakes! This was probably not the way I expected to see my first Ribbon Snake either. I was walking along the sloughs looking for Prothonotary Warbler (which I did end up hearing) and this little noodle poked its head out from under the boardwalk. I crouched down and took a couple of photos, and low and behold, it was a Ribbon!
Beyond the snake, there really weren’t any real notable birds in Rondeau. Just the typical birds around, which makes the 9th kind of a boring day all-in-all.
FOYs for the 9th:
206. Blackburnian Warbler
207. Bobolink
208. Red-eyed Vireo
209. Scarlet Tanager
210.Least Sandpiper
The 9th of May was so slow, 70 species on the day. Which is a major down-tick from the last 2 days.
