Home from Pelee

Due to a huge stack of papers and projects to do I cut my Pelee trip short a day. It was still a decent couple of days and I had a few highlights. Don't expect any photos or anything for a few days.

I'm pretty tired so I may forgot one or two highlights but here goes.

March 20

Ridgetown Lagoons 

-14 (13 white, 1 blue) Snow Geese

-Glaucous Gull in a nearby field

checked out a lot of the other usual places on the way down (Blenheim, Tilbury, Wheatley harbour, etc) with nothing crazy being seen

Point Pelee 

-the weather was a definite highlight - it felt like late April! 

-lots of birds! Kinglets (all GCKI) were more than abundant. 

-good numbers of Tree Swallows, Horned Grebes, Eastern Phoebes, sparrows, etc

-Chipping, Field, and Fox Sparrows at West Beach

-2 migrant Hermit Thrushes - I think Alan said these would be record early spring migrants for Pelee but could be wrong. He also had some independently

-1 Tufted Titmouse singing south of the VC - record early spring migrant for Pelee

-1 Spring Azure (ok, not a bird). This is the first March record for Point Pelee

March 21

-1 Vesper Sparrow singing in the onion fields

-2 flyover American Pipits

-1 Marsh Wren singing at the marsh boardwalk - perhaps record early for Pelee if its a spring migrant?

- more of the same from yesterday (Hermit Thrush, Chippies, phoebes, etc)

-a TON of Blanding's Turtle in my secret little spot

and this. Photo taken with my phone so not the best quality. Oh, and its not my car.

NOT a preferred parking spot.

So there you have it! I finished with about 80 species for the 2 days, which isn't a bad total considering it IS March 21 and I spent a lot of time looking for herps, lying in the sun, and driving to McDonald's to use their wifi to do some assignments! I had a few record early things, as expected with this ridiculous weather, but not the species I predicted. I had 5 year birds, those being Chipping Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Marsh Wren, Winter Wren, and Hermit Thrush.

 From a Big Year perspective, the trip was a complete disaster because the only new birds I saw are ones that I will see dozens of times this year. But from a real life perspective it was a complete success because the weather was perfect, there were a lot of birds and herps to see, it was relaxing, and I got to dodge school once more (mostly).  Off to the real world for a few days now.