Long weekend birding update - Saturday

Friday night I slept in my car in the Port Stanley area. Normally I sleep great in my car, but not so on Friday night. It was the potent combination of hot temperatures, mosquitoes, and my ragweed allergies, but eventually a thunder storm in the area caused some moderately strong rain for about 15 minutes, just enough to cool the air to a reasonable sleeping temperature. By sunrise I was on the go again, this time to check some spots between Port Stanley and Point Pelee.

I scanned the beaches and breakwall at Port Stanley harbour, hoping for a Brown Pelican but finding instead some cormorants. Exciting stuff! There were a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls to make things interesting.

The Port Stanley lagoons were next, and they held many of the same shorebirds as the previous evening. I did pick out a Sora feeding on the edge of a mudflat with the yellowlegs - not something you see every day (or ever). 

Ridgetown lagoons:

-11 species of shorebirds

-10 juvenile Stilt Sandpipers were the most I've seen at this location before

-2 continuing juvenile Red-necked Phalaropes were the other highlight

Blenheim lagoons:

-a Blake Mann sighting!

-unfortunately, no interesting birds

-lots of habitat in the near pond - check it out before they close the lagoons sometime in September!

Erieau pier:

-lots of gulls, but nothing interesting

Wheatley harbour:

-see comments under "Erieau pier"

After that largely unproductive morning, I arrived in Point Pelee National Park and immediately went to the picnic/trail known as Blue Heron, a location where Kory Renaud had discovered a Prothonotary Warbler earlier in the day. Along with Dwayne M, Jeremy Bensette, Blake Mann, and Kory, I saw a nice variety of warblers - 16 species or so - but no Prothonotary. However, as a group of us were eating lunch that Kory had provided (thanks Kory!!), Blake picked out the Prothon with a few warblers high up a tree. Eventually we all got on it, though this was the best photo I could manage.

Prothonotary Warbler - Point Pelee N.P.

I spent a few minutes photographing a Wilson's Warbler that kept returning to the same shrub.

Wilson's Warbler - Point Pelee N.P.

Jumping warbler.

Wilson's Warbler - Point Pelee N.P.

I really like this photo for some reason. I know it is not what is conventionally considered a great shot, but I like how it shows the bird in typical habitat.

Wilson's Warbler - Point Pelee N.P.

One more of Wilson:

Wilson's Warbler - Point Pelee N.P.

After hiking DeLaurier trail, several of the group took off, and Kory and I enjoyed a few hours out in his canoe in the Pelee marsh. I'll cover that in the next post, but here is a sneak peak!