Rare flycatchers!! Pelee - May 11

I'm getting a little behind on postings and have a ton of new material, but for now here is the remainder of the posts from last weekend.

On May 11 I headed into the park with the Riley family and we took the train down to the tip. I only had a few hours in the morning to bird the park as I had a family get-together near St Catherine's in the afternoon. It was a warm and calm morning and the lake was as calm as glass at the tip. I don't think I have ever seen the lake that calm before.

The reverse migration was slow but steady, with small numbers of the usual birds (orioles, Indigo Buntings, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, American Goldfinches, Blue Jays, Cedar Waxwings, some warblers, etc) flying off the tip into the slowly developing south wind. A Long-tailed Duck in fine breeding plumage was nice to see as it flew by the tip heading west. Long-tailed Duck can be a tough bird on western Lake Erie and they are more regular in the autumn than the spring at Pelee. Every May, however, one or two are seen with the duck flocks and other individuals may occasionally fly by. 

We had a nice group of warblers near the tip as well, containing Bay-breasted, Wilson's, Blackburnian, Blackpoll, etc. Both a male Hooded Warbler and Blue-winged Warbler reversed off the tip.

The main highlight of the morning was a yellow bellied kingbird that flew overhead in a beeline for Ohio, called out by Cameron Cox of Tropical Birding. Brandon and I both got photos, and they seem to point to the bird being a Western Kingbird. I was pretty happy with this as it was a new Pelee bird for me (#295). The bird was high and tough to pick out in the blue sky so only a dozen or so birders got it. 

Western Kingbird - Point Pelee National Park

But the excitement wasn't over after the Western! About half an hour later - BAM! Scissor-tailed Flycatcher flopping on by, heading out over the lake! A stunning bird and one that I had dreamed about seeing at the Reverse Migration Watch. Luckily I had my camera ready and nailed off a series of photos. 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Point Pelee National Park

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Point Pelee National Park

Is this the same Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that was seen two days prior in the park? Considering it is a fairly rare bird it is easy to assume that it has to be the same bird. However, that bird was last seen flying off the tip at 6:00 PM two days prior. I think there is a pretty good chance that there are two birds involved, but who knows. I haven't really looked at the photos of the two birds closely enough to see if they are indeed different birds. 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Point Pelee National Park

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Point Pelee National Park

We continued watching from the tip for another hour or so but the flight seemed to have died down, so I took the train back to the Visitor's Centre and drove home. After spending countless hours watching the reverse migration over the past three springs, it was nice to get some killer birds!!

Pelee - afternoon of May 10

 I drove west along the shore of Lake Erie, arriving in the Pelee Circle around 1:30 PM. Just as I was passing Hillman Marsh I received an email about some American Avocets there, so I quickly pulled off the road and checked them out - quite stunning birds, actually! The distance was a little far for photos so I passed on taking heavily-cropped "record shots". American Avocet is a rarity in Ontario, though there are usually 5 to 15 reports a year. Nearly every spring a flock or two turn up at Hillman Marsh.

Dan and I ran into Chris Law and his girlfriend Amanda so the four of us parked at Dunes and began our walk to Northwest Beach. But first, some birders (I did not catch their names) pointed out a roosting Common Nighthawk in a tree above our vehicles. Cool! While we were watching it, a second Common Nighthawk flew by - weird to see in the middle of the day.

Common Nighthawk

We were pleasantly surprised to run into a/the Prairie Warbler south of Northwest Beach. Again, it flitted around near the ground only a few meters away.

Chris and Amanda took off, so Dan and I continued walking north, ending up past the north end of Sanctuary before looping back. From there we drove to the Visitor's Centre, walked down Shuster Trail to the East Beach, and walked south all the way to Sparrow Field. From here we walked north through the Woodland Nature Trail back to the Centre. We ran into very few birders - most of them were probably looking at a Prothonotary Warbler and the avocets at Hillman Marsh.

Common Snapping Turtle

Unfortunately the Yellow-throated Warbler which had entertained birders for much of the day was nowhere to be seen along the stretch of east beach, nor was the other Yellow-throated Warbler present in its usual spot on the Woodland Nature Trail. I have now walked that trail at least a half dozen times this spring and still haven't crossed paths with it! Birds were few and far between but we still ended up with over 80 species in the park that afternoon. A male Common Merganser sitting on the beach north of Sparrow Field was a bit of an odd site. Normally Common Mergansers have vacated this part of the province by May, but the odd one will linger.

Common Merganser

Common Merganser

Another late lingering bird was a female Dark-eyed Junco on the Woodland Nature Trail. I have to say I was a bit confused for the first micro-second seeing the grayish bird with white outer tail feathers fly across the trail. Not what you expect in the middle of May.

Rondeau! May 10

Friday evening saw me driving to Rondeau Provincial Park where I had plans to camp with some university friends - Todd, Mark, and Beverly. Reuven joined us for an hour or so in the evening as well. When I arrived I walked around part of the campground at dusk, turning up my first Philadelphia Vireo of the year and a few other odds and ends.

The next morning we were up early to bird the park. Reuven, who was up even earlier than us to scout for his upcoming guided walk, gave us some intel on where there were few birds. We decided to check out the situation at the Maintenance Compound and the Pony Barn area, hoping that some things had arrived.

Morning Possum

Fortunately there were birds around! We ended up walking quite a ways down Harrison Trail, seeing birds the entire way. Most of them were fairly low down in the understorey as leaf-out was just starting and insects were likely more difficult to find in the canopy. Throughout the walk we saw only a couple of birders - a nice change from the weekend crowd at Point Pelee. The morning of birding was probably the most enjoyable I had all spring. We saw about 21 species of warblers including multiple Canadas, Blue-wingeds, a Hooded, etc. American Redstarts and Magnolias had arrived en masse.

Tennessee Warbler

This is how you usually see Blue-winged Warblers, gleaning for insects and spiders inside of dead leaves.

Blue-winged Warbler

Blue-winged Warbler

 Not only were there large numbers of warblers, but tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and orioles put in a good showing. At one point we were watching a "flock" of 13 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, all sitting within a few feet of each other on the trail. After a long winter it was nice to feast our eyes on the vivid oranges, blues, reds, yellows, etc. of the neotropical migrants!

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Other highlights along this walk included both species of cuckoos (expertly spotted by Mark), a Yellow-throated Vireo, a Traill's Flycatcher (looked more Alder-like, but who knows), and a female Summer Tanager.

female Summer Tanager

female Summer Tanager

The SUTA flew in and landed a short distance above our heads - a life bird for Todd, Mark, and Beverly! Later on we found out that likely the same bird had been found the day previously by Ron Ridout. That's what its like in these migrant traps in May. If you find a rarity, there is a good chance that someone had already located it but just not posted about it anywhere.

Our first cuckoo of the spring was this Yellow-billed, which Mark noticed sitting quietly in a bush. After a few minutes it skulked away without us noticing.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

This tired looking Black-billed Cuckoo sat out in the open, providing a great photo opportunity.

Black-billed Cuckoo

Black-billed Cuckoo

We checked a few other trails, briefly hearing a Prothonotary Warbler singing at the back of the Tulip Tree Trail. We also had a Northern Brownsnake crossing the path here.

Northern Brownsnake

I split from the others around noon and drove back to Point Pelee to meet up with Daniel Riley for some afternoon hiking. That will be in the next post...

Back to Pelee - Friday, May 9

It is the middle of May and so I took Friday off and headed down to Point Pelee once again. We are now in the peak of spring migration. Just about anything could show up this time of year! Wednesday and Thursday were very favourable for migration, and as a result, the first big wave of orioles, warblers, grosbeaks, tanagers, and more has arrived.

On Friday morning I was at the tip around 6:30 and noted a bunch of new birds had arrived. I headed straight for the very tip and found a position to watch the reverse migration of landbirds taking place. While the flight was not as strong as the previous day, it was nice to see dozens of orioles, gnatcatchers, warblers, and more as they flew around. I saw my first Bobolink, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and Northern Parula of the spring take flight, and another mockingbird was jumping around near the tip. The best bird was a female Summer Tanager which flew out twice over the lake before looping back. Mike Burrell had first seen that bird early in the morning.

Northern Parula

I birded for most of the day with Barb Charlton and we covered a good chunk of the park including Cactus Field, Tilden's Woods, Blue Heron, Northwest Beach, Dunes, and Sanctuary. We had a nice selection of birds throughout the day. Instead of the majority being Hermit THrushes, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and kinglets, we were seeing a wide variety of warblers, Scarlet Tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, orioles, and hummingbirds.

Magnolia Warbler

Highlights included Yellow-throated Vireo, Clay-colored Sparrow, early Blackpoll and Wilson's Warblers, and a Prairie Warbler. We discovered the Prairie Warbler singing south of Northwest Beach, though apparently this bird had been seen the previous day. Still, cool to stumble upon one with no idea there was one there!

Prairie Warbler

Barb and I went for lunch outside the park, before we split ways and I headed down to Sleepy Hollow while Barb drove back to her cottage. I was just leaving my car when I got a text from Sarah Rupert - a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was seen flying north from Northwest Beach! This was a great bird for Pelee (and one that I had never before seen at Pelee) so I jumped in my car and sped north. Just as I was approaching Northwest Beach, another message that it was now being seen across the road at Blue Heron! I did a quick U-turn and arrived at the lot about 120 seconds after the message had gone out. The bird was nowhere to be seen, but a few minutes later was found just down the path at the entrance to the marsh boardwalk. When I rounded the corner it was perched high up on the lee side of a willow, waiting for the rain to stop.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Pandemonium ensued as about 100 birders arrived in the next 15 minutes to see the bird. I helped Sarah Rupert get on the bird, her most wanted bird for her Pelee list! It was a new Pelee bird for most that were present. Eventually the bird completed some sallies from its perch to catch insects. At one point as it sat perched a little lower down and began preening, I walked onto the marsh boardwalk to get a bit closer.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

I left to check Hillman Marsh after about twenty minutes, though apparently the bird remained for another hour or so before flying south, later seen going off the tip.

Hillman did not have much though I saw my first Semipalmated Sandpiper of the year. I continued on to Blenheim and the Rondeau since I had plans to camp there with some friends from Guelph. I checked Blenheim lagoons, some flooded fields, and Erieau, with the hgihlight being the continuing Snowy Owl near McGeachy's Pond. I bet not too many people have seen both Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Snowy Owl in the same day.

Today I checked out the Rondeau area before birding Pelee in the afternoon. We hadseveral decent birds, which will be in the next post!

Pelee Weekend! Day Three

I'm down at Pelee again for the weekend, and the conditions look good to bring a lot of new birds into Ontario overnight, with hopefully some southern rarities mixed in! Here is the last post from last weekend - it will be quick since I will be in the park in 6.5 hours!.

Painted Turtle at De Laurier

Dave and I birded Pelee with a bunch of different birders throughout the day, including Jeremy Bensette, the Burrells, the Holdens, Barb Charlton, Tom Preney, Dwayne Murphy, and a few others I am forgetting. The birding was much better than the previous two days and I saw several first of the year! Orange-crowned Warbler, American Redstart, Indigo Bunting, Peregrine Falcon (finally!), Blue-winged Warbler, etc. The highlight of the day though was this Henslow's Sparrow that Dwayne Murphy spotted when he was birding with Jeremy Bensette and I. He had gone up the path and flushed the sparrow into a small bush.

Henslow`s Sparrow

Henslow`s Sparrow

This is a pretty awesome sparrow that we rarely see in Ontario. Luckily Pelee seems to be a great place to get one during April through May - this was my sixth Henslow's, all but one along the west beach at Point Pelee.

A small group of us stood by the area where it had happed down to, and for a good ten minutes until the crowds arrived, it crept through the grasses like a mouse.

Henslow`s Sparrow

It was tough to get a clean shot of the bird as their always seemed to be a blade of grass in the way. After a few minutes it causiously walked out into the open and continued to feed.

Henslow`s Sparrow

Henslow`s Sparrow

At close range the light purple and maroon back is almost brilliant in the right light, combined with the olive-green nape and yellow face. For such a secretive sparrow it is intricately marked.

Henslow`s Sparrow

We ended up leaving Pelee by mid afternoon and drove straight all the back to the GTA. We decided to make a quick detour to see if we could find a Willet in the fields off Brittania, amd after a bot of searching found the bird at dusk in a flooded short grassy field with a dozen yellowlegs.

 It was the end of a pretty good weekend of Pelee birding for Dave and I. Dave added a lifer and some new Ontario birds, while we both saw a ton of new birds for the year including most of the rare birds that were around. A pretty good weekend, though I have much higher hopes for this upcoming weekend. The warm, southerly flow over the last two days is carrying over into tomorrow. 30 km;h south winds are forecasted through the night, which should bring a big wave of neotropical migrants into Ontario. Hopefully some stop at Point Pelee, since it is peak season for a rarity or two to appear!

Pelee weekend! Day 2

The Saturday was much slower than the Friday in terms of birds and Dave and I worked hard all day to turn up a paltry 90 species or so. Normally by early May, 120 species in a long day of birding isn't too uncommon. Birds were few and far between, but the weather was good and it was a lot of fun just walking around! Winds were fairly strong out of the west so we concentrated our efforts a bit more on the east side. However we still did a long walk along west beach at one point, seeing very little!

West Beach Turk riding the wind

 It was nice seeing our first of the year Blackburnian Warbler, Ovenbird, Baltimore Oriole etc. The Blackburnian was a stunning bird that was part of a "neotropical migrant swarm" in a Cottonwood, along with a group of Baltimore Orioles and other warblers. It's always fun at Pelee, even on a slow day...

Concession E at dawn:
1 Willet (continuing)

Great Blue Heron - Onion Fields

Point Pelee National Park:
-all three scoters off the east beach, surprisingly
-Eared Grebe off of Shuster (known bird)
-year birds!! Swainson's Thrush, Baltimore Oriole, Ovenbird, Blackburnian and Chestnut-sided, etc
-Eastern Meadowlark flying around the tip

Beige, Black and White

Onion Fields in late afternoon
-William It was still at the regular place along Concession E
-surprise Eastern Meadowlark! :) a bird I don't see a ton of at Pelee...

EAME - Conc. E

We walked around the entire Couture Dyke and birded the shorebird cell as well. I find that the Couture Dyke does not get checked nearly enough, even during peak birder season of early-mid May. Who knows, there could be an Anhinga, or Black-necked Stilt, or flock of Wood Storks just hanging out! We did not strike gold on this trip but a singing Ovenbird, some Soras, and a few hundred shorebirds (just the regular species) made things interesting.

There you go, that's all she wrote for day 2. We were hoping that day 3, our last at Pelee, would bring in a whole new batch of birds!

Pelee weekend!! Day 1

With the calendar turning to May, David Szmyr and I each took Friday off from work and drove down in my car on Thrusday night to the Pelee area. The following morning was windy with many birders coming away with few birds. Dave and I walked down the park road to the windswept tip area, seeing the usual waterbirds and a few warblers. We were greeted by these young raccoons...

A nice surprise was this Willet at the tip. We would soon find out how common Willets were this weekend, and I think we ended up with 7 ebird checklists containing this western bird. Other than occasional individuals in southwestern Ontario during spring, Willets are pretty rare throughout the province. It was nice to be able to have crippling views of one, and decent photos too.

We followed Loop Woods up to Sparrow Field where I briefly heard a White-eyed Vireo. Quite a few resident Tree Swallows were flying around the area.

Walking north through Post Woods we finally started coming across some new migrants. Hermit Thrushes and White-throated Sparrows were everywhere and we found our first spring Red-headed Woodpecker, allowing great views as it worked a vine low to the ground. Warblers included Nashville, Black-and-white, Pine, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle), Palm, and Black-throated Green. Tons of Blue-gray Gnat-snatchers flitted around and we spotted our first Blue-headed, Warbling, and Yellow-throated Vireos of the spring!

We had heard that the Audubon's Warbler had been re-found earlier in the morning and we eventually came across the large flock of Myrtle's it apparently associated with. After about 20 minutes of searching I finally laid eyes on the target bird. It was a rather dull individual (female?) but the throat was bright yellow and it did not appear to be a hybrid, at least to my eyes. After a few minutes I was finally able to photograph the backlit, fast-moving warbler at the top of the canopy.

Acadian Flycatchers are showing up in large numbers this spring, an interesting trend for a species generally viewed as a later migrant. Dave and I found two individuals - one on the Woodland Nature Trail, and this one near the southern entrance to that trail.

Other new spring migrants for the year that we saw included Least Flycatcher, Tennessee Warbler (early!), and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Here is a photo of a chickadee.

Dave and I ventured out into the "Smith's Lonspur Field" later in the afternoon and after some walking around we discovered a group of four and later a single female, which allowed us to approach close enough for photos. An even 10 Willets were scattered around the perimeter of the flooded field across the road.

We finished the day with a check of Hillman Marsh (Marbled Godwit, lots of common shorebirds/terns/gulls/ducks) and a walk back in the National Park, where we saw next to no birds. We finished the day with a respectable 105ish species, given the conditions and the fact we only saw 7 warbler species.

I wasn't supposed to go back to Pelee until the weekend....

.....but then Jerry Ball found a pair of Smith's Longspurs near Hillman Marsh!!! Here is a quick timeline of my day yesterday:

8:30 AM: At the office, working away on a proposal and getting swamped with work. Trying to organize a moving van for tomorrow night. It's going to be a busy few days!

10:26 AM: News is broken that a group of birders - Jerry Ball, Bob Cermak, Ron Tozer, and Mike Nelson - found the longspurs in a corn stubble field just north of Hillman Marsh. A mega find, and species #391 for the Point Pelee checklist! The wheels start spinning as I try to justify a trip to chase the birds...

12:28 PM: Kory Renaud re-finds the birds in the same area. I try to tie up as many loose ends at work as possible.

Smith's Longspur - photo by Kory Renaud

12:55 PM: Close my computer and speed away from the office. The chase is on!

2:10 PM: Pick up Len Manning in Hamilton. Pull over and send off the last few pressing work emails.

2:30 PM: On the road again. Traffic in Cambridge!! We take evidently the same streets through Cambridge that everyone else does to avoid the traffic jam - half an hour wasted.

3:30 PM: Clear sailing! No news of the birds.....

5:55 PM: We arrive at the site. 10 or 15 birders are milling around and the birds are nowhere to be seen. Not great news...

6:15 PM: We are on the phone with Steve Pike, who had received permission to walk around in a field near where the 'spurs were seen that looks like great habitat. I decided to walk out in the field and join him in the search, as did several others.

6:24 PM: A small bird with a longspur-like "rattle" and white outer tail feathers flushes from only a few feet from me. It has a bit of white in the wings. Its one of the birds!! I call it out and luckily several others get on it before it drops back down in the grass. A group of us manage to track down two birds and are treated to great scope views of them as they crawled through the grasses only a half dozen meters away. This was a life bird for me, so I was pretty excited! It was nearly impossible to get a good photo of one.

Smith's Longspur - north of Hillman Marsh

7:30 PM: Finally, Len and I force ourselves to walk away from the scene of the 'spurs and check out a few other spots. Len is hoping to see 300 species in Ontario this year, so Marbled Godwit and Western Grebe were on the agenda! We nabbed the Marwit, but dipped on the grebe right before dusk. You can't get them all...

12:38 AM: Pull into my driveway after a long afternoon/evening. What a day!


Smith's Longspur can a tough bird to see in North America. They breed in a narrow band along the tundra, and winter in a relatively small area, mostly in north Texas/west Arkansas/Oklahoma. This species can be very secretive and quite difficult to find unless you flush one.

While Smith's Longspurs do breed in extreme northern Ontario along the Hudson's Bay coast, this area is inaccessible except by air, and unless you are doing arctic research, you probably won't ever have a chance at seeing them on their breeding grounds. They migrate west of the province and have only turned up in southern Ontario four times previously. The last was in 2002.

This was the newest addition to my Ontario list since the Elegent Tern last November. It happened to be a lifer as well! It turns out that six Smith's Longspurs were seen, as Paul Pratt and Tom Hurst flushed four additional birds while walking in the field.

While a new species for the Point Pelee checklist (here we come, Long Point!!), it was certainly one that was on the radar. Smith's are fairly regular in Indiana and southwest Michigan, and recent records in Ohio add to the trend of this west/central species being seen further east than what is expected during spring migration. I would not be surprised in the least if Smith's migrate through southern Ontario every year, but they can be bloody tough to find!