May 2nd...my last full day at Point Pelee.
I had a bit of a later start this day (was visiting a friend in Amherstburg for the night), but was in the park by around 8:00 AM. The birding was a lot slower than the previous few days to say the least. There was a bit of a reverse migration, but again, nothing compared to the previous few days.
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| Blue-winged Warbler - May 2, 2013 |
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| blurry Golden-winged Warbler - May 2, 2013 |
However, the nice thing about slow days in early May is that you still see new birds for the year! I added 6 year birds today - Green Heron (Woodland Trail - great spotting by Erika H.!!), Black Tern, Great Crested Flycatcher, Veery, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and Black-throated Blue Warbler.
Unfortunately, I finally ended my streak of 4 consecutive days with a new Point Pelee bird. I now sit at 286, so 300 shouldn't be too far off. My guess is sometime next spring. While there were no rarities to be seen today, I did have some fun finding some "lesser" rarities. If I was doing a big year these would be "Code 2" species.
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| Little Gull - May 2, 2013 |
For some reason I have been seeing waaaaayyyy too many Grasshopper Sparrows at Pelee this spring. Prior to this year, I had only seen one in the park! This hopper was my 5th that I had found already this spring.
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| Grasshopper Sparrow - May 2, 2013 |
I like vireos, and I really like Yellow-throated Vireos.
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| Yellow-throated Vireo - May 2, 2013 |
Brett, Erika and I watched this White-eyed Vireo for a few minutes as it captured, bashed to a pulp, and swallowed this mayfly.
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| White-eyed Vireo - May 2, 2013 |
There really is no bird that can compete with a male Scarlet Tanager for sheer awesomeness of colour. I swear, these things can glow in the dark. This picture is a straight out of the camera RAW image too (with some cropping and lightening), so no adjustments to colour have been made.
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| Scarlet Tanager - May 2, 2013 |
What Black-and-white Warblers lack in colour, they more than make for in fun-to-watch behaviour. I spent about 5 minutes with this male as he creeped around the tree branches, all nuthatch like, to catch insects and spiders.
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| Black-and-white Warbler - May 2, 2013 |
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| Black-and-white Warbler - May 2, 2013 |
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| Black-and-white Warbler - May 2, 2013 |
That is all for now! May 3 highlights coming up next.
1 comment:
As a colour blind birdwatcher, Black-and-Whites are among my favourite warblers to identify. I don't have to go over the id several times to be sure.
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