Wet and wild times at Pelee

This weekend I zipped down to Pelee, hoping, as usual, for uber-rare vagrant birds. Strong west winds were forecasted for the weekend and I hoped that this would cause some Franklin's Gulls, cool shorebirds, or if we were really lucky, a rare western flycatcher to be found down in the southwestern corner of the province.

When it was all said and done, it was an excellent weekend with good company and a couple of decent birds (despite the persistent rain).

My first destination was a flooded field near Comber at the north end of the county. Large numbers of shorebirds had consistently been found there over the past week or two. When I arrived, there was no sign of the 11 Godwits which were frequenting the spot. However, one lonely Hudsonian Godwit was still present. The winds were so strong here that I had to hide in the cornfield next to the muddy field, using it as a windbreak. This was fairly succesful and I picked out the remaining species, in order of abundance. By the way, most of these counts are estimates:

Black-bellied Plover (250)
Dunlin (150)
White-rumped Sandpiper (60)
Semipalmated Sandpiper (50)
American Golden-Plover (25)
Killdeer (10)
Baird's Sandpiper (2)
and singles of Long-billed Dowitcher, Least Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, and of course the Hudsonian Godwit.
I ended up walking in the muddy field to get closer views at the peeps since I suspected one was a Western from a distance. Sure enough, it was! It was a fairly long-billed "female-type" bird. The Spotted Sandpiper is a pretty late date for the species.

A brief check of Tilbury yielded virtually nothing, so I headed on down towards Point Pelee. Wheatley harbour had a really fresh, crisp juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull but not much else. The onion fields were pretty devoid of all life too, so I called it a day early and headed to my favorite local joint (McDonald's for the free wifi - where else!) and Skype-called Laura from halfway around the world. Ah, modern technology. After that it was drinks with a good friend in Leamington, then I called it a night and slept in my car.

Sunday was as the forecast predicted - miserable with rain out of the southwest. I headed down to the tip and did a bit of a lakewatch with "the regulars" - Alan Wormington, Blake Mann, Richard Carr, Kevin McLaughlin, Steve Pike, and Marianne Balkwill. It was nice to finally meet Marianne!

Despite the winds it was pretty slow at the tip - highlights were probably Ring-billed Gull and Red-breasted Merganser... Well it wasn't THAT bad. A juvenile Red-necked Phalarope was nice to see and a Lesser Black-backed Gull made a few passes. The odd Merlin and Common Tern flew by as well. Despite scanning thousands of gulls, we didn't come up with any Franklins!

Steve was pretty stoked about the large number of "dicky-birds" around in the woods so I joined him for a bit in sparrow field then birded by myself for a few hours at the tip and along Shuster. There were Yellow-rumped Warblers everywhere, and I picked out 9 other species of warblers with them, including Orange-crowned, Magnolia, and Wilson's. All the other expected October fare was present, including Winter Wren, both kinglets, Eastern Phoebes, Hermit Thrushes, Rusty Blackbirds, and a Blue-headed Vireo. Steve mentioned that this was the most number of birds he had seen in the park all autumn.

My next stop was Hillman marsh where I donned the hipwaders and went splashing after Nelson's Sparrows. Despite the high winds I was somewhat successful in this venture, flushing three possible Nelson's (of which I only got a decent look at one of them). I also walked through the grassy field directly north of the shorebird cell and scared up a bunch of sparrows, including one that may or may not have been a Le Conte's. Sometimes they get away from you!

A quick check of Erieau harbour produced an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and not much else. I checked Blenheim lagoons around sunset and found a few shorebirds in the sprinklers (including White-rumped and Long-billed Dowitcher). One shorebird had me stumped - it was hanging out with Lesser Yellowlegs and exhibited similar behaviour, but its bill was shaped more like a Stilt Sandpiper. It was a juvenile bird, and it was slightly smaller than the LEYEs but appeared marginally chunkier. It had a different facial pattern too - much blander actually, and with less of an obvious capped appearance. I only wish the lighting was better since I couldn't pick up much on this bird! Maybe it will hang around and someone will notice it and clear up it's identification.

All in all it was a decent weekend and really nice to get away from schoolwork for a bit. The few photos I took from the weekend will be added once I get a chance (might not be for a couple of days)

Birding along Lake Erie

I'll make it short since I'm short on time...currently I am parked outside of a McDonald's in Leamington making use of their wifi.

Today's birding took me along the lakeshore from Port Stanley to Point Pelee. Here's my Ontbirds post summarizing Port Stanley:

"I had about 16 species of shorebirds in the Port Stanley area this afternoon. There were 5 species on the 

East pier, including a juvenile Red Knot. On the beach west of the pier were thousands of gulls, including a

1st cycle and adult Little Gull.
At the lagoons, I ran into another birder and we had
6 A. Golden-plovers (j)
2 Baird's Sandpipers (j)
1 White-rumped Sandpiper (ad)
2 Red-necked Phalaropes (j)
1 Stilt Sandpiper (j)
1 Horned Grebe
 
While along the lake there was a constant stream of raptors including all 3 falcons.

I counted over 2500 Broad-winged Hawks in 1/2 an hour, so I am sure the hawkwatch

had huge numbers today.

1st cycle Little Gull

Bonaparte's Gull - Port Stanley

Horned Grebe - Port Stanley Lagoons

juv. Stilt Sandpiper - Port Stanley lagoons

world's crappiest photo (Red-necked Phalarope juv)

The rest of the day I hit up some spots between Port Stanley and Pelee, stopping at Ridgetown, Blenheim, Wheatley harbour, Hillman Marsh, and the Onion Fields. I didn't find anything really crazy, though another Horned Grebe (Blenheim lagoons) was weird.

Horned Grebe - Blenheim lagoons.

I finished the day with 84 species - not bad considering I had almost zero songbirds (only 2 warbler species, 1 thrush, etc)

A tour of Essex County

Today I decided to take full advantage of my day off and tour around, hopefully kicking up some cool birds and butterflies.
The first stop was Tilbury. This remains the best, easily excessible shorebird spot in the county and it wasn't bad today. There must have been a big influx of dowitchers as there were more than a dozen. 5 of them were Long-billed and a few juvenile Short-billed were around. I didn't get any photos as they were too far for my 300 lens. I did, however, grab a few shots of this closerish Lesser Yellowlegs.

juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs - Tilbury lagoons

Cormies!

Double-crested Cormorants - Tilbury lagoon

Next up was the Ridgetown Lagoons. I was actually disappointed as I thought that there would be more habitat than there was. The smaller cell did have mudflats, but the geese were hoarding them. There were, however, a handful of semi-sands, a single Least Sandpiper, a single Semi-Plover, and a couple Lesser Yellowlegs.

Blenheim was next on the agenda. I hadn't actually visited in a few weeks so I wasn't prepared for how terrible it would be. Every single one of the lagoons was filled to the brim with water, and even the sprinkler cells were completely dry! Highlights from here included Mallard and Starling. Well, there was still a single Semipalmated Sandpiper that I watched for a bit. I kind of felt sorry for it, "foraging" on bare dirt. I also scanned through about 500 Mourning Doves and didn't see anything interesting. On to Erieau!

Off the pier were various gulls and terns, including a 1st summer/2nd winter Lesser Black-backed. There were tons of people here hanging out on the pier, so I didn't linger. Off of Erie Beach I had a young Little Gull with the Bonaparte's, which I think is the first one of those for me this year.

Next I checked out Hillman Marsh, Wheatley Harbour, and the harbour by Sturgeon Woods. I didn't see anything unexpected, though I got a second Little Gull at the harbour by Sturgeon Woods.

The final stop was at a weedy field in Leamington to look for butterflies. 3 or 4 Common Checkered Skippers were nice!

Common Checkered-skipper - Leamington

As was this thing, which I think is a Fiery Skipper?

Fiery Skipper - Leamington

That's all for now. Overall it was a typical day for early August - hot weather, lots of driving, few birds, but a couple nice summering gulls/migrant shorebirds/southern butterflies.

Another day, another avocet

I almost canned my plans to check out some of the lagoons nearby after napping much longer than planned. In the end, I made the one hour drive to Blenheim, arriving with about an hour of light left. Due to my rushed schedule I didn't check out any of the lagoons and headed straight for the sprinkler system. The first bird that caught my eye was a huge shorebird with an upturned bill - an American Avocet. This avocet was much more advanced in its prebasic molt than the one I found at Tilbury, leading me to think that its a different individual.  I watched it in the scope for about a minute before the shorebirds got spooked by something and took off. Last I saw of the avocet, it was heading south. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of this one because I left my camera in the car, and frankly, its a long walk back! Most of the shorebirds returned (minus the avocet), and they included:

30 Lesser Yellowlegs
20 Least Sandpipers
3 Solitary Sandpipers
1 Greater Yellowlegs
3 Pectoral Sandpipers
1 Semipalmated Sandpiper (first of fall for me)
X Killdeer, Spotted Sandpipers.

As I was scanning the birds I could hear two Dickcissels calling, one on either side of me. Sweet! It appears that the late spring/early summer droughts in the southern states may have pushed quite a few into southwestern Ontario.
Also, when I entered the avocet in the book at Blenheim, there was a mysterious sighting for an avocet on July 18 at noon. Is it a typo or is it a prediction?  Hmmm.....

I rushed over to Tilbury just before sunset to see what was around. And guess what I saw???

Not much, really. A few Black-crowned Night-Herons, a Short-billed Dowitcher, and a smattering of Least Sandpipers and Lesser Yellowlegs among the usuals. I had a female Hooded Merganser with the ducks, which is a new Tilbury bird for me. As night fell, ~10 Chimney Swifts were hawking insects with the swallows. The duck flock is now growing, with now over 100 mallards and a few other things mixed in. Last fall quite a few teal used this place, so I'm going to predict a Cinnamon Teal this fall!

Fall shorebird blitz - kicks off with a rarity

Shorebirds are probably my favorite group of birds for a few reasons. First, there is a wide variety of species that migrate through in large numbers. Second, many of the shorebirds can be difficult to identify, making it more of a challenge. And third, the chance of vagrancy is high with this group, making the search for rarities quite enticing.

Seeing as it is now early July, a few species are already on the move southbound. For the next few months, I am going to spend as much time as I can searching some of my favorite haunts for these migrants. Today was my first chance to go out and check my two regular spots that are relative close to where I work in Windsor - the Blenheim sewage lagoons, and the Tilbury lagoons.

After checking Hillman Marsh (it is pretty dead this time of year), I headed east to Blenheim, making a quick stop near Wheatley where a few Dickcissels have been hanging out for a while. Ken Burrell found a male here on June 16 and since then 2-3 males have been seen regularly. The birds did not disappoint and I had excellent scope views of one singing, with 2 others also singing off in the distance.

The Blenheim lagoons had a nice selection of early southbound migrants. Among 40+ Killdeer and 34 Spotted Sandpipers, I also found 2 Short-billed Dowitchers, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Solitary Sandpiper, 17 Lesser Yellowlegs, and 8 Least Sandpipers. They were all hanging out in the irrigation cells as the water levels were still quite high in all 5 lagoons. The back lagoon (number 5) also held a few families of Wood Ducks, a female Ringneck Duck, a male Green-winged Teal, some Ruddy Ducks, and 4 American Wigeons.

Tilbury was my next stop and it did not disappoint. I noticed a few ducks and shorebirds on a small exposed mudflat, and after looking with my scope, a nice American Avocet stood out. This is only my second sighting of this species in Ontario and my first for a few years. A few photos of the beast (please excuse the image quality - I was digiscoping with my 18-55 kit lens):

American Avocet with Mallards - Tilbury lagoons

American Avocet - Tilbury lagoons 

American Avocet - Tilbury lagoons

American Avocet - Tilbury lagoons

Also at Tilbury were 1 Black-crowned Night-heron (new for the year, surprisingly), 1 Great Egret, a few ducks of various species, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, and about 10 Least Sandpipers.

So there you go. A nice start to the fall shorebird blitz! Last year I didn't get any rarities among the ~25 species of shorebirds I saw during the months of July, August, and September.