Recent news (or lack thereof)

Yeah, I haven't updated the blog with epic bird sightings over the past week. But there is a good reason for that! Mainly because I have not had any epic bird sightings lately.

Ever since being back at school, I have been quite busy and haven't really been out much. Some of this is schoolwork, but mostly it is socializing since that didn't happen a whole lot this summer. I had grand plans this weekend to do some birding, but yesterday and today left me nursing a hangover instead. Oh well.

I did actually get out for a bit yesterday afternoon and headed over to Guelph Lake in the north part of town. This man-made lake is a favorite local spot of mine and the site where Dan Riley and I had a Parasitic Jaeger (first Wellington Co. record I think?) on October 22, 2010. Unfortunately it was very quiet there today. Water levels were way down leaving quite a lot of mudflats, however only Killdeer and a single Spotted Sandpiper were present. A few ducks included an American Wigeon and some Green-winged Teal. Various songbirds were flitting around the edges, but nothing noteworthy.
I then checked out the ponds along York Road east of downtown, and was surprised to see several hundred geese hanging out. They seemed to be mostly the interior subspecies, and with them were 6 spanking Cackling Geese. The cacklers were hanging out in a type group off to the edge of the flock.

Here are a few photos I took at the OFO conference a few weekends back that I finally got around to editing.

White-rumped and Pectoral Sandpipers - Tilbury lagoons

Double-crested Cormorant - Point Pelee tip

Orange Sulfur - west beach footpath, Point Pelee

Fiery Skipper - west beach footpath, Point Pelee

In other news....
It is now October, which means it is prime rarity finding time! Once this weather system finally passes to the east and more birders get out with the fine weather forecasted, I wouldn't be surprised if a few good birds turn up.
The season is definitely heating up and there have been some decent sightings lately.

- Holiday Beach had its second Swainson's Hawk of the season yesterday, a dark-morph adult. Jealous...

- at least 2 Lark Sparrows have been found in the province, and there could definitely be more!

- an American Avocet made an appearance at Rondeau yesterday (J. Burk) and there was a flock reported from Port Burwell as well (J. Stephenson et. al)

- a female Common Eider was reported from Grafton (between Cobourg and Presquille) and is still being seen (M. Bain)

Also, check out these photos of a Franklin's and Black-headed Gull from across the pond in Ohio. Taken by Geoff Malosh. This location also had 4 American Avocets. Why is it that some of these places along the lake get avocets just about every day, and on our side they are relatively rare?

http://home.earthlink.net/~pomarine/index.html

That's all for now.

Finally! A change at Tilbury

This morning when I posted I lamented how, despite excellent conditions, the rare birds were just not showing up at the Tilbury lagoons. I did have an American Avocet there early in July, but ever since then the rarest birds have been the regular Long-billed Dowitchers.

It seems that for today at least, the curse was slightly broken. While no rarities were found, there was a huge change in the numbers and diversity at Tilbury with a few interesting birds mixed in. Beforehand, let me mention that the quality of the photos leave something to desire. The birds were a little too far away for me to use the 300mm, so I resorted to digiscoping with my 18-55 lens.

My coworker, Matt, and I took a break from work and made the quick trip over to the lagoons. One of the first birds we saw was this Horned Grebe, hanging out with a couple of Pied-billed Grebes. What a weird sighting! I have never seen one at the lagoons. It almost seems that an Eared Grebe would have been more likely.

Horned Grebe - Tilbury lagoons

Around this time, another car pulled in and I realized it was my friends Ken and Mike Burrell. They were doing a big loop of the southern Ontario shorebird spots and had already seen an Upland Sandpiper at Mitchell and 2 Red-necked Phalaropes at Exeter. Together, the 4 of us scoped the "shorebird cell" at Tilbury with a few highlights.

This juvenile Red-necked Phalarope stood out and was one of the first birds I looked at. I nice surprise, and a new one for my Tilbury list (as well as Ontario year list, but who's counting).

juvenile Red-necked Phalarope - Tilbury lagoons

Stilt Sandpipers had arrived. Earlier in the fall I had seen 1 or 2 adults, but today 3 juveniles were present. Neat looking birds, and one of my favorites.

juvenile Stilt Sandpiper - Tilbury lagoons

I was happy to finally see a few Baird's Sandpipers at Tilbury - the first ones of the fall for me here. They were both juveniles.

juvenile Baird's Sandpiper - Tilbury lagoons

Of course there were still Dowitchers - 3 adult Long-billed, and the rest juvenile and adult Short-billed. Some of the Long-billed Dowitchers were quite far along in their prebasic molt. No pics today.

Other birds seen include 14 Great Egrets (a lot less than the 40 Blake had!), 2 Black-crowned Night-herons, both species of Teal, 5 Northern Shovelers, and 8 Wood Ducks.

This afternoon I brought my camera into the field with me in case I came across any butterflies. I found a few Fiery Skippers and an un-IDed Duskywing. My guess is Wild Indigo.

female Fiery Skipper - Turkey Creek, Windsor

I kind of like this shot of a Viceroy on the gravel path.

Viceroy - Turkey Creek, Windsor

This mama and her two fauns kept an eye on me as I approached.

White-tailed Deer - Turkey Creek, Windsor

White-tailed Deer - Turkey Creek, Windsor

That's all for now. I am hoping to go to Pelee first thing tomorrow, or at the very least Tilbury again.

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.