Photos from Pelee (part 2)

I had a few other target species for the trip. The first was Dainty Sulfur - they had colonized Hillman Marsh this year and could be easily found there - and the second was Common Checkered-skipper. Prior to 2010 or so Common Checkered-skipper was extremely rare in Ontario with individuals seen in only a few years. But they have become relatively common in the south recently and this year was no exception. I saw about 50 of these during the trip!

Common Checkered-Skipper

Common Checkered-Skipper

On the third day I met up with Alan again and we covered mainly the west side of the park, south of the Visitor's Center. Again, the numbers of butterflies were much lower than the previous days and we were unable to find anything really rare. Just like with birds during migration, some days a huge influx shows up, with numbers dwindling over the successive days. We spent some time at the tip looking for birds and were rewarded with a small flock of shorebirds. I was happy to see that one of them was a Buff-breasted - a species I rarely get to see up close!

Buff-breasted Sandpiper - Point Pelee

Buff-breasted Sandpipers breed in the high arctic and migrate through the Great Plains. Occasionally southern Ontario gets a few wayward individuals in the autumn - usually juvenile birds in fields or sod farms with other shorebirds that prefer these dry habitats. The above individual can be aged as a juvenile due to the very fresh wing and back feathers, neatly arranged. Adults show a fair bit of wear this time of year.

Giant Swallowtails are abundant at Pelee and some years throughout much of southwestern Ontario. It still never gets old seeing one of these beauts floating along in the treetops or along the shoreline.

Giant Swallowtail - Point Pelee

Alan and I searched all along the shoreline with Funereal Duskywing in mind. It was not to be, but we did get a good photo opportunity with the most common duskywing this time of year at Pelee - the Wild Indigo Duskywing.

Wild Indigo Duskywing - Point Pelee

As it was getting hot and uncomfortable in the park, we decided to take a lunch break at the big red bus outside the park gate. This was quickly becoming a favorite of mine - great food, big portions, quick service, and cheap prices! We unexpectedly ran into Jeremy Hatt who was on an unsuccessful quest for Buff-breasted Sandpipers (though he did get some today).

From here I headed over to Hillman Marsh to try to get some photos of the Dainty Sulfurs, since its not every year you get that opportunity. I was successful in that regard and also had very high counts of Fiery Skippers and Common Checkered-skippers!

Dainty Sulfur - Hillman Marsh

Fiery Skipper - Hillman Marsh

It was a pretty good little jaunt to Pelee - I had birds such as Dickcissel, Acadian Flycatcher and Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and most of the target butterflies I had hoped to see. The only negative is that apparently a BROWN PELICAN was seen off of the West Beach of Pelee by some fishermen on August 24 - the day that Alan and I were walking up the west side. We must have just missed it!!!

I will finish with a few more photos from the trip.

Least Skipper - Point Pelee

Pearl Crescent - Point Pelee

Easterm Tailed-Blue - Point Pelee

Hackberry Emperor - Point Pelee

Photos from Pelee (part 1)

As I mentioned in the last post, I spent August 22 to 24 at Point Pelee National Park and area. On August 22nd I spent most of the day looking for butterflies with Chris Law and Alan Wormington. It was hot and calm and quite a few butterflies were present.

This was one of 3 Tawny Emperors I saw for the trip. This species only has one brood at Point Pelee so this worn individual was a fairly late record.

Tawny Emperor - Point Pelee

The main reason I was at Pelee wasn't for some of the regular species that are permanent residents there. I was mainly looking for southern immigrants. Just like birds, certain butterflies exhibit vagrancy, and this was turning out to be a phenomenal year! Earlier this spring, Steve Pike and I found the first Sleepy Orange of several that showed up at Pelee. Around the same time, I saw several Dainty Sulfurs and a Cloudless Sulfur. All three of these species were very rare in Canada, with only a few previous records of Sleepy Orange and Dainty Sulfur.

In the past few weeks, other southern species were showing up - 3 of them which would be lifers for me. The first one, White-M Hairstreak, took a bit of effort but eventually we found one on some goldenrod in the Sparrow Field.

White-M Hairstreak - Point Pelee

Compared to the similar (but smaller) Gray Hairstreak, the White-M Hairstreak has a brilliant blue upperside (only viewable in flight), the white "m" mark near the base of the hindwing, and a small white mark part way up the hindwing, which you can see in these photos.

White-M Hairstreak - Point Pelee

Another common species at Point Pelee is the American Snout, aptly named for its long snout!

American Snout - Point Pelee

We were seeing many Gray Hairstreaks from the start so we made an effort to count them all see if we could set a new record count for Point Pelee.

Gray Hairstreak - Point Pelee

From the visitor's centre south, we managed to find 57 Gray Hairstreaks, smashing the old record high of 48. This individual below was extremely fresh and a great photo subject - too bad the light was really harsh!

Gray Hairstreak - Point Pelee

Target #2 took a bit of effort. A few weeks ago, Sachems (a small skipper) started to show up across Ontario. According to Alan's book (published in 2001), Sachem had only been reported at Point Pelee in 1988 and 1991. Unfortunately many of the skippers had cleared out, but Chris found a female along the west beach for me.

Sachem - Point Pelee

I ended up seeing about 5 for the trip - a far cry from the dozens that people had been seeing previously, but I was happy!

Another southern species of skipper that immigrates north is the Fiery Skipper, though it shows up most years in southern Ontario. This was the most abundant skipper I saw on my trip, with well over 50 seen.

Fiery Skippers - Point Pelee

The following day I slept in a bit before heading into the park. I decided to do a bit of birding for a few hours and was rewarded with an Acadian Flycatcher. I managed to see every species of Ontario flycatcher except Olive-sided just at the DeLaurier trail! I also managed to grab photos of several common species of birds that I had neglected to photograph so far. As well as doing my big year, I am attempting to photograph 300 species in Ontario. With Downy Woodpecker, Willow Flycatcher, Eastern Wood-pewee, Common Yellowthroat, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher I climbed up to 259.

Great Blue Heron - Sturgeon Creek

Unfortunately the numbers of butterflies were a little lower on my second day at Pelee but there were still some good ones around. I was looking for my third target species, the Funereal Duskywing, which has only been seen in Ontario a handful of times. Several had been seen recently at Pelee! No dice with the Funereal but this worn Horace's Duskywing, also very rare in Ontario, was a nice consolation prize.

Horace's Duskywing - Point Pelee

To be continued...

Point Pelee - August 22 to August 24

The last three days I have been looking for birds, butterflies, and whatever else I could find in the Point Pelee area. It's fairly late now and I need to get up early tomorrow morning to go birding, so I am making this quick! I'll put up more photos whenever I can. I also have a few James Bay posts almost ready so I will get them up as soon as possible.

Point Pelee has been getting some really good records of butterflies lately, and with the lack of potential year-birds being reported, I was encouraged to spend 3 days looking for them. Starting with the Sleepy Oranges and Dainty Sulfurs back in May, rarities have continued to arrive including White-M Hairstreaks and Funereal Duskywings recently.

In general, butterfly numbers were way down from what they were and most of the skippers had cleared out of Pelee. I was still able to get two of my main three targets (White-M Hairstreak and Sachem), only missing Funereal Duskywing.


Highlights:
5+ Dainty Sulfur
57 Gray Hairstreak on August 22 (record high count for Point Pelee)
1 Horace' Duskywing
50+ Common Checkered-skipper
50+ Fiery Skipper
4 Sachem
3 White-M Hairstreak

Plus many of the other regular southern butterflies! Here is one early edit of a White-M Hairstreak:

White-M Hairstreak on Solidago - Point Pelee

Birding was a little less of a priority, however there were a few highlights. On August 23 I had an Acadian Flycatcher, only the second I've got this year and the first I've actually seen! It was at DeLaurier with a roving flock of flycatchers, warblers, and vireos - most likely a migrant.

Today while standing around at the tip, Alan Wormington and I watched a small flock of shorebirds come in off of the lake. It contained one Least Sandpiper, 4 Baird's Sandpipers, and 1 Buff-breasted Sandpiper! This was actually a new Pelee bird for me and I was happy to get a few photos at close range until a child came by with its parents and scared it off.

juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpiper - Point Pelee

I had planned to spend tomorrow relaxing at home and taking care of some errands but, as usual, birds come along tp screw up those plans. A few Long-tailed Jaegers were seen off of Van Wagner's Beach (Hamilton) today during a light onshore wind. This is a code-3 species and possibly one I will either get in the next 10 days or not get at all (I'm leaving the province for the 10 days following that). Additionally, a Brown Pelican was spotted by the McArthurs at Rondeau today! It was last seen flying east but could very well be in the area or any sheltered cove or harbour on Lake Erie. This is a code-5 bird. My plan is still to go to Van Wagner's Beach for first light and hopefully get a jaeger or two. The winds are forecasted to be from the south, so who knows. If I get a Long-tailed Jaeger early, I'll probably head to Lake Erie and start a pelican search. If at any point I hear that the pelican has been refound, I will abandon all other plans and head straight there! Could be an interesting day...

James Bay part 2 (July 31 to August 2, 2012)

Introductory Post
July 28 to 30, 2012 - Moosonee, Little Piskwamish Point
July 31 to August 2, 2012 - Little Piskwamish Point
August 3 to 5, 2012 - Longridge Point
August 6 to 8, 2012 - Longridge Point
August 9 to 12, 2012 - Longridge Point
August 12 to 15, 2012 - Longridge Point

July 31, 2012
I actually had a pretty good sleep the first night! Ian and I shared the mattress and became a couple for the time we were at Little Piskwamish (sorry Laura!). I was up at 6 or so that morning because I was anxious to get out and see the coast of James Bay from the ground for the first time.

I made my way through the swarms of mosquitoes that were present in the marshy area near camp and the sedge meadows further east and eventually made my way out to the coast. I couldn't help but notice the shear number of Nelson's Sparrows singing and I took some time to get a good look at them. A Le Conte's Sparrow was fairly close so I grabbed a few shots of it skulking around in the bushes.

Le Conte's Sparrow - Little Piskwamish

 The water was pretty much at the low tide mark and the mud flats stretched for miles! I noticed too that once you were on the mudflats the mosquitoes completely disappeared (except for the cloud that followed you out there). Eventually due to a combination of swatting them and the cool breeze, I was mosquito free.

I'll have to admit, it felt pretty awesome standing alone on the mudflats without seeing the presence of another human as flocks of White-rumped Sandpipers whirred by! Down the beach was a female Black Bear with her 2 cubs, foraging in the sedge meadow. Just as I was heading back to the camp, a single breeding plumaged Hudsonian Godwit flew by at close range, calling. Pretty spectacular to see, though maybe less so since I knew I would be seeing hundreds shortly!

Ian and Andrew had made a fire so we able to have some hot food, a nice change from the night before. It was here that I found my first Hudson Bay Toad - a brightly colored but poorly known taxa of the familiar American Toad from back home. Some consider it a full species (Anaxyrus copei), others a subspecies of American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus copei), and others just a unique color variation of American Toad that is found in the far north (Anaxyrus americanus). Whatever they are, they sure are beautiful with a boldly spotted ventrum, orange/red and black dorsum, and bright white dorsal line running all the way posteriorly down the body.

Hudson Bay Toad - Little Piskwamish

Hudson Bay Toad - Little Piskwamish

Hudson Bay Toad - Little Piskwamish

I should probably take the time to briefly introduce the other two guys I was with. Andrew Keaveney (a.k.a. "twitcher")  is a birder/ from Etobicoke. He has spent the last number of years chasing birds not only in Ontario but around the world. He is also doing a big year in Ontario this year and nipping at my heels!

Andrew pretending to bird for the camera

Ian Sturdee (a.k.a. "the old guy") is also from the GTA though he splits his time between Toronto and his cottage in Peterborough. He spends a lot of time at the Leslie Street Spit in Toronto, helping out with bird surveys and the banding operation.

Ian Sturdee - looking intense

The three of us left to survey for Red Knots as the tide came in - I headed north, while Ian and Andrew headed south. There were two main goals of this project, a joint venture between the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR), Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS), Natural Heritage Information Centre (NHIC), and the Moose Cree First Nation (MCFN). The first was to census the shorebirds that use this globally important stopover site, and the second was to identify certain individual Red Knots. It took me about an hour until I saw my first flock of Red Knots fly by, then soon enough I came across a big flock of them!

Red Knots - Little Piskwamish

About 10% of the Endangered rufa subspecies of Red Knot have been banded and flagged - some in the US, some in Brazil, even Argentina and Chile. Each flag has a unique 2 or 3 digit code and these flags can be read from in the field. The trick was getting close enough to a flock to read the flag combinations, a task made difficult due to passing raptors, noisy yellowlegs, and unseen "dangers" causing the knots to flush very easily. Eventually I managed to get close to some flocks and managed to read about 15 flags over the coarse of the day.

Red Knots - Little Piskwamish

I wasn't able to get close enough to get photos of jewelry wearing knots, though Jean Iron has some at her website: http://www.jeaniron.ca/2011/JamesBay2011/index.htm

We ended up spending 3 full days at Little Piskwamish and surveying for Red Knots and between the 3 of us we observed 50 unique flags. Of course, there were many other shorebirds present - thousands of White-rumped and Semipalmated Sandpipers, hundreds of Hudsonian Godwits, and lesser numbers of about 17 other species of shorebirds. Highlights for me on July 31 was a single Stilt Sandpiper. Other interesting birds we had that day were a flock of 34 Redheads, 11 American White Pelicans flying by, and a healthy dose of boreal birds including Boreal Chickadee, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, Blackpoll Warbler, and Lincoln's Sparrow. That evening a Common Nighthawk "peent"ed overhead.

White-rumped Sandpipers - Little Piskwamish

August 1, 2012
I spent a few hours that morning trying to stalk some Nelson's Sparrows to get some photos. The job was made a little difficult because I was limited to my 300 mm lens and the mosquitoes were as friendly as ever. However, with a little patience I was able to get a few I was pleased with.

Nelson's Sparrow - Little Piskwamish 

Nelson's Sparrow - Little Piskwamish 

Nelson's Sparrow - Little Piskwamish 

Day two at Little Piskwamish was pretty frustrating when it came to the Red Knots. I spent several hours as the tide came in unsuccessfully sneaking up to the birds while an ominous black cloud hung over the land to the west. Eventually the rains came, and though they were never heavy, they were steady and lasted for most of the afternoon. I neglected to bring my rain pants with me to Little Piskwamish but fortunately I had a rain cover for the pack I was wearing and I had my raincoat. The extra rain combined with the high tide made it very difficult to navigate the many creaks that meandered to the coast. Inevitably I soaked both boots and spent the rest of the day completed drenched from the waist down. I completely struck out on the knots though the other two guys managed to get some later in the afternoon.

It was hard to get too discouraged since we were on the James Bay coast, after all. A single Marbled Godwit was probably my favorite bird sighting, though we also heard a Yellow Rail ticking and Ian and I had an adult goshawk flying low out of the forest.

August 2, 2012
Day three was a little better than the previous! It didn't start out so well as I managed to burn a big hole in the only pair of field pants I brought with me to Little Pisk while drying them out. To add insult to injury, it happened right after I told Andrew that I wasn't going to burn them since he had just warned me! I quickly learned that quick dry pants don't have to actually be touching the fire to burn. I spent a bit of time that morning taking some photos around camp while I waited for the rest of my clothes to dry.

The above photo is the main cabin where the three of us stayed. There were a couple of run down cabins near by as well as a new cabin farther down which we didn't use. The building supplies are brought in by snowmobile during the winter.

Above are two photos showing the inside of the main cabin. And no, the stove on the left doesn't use electricity! Below is a photo of Andrew and Ian by the fire.

The weather was a little better today though with a brisk north wind as usual. I ended up going south while Andrew went north and Ian hung out in front of the camp. I ended up walking about 10 km without getting any Red Knot flags but right at the end of the day everything lined up perfectly. The wind had died down a bit, the sun was at our backs, and the birds tolerated our presence while they fed rapidly. I'm not sure how many flags we got in that last hour, but it was probably close to 30 unique flags.

We had a few more good birds on August 2nd. I had an adult male Red-necked Phalarope briefly land with the flock of knots before continuing southward, a Brant with a flock of Canada Geese 4 km south of camp, and Andrew had 2 Little Gulls. The highlight of the day though was the Bohemian Waxwing that we heard several times in the morning.

Andy on the mudflats

I'll end the post here since it is getting a little long-winded. The next installment will cover the hike to Longridge Point and the first few days there.

James Bay part 1 (July 28 to July 30, 2012)

Introductory Post
July 28 to 30, 2012 - Moosonee, Little Piskwamish Point
July 31 to August 2, 2012 - Little Piskwamish Point
August 3 to 5, 2012 - Longridge Point
August 6 to 8, 2012 - Longridge Point
August 9 to 12, 2012 - Longridge Point
August 12 to 15, 2012 - Longridge Point

I have now been home for a few days. The ebird checklists are in, some of the errands around the house are done, and I've made some decent headway in the photo editing. I haven't gone looking for birds once since I've been back (believe it or not), though that will probably change soon! At any rate, I have the photos from the first part of the trip edited so I figured I might as well make post # 1 of 4.

July 28, 2012
After a 6:00 wake up call, I said my goodbyes to Laura and drove over to Barb Charlton's place in Flamborough. From there, I met up with the rest of the crew and we all piled into two vans for the long drive to Cochrane. The entire group heading up consisted of Ken and Mike Burrell, Barb Charlton, Jean Iron, Deborah Cramer, Ian Sturdee, Andrew Keaveney, and myself. For the most part the drive was fairly uneventful though we did make a few birding stops at Mountsberg, the Powassan lagoons, and the New Liskeard waterfront, without any real highlights. That evening we pulled into the North Adventure Inn at Cochrane where we were staying for the night. I was happy to hear some Le Conte's Sparrows singing away in the field behind as the sun set.

July 29, 2012
This morning the 8 of us boarded the Polar Bear express and headed north to Moosonee. As the train traveled farther north, the surrounding countryside consisted primarily of black spruce and tamarack bogs. The entire ride lasted about 5.5 hours and was fairly uneventful, though I did see two new butterfly species from the train (Northern Blue and Common Branded Skipper)! We arrived in Moosonee mid afternoon and spent the rest of the day hauling gear to the MNR staffhouse, birding around town, and mostly, just sitting around and killing time.

Moose River - Moosonee, ON

July 30, 2012
Our helicopter ride to the coast was delayed a fair bit and we ended up waiting around for the entire day in Moosonee. Several of us checked out the sewage lagoons south of town for birds but there weren`t really that many birds! Most of the common duck species were present, including Lesser Scaup and Bufflehead, two species that I wouldn`t see for the remained of the trip. A few birds were still singing - a Northern Waterthrush, Least Flycatcher, and a good variety of sparrows.As afternoon gave way to evening, we got word that the chopper was ready to take us up to the coast so we made our way over to the airport. I amused myself for a bit by taking some photos of some of the aircraft on the tarmac.

self-portrait

Around 6:00 PM the MNR helicopter arrived, bringing back the crew from another site up the coast, the Chickney Channel.

We loaded up the gear, and after a safety lesson from Doug the pilot, we were on our way!

This was my first time being in a helicopter so I was offered the front seat next to the pilot. The windows were large and the view was fantastic as we flew low over the boreal forest and straight to the coast.

As we hit the coast and turned to the north, we passed over several First Nations hunt camps. Since this is the offseason we were able to rent the camps to do our fieldwork. Several of the camps were fairly rustic, but fortunately the ones we stayed at were mostly in good condition! Here is a view of one such camp from the air. The strip of dirt on the right hand side is a runway for aircraft.

As we flew we saw some interesting wildlife. Flocks of unidentified shorebirds swirled below and a large group of Sandhill Crane took to the air as the chopper went over. We saw half a dozen bears including this individual.

After dropping off some people at the more northern site (Longridge Point), Andrew Keaveney, Ian Studee and I jumped back in the chopper and were dropped off at Little Piskwamish, about 20 km to the south. The plan was for the three of us to spend three full days of surveying for Red Knots at that site before walking north with all of our gear back to Longridge Point, where we would spent the remaining 12 days or so.

The helicopter dropped off the 3 of us and we were all alone on the James Bay Coast - finally! The mosquitoes were quite friendly to say the least as we brought our gear in towards the cabin. I was happy to hear a few Nelson`s Sparrows ``singing`` away in the extensive sedge marshes. This was a year bird, number 322 for Ontario! Check out the recording below of a Nelson`s Sparrow singing. Pretty pathetic sounding!
Nelson`s Sparrow singing

We had a couple of nice surprises once we walked back into the woods where the cabins were located. First of all, the main cabin had a huge hole in the tarp roof and the plywood bed below was covered in some putrid looking black mold. Fortunately we had a tarp, so we stapled it on top to prevent any more moisture from coming in, and there were other platforms for us to throw our sleeping bags. Secondly, as we were putting together the propane stove we realized that we were missing the adapter that goes from the hose to the stove. Despite looking everywhere it was nowhere to be found, so we delegated ourselves to eating cold chili from a can, apples, and gatorade for dinner. On the bright side, the mosquitoes were practically absent around the camp and we found a brand new mattress, still in the plastic, in an additional cabin. Sure beat sleeping on the ground!

The next post will cover the duration of our time at Little Piskwamish as well as the hike up to Longridge Point.

Home from James Bay!

Introductory Post
July 28 to 30, 2012 - Moosonee, Little Piskwamish Point
July 31 to August 2, 2012 - Little Piskwamish Point
August 3 to 5, 2012 - Longridge Point
August 6 to 8, 2012 - Longridge Point
August 9 to 12, 2012 - Longridge Point
August 12 to 15, 2012 - Longridge Point

I just got in the door from my 2.5 week trip to Ontario ocean coast of James Bay. I am pretty tired now and won't elaborate too much, so I thought that I would just mention some of the highlights.

Most importantly for my big year, I added 5 new species, bringing my year list up to 326! The new species were:

Nelson's Sparrow: I heard my first Nelson's Sparrow within seconds of stepping out of the chopper on the James Bay coast on July 30. This ended up being one of the most common species of sparrow we ended up seeing, with the high being about 25 birds in a day. I managed a few good photo opportunities too! They could be heard nearly anytime I was near the wet sedge habitat, up until the last week or so when they all stopped singing.

Red Knot: We ended up seeing quite a few Red Knots, with my first coming on July 31. At Little Piskwamish, where I ended up spending 3 full days, we had a high of about 1,200 Red Knots (I'll have to check my notes to be specific). Unfortunately they were all but absent at Longridge Point where we spent the remainder of the trip.

Black Guillemot: Barb Charlton, Deborah Cramer and I were very surprised to come across a breeding plumaged Black Guillemot sitting on a rock about 8 km north of the Longridge Camp! I was scanning the water when Barb mentioned that she might have a guillemot on a rock. I kind of laughed ("haha, sure you do, Barb") until she said that she was serious! The bird was very distant and eventually flushed when the tide came in. This was a new Ontario bird for me and one I certainly didn't expect to get this on this trip! I had it listed as a code 3 since there was a chance I would see them if I went to southern James Bay later in the autumn.

Arctic Tern: This was one of the most satisfying birds of the trip. I spent all day every day out in the field, looking at dozens of terns, but they were all Commons. Finally, towards the end of the trip, I decided to stay back and cook dinner while the rest of the crew went to the river mouth to check the gull flock. Sure enough Barb and Andrew came on the radio, saying they were looking at an adult Arctic Tern! I ran the 1.5 km to the river mouth in about 5 minutes and had great looks at it flying above us and eventually landing on a rock. Photos to come! This was also a new Ontario bird for me and the only Arctic Tern we managed to get on the trip.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper: I found a juvenile a few days ago with a big flock including Pectoral Sandpiper, Black-bellied Plover, American Golden-Plover, Least Sandpiper, and Baird's Sandpiper. I expected to get this one later on in the year but it was nice to get it out of the way.

There were many other highlights including some awesome birds, herps, odes, butterflies, and mammals, but that will have to wait! I'll post day by day recaps with lots of photos starting tomorrow.