Update from the near north

After a few days and nights working pretty much non-stop, I find myself in a motel in downtown Timmins with a few hours to spare. Over the last few days, my coworker and I have traveled north to Mattawa, North Bay, and Sudbury to do environmental assessments at a number of different sites. I have done pretty much nothing but bird surveys, and have had quite a few highlights to show for it.

Yesterday morning I went to survey a site just north of North Bay. It turns out that the overnight rain had caused quite a few migrants to drop in, and warblers and other songbirds were everywhere! I ended up with 17 species of warblers, including just about all the regular species. Finally had my first good looks at Bay-breasted for the year! Also of interest were the massive numbers of open country birds. At one point I came across a flock of close to 50 Horned Larks, and 10 minutes later a massive flock of mostly American Pipits! There were close to 300 in the group - certainly the largest number I have ever seen at one time in Ontario. I find that pipits are harder to come by in the spring; I don't recall seeing more than a couple at a time before. Mixed in with the group was a single Lapland Longspur.

Today was arguably one of the best outings I have had all year. The morning started early just west of Sudbury with some Whip-poor-will surveys at 3:30 AM (we were rained out yesterday evening). We were successful in hearing a few whips, as well as a Common Nighthawk, multiple American Woodcocks, and a Virginia Rail. As the sun began to creep closer to the horizon, the bird song fired up and it was clear that quite a few species were present! Northern Parula. Tennessee. Mourning. Blackpoll. Blackburnian. Many of the birds were flocking together and were probably migrants. Just about everywhere I looked, birds flitted about and I soon added Philadelphia Vireo, a few Warbling Vireos (rare for the area), and 4 Baltimore Orioles (also fairly rare for the area). It just kept getting better, and soon I had seen or heard Northern Waterthrush, Cape May Warbler, Wilson's Warbler and an extremely cooperative Orange-crowned Warbler! The "best" warbler was a male Golden-winged Warbler who had probably overshot his breeding grounds. Warbler #20 of the day!

To put it into perspective:

1. I was in Greater Sudbury District, an area that generally looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland and not really the sort of place you would expect to see 20 warbler species.

2. 20 warbler species in 2 hours.

3. My best warbler day at Pelee this spring was 20 species in 13 hours.

So there you go! Who knew birding could be so good in Sudbury?

The above photo is a picture from one of the job sites we have been doing our surveys on (taken with the work phone - I really need to start lugging my camera with me on site!). I have to say, its pretty easy to get up for work at 3:00 AM when this is my office! During my point count here, Ring-necked Ducks were in the wetland, a Red-tailed Hawk soared overhead, about 10 warbler species were singing from various locations, and a bright male Scarlet Tanager was blinding me with his redness from 20 feet away. Spring Peepers were calling as well. It was one of those days that wasn't cold nor hot, with just enough of a breeze to keep the bugs away. These are the little moments that make me really love my job!!!

Some other highlights from the past few days:
-a Barred Owl landing on a branch 20 feet from us at dusk
-fantastic views of a young Black Bear
-Moose and Eastern Wolf sightings
-Boreal Chorus Frogs singing (along with half a dozen other frog species)

Working in the beautiful boreal forest led me to an interesting conclusion. Birding in southern Ontario during the spring sure is a lot of fun, and it is a thrill finding migrants and seeking out rarities. But I find that wandering around in the wilderness in the north, with no other people around and interesting species around every bend, is far more satisfying and comforting to the soul. There is just something surreal about wandering around in the woods, far from the distractions of civilization. It becomes easier to understand just a little bit more of the infinite amount of complexities of nature, and it really puts into perspective how we as humans are no different than any other species, filling a niche and being just one small thread of the complex, interconnected webs we call ecosystems. I find its really hard to want to return to civilization after a few weeks in the north!

Photos from Pelee this May

Seeing as I am leaving tomorrow for 2 weeks of non stop working/birding in central Ontario, I figured I might as well get the rest of my Pelee photos online. It has been a bit of a change for me so far this May. Last year I was in the midst of the most important stretch of my big year, and I was out every single day looking at birds for the entire spring migration. Between April 18 and June 5, 2012, there was only 1 day where I did not spend a significant amount of time birding. In spring 2011 and spring 2010 I was working about an hour away from Point Pelee, so I was birding quite often before work. My job consisted of looking for wildlife in tall grass prairie in Windsor,  allowing me to see some really interesting birds. Among the notables were Snowy Egret, Acadian Flycatcher, Common Raven (quite rare in Essex County!), large-non-Chimney Swift-sp., Kentucky Warbler, and Connecticut Warbler.

This spring I was birding frequently until May 3 and since then I have been quite busy at work. It is a nice change to have a permanent, full-time position with a great company (doing a lot of bird surveys, too!), though I am also more than a little envious to hear about all the great birds being seen elsewhere in Ontario! If I was doing my big year this year instead, I would have probably seen Violet-green Swallow, Swallow-tailed Kite, Black-necked Stilt, Pacific Loon, Kirtland's Warbler, Lark Bunting, Glossy Ibis, plus maybe a few more rarities. But I'm slowly getting used to the fact that I can't see everything that gets reported anymore! Besides, I've already seen Hooded Warbler and Acadian Flycatcher less than 4 km from my house in the few times I have gone birding after work. It's a fantastic area for breeding species and I'm looking forward to seeing these southern species regularly over the next two months.

So while I can't be reporting daily on my blog about all the fantastic rarities at Pelee, the least I can do is post SOMETHING from Pelee. Without further ado, some random photos (mostly of common birds) from my almost 2 weeks at Pelee from early this spring.

Scarlet Tanager - May 3, 2013

The colour of a Scarlet Tanager is incredible to see up close and in good light. While they are a common breeding bird throughout much of central Ontario, they often attract a gaggle of excited birders when one is found in the park. On a decent reverse migration, several dozen may be seen flying off the tip.

Their colours really pop when the sun is shining on them. No saturation boost in Photoshop needed!

Speaking of reverse migration, I happened to devote a few hours every morning down at the tip to see what interesting birds would be flying off the tip.One of the more common species in the water off the tip is the Red-breasted Merganser. Most birders hardly give them a second look, however on May 3 they were flying right over the tip in good lighting, allowing me to snap some decent photos.

female mergie

male mergie

Of course the main reason I (and many others) devoted so much time at the tip was for the chance of finding a rarity. This Prothonotary Warbler (expertly picked out in flight by Ken Burrell) was a fun bird! This is the 3rd Prothon I have seen reverse-migrate over the past two springs.

reversing Prothonotary Warbler

It's a pretty easy ID in flight - dark wings, white undertail coverts, and a yellow/orange underside that really seems to "pop" towards the front of the body.

Birds-in-flight photos I find incredibly difficult, though that probably has a lot to do with the focusing abilities (or lack there-of) of my cheap 200$ SLR that I am currently using. Big subjects such as gulls and ducks are waaaay easier.

Bonaparte's Gull - May 3, 2013

This next photo is of an abundant species that is in no way desirable for the average birder. It is sporting kind of an ugly plumage too, and it's hard to be creative with birds-in-flight photos. But I don't have any decent photos of Ring-billed Gulls so I snapped a few anyways.

Ring-billed Gull - May 3, 2013

I'll finish with a few more photos of another common species - this time the Common Grackle. Grackles are kind of fun to watch as they always seem to be "up to no good". That and their comically Darth-Vader-esque appearance makes them a good candidate for photography. While David Bell and I were about to photograph some Willets at the tip on May 2, this grackle sauntered along the shoreline.

grack on beach 1

grack on beach 2

grack on beach 3

That's all for now. Tomorrow morning I leave for North Bay/Sudbury/Timmins/Wawa for close to 2 weeks to do some bird surveys - should be fun! I do miss those blackflies.

Point Pelee May 12 - shorebirds and miserable martins

It is a strange feeling being a working man again, and having to leave Pelee on a Sunday afternoon so that I can be back for work on Monday. It was a short Pelee visit this time (less than 48 hours), but I did see a couple of decent birds.

Point Pelee was pretty uneventful on Sunday morning and I had not added any year birds by around 11:00 AM. I decided to do a bit of hawkwatching with Brandon and David at the Visitor's Centre since the north winds were a blowing. 

We did not see the hoped for Ferruginous Hawk, and I was getting ready to head for home (it was a reaaaaallly slow day) when we got word of a Piping Plover at the tip. Cool!

I did not have my camera on me (and the tram to the tip was about to leave, so I did not grab it). Others took some pretty decent photos, but not I!!! At least it gave me a chance to practice taking pictures with my new work phone through my binoculars. Let me tell you, it was not easy. I obviously need to do some practicing....

Piping Plover (iPhone through binoculars)

After leaving the park, I decided to make a stop at the windiest spot in southwestern Ontario - the Blenheim sewage lagoons. Despite almost getting blown into Elgin County, I survived and even managed to ID a few birds. A Black Tern was my first for the lagoons, and quite a few swallows joined the tern in gleaning whatever insects they could find low over the water.

Black Tern - May 12, 2013

Many shorebirds were keeping busy in the sprinkler cells, composed mostly of Dunlin, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Least Sandpipers. Among the crew were a pair of Short-billed Dowitchers. They even called for me, confirming their identification (though these individuals were definitely on the short-billed side).

Short-billed Dowitcher - May 12, 2013

The Wilson's Phalaropes were quite tolerant of my presence, and I counted four of them. This is one of my favorite shorebirds and one that I don't encounter too often. Last June I had a pair of them at the Blenheim lagoons, so it is possible that they will stay and nest this year. Two pairs were there on this visit, though Reuven Martin counted 7 birds later in the evening!

Wilson's Phalaropes - May 12, 2013

Wilson's Phalarope - May 12, 2013

Wilson's Phalaropes - May 12, 2013

phalarope and friend 

The best part of the visit for me was observing the spectacle of swallows. It was rewarding getting such excellent views of 5 species, with the birds either keeping low to the water or perching somewhere out of the wind. I estimated about 2000 swallows in total were present. Many of them were sitting on the embankments where trees acted as windbreaks.

cold and miserable Hirundinids

These were the first decent photos I've taken of Purple Martins. It would have been nice to try my hand at flight shots (which I'm useless at!), but I was running out of time.

cold and miserable Purple Martins

cold and miserable Purple Martin

cold and miserable Purple Martin

cold and miserable Purple Martin

On the drive to my parent's place (it was Mother's Day, after all), I heard about an American Avocet that Dave Martin and Linda Wladarski had found at the Aylmer WMA near the police college. Since it was not too far off the highway, I stopped in to have a brief look at this beautiful shorebird. A great bird to close out the Pelee adventure!!

American Avocet - May 12, 2013

Point Pelee - May 11

I arrived in the Pelee area late on May 10 and was in the park for 6:00 AM to do some serious birding. Meeting up with Barb Charlton as I got off the tram, we were happy to hear a Golden-winged Warbler singing frequently near the tip. Eventually we had decent views of it. For some some reason I have found a bunch of Golden-winged Warbs this spring!

At the tip I met up with Brandon Holden and Dave Bell. There were a few shorebirds present, including another Willet. Few birds were reverse-migrating, though we did have a few highlights (female Blue-winged Warbler, picked out in flight by Dave the machine).

Few birds were in the woods, but the ones that were present were quite low to the ground to find insects.

Yellow Warbler - May 11, 2013

It was a pretty slow morning and we were bored pretty soon. However since it had been over a week since I was last looking at migrants, I added several yearbirds (Red-eyed Vireo, Ruddy Turnstone, Lincoln's Sparrow, Wilson's Warbler, etc). Eventually Dave, Brandon and I got the idea to do the long walk from Marentette Beach all the way to the Visitor's centre along the east side - about an 8 km walk.

It was pretty slow actually, with Common Yellowthroats making up the bulk of the birds. We did have 3 Clay-colored Sparrows which was nice, as well as the odd migrant songbird here and there. At one point, 8 Black Terns buoyantly flew past.

These male Red-breasted Mergansers were doing their best to impress the lone lady.

Red-breasted Merganser - May 11, 2013

Lucky girl.

Red-breasted Merganser - May 11, 2013

We ended up finding quite a few feathers and random bird parts (wings, tails, etc) washed up on the beach. I guess some migrating birds don't make it across the lake (especially in adverse weather), and eventually the wind patterns wash some of the evidence on shore. We actually had more dead bird species than alive! "Highlights" include Long-tailed Duck, Tundra Swan, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Hooded Merganser, etc. We came across quite a few Brown Thrashers and Northern Flickers (including one hybrid). One interesting feather is possibly from a nightjar (we're hoping a Chuck-wills-widow) - I think Brandon is going to photograph it and do some research into it.

Red-eyed Vireo on a not-so-natural perch

We ended the day at Hillman Marsh, where the Black-necked Stilts were a no-show again unfortunately. Both dowitchers and a Pectoral Sandpiper were probably the highlights. Despite it seeming like a relatively slow day, we picked up most of the common species and finished with 131 for the day.

Pelee for the weekend

In a few minutes I'll be leaving Schomberg and making the long drive to Point Pelee for the weekend. Apparently lots of migrants have shown up around Lake Erie today, so I'm betting that the weekend will be pretty decent, despite the cool temps. It will also be my last chance to do any non work related birding for quite some time, as the next few months will be insanely busy with bird surveys throughout Ontario (mostly in the semi-north).

It appears that the Black-necked Stilts haven't been reported yesterday or today, unfortunately. It certainly feels like I am the only person in Ontario yet to see one here after reading all the reports of the stilts all week. However, they appear to be pushing northward pretty strongly. At least a dozen have been reported in recent days in northern Ohio, and it is my hope that another one will show up in Ontario!

Anyways, here is a Bonaparte's Gull from May 3rd at Pelee.

Willet photoshoot

One my second last day at Point Pelee, a troupe of 4 Willets spent the entire day sitting at the tip. In the evening, David Bell, Erika Hentsch, Brett Fried, and I headed down to photograph them in the evening light. The Willets walked right towards where Dave and I were lying on the beach with our cameras ready, and we both took a great series of photos.

Hermit Warbler in Durham Region??

Yesterday afternoon, I was bemoaning the fact that I wasn't at Pelee anymore. After 11 days or so in the banana belt of Ontario, looking at neotropical migrants as well as a plethora of rarities, I was on the move back north. On Saturday my parents joined me on the drive up to Schomberg to help me move in to my new home base. I was starting work on Monday, so Saturday was about as late as I could push back the moving date. It just so happened that the entire time up north, I was reading Mike Burrell's Ontbirds play-by-play after he and Erica had found a Swallow-tailed Kite! For the full account of that find, check out his blog.  What an amazing find! (This would be a new Canada bird for me, and by default a new Ontario and Point Pelee bird as well).

And then yesterday, as I was settling in at my new place, word on the street was that some Black-necked Stilts were at Pelee too (that would also be a new Canada bird for me). Great timing!

But, not all was lost, as a probable Hermit Warbler was found by Eric Cole about 50 minutes from my new place. Hermit Warblers are mega mega mega rare in Ontario with only 7 records. And only one of those records was of a bird hanging around for more than one day! Needless to say, this was a rarity I couldn't NOT chase.

Hermit Warbler (from wiki)

Arriving at the park, several other birders were present, staring intently up a tree. These included Mark Dorriesfield, Glenn Coady, Geoff Carpentier, Eric Cole, Peter Hogenbirk, and Stu Williams. Apparently they had heard the bird sing on a number of occasions in the same area that Eric had originally found it. After 45 minutes with no luck, most of the group left leaving Mark Dorriesfield, Stu Williams and I. We were giving up hope when a Black-throated Green-type warbler chip note was heard several times. Apparently the bird had chipped several times before it started singing previously.

The bird started singing deep from a Hemlock grove. It ended up singing about 10-15 times. After it sang 6 or 7 times, we moved closer to a distance of probably 20 feet or so, and the bird continued to sing for a few more minutes. I tried to record the song on my phone, but the recording is useless since I can't hear the possible Hermit Warbler (HEWA) or the nearby Black-throated Green Warbler (BTNW) that was singing due to background noise. After it sang 10-15 times, it was quiet and wasn't heard again. It appeared to be singing near the top of a hemlock, buried in the branches. 3 or 4 BTNWs could be heard from here as well. I noticed movement from where the song was coming from on 2 occasions when it first started singing, however both times the glimpses were fleeting and all I could make out was a warbler-sized bird. Even when we were nearly right under the tree(s) where the song was coming from I didn't see any movement. This bird was proving to be elusive!!!

The song was identical to HEWA songs I have heard on recordings that have been called the "see-saw" song type. Examples that I can find, sounding very similar to our bird, include the 2nd, 4th, and 5th entries on this webpage.

The birders that were present before I arrived mentioned hearing the bird sing that song type as well as another one that matched the description of HEWA.


addendum: Several other birders were on site today and mentioned not having the possible HEWA, though they did have a BTNW singing a weird faster song that could be interpreted as a HEWA song. However there was a BTNW singing that song last night, which is obvious after listening to the recording that several birders managed to get. The possible HEWA only did the "see-saw" song when I was there, not the faster song that this BTNW had been doing.

It seems very unlikely that a Hermit Warbler showed up at this site since it is not really a migrant trap and no other migrants were present. Unfortunately without a clear visual on the bird, we can't really provide much to Eric Cole's original description. Guess this is one "that got away"!