Friday 16 September 2011

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)


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