This is the second part of my blog for my Midwest statebirding trip – the Ontario leg. The first covered my Ohio leg; the third and fourth parts cover the Michigan and Indiana parts of the trip.
Day 2 – On to the Pelee Area
After a short drive I arrived in western ON in late afternoon and headed right for Hillman Marsh Conservation Area. Hillman is just a short distance from Pelee, and has an extensive wetlands including one cell managed just for shorebirds. As I approached the shorebird area I heard an odd set of calls that I couldn’t quite place. As the mudflat came into view I realized what it was – a very large flock of Black-bellied Plovers were milling about and calling in the pond. At one point they all flew overhead and settled back into the pond – I estimated 2,000 birds. An amazing site! I remained at Hillman for the next 2 hours and saw a new flock of Black-bellies fly into the pond every few minutes – with each flock numbering at least 50 birds. By the time I left I guessed there could be 4,000 birds in the flock. Here is a phone-scoped photo I took of just one tiny portion of the flock.
Although they weren’t new for my ON list, I did have 5 new shorebird species in the 11 species at the pond - 1 Willet, several Turnstones, 3 White-rumps, 30 Dunlin, and 4 Long-billed Dowitchers. A quick stop in the woodlands in the park added a couple migrant songbirds, giving me 10 new species for my ON list. A good start to the Ontario portion of my trip.
One of my biggest concerns about this entire trip was whether I scheduled it too late for good migrants. This concern was magnified when I reached my hotel in Leamington. Although this hotel had been suggested to me as one of the better ones to use while birding Pelee, I quickly realized I was the only birder in the entire hotel. Hmm…
Day 3 – Point Pelee and Surroundings
Weather – Highs in the 80s, strong southerly winds, scattered strong thunderstorms
I arrived at the Point Pelee park entrance a bit later than I wanted (only about 10 minutes before sunrise), only to find the gate still closed. And I was the only car waiting. I paid the entrance fee when the gate opened at 6 and still no other birders were in site. I drove slowly to the point, pausing to let the displaying Turkeys walk off the roadway. Still no other birders around when I reached the visitor center and the parking area for the tram to the point. The first tram wasn’t until 7, so I birded the area around the parking lot in the mean time and added a couple new birds, but virtually no migrants. There were 5 other birders with me on that first tram, and I compared notes about strategies to bird the point. The preferred approach was apparently to get to the point right away, then work your way northward sifting through the migrants. Plus I heard about a Little Gull that had been recently seen at the point, so that gave me a rarity to hope for. One birder asked me, given that I had come all the way from MA for this trip, why did I schedule it for so late in Spring. Ugh. Though the locals also lamented that the whole spring had been slow likely due to a lack of fronts and weather systems. So maybe I didn’t miss too much.
I got off the tram and headed to the point with a little song in the woods, adding Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Blackburnian for my list along the way. At the point I found the immature Little Gull among a flock of Bonaparte’s, along with a Great Black-backed that was mixed in with Ring-bills and Herrings. Then I started working north through the woods. At first there were few birds in the woods, but I noticed small groups of warblers milling about overhead near the point. Most eventually headed south presumably back to OH, though some turned around and decided to stay at Pelee. Must be a daunting experience for those little birds to embark on such a long flight south when all they can see when they leave Pelee is water.
I added 5 more birds as I worked my way north back to the tram stop, the best of which was a Connecticut Warbler that gave me fleeting glimpses. I also walked to the Sparrow Field and back adding 4 more including a Thrasher at the field. Although it was slow birding there were some migrants here and there – it just took some work. Back at the visitor center I took the Shuster and Tilden Woods trails and added a few more species. Before I left this area I took this picture of a map of Canada showing how far south Pelee is compared to the rest of the country.
Then off to the DeLaurier trail where I did not find the Prothonotary’s seen there the day before. One last stop for a “sea watch” of sorts yielded 4 Black Terns. I left the park mid-afternoon with 17 new birds for my province list, and 14 warbler species. The surprise of the day was the high number of Philadelphia Vireos – I counted at least 11 birds during the day, after having just 1 in the previous 2 days at Magee.
I decided to head back to Hillman to see if the shorebirds were different from the previous day. Amazingly there were no Black-bellies at all (after at least 4,000 the day before), and a few more Dunlins, but nothing new. Though I did add Blue-winged Teal to my list. My last planned stop was at Wheatley Provincial Park where some good woodland, marsh, and night birds had been reported recently on e-bird. I arrived at 7 hoping to spend an hour before sunset and then try for night birds. Unfortunately they wanted to charge me $14 as a day use fee to come in (expensive no matter which currency you were dealing with), so I decided some extra sleep might be a better choice. The last bird of the day was a calling Sora just after I left the park. That gave me 89 species for the day, including 19 new ones for ON.
Day 4 – Point Pelee then off to Grayling, MI
Weather – Highs in the 80s, with an afternoon front with strong storms, ushering in colder weather.
My plan was to get to the park when it opened at 6, and head right to the marsh boardwalk to try for marsh birds before taking the first tram at 7. But before I got to the park I heard a nearby “peent” of a Woodcock, and a calling Pheasant as new ON birds – a nice start of the day. The marsh boardwalk went through some very nice cattail habitat, though I did not get anything new for my list. The highlight was a large flock of nesting Black Terns, which were very tame. I got this picture of a most cooperative bird by holding my phone up to my binocs.
Birding at the tip was much slower than the day before, though the Little Gull was still present. There were only a few migrants and nothing new. I got back to the tram parking lot pretty early and decided to head out of the park en route to Michigan. But along the way I decided to just drive north through the park very slowly and listen for song along the way. This strategy proved to be productive as I added 3 more province birds en route. The first was a singing Canada Warbler – wouldn’t it have been ironic to come to Pelee and not see a CANADA Warbler? Later I found a singing late Parula Warbler. And just before exiting the park I found a singing Prothonotary – that’s a good bird for Pelee. As I exited the park a line of black, angry clouds were approaching fast. And when I saw rotation in the clouds practically right above me, I decided this was a good time to head north to MI.
I ended up with 104 species in ON including 17 warblers. And I added 34 new ones for my ON list which is now at 181. My Canada total is now up to 217 - I'm afraid I've never made birding in Canada much of a priority.
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