Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Pelee day by day bird sightings

Here's a quick rundown of my pelee trip:


Thurs 15th:   Stormy in the morning, sunny + HEAT in afternoon

Tip: All 3 scoters, 100+ GW Teal, 5 N Shovelers, 1 Tree Swallow, 200+ Bufflehead. 4000ish RB Mergies

Hillman marsh: Sat in a lawn chair in the sun for 2+ hours near the front gate.. Tried to not fall asleep. Then I did a bit of a workout and ran the marsh trail. Then saw:

40ish Tree Swallows
Bald Eagle
Great Blue Heron
2 Blue-winged Teal
100 Green-winged Teal
180 Shovellers
40 A Wigeon
200 Gadwall
25 Redhead
25 Ring-necked Ducks
200 Scaup
200 Common Mergansers

Highlight at Hillman Marsh was 75% of a Common Teal ... It looks like a darn good Common Teal, other than that faint Green-winged Teal bar on the side... Will have to post some pics I took later...

The fields north of the park:

1000ish Canada Geese, 1 Lesser BB Gull, 500 Bonaparte's, 3 Harriers, 2 GB Herons, and a Sandhill Crane




Fri 16th:  warrrmmm


Birds flying south off the tip : Phoebe, 2 Flickers, 2 Cardinals, 3 Bluebirds, 2 Surf Scoters, WB Nuthatch, A. Crow, GB Heron, 6 Wood Ducks, Downy Woodpecker, 30 House Finch, 15 House Sparr's,

Other tip birds: Carolina Wren, 2 phoebes, 70 GC Kinglets, 7 Song sparr's, Brown Creeper....

Woodland Nature Trail: 2 Purple Finch, Sandhill crane(heard), Cooper's Hawk, Red-bellied woodpeckers, flickers

Spent an hour in a lawn chair on the west beach... Did another decent workout and had a good run from the west beach to the tip and back!



Sat 17th: fogggggy 

Tip reverse birds: 2 Meadowlarks, 6 Horned Larks, 4 T Vultures, 2 Phoebes, Tree swalllow, Cooper's Hawk, Harrier, 2 Flickers, Downy Woodpecker, Bluebird, Greater Yellowlegs, Rusty Blackbirds, 2 Cardinals, .... Also had 2 surf Scoters, Carolina Wren and some migrant crows.

Sparrow Field: 3 Red-tailed + 1 Rough-legged Hawks, 8 Vultures, 1 Coopers, 1 Harrier....

Shuster's trail: 12 Yellow-rumped Warbs (wintering), Pine Siskin...

Sat on west beach again in lawn chair for ~1 hour... Hoped to do similar positive workout + run to the tip and back... Yet today was much more painful....

Visitors Centre: Great Horned Owl calling in the fog around 6pm

North Dike in the fog: 2 Ring-necked Pheasants, 1 Northern Mockingbird




Sun 18th: the last day


Tip: very slow...

North Dike: 2 Seperate Ross's Geese (in different Canada Goose flocks) flying into the Pelee marsh from the north. The same two that had been sporadically seen for a while. + A Lesser Black-backed Gull

Hillman: Bald Eagle, Harrier, Rough-legged + Cooper's Hawks... Lots of ducks (30 Wigeon, 4 BW Teal, 200 GW teal, 100 Gadwall, 150 N Shoveler's, Hooded Merganser

Highlight was a Pink-sided Junco at the start of the shorebird cell... I was extremely happy with this bird, as I've always studied my Junco's... But this bird was one of those momments where it was totally unexpected and happened like I would never have thought.. I HEARD the bird chipping, and had no idea what it was... Even though I had heard 100+ Juncos that morning around the point, it was distinctly different to my ear... I first spotted the bird with my eyes, and my initial split-second guess was a Tufted Titmouse... Since it was an odd noise, and the bird was a pale gray with pink/orange sides, makes sense right? Well it turns out it was a Junco...   I did a sketch within the hour, and I plan on scanning it and posting here sometime in the future... And yes, I did not get any photos

Wheatley Harbour --- dead..

Tried to do a run/jog in the evening but was burnt out! It was painful...

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It was a great relaxing trip. Will post about some non-bird things again soon. Just wanted to get this out while it made some sense...

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