Point Pelee National Park

 

We missed our alarm clock this morning and had to hustle to get to our 7 am guided tour this morning,, only to discover we were half an hour early.

Our guide was a professional bird guide and he kept us entertained while finding many birds though he said it was getting difficult as the trees were leafing out early and the heat was keeping them high in the canopy.

Common Yellowthroat

We didn't see any lifers today as neither of us saw the yellow-bellied flycatcher he found us.  Surprise, it looks like all the other flycatchers!  

He led us to the screech owl we saw yesterday, and also pointed out another gnatcatcher nest.

The highlight of the day was when a group of 6 cowbirds, 1 female, 5 males,  mobbed the nest.  The gnatcatchers spouse showed up and chased them off.

This is the second time in the park we've seen a group with one female and multiple males. Yesterday just one of the males was doing the courtship thing so my theory is the surplus males are there to distract the gnatcatcher from the nest so the female cowbird can slip the egg in? (Cowbirds don't raise their own young. They slip them into another species' nest. Then the big cowbird chick outcompetes its smaller stepsiblings and eats all the food.)

Brown Cowbird

Despite no lifers Leo got some good photos.  Spot the bird nest:

Spot the yellow warbler:

Here's a least flycatcher:

In the afternoon we walked some new trails

Past the old homestead.  There were a ton of Mennonites out for a Sunday picnic.  Here are two checking out the homestead.

What's so historic about this? Looks like home.  I kid. They all came in pickups.

We checked out a meadow with a cactus patch.  News to me.  I thought prickly pear was confined to western North America.

Not the healthiest.  Probably wished they were in arid Arizona.

We saw a cool toad.

And a very attractive leopard frog.

Birding Point Pelee National Park and camping at Wheatley Provincial Park

Driving into Point Pelee National Park through a green tunnel of deciduous trees, the road was lined with pale blue flowers as far as we could see.

It seemed like there was a lot of Virginia Creeper in the park, then it dawned on me.  Virginia creeper must be native to Virginia, and thus also to the Carolinian forest of Southern Ontario (duh).

The trails were also lined with blue flowers.

Blue flowers!

Closeup

We walked the redbud trail.  We've seen redbud flowering in February in Florida, April in the Grand Canyon, and now May in Ontario.

Redbud!

The morning started off slow at first but after an hour the birds started flying in. Cedar waxwings and yellow warblers were especially numerous. 

Ubiquitous yellow warbler

With the birds came the birders. And the mosquitos.

Saw another rose-breasted grosbeak

Someone pointed out a common nighthawk resting on a branch.

Also this eastern screech owl we never would have seen if it wasn't pointed out to us.

The highlight of the day was a black-billed cuckoo, a lifer and the Bird of the Day.  It was high up in the canopy and hiding in the foliage so, alas, no photo.

Some sapsucker really did a number on this tree:

We also saw this Orchard oriole near the visitor centre.  We've seen these before, in Mexico and the southern US.

Another lifer today was the prothonatary warbler, endangered in Canada because it's habitat in southern Ontario is in short supply. Most of the swamps have been drained for agriculture and housing,  Apparently there are only 200 breeding pairs in Ontario, but once you recognize their habitat they are easy to find as they they tend to hang out at eye level.

Looking for the prothonatary warbler

By 3 pm we were all birded out, and it was time to check in at Wheatley Provincial Park (Point Pelee has no campsites).

Our sweet spot in Wheatley Provincial Park

Our site was both secluded and a short walk from the bathrooms.

In the evening we walked down to the beach, over a long pedestrian bridge crossing a creek.  Here people were fishing for catfish and carp.  We walked down a long spit through numerous hatches of gnats.  At the end we found our first shorebirds, ruddy turnstones and semi-palmated plovers.

Nice beach!

On to Point Pelee - No Room at the Inn

 It was Saturday of the Victoria Day weekend, and there were no camping sites available at any of the provincial parks.  After our successful day of birding we headed off to Leamington, Ontario, following the shoreline of Lake Erie.  At one point the road had eroded into the lake and we detoured past a very large greenhouse operation.

Greenhouses and fog

We stopped off at Wheatley Provincial Park to see if they had any cancellations -- they did not--so we headed to the town of Leamington where we had two options:  Walmart or the parking lot of the city marina.

We stopped to check out a laundromat. It was out of business but look what we found in the parking lot!

A kildeer and its chicks

Doesn't get any cuter than this!

We parked at the marina and walked along the shore.

Here we saw the usual city birds and this alder flycatcher in bush beside the sidewalk.

We were fine camping in the marina parking lot.  There was another van parked near us, but that was it.  We never did see any homeless people or people living in their cars in the Lake Erie area.

After dark there was a lengthy firework display for Victoria Day, the parking lot emptied out soon after.

Last Day in Longpoint

On our last day in Longpoint we returned to the Old Cut Observatory.  It's right next to the Old Cut Lighthouse.  The area around the lighthouse has long since silted in and it's now surrounded by houses. In fact it's now a private home.

The Observatory was celebrating its annual birdathon and the director was leading a bird walk.  He was amazing in his ability to single out individual birdsong from the cacophony and then suss out the bird.  We saw a ton of stuff, including chimney swift (lifer!), Blackburnian and black-and-white warbler.  The highlight was this blue-gray gnatcatcher nest made of lichens, complete with gnatcatcher.

Spot the gnatcatcher nest!

We staked out the parking lot birch tree again, slower today but we spotted a scarlet tanager.

Leo also spotted a Canada warbler, Lifer!

Then it was back to the beautiful Backus Woods.

We went back to the open meadow where we saw the golden-winged warbler.  

Here we had our first glimpse of an indigo bunting. Lifer!

The light wasn't great but it's evidence.

We checked for Louisiana waterthrush in this waterthrush habitat.

No luck with the waterthrush but we did find lots of mosquitos and lots of

Eastern skunk cabbage.  Unfortunately not flowering yet.  Plant of the Day!

And some pretty mushrooms.

On our way back we visited the open meadow again. We played both the golden-winged and blue-winged songs and this time we brought in the blue-winged warbler. 

Lifer!

 

Birding the Longpoint Birding Trail

 

Longpoint Campground was full of catbirds.

The next day we were woken at 5 am by a woodcock calling! Later we met a local in the campground who told us that the birds fly into the point at dawn, then up to the campground at eight. Later they get to the Observatory and then further inland.

So we followed his advice and birded the campground for a few hours.

Saw this Kildeer

Merlin said a rose-breasted grosbeak was singing so we called it in.

Voila, lifer!

Next we headed to the  Old Cut Observatory, 

Where the public can watch them band birds, but there was not much action, we had arrived too late.

So we moved further inland to Big Creek Marsh

 where we saw sandhill cranes, black tern, a green heron,

A mute swan,

And a turtle.

We also saw two cinnamon teals, which we thought was no big deal since they are pretty common at home but later found out were rare here.

We continued on to a few sites in the afternoon but by then the birds were hiding in the trees.

The next morning we got up early and headed straight to the banding station.  The place was humming as the volunteers brought in warbler after warbler to be measured and banded.

Measuring a yellow warbler

After measurement they'd bring the bird to the window so we could get a closeup look.

Magnolia warbler in the hand.

They had a volunteer photographer who took their portraits.

Chestnut-sided warbler sits for his portrait

Someone told us there was an eagle nest visible from the parking lot. So before we left we checked it out.

Eagle nest

We wound up sitting under a busy birch tree for over an hour for some of the best birding of our trip.

Here's what we saw in the parking lot:  yellow, magnolia, blackpoll, chestnut-sided, bay-breasted warbler, American redstart, red-eyed video, housewares, catbirds on their nest, cedar waxwings, Swainson's thrush,  common grackle.

Our next stop was Backus Woods, a small section of undisturbed Carolinian forest.  It was quite magical, our favorite place of our trip, despite the rain and mosquitos.

Oh, the wonder!

We ran into a couple of young birders, who called up a hooded warbler.

Haven't seen one of these since 1999 in Mexico!

They told us to check out a trail through a meadow where they'd seen a blue-winged warbler.  We played the blue-winged warbler song and out popped 

Lifer!  And the Bird of the day!

Not a blue-winged but a golden-winged warbler.  It turns out blue-winged and golden-winged warblers "hybridized extensively" so I guess she was just looking for a little interspecific action.

On the south side of Backus Woods was the Backus Heritage Area.  The rain was coming down a little heavily to really explore the heritage so we settled for a photo of the old mill and headed back to camp.