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!