Spring Migration at Point Pelee Part II

Always An Adventure was this year hired by Road Scholar Canada / Routes to Learning to guide two back-to-back trips to Point Pelee for spring migration 2012. Besides Point Pelee, Ontario’s Birding Hot Spot, we made stops at Long Point and Rondeau Provincial Parks. Each tour lasted 5 days and occurred during the peak of spring migration. Here is the entry for trip #2. Total trip list contains both seen and heard.

Scarlet Tanager

Scenery at Point Pelee Marsh

Big Creek, Long Point

Big Creek, Long Point

Blackburnian Warbler at Long Point

Killdeer protecting its eggs, at Rondeau

TOUR II:

14-19 May 2012

The itinerary of this tour was identical to the previous tour that took place the week before (see previous BLOG entry).

But, we birders follow the birds, so we made a few minor changes to the program. Again, the group contained participants from USA and Canada.

The first full day started in bright sunshine at St. Williams Reserve where we had good looks at a Blue-winged Warbler. At Bird Studies Canada, Port Rowan, we had Willow Flycatcher and a female Wood Duck with chicks. At Old Cut Field Station we had several warblers including a very cooperative Blackburnian. We had several excellent birds at our picnic stop, including a pair of Northern Parulas, Scarlet Tanager and Brown Thrasher. At Wilson Tract we experienced Hooded Warbler, Black-billed Cuckoo, Eastern Bluebird, Grasshopper & Vesper Sparrows. The next morning, we headed for Rondeau. The Tufted Titmouse was still coming to the Visitors Center feeder. At the South Point Trail we had a female Blue Grosbeak (rare for Ontario), Philadelphia Vireo, Magnolia Warbler and hundreds of Bonaparte’s Gulls.

The following day we started at St. Clair Wetlands where we had Least Bittern, Marsh Wren, Swamp Sparrow and American Coot. At Point Pelee, the female Prothonotary Warbler was still working on her nest with the male lurking in the background. Other highlights of the day were a thousand of Black-bellied Plovers, Great Egret and Ruddy Turnstone at Hillman Marsh.

The last day was entirely in Point Pelee Park. Where we had a steady stream of warblers, orioles, and other song birds. Some of the highlights included Mourning, Canada, Tennessee and Cape May Warblers. A highlight for everyone was an extremely cooperative Rufous Morph Eastern Screetch Owl. Our total trip-list came to 145 species of birds.

Marsh Wren

Scenery from Rondeau

Field Sparrow at Point Pelee

Point Pelee

Point Pelee

Getting out to the tip!

At the tip; mostly Ring-billed & Herring Gulls

Our group at the tip

DigiScoped Rufous morph Eastern Screech-Owl at Point Pelee

Until next time...

Nina Stavlund

Nina is Norwegian by blood, an extensive world traveler, and is now living in Ottawa, Canada. She's also a passionate birder and nature lover, and has logged hundreds of hours birding the last couple of years. She's a professional photographer, graduated from "Bilder Nordic School of Photography" in Oslo, Norway. Her award winning work appears in many catalogs, magazines, postcards, websites, calendars and more. Nina, & her husband Tony Beck, offer local excursions, international tours and photographic services through their company "Always An Adventure". Nina & Tony have lead tours together to Costa Rica, Southern Ontario and Atlantic Canada. Nina also conducts photography and photo editing courses.

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