Once again, I will start off with the donation link, click the pic below to donate to Bird Studies Canada and the Pelee Island Bird Observatory (donations greater than $10 receive a tax receipt!)
So the 2017 Birdathon day was May 19th! We had rented a cottage for the week near Point Pelee (right across the road from Birdie’s Perch, in fact… oh those perch po’boys are sooooo good) and after careful consideration of the weather forecast, we decided that Friday was going to be the day. The alarm went off super early and our count officially started at 5:45am. The first bird of the day: an American Robin singing its heart out just outside the cottage. We listened and watched around the cottage for a while, picking up 15 species before heading off to Point Pelee National Park.
We arrived in the Park around 6:40. We pulled off the road briefly at the Sanctuary parking area to have a look around. Another 14 species were added to the list before we decided that there were too many mosquitoes and it was time to move on!
Ready to go! Got the t-shirt and everything!
We started on the Woodland Trail a few minutes after 7am. The forest was not super active, but there were some nice birds around. It was really great to see the Prothonotary Warblers in the swampy areas. This was the first time I’d seen this bird outside of Pelee Island. This species is classified as Endangered in Ontario so it’s wonderful to find them nesting! We arrived at the tram stop shortly after 9am, having added another 22 species to the list, bringing our total to 51 so far.
At the tip, of course the first bird we saw there was a Barn Swallow! I love those guys. They nest under the pavilion there and are always swooping all over, right past your head.
Barn Swallow
Some highlights from the Tip include Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo that was very nearly impossible to spot. There were no shorebirds or gulls at the Tip because… there was no Tip! The water level in the lake was so high that there was no spit to be seen.
We arrived back at the Visitor Centre around 10:40am. We paused for a quick break under the Festival of Birds tents and were entertained by a very bold Red-winged Blackbird looking for a snack. There are signs everywhere saying not to feed the wildlife but I’ll admit, I might have given him a tiny piece of my apple because he was just so damn cute. Heading back to the car, we were treated to the sight of some soaring Turkey Vultures and a rather scruffy-looking Cooper’s Hawk. Species total so far? 64.
We hit up the Tilden Woods trail starting at 11am. There were lots of birds in the woods, but it was getting harder to find NEW species. But there was a beautiful Eastern Bluebird right near the start of the trail, and deeper in the forest we saw an amazing male Scarlet Tanager (even though that was not a new species for the list, we had seen a female earlier in the day near the Tip). We decided to head out of the Park to find some lunch, stopping briefly at the little marsh lookout along the road where we finally found a Blue Heron, bringing the list up to 70 species before lunch. Not bad?
After a big lunch at Freddy’s it was onward to Hillman Marsh, which is THE place to go if you want to find shorebirds. And we wanted to find shorebirds!! We had bought a spotting scope just the day before and were eager to try it out.
Dunlin
We found lots of great shorebirds at the Marsh, including Whimbrels and a White-rumped Sandpiper which was the subject of much debate among the more experienced birders. The spotting scope was really great, and helped us to actually identify lots of the shorebirds ourselves… our shorebird ID skills are not well-developed, but we’re learning. There were also a pair of American Wigeons and Northern Shovelers.
A flock of Bird Nerds at Hillman Marsh
After spending a fair bit of time at Hillman Marsh, our species list was up to 86. We headed back to the cottage for a much-needed beer break, where we were treated to the sight of a pair of Spotted Sandpipers appearing on the lakeside rocks right in front of the cottage!
Spotted Sandpiper
We headed for an early dinner in Leamington, after which it started to rain which really put a damper on our remaining plans. We had wanted to go to the Deslaurier Homestead trail (around sunset, to hopefully find some Woodcocks) and maybe a couple of other places… but as it was, we drove back into the park and quickly visited the Marsh Boardwalk and stood in the miserable cold wet wind for long enough to see a Wood Duck fly overhead. That was, unfortunately, the end of our Birdathon at that point, with a total of 88 species. A new record for us! It’s too bad we didn’t make it to 100, though. If we’d been able to do our rained-out plans AND if we’d found a couple of notable absences (for instance, we tried really hard to find either a Northern Flicker or House Finch but there just wasn’t one around) we might have made it to 100. Maybe next year!!
Here is the entire species list, in order:
- American Robin
- Mallard
- Tree Swallow
- Herring Gull
- Ring-billed Gull
- Red-winged Blackbird
- European Starling
- House Sparrow
- Purple Martin
- Common Grackle
- Killdeer
- Mourning Dove
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Northern Cardinal
- Canada Goose
- Yellow Warbler
- Cedar Waxwing
- Eastern Wood-Pewee
- Common Yellowthroat
- Baltimore Oriole
- Great Crested Flycatcher
- Hermit Thrush
- Red-eyed Vireo
- Wild Turkey
- Warbling Vireo
- Blue Jay
- Eastern Kingbird
- Gray Catbird
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
- Blackburnian Warbler
- House Wren
- Veery
- American Redstart
- Tennessee Warbler
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Swainson’s Thrush
- Chestnut-sided Warbler
- Prothonotary Warbler
- Bay-breasted Warbler
- Magnolia Warbler
- Canada Warbler
- Wilson’s Warbler
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak
- Blackpoll Warbler
- American Crow
- Downy Woodpecker
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- Cape May Warbler
- Orchard Oriole
- Barn Swallow
- Chimney Swift
- Eastern Phoebe
- American Goldfinch
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird
- Willow Flycatcher
- Indigo Bunting
- Scarlet Tanager
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Yellow-billed Cuckoo
- Red-breasted Merganser
- Turkey Vulture
- Cooper’s Hawk
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Broad-winged Hawk
- Eastern Bluebird
- Black and White Warbler
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Blue Heron
- Song Sparrow
- Great Egret
- Chipping Sparrow
- Dunlin
- Black-bellied Plover
- American Wigeon
- Northern Shoveler
- Semipalmated Plover
- Ruddy Turnstone
- Lesser Yellowlegs
- Northern Rough-winged Swallow
- Semipalmated Sandpiper
- Short-billed Dowitcher
- Common Tern
- Bonaparte’s Gull
- White-rumped Sandpiper
- Whimbrel
- Least Sandpiper
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Wood Duck
Adventures of a Bird Nerd 
Leave a comment