Fourteen PBCers were fortunate to have had a gorgeous day to celebrate IMBD on Saturday! We headed off to Long Point to enjoy the spring migration and find some good birds. Our biggest disappointment of the day came early, fortunately, and we put it behind us quickly and then it was all downhill for the rest of the day. I am of course referring to the fact that David Sibley was not in attendance at Long Point, it also seemed that it was surprising news only to us! He had apparently decided to celebrate IMBD somewhere in Michigan, which was fine but I let someone on the BSC Board of Directors know that it would have been nice to let “everyone” know about this! Oh well, we had an excellent day without him!
Our first stop was along Concession 3 at the north end of the Backus Heritage Conserv. Area where we heard vigorously singing Blue-winged Warblers and Rose-br. Grosbeaks. We walked a boardwalk trail south from the roadside and had superb views of Great-cr. Flycatcher and Yellow-thr. Vireo as well as Blue-Gray Gnatctacher and Eastern Phoebe. A little further down the road we found Baltimore Oriole, Indigo Bunting, and Wood Duck. We moved on to Old Cut where it was relatively quiet at around 1030am. Rumours of Yellow-hded. Blackbird and Sedge Wren persisted but we opted to move on instead of waiting around to find them. Before leaving we did get great looks at an American Redstart and a Black-thr.Green Warbler and brief glimpses of Wood Thrush and Blackburnian Warbler. Near Austen Parkway we looked for a Y-H. Blackbird but instead settled for a singing Northern Parula Warbler, nesting Purple Martins, and more good looks at both Yellow-thr.Vireo and Great-cr. Flycatcher. In the well known overflow campground of the park, the birding was also somewhat slow but we still managed to find several very good birds. They included Black-thr. Blue, Nashville, Palm, Yellow-rumped, Chestnut-sided, and Black-and-White Warblers, Gray Catbird, White-cr Sparrow, and Brown Thrasher. But the best bird here was found by Mohammed in his characteristically quiet yet determined way, a sparkling male Canada Warbler! Most folks had exceptional views, a life bird for a few, before it slipped off into the underbrush.
We then realized it was after noon and we were hungry so we headed to the nearest restaurant to get some nourishment before resuming our birding. After lunch we stopped at the BSC HQ pond where neither Willet or Little Blue Heron were found but we did get Green Heron, Eastern Kingbird, Bank, Rough-winged and Tree Swallows, and Lesser and Semipalmated Sandpipers. An apparently injured Bufflehead was resting on the bank of the pond as well. We moved on to the Wilson Tract area from here where we got both Eastern Bluebird and Savannah Sparrow along the way. We walked one of the woodland trails into the tract but found it to be very quiet in the early afternoon. I heard a very sharp chip note near where a large tree was down at a junction between the creek and the trail and our hopes were buoyed for a pleasant surprise. Sure enough, we had great looks at a singing and bobbing Louisiana Waterthrush, what a treat! Another La. Waterthrush then sang a bit deeper in the woods and the first one promptly gave chase and they put on a nice territorial squabble for us to enjoy. We then bumped into a few friendly local birders who took us to a nearby property to look for sparrows. Rufous-sided Towhees were numerous here but we dipped on Grasshopper Sparrow and only heard a distant singing Field Sparrow for our efforts. We were still very grateful for having been shown yet another good birding spot in the area and extended our gratitude before heading on to Concession 4 and the north Backus Woods area.
Again it was fairly quiet in terms of bird song along the way but we parked at the junction of the N/S road with Conc. 4 and started walking north towards the big pond area. Just as we arrived at the pond site we heard both a Scarlet Tanager and a Cerulean Warbler singing away. After some intense searching in the treetops most folks had very good views of the Scarlet Tanager, a gorgeous bright red bird with velvety black wings. The Cerulean Warbler was of course in the highest White Oak in the vicinity but fortunately the leafy canopy was still sparse this early in the spring for easier spotting and the tree it was in was right beside the road. The brilliant cerulean blue of its plumage was hard to discern at that height but nearly everyone got to see the diagnostic chin-strap across its lower throat while it was singing and foraging in the upper canopy. As a bonus we heard a Pileated Woodpecker call and then drum loudly for a few seconds to let us know it was in the neighborhood as well.
We then started heading NE to go home but not before making a few more strategic stops along the way to add a few more species to the day’s birding total. At the end of the day we had 95 species, a pretty good total, and since it was not our Birdathon day we decided to give everyone else a break and call it a day even though there was still lots of daylight left (at around 6pm) to find more birds! Of this 95 species of birds, 18 of them were warbler species and it is also worth noting that we found 5 out of 6 possible eastern vireo species during the course of the day. A very special thank you goes out to Madeleine and David of the Birds and Beans Café on Lakeshore Road in Etobicoke who provided a lovely gift basket of bird friendly coffee, chocolate, and a beautiful hand-made set of cups and plates as a gift for the finder of the mystery “migrant bird of the day” to help us celebrate IMBD. We presented it to Muhammad for finding and identifying the Canada Warbler on his own in the overflow campground. Be sure to visit Birds and Beans for your coffee and chocolate needs, they also love to hear your birding stories! A special thanks to Darlene for her recent Birdathon contribution, our total now is just over $250! Believe it or not, the birding next weekend should be even better, hope to see you then! Brete
