Sorry
about the late postings but I have been quite busy lately.
May 29th Tuesday morning May 29th Ian Cannell picked up Jay Peterson and myself and off we went to the Long Point area for a day of birding and we picked a beautiful day for it
.
We arrived at the LARK SPARROW site early and we were lucky enough to find 2 of these nice birds (See below for directions). After watching and listening to these birds for awhile it was off to some serious birding and below are some of the 106 species we found despite the very low number of Waterfowl and Shorebird species.
Green Heron, Wood Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Ruddy Duck, 2 Bald Eagles, Sharp-shinned, Cooper's and a Kettlete of 3 Red-shouldered Hawks putting on a show as they wheeled and dove on each other. Wild Turkey, Sandhill Crane,
Black Tern, 8 Black-billed Cuckoos (some as close as 8 feet), 2 Yellow-billed Cuckoos, 2 Eastern Screech Owls, 1 of them right above our heads as it checked us out. We actually had stereo Screech Owls a one was calling on each side of us. Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Pileated Woodpecker, lots of Eastern Wood Pewees and Great Crested Flycatchers, 5 Swallow species, Carolina Wren, Marsh Wren, House Wren, a surprise Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blue Gray Gnatcatcher, several Eastern Bluebirds, Blue-headed and 4 Yellow-throated Vireos as well as a ton of Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos, 16 Warbler species including 1 singing Prothonatory, 8 Cerulean, 19 Hooded, 2 Mourning, 4 Blue-winged and 1 Golden-winged Warbler. These were the easy Warblers and we had to dig to find ones like Wilson, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided and Blackburnian Warblers. 8 Sparrow species including a bunch of Eastern Towhees, some in our face and all singing and calling, Field, Vesper, Swamp and LARK Sparrows, Scarlet Tanagers, Bobolinks and Eastern Meadowlarks.
It was a very satisfying trip with constant singing after it warmed up in the morning and for you Butterfly folks we did see many Butterflies of some type or another and we also saw a Mink (plus a baby (eyes still closed) one being taken care of at Old Cut), Deer, Muskrats, etc., etc. The birds didn't stop until it got too dark for us and we headed for home.
May 31st On Thursday May 31st Naish McHugh picked me up in Toronto and we motored on down to the Long Point area and on the way we stopped at Kitchen Road just south of Simcoe (south of Radical Rd) where we found Song, Vesper, Field, Chipping, Savannah and Grasshopper Sparrows along with E. Meadowlarks and Bobolinks. We next stopped off to see the LARK SPARROWS.
We watched the Lark Sparrows for awhile where we met Bob Noble who birded with us for the morning before he had to leave to attend to business. We headed off and again dipped on the Prairie Warbler but while Bob was with us we did find Both Cuckoos, 2 Blue-winged Warblers as well as Mourning, Pine, Yellow-rumped, and Hooded Warblers. A surprise find was a Clay-colored Sparrow and we also heard singing and calling Towhees, Field Sparrows, Scarlet Tanagers, Indigo Buntings, Great-crested Flycatchers and many Ovenbirds and Chipping Sparrows.
After Bob left us we continued on to the next area in our plan and we added 2 Screech Owls, 3 Pileated Woodpeckers, 3 Red-bellied Woodpeckers, 1 Y-B. Sapsucker and a Hairy Woodpecker, many Great-crested Flycatchers, Red-eyed Vireos, 3 E. Wood Pewees, 3 Yellow-throated Vireos, 9 Wood Thrushes (including an active nest), singing Veerys, 19 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, 7 Scarlet Tanagers, and in the Warbler world we found many Ovenbirds, 9 Hooded, 2 Pine, 3 Black-throated Green, 1 Mourning, and 2 Louisiana Waterthrush. A surprise after Tuesdays 8 Cerulean Warblers is that we never even heard a chip from any of them in the very same area and the Prothonotary Warbler was not co-operative either but I am not complaining.
It was another great day to be out and we only had a sprinkling of rain in the afternoon that barely made it through the canopy. We may have only had 78 species but what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality as far as we were concerned.
DIRECTIONS:-
LONG POINT AREA - CENTERED ON PORT ROWAN Port Rowan is southwest of Hamilton, to reach it you can drive south on Hwy 6 from Hamilton, passing through Hagersville and turning right, west in Jarvis onto Hwy 3, drive to Simcoe and turn left, south on Hwy 24 and follow this to Hwy 59, ( it curves to the west south of Simcoe ).
The woodlots, fields, marshes etc. are north, south, east and west of the town and are are great places to study Mosquitoes close up
.
LARK SPARROWS These Sparrows are at Walsingham East Quarter Line Road and Hwy 24, one concession west of Forestry Farm Road or one concession east of Hwy 59. The birds were right at the northwest corner of the intersection and about 500 yards north of Hwy 24 and were singing constantly.
