Good evening.
Today Alfred Adamo and I motored down to the Long Point Area for a day of late fall birding and during the pleasant (windless) day we found 90 species of birds, not a bad haul as migration winds down. The area is still well worth while checking out in the next week as a lot of the birds, especially the waterfowl have still not peaked.
We spent most of our time in Long Point Provincial Park before checking out a few other places in the area and following are some of the highlights of our trip.
We found 25 Waterfowl species, including C. Loons, 30 Pied-billed Grebes, Tundra Swans, 5000+ American Wigeon, 6000+ Greater Scaup, 300+ Ruddy Ducks, and 5000+ American Coots, a late Osprey, Bald Eagle, 2 Merlin, both with prey, Wild Turkey, 7 Sandhill Cranes, Little Gull, 2 Forster's Terns, 6 Woodpecker species including a juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker and 4 Red-bellied Woodpeckers (very vocal), Tree Swallow, 2 Carolina Wrens, 20+ Eastern Bluebirds, 48 Hermit Thrushes, 3 Gray Catbirds, American Pipits, an Orange-crowned Warbler, 11 Sparrow species including Eastern Towhee, 15+ A. Tree Sparrows, Vesper Sparrow, 27 Field Sparrows, many, many Dark-eyed Juncos, and 16 Fox Sparrows, 21 Snow Buntings in 1 flock, many thousands of Blackbirds including Rusty Blackbirds.
The Tundra Swans and Sandhill Cranes were in Big Creek Marsh seen from the roadside viewing platform. The Little Gull and Forster's Terns were seen at Turkey Point.
