Waders...

...sorry, shorebirds were starting to appear today - a walk round the point before the start of the count produced superb close views of 6 Dunlin, 1 Sanderling, 2 Piping Plover and 1 Spotted Sandpiper. 4 Whimbrel flew through mid-count. A shorebird flew over giving an unusual, quick 4 note wi-wi-wi-wi call; this is a close match for the description of Upland Sandpiper, though of course we'll never know what it was!
A warm welcome to the team again for Phil Chu; i know he needs no introduction to many of our visitors and was greeting old acquaintances as soon as he arrived. Phil will be helping out with the waterbird count for the next couple of weeks as usual. And he got off to a nice start by spotting a Black Tern, a great point bird and just totally stunning! Conditions were cloudier today and there were fewer duck; whether the two are somehow related i have no idea.

5/21/10 - Best day for Long Tails...

... with 501. Also 193 White Winged Scoters. Back home we call them "Velvet Scoters" - i wonder why? 4 Surf Scoters were nice to see. A light passage of gulls was again evident, and another tern was seen mid-range; darkish tones in the plumage suggest Common, as do the short tail streamers. 2 Piping Plovers were again present, though no sign of any nest scraping as yet. Two pairs have been located at Vermilion Point according to the guys there. Nice to see 2 male and 1 female Bobolink over the shack first thing, plus Magnolia Warbler in the nearest tree and male Scarlet Tanager shooting through, thanks to another "heads up" on the walkie-talkie!

A good count of Red Throated Loons today with 41. One Osprey and one Great Blue Heron, and another afternoon gull passage involved 8 Bonapartes, and about 90 each of Herring and Ring Billed.
The forecast is for the winds to turn much more to the south for the next few days. This could really open the floodgates... Interestingly i narrowly missed a Yellow Headed Blackbird in with the Blue Jay flock whilst i was trying to relocate a reported Henslows Sparrow, potentially a first for the Point. I wonder if things are starting to hot up.

Tern tern tern

The clear skies and calm conditions continue unabated. Over 230 each of L T Duck and W W Scoter flew by, 140 R B Merganser, and 20 R T Loon. Towards the end of the count a steady passage of approx 50 Herring and Ring Billed Gulls was evident. One Piping plover was present. Highlight was about 3 groups of terns going through mid-distance first thing totalling 38. I am familiar with Common and Arctic which breed in N Wales where i live. They were silhouetted against the light so plumage features could not be discerned but they had tail streamers the length of Arctics. This is a pelagic species which tends to migrate up the east and west coasts; the other species with long tail streamers is Forsters which is a scarce but regular migrant, usually in small numbers. Interestingly i had a lone tern three days ago with long tail streamers; i noted at the time that its' call was "unlike Common".
One Red Necked Grebe was the first for many days.

Pileated Woody

White Winged Scoter and Long Tailed Duck continue in good numbers, with 134 and 316 respectively. Bonapartes Gull numbered 42, loons 202 inc 23 Red Throated. A Piping Plover was again present and a Pileated Woodpecker was seen over the pines behind the shack.
One of the nice things of the last few days has been the continual presence of migrating birds. If the waterbirds ever stop moving, passerines are continually present overhead, inc an impressive flock of approx 1000 Blue Jays. Bluebirds, Kingbirds, pipits, Horned Larks, sparrows and warblers are also continually on the move.

Shorebirds picking up

The last 2 or 3 days have seen a definite increase in shorebirds. Highlight today was a group of 35 Short Billed Dowitchers (luckily they were calling) which we picked up flying over the trees behind the shack just as Chris radio'ed to say he'd seen them from near the car park. The other highlight was cracking views of a 2nd calendar-year Goshawk which flew right over our heads and out over the lake, before being mobbed by a Herring Gull and heading back in over the harbour. Wasn't able to get on the Swainsons Hawk seen from the hawk count unfortunately!

Other birds:
W W Scoter 113
L T Duck 241
Merganser 250
R T Loon 30
Common Loon 199
Sanderling 1
Bonapartes Gull 122
Piping Plover 1

5/16/10 - Long Tailed Ducks...

... 371 of them. Much better weather than yesterday and a good waterbird passage for the first 4 hours or so. In fact it was completely clear skies and no wind at all. Other birds:

W W Scoter 31
G Scaup 4
Merganser 219
Bonapartes Gull 49
Least Sand 1
Piping Plover 2

Highlight of the day was a Red Bellied Woodpecker which showed really well on the Merlin Pole. After the count, there was a concentration of birds down Memory Lane (at the end of the car park) and cracking views were obtained of Chestnut Sided, Parula, Orange Crowned and Yellow Warblers, Hairy Woodpecker and Rose Breasted Grosbeak among several others.
Dan and Ken then very kindly took me to look for Black Backed Woodpecker, and we got great views of a female. And a few days ago Jason took me to a good area near the Soo where we flushed a Sharp Tailed Grouse, and heard Le Contes Sparrow and Bittern. So doing quite well with some of those more difficult species!

SEO saves the day

A Short Eared Owl salvaged a relatively quiet day on Saturday, this is quite a scarce bird at the Point i believe. It was seen flying in off the lake before disappearing low towards the harbour. I'm lucky in that i get to see them on the coast in the winter near where i live, and sometimes up on the moors in the summer too. The count was quiet due mainly to fog for about half the day. Luckily i was kept company by Ken and Dan for most of it which helped me keep me sanity...well almost.

Lark Sparrow at the shack

Looks like the southerly winds did the business last night, combining with a bit of rain to bring down the birds. The walk to the shack was agonising this morning, as it was obvious from the large number of birds calling that lots of birds had arrived overnight. However, i'm a pro, so i soldiered on to the shack, nonetheless trousering Philadelphia Vireo, Least Flycatcher and Cape May Warbler on the way without breaking stride! Goodness knows what got missed this morning.
Clementine was again on the case, picking out a Piping Plover which was swiftly reported to myself. On having a look at the bird through the scope, it appeared to have no bands. 3 shorebird spp were also reported. A few hours later, a couple of lads from the PP Project base at Vermilion Point called in to say hi. We directed them towards the PP, and lo! there was another one with 2 Least Sandpipers. This bird was banded. Local birder Ken got some shots to read the bands and also photographed a Ruddy Turnstone, as well as a couple of new warbler spp.
The waterbird flight was fairly quiet, with about one third of the birds being uncountable due to the fact that they were flying the wrong way. I am more and more convinced that loons just like a headwind to provide some lift. Rather like swans, they're heavy but powerful birds and need a headwind to fly into. Their powerful pectoral muscles can provide the forward thrust no problem. The 747s of the bird world!
Our best day for Long Tailed Ducks this spring was on Wed when no less than 585 flew past the Point. That was also our best day for Surf Scoter with 19. Bonapartes Gulls have also started to pick up the last few days. Today was our best day for Red Throated Loons for a while with 27, although Commons were quite few. But best of all was a Lark Sparrow which spent most of the afternoon with a White Crowned and a Savannah feeding on Nyjer seed scattered about 20 yards from the shack. I understand this is less than annual at the Point, so is surely the same bird which had been present at the HQ until a few days ago?

Phew what a scorcher!

Mergansers continue to go through in good numbers, 260 today. L T Duck are continuing to pick up with 79, likewise Scoters, with 36 White Winged plus 4 Surf which were spotted by Jason while doing the Hawk Count, who radioed us then Chris picked them up. Go team! Conversely, loons and R N Grebes staged a no-show, with only 48 and 7 respectively the whole day. Gulls are beginning to go through now, around 80 each of Herring, Ring Billed and Bonapartes. I spent some time after the count looking for passerines and got extremely excited when a B T Blue Warbler passed through the scrub - as we say in Britain, "Phew What A Scorcher!" This was followed by Nashville, Black and White and B T Green - another gem with its' glowing yellow cheek patch.
Don't forget to send in your pledges for our Bird-a-thon, all proceeds go to support the research work here at WPBO.
Finally it's worth mentioning that the Owls Roost Gift Shop will be open from midday tomorrow, and 10 am on Thursday.
Tata for now.