Die-Hard Birders

I don’t know what I was thinking when I signed up for a TESL workshop for today.  My brain doesn’t keep track of dates or numbers; it never occurred to me that I was scheduling away the first day of the Festival of Birds at Point Pelee National Park.  Sylvain was especially chagrined to learn that today was to be sunny but tomorrow rainy.  Unfortunately, I’m the kind of gal who does what she says she’s going to do.  I am a member at large of the Board and had agreed to stay after and help clean up.  Therefore I would not back out of the workshop.

I managed to get in an hour of birding on the nearby Ganatchio Trail before 9:30.  I had  (real birders are not allowed to say “I saw….”  We have to say “I had….”):

• Grey Catbird
• European Starling
• Northern Cardinal
• House Wren
• Red-winged Blackbird
• possible Rusty Blackbird
• Yellow Warbler
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Canada Goose
• Song Sparrow
• American Goldfinch
• Tree Swallow
• Barn Swallow
• Ring-billed Gull
• possible Bald Eagle
• Sharp-shinned Hawk

When the workshop ended at 2:30, I texted Sylvain.  Wanna go?  Even though there would only be two hours left to enjoy the park by the time we arrived, we decided to throw some snacks in the van and just go.  We’re crazy that way.

We hit the point first, as I was keen to see the Scoters that had been sighted off the point in the morning. I didn’t see them.  Our list for the park this evening included:

• Common Grackle
• Turkey Vulture
• Mourning Dove
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Great-horned Owl (owlets on nest!)
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Ring-billed Gull
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Red-breasted Merganser
• Chipping Sparrow
• Tern (Common or Forster’s?)
• Tree Swallow
• Barn Swallow
• Lesser Scaup
• Warbling Vireo
• Yell0w-throated Vireo
• Palm Warbler
• Pine Warbler
• Field Sparrow

When we finished the point, we had only a little over an hour of daylight left. We ate a quick snack and took off down the Woodland Trail behind the Visitors’ Centre.  This is the same trail where the other day we saw six deer come running through the woods, splashing through the sloughs.  The ante-penultimate birder to leave the woods told us the deer were not far away, so Sylvain zipped ahead to see them while I stayed where I was.  Then I was alone with the setting sun on the sloughs. The leafless branches of the tall trees were creaking and cracking together in the wind.

On this trail we had:

• Black-capped Chickadee
• Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
• Downy Woodpecker
• possible Brown Creeper

By the time we came back out of the woods, there was only one other car in the parking lot.  This is during a time when all the rooms at all the decent hotels and motels in Leamington are fully booked with visitors from all over Canada, the US, Europe, Australia, Asia, etc.  Where was everyone else? Back at their hotel rooms afraid of a little old cold wind? Hmmm.

On Manning Road we got a Red-tailed Hawk.

We plan to go back early in the morning, rain or no rain.  This is the time of year when my laundry piles up and chores just wait.  Off to bed now. Gotta get my 8 hours.

Advertisement