Hi readers, I'm sorry I have not posted a blog in a number of weeks. This is only because I am in the process of writing my university final exams for the semester and have been diligently studying. Naturally, the rest of my time has been swallowed up by bird watching, hanging with my girlfriend, sleep, and a few shifts at Pelee Wings Nature store, my summer job. By coincidence, I just noticed it has been exactly one month since my last posting, so what better a time to say something!
Well, as I'm sure you have all seen by now, bird migration is very active with increasingly warm days, south winds, and some much needed rain. Most of the wintering diving ducks, geese, and swans have disappeared from the Essex County area back to their breeding grounds, and dabbling ducks such as Widgeon, Pintails, Gadwall, and Teals (and some diving ducks like Ring-necked Ducks, Bufflehead, and Ruddy Ducks) have filled the area. At the beaches and harbors lately, there are good numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls, Forster's Terns, loons, grebes, and Double-crested Cormorants. I also saw one Caspian Tern at Hillman Marsh recently, and an immature Little Gull last Sunday in front of Point Pelee's entrance, which was only my second Little Gull ever and my first self-found! The flooded fields and mudflats at places like Hillman Marsh now contain many Pectoral Sandpipers, Dunlin, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Wilson's Snipes, and the odd Spotted Sandpiper. Friends of mine have also seen a Least Sandpiper, Black-bellied Plovers, and even a Ruff lately! I spent hours looking but could not relocate the Ruff :( oh well, next time!
In the forests and fields, there have been oodles of Golden- and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, along with many Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Meadowlarks, Eastern Towhee (these names are making a geographical pattern... Lol). Two weekends ago I counted 7 sparrow species at the DeLaurier Homestead parking lot!
