Month: June 2019

The time has come to wrap all this Long point business up.

No more living in the past.

That was then this is now.

A post for the remaining birds, with much missed off as usual but highlights etc. Please excuse the hair-brained jumping between taxa in no particular order but thats how things come and go and maybe this post can reflect that truth.

Swallows were an enigmatic presence with huge movements on some days and very little on others. Almost every local tree hole or garden nest box had a Tree Swallow within and Barn swallow flocks harboured the odd feeding Cliff Swallow particularly towards the end of the trip. Local Purple martins with their gaudy looking man made abodes were great to watch and listen to and both Bank swallow and Northern Roughwing were seen most days in smaller numbers.

Cliff Swallow

Tree Swallow

f Purple Martin

We’d hoped out daily topping up of bird feed at our garden feeder would attract a migrant Red–headed Woodpecker but alas the birds We saw were away from the house. Some on territory in a small patch of older trees aswell as one or two migrants. Our visits to Backus Woods and the Wilson tract were occasionlly soundtracked by the drumming and calls of Hairy and the mighty Pileated Woodpeckers.

Red-headed Woodpecker

Solitary Sandpiper

Our encounters with Wading birds were few and far between with no real number of birds but ones and twos of things like Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers, Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs. Kildeers were in every carpark puddle or gravel driveway and a couple of fly over semipalmated plovers. I ticked Hudsonian Godwit on our final morning with a flyover and a flock of 16 Short–billed Dowitchers flew around a waterbody in the rain a few times before continuing on their journey. Woodcocks were heard every evening and a we visited a local bird on several occasions who would call and display as the light disappeared.

Lesser yellowlegs

Heres a few random Passerines;

Eastern Kingbird

Eastern Bluebird

Bobolink

Ruby-throated Humming birds were a daily occurrence at our feeders.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Herons, egrets and bitterns were well represented with American Bitterns supplying a daily soundtrack.

Green Heron

Least bittern

American Bittern

Raptors were a little quiet, lots of Turkey Vultures and a good few Ospreys and Bald Eagles, Broad–winged and Red –tailed Hawks, Sharp Shinned and Coopers hawks aswell as one or two Kestrels and a single Merlin. Northern Harriers were seen every so often.

Northern Harrier

Last but not least the gulls! Not my focus for the trip but a nice bonus. We saw small flocks of Bonapartes Gulls flying around aswell as a close up handful of them at a local pier. Accompanied by Ring Billed Gulls. I probably saw 2 American Herring Gulls per day but never very close.

Bonapartes Gulls

So thats that. an immense trip with so much new information and birds for me. I really loved it and will be visiting again .

 

 

I keep thinking Im almost done with Long Point images and then I remember something like Scarlet Tanager or Philly Vireo, how could I leave them out? Im trying to be brief for my own sake (although I know i’ll look back at these posts fondly) THE VIREOS were excellent birds to watch, with most encounters providing prolonged views of birds sometimes stationary for lengths of time.  The most common were Blue–headed and Warbling Vireos, followed by smaller numbers of Philadelphia  and smaller still (perhaps only 5)  Red–eyed and Yellow Throated, White–eyed were seen by others but not me.  Again a great range of personality, colour, subtlety and expressions aswell as both bizarre calls and sweet tuneful songs.

Blue-headed Vireo

Warbling Vireo

Yellow throated Vireo

Philadelphia Vireo

alas, no shots of Red-eyed Vireos but they were probably the most exciting to watch. There was very little on the trip that didnt get me going and the OTHER PASSERINES, were no exception. It was very nice to catch up with Rose–breasted Grosbeaks, particularly the females, and I certainly appreciated seeing them in context, made me like them even more, their ‘squeaky shoe’ call was often heard.

Scarlet Tanagers were shocking things to look at, I had a high count of 15 one day and some were very approachable.

We had both Black and Yellow-billed Cuckoos within 20 mins of each other and that was pretty much all we saw of them.

Expect the next post to be everything else in a ‘last but no least’ style.