After a two year hiatus, twenty OFO members and their guests joined me Sunday (April 24) for the annual late April trip to Prince Edward County South Shore Important Bird and Biodiversity Area.
The weather was excellent, although we didn't get the hoped for south winds that southwestern Ontario had. After meeting in Picton, we headed for Kaiser Crossroad but the normally flooded fields had dried up in the last couple of days so there weren't any waterfowl or other waterbirds concentrated here so we moved on quickly . We moved on quickly to check the lake off the right-of-way at the south end of Kaiser Crossroad and enjoyed a good flight of Bonaparte's Gulls but sadly could not locate a Little Gull. There were a small handful of Horned Grebes and waterfowl here as well. >From here we headed for Prince Edward Point and enjoyed a banding demonstration from the helpful staff at the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory, getting close up looks at both kinglets, Brown Creeper, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Brown Thrasher, and Eastern Towhee. Our walk to the lighthouse yielded a good number of Yellow-rumped Warblers, a couple of Black-and-white Warblers and Blue-headed Vireos and a pair of Purple Martins. We all enjoyed excellent views of a singing Rusty Blackbird. On our way out we stopped and walked the trail at Point Traverse Woods and had more typical late April migrants including a Palm Warbler with Blue-headed Vireos, Pine Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers and lots of kinglets. On the lake we had good scope views of both Surf and White-winged Scoters. >From here we headed to the opposite end of the IBA with a final stop at Point Petre. We didn't add too many new species but did have good looks at a hunting American Kestrel and we watched a Common Raven delivering food to hungry chicks in a nest. Despite missing many of our hoped for waterbirds at Kaiser Crossroad we ended the day with over 80 species and everyone (seemingly!) went home happy. Thanks to everyone who joined and helped make the day fun. To view a trip report, visit https://ebird.org/canada/tripreport/49766 Mike Burrell -- Ontbirds and Birdnews are moderated email Listservs provided by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) as a service to all birders in Ontario. Birdnews is reserved for announcements, location summaries, first of year reports, etc. To post a message on Birdnews, send an email to: [email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Birdnews Moderators by email at [email protected]. Please review posting rules and guidelines at http://ofo.ca/site/content/listserv-guidelines During the COVID-19 pandemic, all Ontario birders should be taking extra precautions and following local, provincial, and federal regulations regarding physical distancing and non-essential travel. To find out more about OFO, please visit our website at ofo.ca or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists.
