Saturday 25 May 2019

Long Point, Ontario 5th - 15th May 2019

It has been a long time since I did any birding in North America, aside from a few snatched hoursin Florida and Missouri on family holidays. Spring migration on the Great Lakes is the stuff of birding legends, perhaps more so for me since the Cape May years and listening to the beguiling tales from the Brits who’d spent time there. So when Cape May pals Laurence Pitcher and Graham Gordon invited me, along with Jamie Partridge, on a 10 day trip to Ontario it seemed a no brainer and would be a welcome distraction from the complexities of personal life and the business.

Long Point was the chosen destination, situated on the north shore of Lake Eerie a couple of hours from Toronto. It’s less well known here in the UK than Point Pelee, but much quieter and so far more suited to us.

Our home for the week, a great Airb’nb owned by local birder Adam Timpf. It was ideally placed immediately across the street from the Long Point observatory banding area known as Old Cut, and only a couple of hundred years from the State Park camp ground. Adam has kindly stocked the bird feeders and we were immediately greeted with a yard full of Common Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Blue Jays and, more interestingly Northern Orioles, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Red-breasted Nuthatches and our first Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. There were White-crowned, White-throated and Chipping Sparrows, along with a single Dark-eyed Junco, one of only three I saw. Tree swallows were everywhere, which along with Purple Martins, were a constant joy. These species were to be come familiar sights, but that initial rush of arrival is always fun.
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1oMvNM6XEa9Y_pi-TM3_6STDtbAQeOTUy
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1fXXkq0hNLVb6bBIHi1em3bTTxKeFPbFH
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1fy1FCg9lTPgB4r1C2yhgkdIZ_0vekcMg
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=11dOs0K7g02nvk3SmVqa7qDXAQBGp1Uy2
It was great to be back seeing birds that feel likeold friends. Of course wewent for a short stroll inthe last hours of daylight, and our first migrants appeared. A smart male Hooded Warbler glowing in fading light in Old Cut was a great start, although my favourite (and surprise) moment was superb views of a displaying American Woodcock doing it’s thing against a backdrop of ‘booming’ American Bitterns. I didn’t tire of either species during our stay.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1TmFK3aWyMHKYO5CmNp1YozwOe_i7GNmi

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