Point Pelee and the Kirtland's Warbler May 12—20, 2007
Posted by Kim Eckert
Kim Eckert
Kim Eckert, with over 40 years of birding experience throughout the U.S. and Canada, has now been guiding birders or teaching bird identification classes for more than 25 o...Related Trips
This tour has always been about warblers, and 30 species is invariably the target. Don’t get me wrong, though: I seldom consider a tour’s species count a true measure of how well things went. It’s always more important to consider what those species were and how well they were seen. But still, in this case, 30 is the target, and most years we’re able to meet expectations. If we have a loftier goal, the hope is to match or surpass the 33 warblers we had on two of our tours in the 1990s. Conversely, the fear is to finish with the modest total we had in 2000: “only” 26 species, and three of those were heard-only.
To begin this warbler quest, we started out down in Ohio at the boardwalk at Magee Marsh (a.k.a. Crane Creek). It’s only a bit more than an hour’s drive from our hotel by the Detroit airport, and we tried this for the first time last year. Again this year the trip was worth it, as we came up with 20 warbler species (one was heard-only) in this relatively small area of trees on the south shore of Lake Erie?that is, the opposite side of the lake from Point Pelee.
This was an especially nice way to start things out before joining the legions of birders at Pelee, but equally impressive were those American Woodcocks foraging for earthworms within a few feet of the boardwalk. We would again witness the woodcock display at dusk a few days later, but to see this unique species so well and so close by day is something I seldom see. Also significant on our Ohio day were Snowy Egrets and Glossy Ibis: these southern waders are rarely seen this far north, and this was only the second time these had ever been listed on this tour.
So, 20 warblers down and 10 to go as we spent the next three days at Point Pelee and nearby Rondeau Provincial Park. During this time we came up with 28 warblers in all, although one of these (Worm-eating) was seen well by only one of the participants, and two others (Hooded and Yellow-breasted Chat) were just leader-only/heard-only entries. But these less-than-satisfactory finds were more than offset by a female Kirtland’s Warbler which dropped in at Pelee on its way north and flitted across our path, our first Golden-winged (a difficult species here and one of my favorites), and a beautiful Prothonotary by its nesting box at Rondeau.
Speaking of Rondeau, it was there we had our best looks at Red-headed Woodpeckers, saw and heard our only Acadian Flycatcher, had good studies of often-elusive Gray-cheeked Thrushes, and observed Clay-colored Sparrow, a species quite unusual this far east. In addition on this day, we checked the nearby community of Erieau and vicinity and came up with an especially handsome American Golden-Plover in a field among some Black-bellieds, some equally handsome Sanderlings on a beach sporting their rusty-toned breeding plumage, and a Northern Mockingbird by some houses where this locally rare species curiously appears each year.
The next day we were on our way to Michigan with a composite total of 29 warbler species, and it was a virtual cinch that Pine Warbler would make 30, since it commonly breeds where we were headed. But still, three of our 29 were heard-only and another was a single-observer find, leaving us with a solid and satisfactory list of “only” 25. Would we make it? On our way up to Grayling, there was a singing male Blue-winged (26), but no Cerulean where we had one in 2005. The next morning near Grayling we saw singing male Kirtland’s Warblers (not new, but more striking than the female back at Pelee), and an especially cooperative Mourning (27; previously heard-only) singing by only our second Golden-winged. And that afternoon there was our expected Pine Warbler (28) at beautiful Hartwick Pines State Park, along with two baby Barred Owls (aw!) and Evening Grosbeaks.
One day to go with just enough time to check a few recommended breeding warbler spots on our way back to Detroit. Besides a lack of time, our problem was I had never been to these places before, but the first one we tried worked out. At Rose Lake near Lansing, the promised Ceruleans were not there, but an unexpected Hooded appeared (29) along with a better look at a Blue-winged. Nearby Legg Park was next, but no Louisiana Waterthrush. Time for one last spot?ironically named Waterloo?and one last possibility. And there they were: along with another Hooded, and two singing male Ceruleans at eye level. Thirty!
Our Michigan warbler list reached 19 species (no migrants; all of them on breeding grounds), and, including the Worm-eating and chat, we now had 32 in all for the trip. It was almost anticlimactic as we finished the tour that day with some highly sought Henslow’s Sparrows singing from the weed stalks.