Back to the Island

I flew to Pelee Island today to meet up with Ken and my parents.  The day was fairly slow but we did get one really awesome bird- a very unexpected Purple Sandpiper!  Amazingly, this is my third spring Purple Sandpiper, with another bird that I found at Alfred Sewage Lagoons last spring (May 28), and one bird at Cobourg Harbour on May 29, 2009. Here are some pics of today's bird:

Purple Sandpiper is much more likely in late fall, and much more likely further east in Ontario (Presqu'ile and Niagara in November/December are the traditional times/locations.  Interestingly, Michael Butler had another spring Purple Sandpiper about a week ago. There was some speculation that that bird may have overwintered on Lake Superior.  Today's bird was definitely traveling with a flock of newly arrived shorebirds.

Since it was nice and sunny I was hoping for some interesting insects.  The winds were wrong but there was a nice variety of expected butterflies with the "best" being this Gray Hairstreak:

Here's the full eBird checklist for today on the island. And who could resist posting a photo of a Fox Squirrel:

Amazing foraging behaviour by Hermit Thrushes

When I got home from work today I came inside and noticed a Hermit Thrush on my lawn.  The bird appeared to be shivering, which I thought was perhaps the cold weather (it was about 5 degrees Celsius).  However, I quickly realized the whole bird wasn't shaking but it was just very quickly tapping the ground with one foot.  I watched the bird (and noticed another Hermit Thrush doing the same thing) for about 45 minutes off and on.  I remember seeing the same behaviour once before at Bird Studies Canada Headquarters by a Semipalmated Plover and Ron Ridout at the time told me it was a foraging behaviour used to draw prey up to the surface.  I've heard second hand that Wood Turtles actually employ a similar technique!

Anyways, I did some searching and found this paper from the Wilson Bulletin that documents the behaviour in some of the other Catharus thrushes and also suggests that the "foot quivering" is a foraging behaviour - something that seems well supported by the video I took:

http://youtu.be/78kK4572vjE

The Birds of North America Online account for Hermit Thrush also references "foot quivering" as both a foraging technique and an aggressive behaviour between birds.

More from Pelee Island

Spent most of today again on Pelee Island with Ken.  We racked up another decent list considering the persistent cool temperatures and north/east winds putting a damper on migration.  New birds for me for the year were Sora (Fish Point first thing), Ovenbird (singing at Sheridan's Point), Black-and-white Warbler (along west shore road), and Red-headed Woodpecker (along west shore road).  You can have a look at the full eBird checklist for the day.

The highlight of the day was again one of the Yellow-throated Warblers that have been present since Ken arrived.  Ken heard the second one just before we saw this one at the pump house:

Here are some other photos of actual birds from the island today.

You know it's slow when...

Some nice and close Red-breasted Mergansers today

Ken claims there are "lots" of pheasants this year but I didn't see that many

Decent numbers of Hermit Thrushes this weekend

A few vultures around

A woodcock camouflaged with its surroundings

young eagle

And a few non-birds:

Fox Squirrel

Fair numbers of Question Marks and Red Admirals today

Syrphid to identify...

Got a couple more shots from the plane too:

Middle Point

Lighthouse Point and Scudder

Point Pelee

I'm back on solid land so hopefully things don't get too crazy this week...

Welcome to the Island

I made a quick trip down to Pelee Island to visit with Ken and do some birding for the weekend.  As expected based on the weather the birds have been slow but lots of new stuff for me for the year (about 30 year birds in the last two days).  The best bird was one of the Yellow-throated Warblers that Ken has had near his cottage for the last few days.  Here's our eBird checklist for today.  Be sure to check out Ken's blog to follow sightings on the island this spring.

The ferries that normally service Pelee Island are both broken down/ being maintained so right now service is only by plane, which was actually quite a nice and quick (15 min!) way to get to the island.  I took advantage of the flight and snapped some pictures of the island from the air.

View of Essex Sewage Lagoons from the air

Lighthouse Point (NE part of island)

trail at Lighthouse Point (summer)

the lighthouse (summer)

Lighthouse Point from the air (Point Pelee in the distance)

Sheridan Point and the Pelee Club from the ferry a couple years ago

The municipal campground (centre of east shore of island)

Middle Point (Brandon Holden's least favourite spot) in the distance

West dock, where the ferry would normally drop me off!

Fish Point sign (SW part of island)

Fish Point from the air

Fish Point interpretive sign

 And I couldn't resist some Pelee Island scenery from a couple summers ago:

Lightning over Lighthouse Point

Sunset from Lighthouse Point

 And a Pelee Island post wouldn't be complete without a Fox Squirrel from the island today:

 With a little luck I'll have some bird pics to post tomorrow!

Guide to spring arrival dates in Ontario

I've wanted to put something like this together for a while now but it wasn't until I read the "Changing Seasons" piece in Volume 65 Number 3 of North American Birds that I had a good way to do it.  So what is it?  Following this short introduction you'll find a list of 201 of Ontario's fairly common birds and the dates you can reasonably expect to find them returning. 

Background: in the article I mentioned above, Marshall Iliff, Brian Sullivan, and Chris Wood (AKA eBird HQ) proposed that we should start using 20% of the peak arrival frequency for a given species to indicate the day that a species arrives on a broad front (I'll refer to this day from here on out as the "mass arrival date".  The eBird team showed that this is really a good measure of arrivals since it is largely independent of outliers (exceptionally early individual birds), independent of sampling effort (since it is based on percentages of checklists, not raw number of checklists), and adjusted for species' rarity. Email me if you want a scanned copy of the article.


Methods: I went through the eBird frequency graphs (for all data years 1900-2011) for each species reported in Ontario. Frequency is a common statistic eBird calculates - it is the percentage of checklists reported for a given date/location which have a positive observation for a given species.  I didn't include species that are very rare in Ontario during spring migration, species which don't show an appreciable widespread seasonally predictable change in frequency (i.e. resident and irruptive species), or species which are more frequently encountered during the winter season and just decrease through spring migration (i.e. they don't show a spring migration spike in frequency).  That left me with 201 species.  For each of the 201 spring migrants I collected the date and value (frequency) of the spring migration peak and then calculated what the mass arrival date frequency would be and what date the average mass arrival date in Ontario is (Figure 1).  For species which overwinter in parts of Ontario I corrected for the "winter frequency" by calculating the mass arrival date as:

M = 0.2 X (P - W) + W

Where:
M = mass arrival date
P = peak arrival date
W = winter frequency

Results: Well, first of all to most of you this information won't be new, but I think it is interesting to put some hard numbers to things.  Keep in mind when looking at the results that these results show the average date that the species arrives on a relatively widespread front across Ontario.  So, the actual date will obviously be earlier along Lake Erie but later in Thunder Bay - interpret accordingly.  Before the final results, here's a neat figure showing the number of species arriving en masse per week during the course of spring migration. As you can see we`re just about to get inundated with species arriving back!

Ok, here are the results, now get out there and find some spring migrants and be sure to report your findings to eBird so we can compare how advanced this year has been!

January 16 - Horned Lark
February 03 - Herring Gull
February 06 - Common Goldeneye
February 08 - American Crow
February 09 - Canvasback
February 10 - Redhead
February 13 - Canada Goose
February 15 - White-winged Scoter
                      Bufflehead
February 17  - Tundra Swan
February 22 - Greater White-fronted Goose
February 28 - Ring-billed Gull
March 01 - Snow Goose
                   Ross's Goose
March 02 - Dark-eyed Junco
March 06 - Mallard
March 07 - Lesser Scaup
                   Hooded Merganser
March 08 - Cackling Goose
                   Northern Pintail
                   Red-winged Blackbird
March 09 - American Wigeon
March 10 - Common Grackle
March 11 - American Robin
March 12 - Sandhill Crane
                  Killdeer
                  Eastern Bluebird
March 13 - Gadwall
                  American Kestrel
                  Merlin
March 14 - Northern Shoveler
                   Ring-necked Duck
                   Horned Grebe
March 15 - Eurasian Wigeon
                   Red-shouldered Hawk
                   American Coot
                   American Woodcock
March 17 - Turkey Vulture
                   Song Sparrow
March 18 - Green-winged Teal
                   Pied-billed Grebe
                   Northern Harrier
                   Eastern Meadowlark
March 19 - Red-breasted Merganser
                   Red-necked Grebe
March 21 - Wood Duck
                   Great Blue Heron
                   Brown-headed Cowbird
March 25 - Golden-crowned Kinglet
March 27 - Blue-winged Teal
March 28 - Pectoral Sandpiper
                   Little Gull
                   Eastern Phoebe
April 01 - Brown Creeper
                Fox Sparrow
April 02 - Bonaparte's Gull
                Tree Swallow
                Winter Wren
                 Rusty Blackbird
April 03 - Red-throated Loon
                Double-crested Cormorant
                Belted Kingfisher
                Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
                Northern Flicker
                Field Sparrow
April 04 - Common Loon
                Osprey
                Wilson's Snipe
                Vesper Sparrow
April 05 - Greater Yellowlegs
April 06 - Sharp-shinned Hawk
April 07 - Cooper's Hawk
                Hermit Thrush
                Purple Finch
April 08 - Black-crowned Night-Heron
April 10 - American Bittern
April 11 - Ruby-crowned Kinglet
April 12 - Savannah Sparrow
April 13 - Caspian Tern
                Louisiana Waterthrush
                Swamp Sparrow
April 15 - Long-billed Dowitcher
                American Goldfinch
April 16 - Broad-winged Hawk
                Pine Warbler
                Eastern Towhee
                Chipping Sparrow
April 17 - Northern Rough-winged Swallow
                Purple Martin
                White-throated Sparrow
April 18 - Barn Swallow     
                Brown Thrasher
April 19 - Forster's Tern
April 21 - Yellow-rumped Warbler
April 22 - Surf Scoter
                Virginia Rail
April 23 - Sora
April 24 - Willet
                Common Tern
                Bank Swallow
April 25 - Blue Jay
                Cliff Swallow
April 26 - Green Heron
                Lesser Yellowlegs
                Blue-headed Vireo
                Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
                Northern Waterthrush
                Palm Warbler
                Black-throated Green Warbler
April 27 - Upland Sandpiper
                Eastern Whip-poor-will
                White-eyed Vireo
                House Wren
                Blue-winged Warbler
                Yellow-throated Warbler
April 28 - Black-and-white Warbler
April 29 - Spotted Sandpiper
                American Pipit
April 30 - Solitary Sandpiper
                Dunlin
                Chimney Swift
                Red-headed Woodpecker
                Marsh Wren
                Gray Catbird
                Nashville Warbler
                Common Yellowthroat
May 01 - American Golden-plover
                Eastern Kingbird
               Warbling Vireo
               Wood Thrush
               Ovenbird
               Orange-crowned Warbler
               Hooded Warbler
               Lincoln's Sparrow
               White-crowned Sparrow
               Rose-breasted Grosbeak
               Baltimore Oriole
May 02 - Great Egret
               Common Gallinule
               Sanderling
               Ruby-throated Hummingbird
               Great Crested Flycatcher
               Yellow-throated Vireo
               Veery
               Prothonotary Warbler
               Northern Parula
               Black-throated Blue Warbler
               Prairie Warbler
               Grasshopper Sparrow
May 03 - Black-bellied Plover
               Least Sandpiper
              Wilson's Phalarope
               Black Tern
               Least Flycatcher
               Swainson's Thrush
               Yellow-breasted Chat
               Clay-colored Sparrow
               Indigo Bunting
               Orchad Oriole
May 04 - Summer Tanager
May 05 - Semipalmated Plover
               Sedge Wren
               Cedar Waxwing
               Cape May Warbler
               Cerulean Warbler
               Bobolink
May 06 - Short-billed Dowitcher
               Golden-winged Warbler
               Kentucky Warbler
               American Redstart
               Magnolia Warbler
               Scarlet Tanager
May 07 - Least Bittern
               Common Nighthawk
               Kirtland's Warbler
May 08 - Black Scoter
               Ruddy Turnstone
               Black-billed Cuckoo
               Red-eyed Vireo
               Gray-cheeked Thrush
               Tennessee Warbler
               Bay-breasted Warbler
               Canada Warbler
May 09 - Yellow-billed Cuckoo
               Olive-sided Flycatcher
               Acadian Flycatcher
               Philadelphia Vireo
               Wilson's Warbler
May 10 - Semipalmated Sandpiper
               Eastern Wood-pewee
               Mourning Warbler
               Blackpoll Warbler
May 11 - Brant
               White-rumped Sandpiper
               Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
               Willow Flycatcher
May 12 - Whimbrel
May 13 - Alder Flycatcher
May 15 - Connecticut Warbler
May 17  - Red-necked Phalarope
May 20  - Red Knot

Anyways, I hope you find this information interesting/helpful.  Please let me know of any errors you see.  It will only get better as more eBird data comes in.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Wouldn't you know it, we get a weekend with lots of south winds and I am stuck in a classroom attending a course all day Saturday and Sunday.  Well, I managed to finish early today and headed straight for the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that was reported yesterday by Terry Sprague, near Demorestville.

When I arrived I was told by the friendly lady who owns the property the bird was south across the field by the small lake and I was welcome to walk across!  After walking across the field I quickly saw the bird - beauty! Also got my first of the year Swamp Sparrow here, bonus!  Here's the full eBird checklist and some photos:

I am pretty sure this is an adult (definitive alternate) male.  Definitely a male by the bright red underwing and the large notch on the outer primary (P10).

Good migration conditions tonight

Sorry it's been so long since the last post.  I'm working on a couple things that I should be able to put up on the blog soon...

In the meantime there was a link posted on the Frontiers of Identification list serve for this awesome wind visualization map.  It is a pretty nice simple look at the current wind patterns in the US, very handy for figuring out whether it will be worth looking for new arrivals the next day or so. 

As for tomorrow, I'd say it should be good....! Here's the current windmap (better if you go to the site and see the moving version):

You can see there's a nice conveyer belt of south winds coming right up from Texas and up the Mississippi flyway.

The current radar shows lots of bird movement across the entire eastern US (the green blobs around the radar stations are birds, the blockier yellowish blobs in the midwest is precipitation):

eBird did a good story recently about interpreting weather RADAR for looking at bird migration, check it out!

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PS, way to go Ontario eBirders, we're sitting in third place for number of checklists submitted for April (although Texas is catching up)!