weekend birdies

Well, I made it out to Point Petre yesterday morning.  There was a nice selection of sparrows, including a late Grasshopper and a single Vesper.  The only other highlight here was a single female Black Scoter hanging out with some Long-taileds...I made a few other short stops on the way home with nothing much of note to show for my efforts except maybe a latish Caspian Tern at Wellington harbour/bay.  

Today was a bit different story, Erica and I met up with Doug McRae, Barb Charlton, Mark and Diana Peck, and Sarah and Georgia Petrasek at Presqu'ile.  We birded Owen Point and then walked across to Gull Island (no hunting there on Sundays...).  The crossing to Gull Island was a bit ridiculous; it is so dry you could have done it in sandals and not gotten your feet wet!  Just before we crossed a large shorebird flew in from Gull Island and obligingly fed along the shore for us. 

Yep, that's a late Willet!  I can't remember hearing of one before in Ontario in October...Checking Bob Curry's Birds of Hamilton he lists a late date of October 19 for the HSA.  Anyways, a pretty sweet bird to say the least.  The rest of the island was pretty standard fare.  On the way back to the cars we had a late Northern Parula along the trail.  Here's the full list of goodies from Owen Point and Gull Island.

After the island, we had word of Evening Grosbeaks visiting Bill Gilmour's legendary feeders so we headed over that way.  The feeders and bird baths were hopping, but the Grosbeaks had apparently taken off shortly before we got there when a Merlin buzzed the yard.  There were a few nice birds around including a Fox Sparrow, Eastern Towhee and a late Gray Catbird at one of the baths.  Here's the full list.

From there Erica and I headed home but not before checking out the Hudsonian Godwit present for a few days now in Gosport.  All in all it was a very birdy morning, with a bunch of new Northumberland birds for me, bringing me up over 200 now for the county...