Final Push of May Migrants + Big Yard Day
There has been huge increase of songbirds in Bruce since my last post! Exactly 3 weeks ago my Bruce County yearlist was sitting at 142 species, with my yard at 133... now I'm at 184 for Bruce, and 172 for my yard!
Now on to the past 3 weeks of birding...
One of my goals that I hoped to accomplish this spring was to do a Big Yard Day and get 100 species in a single checklist, something that has never been done in Bruce County before. The weather forecast looked good for May 20, so I decided to give it a shot. I was up listening to a singing Eastern Whip-poor-will and an American Woodcock shortly after 5am, and by 6am it was bright enough to see birds flying overhead, so I got out the camera and started firing at anything that flew over. A few interesting flyovers included my FOY Bay-breasted and Orange-crowned Warblers, an Orchard Oriole, a Vesper Sparrow, and a Cliff Swallow. By 10:30am I had already found a total of 91 species! Then the hawks started to come out, and by the time noon rolled around I had gotten Northern Harrier, Broad-winged, Red-tailed, and Red-shouldered Hawk for my list. Shortly after that I saw my FOY Wilson's and Mourning Warblers which then put me at 97 species! But I was running low on options! A few species came to mind were Blue-winged Teal, Northern Waterthrush, Winter Wren, Northern Cardinal, and Wilson's snipe. After a couple hours I finally found the continuing Blue-winged Teal couple in an overgrown, wet field. Just minutes later a Northern Waterthrush started singing, putting me at 99 species! With one more to go, I decided to hang around the forest behind my house, and hopefully see or hear a singing Winter Wren. But unfortunately I failed on finding one. And just when I was beginning to doubt that I'd achieve my goal, I incidentally flushed a Ruffed Grouse from the bush next to me! Bird No. 100! Mission: Accomplished! Here's the Checklist: Big Day eBird Checklist
Now on to the past few weeks of bird migration...
May 12:
Nothing special besides a Lapland Longspur and a Northern Waterthrush.
May 13:
FOY's include a Caspian Tern, Common Tern, and 2 male Brewer's Blackbird, a species that I don't see very often.
May 14:
No huge migration but overall a pretty fun day. A Blackburnian Warbler, 2 Orchard Oriole's, a Lincoln's Sparrow, and a Red-headed Woodpecker were all FOY's for me. Here's the checklist: eBird May 14
May 15:
No huge fallout but lots of new birds! I got 7 (!) new yard FOY's, and 2 other FOY's in Stokes Bay. Yard FOY's were a Black-throated Blue Warbler, an American Redstart, 2 Blue-winged Warblers (Awesome!), a Hermit Thrush, a Warbling Vireo, a Chestnut-sided Warbler, and a Clay-colored Sparrow. Stokes Bay FOY's were a couple of Least Sandpipers and a Pied-billed Grebe. You can view my yard checklist from this morning Here: eBird May 15
May 16:
Another great day! Managed to see 82 species throughout the morning. Here's the checklist link: eBird May 16. FOY birds include 2 Indigo Bunting's, a Magnolia Warbler, a Tennessee warbler, a Gray Catbird, a Cliff Swallow, a yard lifer Chimney Swift, and 3 singing Eastern Whip-poor-whil. Another highlight was a Northern Saw-whet Owl singing at 5 in the morning!
May 17:
I only got 2 FOY's but overall it was a pretty good day. Here's the checklist: eBird May 17. The FOY's were a Grasshopper Sparrow and a flock of 5 Cedar Waxwings. Other interesting birds included the continuing Red-headed Woodpecker, an Orchard Oriole, and my second ever Trumpeter Swan!
May 18:
Another day with lots of birds! Canada Warbler, Bank Swallow, Black-billed Cuckoo, 2 Hooded Mergansers, and 5 Redheads (yard lifer 202 for me!) were all yard FOY's. I also found my FOY Scarlet Tanager about 4km from my place. Here's the checklist: eBird May 18
May 19:
The good days just keep coming! Yard highlights include my FOY Eastern-wood Pewee and Common Nighthawk, a yard FOY Scarlet Tanager, my second of the year Chimney Swift, a Canada Warbler, and a huge flock of 130 American Pipits. Here's the checklist: eBird May 19. But the bird of the day goes to none other then my first ever Cerulean Warbler!! I had just finished work for the day and was waiting for my ride back home when I heard what I thought was a singing Cerulean Warbler! So I got out my phone, played some Cerulean Warbler audio, and it matched the song of the bird singing! Lifer bird number 218!
May 20:
Did my Big Yard Day. Story at the beginning of this post.
May 21:
No FOY's unfortunately. A couple of highlights were 3 Orchard Oriole's, a Scarlet Tanager, and a Mourning Warbler.
May 22:
Another day without any FOY birds. It was pretty wet and foggy, so I didn't bird much. 4 Scarlet Tanagers were the only noteworthy birds that I saw.
May 23:
A FOY Blackpoll Warbler and a flyby Caspian Tern were the main highlights of the day.
May 24:
Highlights were my FOY Great-crested Flycatcher, and 4 Wilson's Warblers.
May 25-28:
Didn't do much birding due to work.
May 29:
Had a successful morning of photography! Also found my FOY Alder Flycatcher and Red Crossbill (only the 3rd one I've ever found!).
May 30 and 31:
Pretty much nothing of interest besides a FOY Northern Rough-winged Swallow in Barrow Bay.
Well that's it for now! Migration has pretty much ended, so birding won't be as crazy until fall comes.
Here are a few more recent photos taken this spring. About half of them still need to be edited, so you can view them HERE at eBird.org, a website were I'll be posting them over the next few weeks.
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