American Avocet | The Ovenbird Blog

Week 23 Part 2 West is Best!!!

by Ellen Horak | Jun 9, 2025 | Canada 400

Wednesday we faced a long drive of 12 hours mostly because we opted to drive in Canada instead of heading into the US which would save us 3 hours. We had originally planned on birding in Manitoba but with wildfire smoke and time constraints we opted to drive through and save birding in that province for our way home. It was an easy drive, little traffic, once you hit Manitoba the speed limit is 110 so the kilometers go quickly. We checked into the Pilgrim Inn in Caronport and then headed 30 minutes west to Chaplin Lake. This salt lake is home to a number of migrating and nesting birds. We added 9 species in a few hours and probably saw a Baird’s Sandpiper but I was not sure so it remains off the list until we check photos and get second opinions. It is getting tough to go through all the photos and for Jerry to send them to me so that I can use them in my blog but we will eventually catch up when we get to my brother’s in BC.

Having checked what was being seen in Saskatchewan the night before I decided Thursday morning to take a detour 30 minutes further west of Chaplin Lake to see White-faced Ibis at Francis Lake. It was a fantastic wetland lake with large numbers of ducks and marsh birds.

Many Yellow-headed Blackbirds dotted the road edge and Ibis’s exploded from the grasses as you got close to them. They were very skittish and getting pictures was challenging but Jerry eventually managed.

A bonus I was not expecting was to see two Black-necked Stilts, an expected species but not abundant. it saves me from chasing it later in Alberta.

On the way back to Chaplin we stopped at Reed lake, a salt lake like Chaplin to scan for a possible Piping Plover that had been seen.

We walked out to the salt beach and I scoped both directions and saw nothing and then I turned it over to Jerry and there was a Piping Plover! It was way down the beach but we walked down to try and get a better picture. It just kept moving further away. We always take multiple looks for things for just this reason, birds suddenly appear in your scope view!

Next stop was Chaplin Lake again to see if the lighting was any better and we could figure out if a Baird’s Sandpiper was there or not. I still struggled with seeing one, I kept thinking a bird looked good but then it didn’t. It was now later than I had wanted to be heading to the Grasslands 2 hours away so we opted to stop the “search”.

Minutes later, right on time, we had our usual fight that happens 4-5 days in on these trips. Lack of sleep, differing ideas of how to bird, numbers of daily irritations with each other, confined in a car, the reasons are insignificant, but we needed to clear the air. I slammed on brakes to yell at Jerry, he yelled back, we went back and forth for a bit and finally I started to drive in silence and Jerry says, “Gray Partridge”, it was right beside the car! Another bird to add to our list. And just like that the fight was forgotten.

When we finally got to the Grasslands NP it was mid afternoon and we only had time for a short hike but we had added lots of birds on the drive into the hiking area and we added more on the short hike. On the drive in we were lucky to find an adorable Burrowing Owl sitting on a fence post.

The grasslands and buttes are magnificent to view, the sagebrush and wildflowers add a wonderful scent and the silence is complete. Until a bird buzzes. Sparrows are, of course grassland species and they can look very similar with songs that are often buzzing or trills that take some practice getting to know. Merlin helps us a lot with sparrow song but we are getting better at the more common ones and that helps to identify when we hear something different. Hearing and identifying the call is one thing, but actually seeing the sparrow is quite another. Some like Savannah and Clay-colored perch up on the top of a bush to sing so it’s easy to see them. But other’s like Brewer’s and Baird’s Sparrows tend to sing from inside shrubs or the grass and so it is not always easy to find them. To complicate things further, Brewer’s and Clay-colored are very similar looking and when they are singing in the same area it takes some figuring out which pic is which for us.

With a bit of a time constraint on us we headed over to the west block of the park and our tiny house for the next two nights. The Sanctuary Inn is a new accommodation in town and we highly recommend it. We stayed in the tiny house and it was perfect! Caitlin is a wonderful host and pays attention to the smallest detail. We would have loved to stay longer!

Friday it was nice not to pack up or rush out early. We headed to the Eagle and 70 Mile Butte Trails to do some hiking with two targets on our minds.

We needed Rock Wren and Lark Sparrow and both were seen regularly on these trails. Within five minutes we saw two Lark Sparrows and minutes after we heard the Rock Wren. We saw many Wrens and Lark Sparrows so Jerry had multiple chances for good pictures and he got them!

I love when the day starts like that! We traveled up the trail to the highest point where you could see 360 degrees out over the grasslands and badlands. The hike was rated difficult but it was not in our view.

It was lovely seeing the colour of the alpine/prairie plants.

We headed to another area and did another hike along a river stopping at a small area with large trees and resident Great Horned Owls. At the Day Use area there were two Orioles calling continually and we noted the female we saw “looked” different. Merlin suggested it was a Bullock’s Oriole from the call and so we took pics and asked for help from the birding community to make sure we were right in our IDing of a female Bullock’s Oriole with a male Baltimore Oriole. Orioles are known to hybridize and after talking with other birders we opted to put it in as a hybrid female with a male Baltimore.

We headed back to our tiny house for an afternoon siesta, which means wading through the pictures and checking email lists etc rather than napping. We ate our big meal of the day and then headed back into the park for an Eco drive tour. We finally saw a Buffalo!

This route takes you past the prairie dog towns where you scan carefully to find the Burrowing Owls that use the prairie dog burrows to nest in. We managed to find 4 Owls at both dog town areas. But the two species we were still hoping for did not appear – Thick-billed Longspur and Sprague’s Pipit. We did manage to see a number of Common Nighthawks roosting and flying at the Grasslands campground.

We arrived back to our home at dusk and I made final preparations for the drive tomorrow. We planned to drive through Alberta but off the main highways so we could bird for our final species that we needed for the Prairies. I took photos of maps and areas because I knew that we would have no cell service for most of our drive.

Saturday we headed west our from the Grasslands and within 30 minutes we had our first bird of the day – the lovely Ferruginous Hawk ( google how to pronounce it).

Most of the driving, ok, all of the driving, was on gravel roads with wind and dust every time you stopped and opened a window to check out a bird sound or movement. We will not miss the wind

or the fine prairie dust that gets on everything including your teeth!

Within the first hour we had both of our missing birds – the Thick-billed Longspur and Sprague’s Pipit. Getting photos was another challenge. Jerry managed to get both Longspurs.

While we were driving between birding areas I checked my emails for hourly reports on Alberta birds and noticed Arctic Terns were nesting near where I knew Prairie Falcons nested. I opted to add that into our schedule and just like that a 5 hour drive became a 6 hour drive but with birding along the way it was a 12 hour day LOL. Just before the Arctic Tern spot a wetland produced our first Cinnamon Teal and better photo ops of Black-necked Stilts.

The lake with the Terns was very large and I was worried we would be spending a lot of time driving around it but as we pulled up to the lake there was a Tern flying around. We thought it was Arctic but it was quite a distance away. Looking at ebird lists from others they had no other terns listed other than the Arctic and we thought we had the Arctic. It was late afternoon and we still had another birding spot so we opted to move on. It would turn out that looking at Jerry’s pic later on the computer we could see a probably black tip on the bill of the Tern making it a Forster’s not the Arctic. I would have liked to have that off the list so we will see if we can revisit that place on our way out of BC if they do indeed nest there.

We then headed to William Coulee road where Prairie Falcons are known to nest and we have seen them in past years. It was only minutes in, looking along the cliffs and I spotted a Falcon up on the top rocks. it then flew down and went into a crevice in the rock wall where it probably had a nest. We then saw another Falcon and a Golden Eagle appeared and they had an altercation.

Further down the road we found another breeding pair. It was a VERY good birding day. We had added 27 species in Saskatchewan and Alberta and I had seen all of my expected species. We headed to a hotel at the foot of the rockies only to find it full for the night so we opted for the sad local hotel and tavern where we paid $80 (cash only) for the night. I’ll leave it to your imagination as to what the room was like. Our tiny house back in the Grasslands it was not! We were only 6 hours away from my brother Darryl’s in Grand Forks!

Sunday we drove through the rockies along Crow Nest’s Pass. We stopped at a few rest areas and added 3 species to the list, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Mountain Chickadee and Violet-green Swallow. The mountains are amazingly immense and taking pictures just will never show the true scale of them. I made an attempt to take some from the car.

We arrived in Grand Forks in the afternoon and immediately started hearing birds as we drove up the road to my brother’s family compound. Based on our last trip here in 2022 we expect to add 10-12 species to our list just on his property, hopefully while sipping a Gin and Tonic or Margarita! Cheers!

Week 23 second half 33 species added 346 species Jerry and Ellen

Week 17 200! and Pelee!

by Ellen Horak | Apr 29, 2024 | Ontario Birds 2024

Background on Pelee: Point Pelee National Park (not the Island) is arguably the best place to bird in Ontario because of the migration of 40 warbler species in the spring and fall and the 400 species of birds that have been seen there. The southern most point of Canada sits at the same latitude as northern California – It’s true, look at a map! It is a mecca for birders in the spring and the Festival of Birds every May is a rite of passage for any birder to experience at least once. We have been every year since 2013 but there are birders who have been going for 50+ years! The stories they can tell of the sheer numbers of birds back in the day. Pelee is packed, it is busy, but it is exciting to be with your tribe, to stop and talk with anyone and have a connection. Some people we only see at Pelee each year but enjoy their companionship and stories. It can be daunting in time and energy. The early tram to the tip leaves at 5:15 now, it used to be 6, so that means up at 4:30, in the park by 5 because that first tram is FULL. Otherwise, it is the 3km walk to the tip, which we sometimes opt for. Then 2-3 hours at the tip and then working your way back up through the park through the day. We usually have an early dinner at 3-4 and then get back in the park for the evening when it tends to be empty of people but some good birds can be found. We often walk 14-20km in a day. Then it is back to the hotel for an hour or two to sort pictures and notes and bed before 10 to get up at 4 the next day.

What birders want more than anything in the spring is south winds because birds want to fly over Lake Erie or Ontario with tailwinds to push them and help them use less energy. Bird Cast is an online migration tool (birdcast.info) that forecasts how heavy migration will be based on those winds and fronts. In spring I check the weather and Birdcast daily. The second thing birders hope for is a “Fallout” situation where migrating birds suddenly hit heavy rain or north winds that cause them to be forced to land, hopefully at Pelee or your backyard. We have been at Pelee for a couple of these events and it is fantastic to witness. Colourful warblers can be just hopping on the ground, landing on people and sitting while they regain strength from feeding. There can be so many birds it is difficult to know where to look. These events are now few and far between though as bird numbers have declined and there are many more days of fewer birds and lots of walking and talking about birds and the weather. Still Pelee is always worth the visit and have the chance to experience birds you would not normally see in your yard.

Week 17

Monday we were getting ready to head to Pelee on Tuesday when a report of a Swallow-tail Kite came in from the Long Point area. While not a chaseable bird we talked about going down and driving the lakeshore and the marsh areas in case it was re-found. Then we thought if we drive there we might as well continue to drive to Pelee so we quickly finished up packing and were on the road by noon. We had a leisurely drive along Lake Erie, stopping at areas with good views and never found the Kite but we did have great views of a Golden Eagle at Port Rowan. I had two target birds for Pelee this week – American Avocet and Willet, both southern shorebirds that show up in Ontario fairly regularly. The Avocets generally in the window of April 21-May 7 with a 53% chance the third week in April. One had crossed over the Tip of Pelee on the 21st but was not seen again. We arrived in Leamington at dinner time and had our usual hotel travel meal.

Then we headed into the park for the evening. Things were starting to green up a bit and it was lovely to walk some of the trails we had missed on our half day here last week. Pelee is a beautiful park with trails that all have different habitat. Before the birders arrive in the next week we had the place mostly to ourselves.

It was pretty quiet, not a lot of birds but we managed to add 3, Chimney Swift, Louisiana Waterthrush and Northern Waterthrush. There are very subtle differences between the two Waterthrushes and although we did not get pictures we are confident in the identification as other birders had them in the same spots and the ID had been confirmed. That left us at 199. What would bird 200 be?

The forecast was for south winds Monday night and Birdcast had predicted low migration so Tuesday morning we were up and in the park just after 6 for the 3km hike to the tip (the tram doesn’t start early runs until May 1) and met up with 2 birders to watch the skies and lake.

There had been no migration that we could see, no warblers, no thrushes, if birds had migrated they had blown right past the Tip which does happen. There were also no shorebirds out on the sand of the Tip which is also why birders head there. The temptation to look and leave is strong, but the rule at the Tip is you start every day there and you stay a few hours because good things can come by at any moment. Lake watching is very boring for hours and then super exciting for seconds so much of the time is spent talking with whoever else happens to be there. While scanning for birds we passed the time talking to Cameron and Keith about, well, birding and weather.

At 7:50 Jerry yelled out and all of us saw a flock of 58 American Avocets fly down the east side, land briefly on the tip and then take off over the west side. Our 200th bird was American Avocet! We were thrilled! We had picked the right day by coming early.

About 20 minutes later they made another pass, coming down the east side, stopping briefly (seconds) and then continuing on across the lake heading west. Now all we needed was a Willet. We waited another hour but nothing else appeared and so we headed into the woods to see if we could find some new birds. The woods were pretty quiet again but we did find a few pockets of birds and managed to add 1 more new bird, a Blue-headed Vireo before it started to rain. Four Avocets had been re-found a bit earlier by Max, who had missed them at the Tip earlier, so we headed to the spot hoping to get better pictures.

The wind was howling and the rain was coming at us sideways but we made it down the short path to see the birds and there in the pond with them was a Willet. It had been reported the day before but we did not have the right directions to look for it. We had both of our targets on the first full day!

Willet -this is not the picture he took in the rain – we went back the next day for this better picture.

I had booked the hotel for the week not knowing how long it might take for these birds to arrive and we had just got very lucky! It was nice after the bit of a mess last week. With the rain coming down quite hard we opted to celebrate getting our targets with the standard go to at Pelee – Freddy’s for perch!

Wednesday morning we once again were in the park by 6am and at the tip before 7. It was much colder with north winds and very little was happening. We did add Common Tern for bird 203 and then headed back to the visitor centre through the woods and added Common Yellowthroat as well. We decided to check out Hillman Marsh to see if there were any shorebirds but there was little around. We were hungry and chilled so headed for an early dinner of delicious Mexican food in Leamington and then decided to stop in Kopegaron Woods after dinner. It seemed full of bird calls and birds, more than we had seen at Pelee and we quickly added Nashville Warbler, Black-throated Blue, Eastern Wood Pewee and Swainson’s Thrush. Although we only heard the Pewee and Thrush we know that we will be seeing and hearing lots of them in the next weeks. We also heard Louisiana Waterthrush and hung around trying to find it so Jerry could get pictures. We added 7 new birds on Wednesday!

Having got our targets and with north winds continuing until Friday we opted to head home Thursday and moved up returning to Pelee to Sunday. We stopped at a few places on the drive home and added Green Heron at Erieau Marsh Trail. Friday we headed down to the Trail Head in Glen Morris to see if the Cliff Swallows had returned and saw 5 of them with some already checking the nests from last year.

I haven’t said much about the Top 100 Birders but we have been in the top spot for quite a few weeks now. I don’t know if we will remain there. Migration can make or break things depending how the rarities fall and where. So, I’m taking the screen shot now so there is “proof” that at one point this year we were quite comfortably in the lead LOL.

We have been in the number one spot for a number of weeks but will we maintain it through spring migration?

There was Hype about the weekend forecast – 4 days of south and southwest winds with rain and some front coming up from Texas – I don’t understand much of it but the keen birders were getting pretty pumped that “something” was happening this weekend and it might be big, or epic, or so-so, LOL. The forecast is rain most of the day tomorrow after south winds and we will not be at Pelee.

Saturday the Discord dings started coming in mid morning not only from Pelee but from Rondeau and Long Point – Kentucky, Worm-eating, Chats, Henslow’s, a Snowy Egret near Chatham etc etc. It was excruciating to continue our caregiving chores knowing that great birds were 3 hours away. We finally left around 12:30 and headed to where the Snowy Egret was. A friend had it about 45 minutes before we arrived and no one was “on” the bird when we got there. The weather had gone from cloudy and cool to 25C and humid and I was overdressed. I paced the area back and forth, sweating and hoping for a sighting of the Egret through the branches but only saw Great Egrets. After 90 minutes we called it and headed to Pelee hoping to get at least one of the target birds that had been reported.

We arrived at Pelee 5:20pm and optimistically thinking we could see the Kentucky Warbler, bounce over to where a Yellow-breasted Chat was seen and then walk to the Tip for the Henslow’s Sparrow. Ahhh, the naivety!! LOL! Seven o’clock and we were still standing on the path where the Kentucky had last been seen, apparently minutes before we had got there because I had stopped to use the washroom! People told us it pops up every 10-15 minutes but it had been 90. Finally around 7:15 Jerry and Cameron saw it on the other side of the path we were all watching and then disappeared again. Ugggh I was trying to control my negativity – Jerry had a bird I didn’t – and a good one! We kept looking, other people had not seen it either, the tension was building and then it popped up, flew back across the road, we all raced to the spot and got good looks of it on a log. Yes! Stunning yellow and black! Jerry did not get a picture as it was too quick but perhaps we will have another encounter. And most importantly he went home with a happy wife! Whew!

I’m including Sunday on next weeks blog as this has gotten rather long and migration means long days and no time to write. Pelee to be continued…

So Week 17 ends with 19 rarities 216 species seen J&E