Nothing much happening today, a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak found the sunflower seeds in the morning. The afternoon was spent in Traverse looking for yesterdays worm-eating with no joy but other good birds were a Veery, Wood Thrush, Whip-poor Will and a Black and White Warbler.
29th April
A calm sunny day once again ended up with two goodies. Banding followed on from yesterday with nothing new but a Red-breasted Nuthatch frequented the yard. Straight after lunch a walk around Traverse was very rewarding with 3 Baltimore Orioles, male Scarlet Tanager, Cape May Warbler but the best was a Worm-eating Warbler that spent most of its time with a small warbler flock. This comprises only the 18th record for the point and first since 1996 for this bird right on its northern limit.
Pleased with our haul we headed back as the lake went flat calm. Grabbing my scope I started to scan through the thousand or so Long-tailed Ducks finding 6 Black Scoters, a pair of American Wigeon and many Buffleheads. As I worked through the distant dots I came across four birds driving consistently in close proximity, from their jizz these were obviously different, looking carefully I could see they had a large white patch at the front of their heads and then a reddish brown colour on the flanks. It was a group of Harlequin Ducks (2 males, 1 imm male and a female). We watched the birds for 10 minutes before they flew off further out onto the lake. Looking back at the records I was surprised to find that there had only been 32 previous birds in the Kingston area of which only three singles were spring records, a good end to a good day.
28th April
The day started with a Black and White Warbler in the yard followed by a Gray Catbird caught during banding. It was much quieter than yesterday and as noon arrived a few rain showers started to fall. In the afternoon all I could find were two female Pine Warblers as the number of Pine Siskins on the feeders increased to 30.
27th April
A cracking calm, sunny, warm day lead to an arrival of Yellow Warblers, Eastern Kingbird and a Broad-winged Hawk soared overhead. Ringing was good with 228 birds caught including 3 Rusty Blackbirds and a massive female Meadowlark. (impressive!!!!!)
After lunch a walk with Dave around Traverse produced a Great-crested Flycatcher. In the evening I headed towards the lighthouse through the swamp where feeding on the midges in the tree tops was a male White-winged Crossbill, the rest of my walk was relatively quiet (except for a Groundhog) until half way back when a bright orange chap was spotted high in a tree, a superb male Blackburnian Warbler in gorgeous evening sun.
26th April
A cool northerly wind resulted in very few birds. 4 Black Scoters flew by on the lake with some White-winged Scoters as 50 Canada Geese moved north slowly. Only passerines of note were 2 Blue-headed Vireos, 3 Blue-grey Gnatcatchers and 2 Western Palm Warblers.
25th April
We awoke to clear skies with a mild south westerly wind (9oC) and a quick glance at the latest radar looked very promising with birds moving over the lake following the tail of the front that was moving off northeast. Whilst opening the nets a Pine Warbler was singing over net 7. Back at the banding station two Western Palm Warblers popped up followed by a Blue-headed Vireo. Two hours had passed with a steady flow of birds trapped when visiting weekend birders arrived reporting a yellow-throated vireo at Point Traverse. Heading up there I couldn’t see any sign of the vireo but I found two more Pine Warblers (with bright yellow males possibly being misidentified as a vireo?), several Swamp Sparrows and a Whip-poor-will flushed off the path. Dave appeared saying the nets were hotting up with Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler, White-breasted Nuthatch and a Lincoln’s Sparrow all in bags. Back at the station just in time as a Pileated Woodpecker flew past.
Then two novice birders appeared back from around the harbour reporting a Lark Sparrow, Dave was straight round and sure enough there he was feeding on the grass lawn with a Chipping Sparrow. (only fifth spring record for Kingston area). Banding continued with a record breaking total catch of 7 Pine Warblers (all in one day!) as a Nashville Warbler was added to the year list. Banding was stopped mid afternoon at 228 birds of 27 species.
A walk around the harbour produced many birds with Spotted Sandpiper, Least Flycatcher and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher being year ticks. Also of note were 10+ Brown Thrasher, 2 Eastern Towhee, 50+ Myrtle Warblers, 8 Field Sparrows and a finally tally of 14+ Pine Warblers were logged. Whilst around the swamp I near s*** myself when I bumped into my first Snapping Turtles. They are mean looking fellows and flipping big as I kept a safe distance. Arriving back to the safety of the house at dusk the front edge of a thunderstorm was just arriving as the wind increased and the temperature reached a very mild 22oC. Luckily the storm passed just to our north!
24th April
Following on from yesterday with no obvious arrivals except for a Savannah Sparrow that was attracted in. The morning gradually got busier as Ruby-crowned Kinglets reached 34 and two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers were banded. Nothing much for the afternoon as thunderstorms arrived at dusk.
23rd April
Today was a much quieter day than yesterday with a fresh westerly wind blowing, we reached just over sixty birds banded. Mid-morning I spotted a Sandhill Crane flying high overhead in a northeast direction. Shortly later a fishing boat came into bother at the mouth of the harbour and had to release its catch attracting a swarm of American Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. In the evening the gulls were still lingering as I spent some time studying and photographing them.
22nd April
It was a nice calm start to the day with high cloud cover as the ground was damp from showers the previous evening. As the nets were opened a chorus of White-throated Sparrow, Myrtle Warblers and Slate-coloured Juncos could be heard. The initial net round produced about 20 birds but by the second round it was obvious that there were lots of birds here. New migrants for the year were a Field Sparrow and a Brown Thrasher. The six hours we up but net rounds were producing 40-50 new birds still so we carried on for a couple more hours non-standard banding. We called it a day having banded 288 new birds of 26 species with highest counts of 92 Golden and 36 Ruby-crowned Kinglets. A relaxing evening walk saw more of the same with birds feasting on the millions of flies from sparrows to woodpeckers to Buffleheads.
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