Migration on the rebound!

After many cold days with north wind, we were feeling deprived of the spectacle of migration… Finally, on Friday May 23, on a clear, calm, and slightly warmer, we were delighted by a renewal of sort! Many birds, especially warblers, were seen amid the new soft green leaves of spring. A lot of new species for the spring were observed this day, notably Red-eyed Vireo, Bay-breasted Warbler, and Canada Warbler.

A total of 19 species of warblers were detected out of the 24 species regularly seen in spring at Cabot Head! Brace yourself for the list: Orange-crowned, Nashville, Northern Parula (great view of this beautiful warbler!), Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Cape May, Black-throated Blue, Myrtle (Yellow-rumped), Black-throated Green, Blackburnian (another striking one!!), Palm, Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, Black-and-white, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Common Yellowthroat, and last but not least, Canada Warbler!!

Other interesting birds were the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Northern Orioles, and 2 Evening Grosbeaks! A very good day indeed, enjoyed by all the good people who were at Cabot Head at the time…

Since then, the good birds, like the good times, have continue to roll, with more late migrants showing up in our little corner of paradise. On May 24, the first Yellow-bellied Flycatcher was detected. On May 25, warm weather greeted us at dawn, a nice change. And more species were to be seen on that day than any other of the season! Many new species for the spring were seen or heard: Tennessee, Wilson’s, and Mourning Warblers, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Cedar Waxwing. And more excitement came with the capture of a Rusty Blackbird (a young female), the second one ever caught here!

On the lazy Sunday afternoon, while on a short hike to admire the Lakeside Daisies, another new species flew overhead, peeping: a Common Nighthawk!

hitting the peak!

Seven participants in a birding workshop called “hitting the peak” and their two leaders watched awe-struck as a river of birds flew past them, above the tree tops and toward the north eastern tip of the Bruce Peninsula. One of the participants had mentioned several times to the group that the flow of birds was amazing and relentless, motivating the group of bird watchers to try and measure the intensity of the migration. A five minute count was held about 10:00 am when the intensity seemed typical of what had been observed over the last several hours. The total was remarkable – 451 individuals of many species. As they all agreed that likely they were undercounting, it was estimated that there were approximately 100 birds a minute flying past continuous, likely since dawn. Around 11H30 the flow suddenly slowed to a trickle, but a simple calculation extrapolates that 30,000 birds flew past between about 6H00 am and 11H30!

“This was a remarkable demonstration of migration” says BPBO president Ted Cheskey. “It was so wonderful that the day after International Migratory Bird Day, this group of interested and passionate people were able to bear witness to one of the greatest natural spectacles on earth!” The movement was eastward, along the northern shore of the Bruce Peninsula. Birds use coast lines to help orient their migration as they work their way north to their breeding grounds in the spring. The water of Georgian Bay is a barrier to diurnal migration, which takes places slowly with frequent feeding stops. Normally songbirds migrate at night, so seeing such a frenetic movement during the day is a sign that the birds are anxious to move.

A new species banded at Cabot Head

What a surprise it was to get an American Woodcock in our nets on early April morning! Even though the Woodcock is quite common around the station, it is the first time we caught one!

Spring promises!

It’s already been over 2 weeks that migration monitoring has started again at Cabot Head, on the beautiful Bruce Peninsula. As usual, yours truly prefers to spend most of his time out in the real world instead of the cyber one, which explains the very irregular posting on this blog. True that you could get a horn of plenty at your fingertips, but it is so deprived of actual sensations, like a soft breeze filled with the beeping of spring peepers and the smell of warming earth…

The monitoring season started at Cabot Head on 16 April and the first week was warm and very pleasant. It is always a joy to see old friends coming back to their summer haunts and new species have been seen almost daily. We’ve been delighted to watch a young Golden Eagle seen for a few days; 3 Bald Eagles (2 juveniles and an adult) in residence around Wingfield Basin, exploiting a fish run on a small creek. It was interesting to see the adult bald eagle arriving a few days after the young ones, but quickly claiming the place for itself, scaring away gulls, ravens, and the loose congregations of scavengers (including a red fox, seen twice dragging a fish back to the wood).

Swallows, the harbingers of spring, were back already in mid-April: First Tree Swallow on 16 April, Bran on 18 April, Northern Rough-winged on 20 April and Bank on 23 April. Other birds strongly associated to the renewal of spring, the warblers, have started to trickle back too: the first Yellow-rumped Warbler arrived on 16 April, Pine Warblers on 18 April, Palm Warblers on 22 April, Nashville Warbler and Black-throated Green Warbler on 1 May.

Some birds were very early or unusual, like the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher on 17 April and the Spotted Sandpiper 2 days later. Large kettles of Broad-winged Hawks (up to 150 birds together) were seen in April, very unusual to see such large flocks that early!

But then, the weather turned cold during the last week of April; it even snowed on 30 April, a nice treat for one volunteer’s birthday! Migration has slowed since: a cold, north wind is not very enticing for long nightly flights. And when it turns warmer, it is to bring rain. In short, the exciting pace of migration has taken a break, waiting for breaks in the horizon to resume.