First day at Pelee....

Alvan and I spent our first full-day here at Point Pelee. We're spending until the 7th here, then am going to Pelee Island until the 13th.

Anyways. Today was pretty awesome! We woke up around 5am, arriving at the park for 5:30. We got to the tip on the first tram, and arriving at the tram drop-off I immediately heard the unmistakable call of a Chuck-will's Widow!!! We were able to get off the tram, get relatively close to it, and Alvan was able to record it on his phone! Shweet.

Have a listen to it, courtesy of Alvan.


We waited around at the tip for the reverse to happen, and it sure did. While I didn't count the birds, I would estimate around 2,500 birds, with very few 'true' blackbirds, meaning this was one of the better reverses I've had (RWBL, COGR and BHCO often number in the hundreds even on average reverses). We picked out some nice reverse migrants too, my favs being a male Prothonotary, Golden-winged and Hooded and a Grasshopper Sparrow (it tried reversing, but turned around). Lots of Scarlet Tanagers (18), Bobolinks (~40), ~25 Red-headed Woodepeckers (this was by far the highest number I've seen of this species on a reverse) and lots of Warblers (~300 Nashville, 10 Blackburnian, 20 Black-throated Green and 150 Yellow's among the highlights from a numbers perspective. There other decent stuff around at the tip with Little and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and both Surf and White-winged Scoters.

Heading north from the tip, we walked back........