Long Point - April 10th

I took the day off yesterday, and Lill and I headed down bright and early to Long Point for the morning and part of the afternoon. Overnight we had had lots of rain, thunder and lightning, and the temperature was +14 when I got up (0545)....things were looking good!

Heading straight for the peninsula itself yielded lots of nicely new spring migrants. We saw quite a number of sparrows species, between our time at Old Cut, Hasting's Dirve, and the Provincial Park. Lots of Flicker's, Fox, Chipping, a few Vesper, and 1 Savannah Sparrows as well as our FOY Pine Warbler, Brown Thrasher. Lillian was the official photographer today:

Merlin staking the sparrows out in the fog at the entrance to LPPP.

What does the fox say??? I think it's something about getting enough to eat at home...

Good numbers of Chippers, a few Fields, and tonnes of Junco's along Hwy. 59.

Mr. Savannah (our 1 and only).

Lots of ATSP were moving (around 120 seen throughout LP Proper).

Good numbers of NOFLs too!

And 3 EABLs along Hasting's.

I also saw a really interesting female Junco at Old Cut, right by the banding lab, that looked like a Pink-sided....but alas no photos or good enough looks to confirm.

Here's our eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S22786604

After checking LP, we toured the roads west of Hwy. 59 along the lake, but didn't really see anything of interest, so we went for some lunch at the Boat House. After lunch, we checked the Port Rowan overlook and had a few things, despite the crazy strong winds (gusting to 85km/hr), including our only Purple Martin, and 2 Caspian and 9 Forster's Terns hunkering down out of the wind.

eBird checklists: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S22786715

Next up was Turkey Point, where we really quickly checked and had another FOY: Barn Swallow, as well as 3 Forster's Terns. Deciding we had had a nice day, we headed home, checking for the Eurasian Wigeon, where we dipped, but it offered a nice selection of dabblers nonetheless.

All in all a good day (85 species). Spring is here!!!