May Warbler Parade

The spring birding rush appears to be over. At least for many birders. As for the birds, they continue on whether humans are out there looking for them or not.

The trails are almost devoid of birders.

Bennett Ave benches

As usual, there were some very good days, and some very quiet days. But overall I think most birders who were able to stick around for a few days over May were satisfied. Also, as usual, I got lots of photos of warblers and other migrants, probably a couple of thousand or so. And since it is so hard to pick and choose which ones to include, now that I have your attention, I will proceed to show them all to you.

Okay, maybe not. But how about a couple of dozen of my favourites?

American Redstarts are one of the more common breeding warblers at Rondeau. Some people have wondered where the 'red' is, and have suggested calling them Orangestarts. It doesn't roll off the tongue quite as nicely, and taxonomists being what they are are not likely to change the name, so I suspect we will have to continue on with redstart for the foreseeable future.

 Black-and-white Warblers are one of the more common early warbler migrants

 Black-throated Blue Warblers are a bit harder to come by some years, but they were fairly plentiful this year.

 A warbler that used to nest in small numbers at Rondeau is the Cerulean Warbler. It has not been found nesting for several years. Even finding one on migration is a highlight. They are often up in the trees a bit and given the many cloudy days we had to contend with this year, made getting ideal photos next to impossible. These had to be tweaked quite a bit to keep them from being just a very poor silhouette.

 Cape May Warblers were fairly common........

 .....as were Nashvilles

 Northern Parulas were in relatively low numbers compared to most species.

 Ovenbirds are skulkers, but periodically pop up onto a branch for a better view.

 Undoubtedly the most abundant warbler species in the park, and probably most of southern Ontario, is the Yellow Warbler. On some days it was not hard to find more than a hundred.

 Black-throated Green Warblers were fairly regular, although not abundant.

 Northern Waterthrushes were sometimes hard to come by, but not nearly as hard as their relative the Louisiana Waterthrush. I did not see a Louisiana Waterthrush this year....yet, and given that they normally are an early migrant, may not see one at all.

Tennessee Warblers are not all that bright and colourful and are more likely to be bypassed. But they certainly were fairly abundant by the middle of the migration.

On occasion there were pockets of warblers that gave outstanding views. A prime example was on a partly sunny day when the winds were brisk out of the north. At the log pond, insects were emerging at the south end of the pond, and there was quite an accumulation of insects and other tasty tidbits the warblers were searching out. The half a dozen species of warbler were not in the least concerned with the abundance of people aiming cameras and binoculars at them. Sometimes the birds were much too close to focus on, and were zooming by within arm's reach. A couple of Blackburnian Warblers were highlights, as their orange throats glowed in the bright light.

 Chestnut-sided Warblers were also very cooperative.

 Along the Tuliptree Trail, there were at least three male Prothonotary Warblers in two of the sloughs. They were busy singing in between searching for insects at the water's edge, and in the cloudy bright sunlight, really glowed.

 Hooded Warblers were more abundant than usual. On occasion one could see 4-5 in a single day. In years past, one would be hard pressed to see more than one or two all season.

 Golden-winged Warblers are harder to come by, although there were several seen at Rondeau this season. This one was active and out in the open long enough for a few photos.

 One of the reasons they are on the decline is due to the hybridization with a close relative, the Blue-winged Warbler. I saw several Blue-wings this year, but did not get photos. But the progeny of a Blue-winged and Golden-winged pairing results in some interesting hybrids. The most common is the Brewster's Warbler, shown next. It was quite a skulker and this is the best photo I could manage.

 As the season went on, a couple of the later arriving warbler species were Mourning Warbler, shown in the next two photos, and Connecticut Warbler, shown in the third one following. Both are skulkers, most often found in fairly dense shrubbery. This Mourning Warbler happened to pop out of the honeysuckle it was foraging in long enough for a couple of fast shutter releases.

Yeah....that third one never materialized, since I never even saw a Connecticut, let alone photographed one. There may still be time this season, so stay tuned for some end of season warbler photos if I manage some. Fortunately even though the peak of the songbird migration is over, there will be lots to see as the weeks go by. For example I had at least a dozen Monarch butterflies in the last few days, as well as my first couple of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails. A relatively rare orchid is in flower now, trees and shrubs are starting to flower, and tallgrass prairies are showing some of their colour and diversity. Ahhh....it is springtime!