Rondeau Rocks!

My best day of the trip so far, as we took the bold decision to visit Rondeau Provincial Park, about an hour’s drive east from Point Pelee. At the entrance gate I had just paid the park fee when I noticed some movement across the road and managed to quickly get my bins on a male Black-throated Blue Warbler feeding in some bushes. A couple other birds were present so we hopped out of the car and had a nice little flock with Yellow, Palm, Yellow-rumped and Nashville Warblers. Looking around there were more warblers behind us and an awesome male Cape May Warbler was glowing in a fir tree with more of the same warblers nearby. A great way to start the day and I’d almost forgot to stop shivering as it was a rather cool 6 degrees centigrade here right now.

Our aim was to get the to Visitor Centre and stake out the feeders where a Yellow-throated Warbler had been present for some time but I couldn’t drive past the Spice Bush Trail that has been so hot recently. A nice variety of birds wee here including Swainson’s Thrush, Blackburnian, Black-throated Green, Black-and-white, etc. 

Black-and-white Warbler

But I was itching to move on and we hadn’t been at the Visitor Centre for very long when the stunning Yellow-throated Warbler appeared on top of the suet feeder (yeah right!) and shot off. It came back a short while later and I managed to fire off these pics before it flew up into the guttering and crept around there for a while. 

Yellow-throated Warbler

The feeders were very busy with sparrows, Blue Jays, loads of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Downy Woodpecker, Baltimore Orioles, American Goldfinch, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, White-breasted Nuthatch and Tufted Titmouse….

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Downy Woodpcker

American Goldfinch

Baltimore Oriole

White-breasted Nuthatch

 We then went down to the South Point Trail, stopping to take in a pair of Eastern Bluebirds along the way. It was a little quiet down here although a Least Flycatcher was nice. So we went back to the Visitor Centre for some hot soup and coffee and to warm up a bit and as we ‘chilled’ out (see what I did there?) Viv wandered outside and had some Cedar Waxwings. 

Golden-winged Warbler

Ovenbird

Then, as we were leaving we got wind of a Golden-winged Warbler seen along Tulip Tree Trail so in we went as its right next door and had great views of the baby, along with Ovenbird, several Veery’s and a bunch of warblers. Then it was up to Spice Bush Trail as the Worm-eating Warbler was showing, but not when we arrived. But we only had to wait 20 minutes or so and there it was. We were also entertained by some close warblers and especially this Ovenbird.

To be continued......