Twitching Rondeau

Another freezing cold day but only a light breeze rather than a howling gale like yesterday, but this meant that after a clear night a lot of birds seemed to have departed. The Blue Heron area was quieter than yesterday evening but we still had lots of Common Yellowthroats, Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart, Black-and-white and Magnolia  Warblers. 

Magnolia Warbler

Also called into Sleepy Hollow on the way down and this was quite birdy but I would have liked to see the calling Pileated Woodpecker. So, once down at the Visitor Centre it was apparent that there wasn’t a huge amount of new birds around so I made the decision to drive over to Rondeau and twitch a couple of reported goodies. As I drove there I did wonder what the heck I was doing! But things went fairly according to plan as we got our only Hooded Warbler of the trip after a short search – result!

Hooded Warbler

 We then spent some time at the feeders, drinking coffee and relaxing before walking the Tulip Tree trail. We all commented on the fact it was more like a dry winter’s day than Spring. But with nothing doing we drove back up to Spice Bush Trail, stopping to look at a pair of Wood Ducks swimming at the back of a slough. The trail was quiet although along the road we had a fine Parula Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler and a few other things. 

Swainson's Thrush

Red-breasted Nuthatch

But with time passing all too quickly, I wanted to have another crack at the Maintenance Loop Trail where most of the good birds had been seen recently. Sure enough we managed to find the male Cerrulean Warbler, which was actually skulking on the forest floor under the short grass and weeds on a bank beside the path.

Cerulean Warbler

Cerulean Warbler

It was incredible to be able to look down on this bird which is normally found high up in the canopy. There was also Cooper’s Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk and Red-tailed Hawk flying over the wood, Black-capped Chickadee, Grey Catbird, plus a Brewster’s Warbler (hybrid Blue-winged x Golden-winged) to finish the day off in style.

Brewster's Warbler