Canada - Algonquin 31st May & 1st June

I meant to do this post a lot sooner after I got back but busy life takes its toll on blogging. Anyway, Mark L and I spent our final couple of days of our holiday in Algonquin National Park; a relative wilderness area three hours north of Toronto. It's a really special area with lovely boreal scenery and just a couple of roads traversing an otherwise vast area of forest and spruce bog. Also, importantly, it holds a lot of breeding species with some tricky to find elsewhere - main targets here are usually Black-backed Woodpecker, Spruce Grouse, Boreal Chickadee and Grey (Gray?) Jay. Click here for a decent birding map that we used for our visit.

The Mizzy Lake Trail was where we focused our efforts; firstly driving along the Arowhon Road where we quickly saw our first target - Boreal Chickadee - while singing Ovenbirds, Yellow-rumped Warblers and Red-breasted Nuthatches were to become familiar sights and sounds.

Red-breasted Nuthatch Algonquin, Ontario 31st May 2016

The plan for our first day was to just walk, walk and walk until we felt we'd had enough and/or the birding activity died down. Thankfully it didn't get amazingly warm as we walked along the trail to Wolf Howl Pond, West Rose Lake and 'Flycatcher Bog' for several km. The mosquitoes were present here, though never a real annoyance. The birds started flowing within just a couple of hundred metres of leaving the car, with this female Spruce Grouse staying pretty chilled by the path as we admired her: -

female Spruce Grouse Algonquin, Ontario 31st May 2016

Swainson's Thrushes, White-throated Sparrows and Ovenbirds continued to sing/skulk from the undergrowth while Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets were seen with some regularity.

Ovenbird Algonquin, Ontario 31st May 2016

One of the things that was most frustrating were the singing Nearctic wood-warblers - for colourful birds when singing they remained pretty static so they were pretty tricky to locate as they had a tendency to throw their tunes a bit. Blackburnian and Yellow-rumped were the most numerous, while Canada, Magnolia, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue and Black-and-white Warblers were also seen (and heard) along the walk.

Myrtle Warbler Algonquin, Ontario 31st May 2016

On the open water, a handful of Hooded Mergansers were noted along with a couple of Great Blue Herons. Another couple of Boreal Chickadees were located too, in small flocks with their commoner Black-capped cousin: -

Boreal Chickadee Algonquin, Ontario 31st May 2016

Up until this trip, for one reason or another, Grey Jay was a species I'd missed out on - always visiting periperal sites and/or at the wrong time of the year. So when a fluttery group of birds came to investigate us along a remote path, I was all for giving them a bit of attention. What is it though with yanks, jays and rings - these guys were 'banded' as were the Florida Scrub Jays (understandably) and the Mexican Jays I saw in Texas.

Grey Jays Algonquin, Ontario 31st May 2016

A load of Cedar Waxwings buzzed about in the trees and Red-eyed Vireos were common, and I found a cracking male Spruce Grouse munching away in a trackside spruce; Alder Flycatchers were present in a couple of the boggy areas and a single Least Flycatcher was located too. In these swampy areas, Swamp and Lincoln's Sparrows were seen along with a fair few Common Yellowthroats - all good stuff! However, by mid afternoon (having been out since dawn) we felt as though we'd exhausted the place despite having failed to locate Black-backed Woodpecker. And so we headed east within the National Park boundary to the Lake of Two Rivers area and the adjacent abandoned airstrip; the gen promised so much (including Black-backed Woodpecker) but delivered so little - a nice Pileated Woodpecker, a few Chipping Sparrows and Yellow and Chestnut-sided Warblers being the highlights.

As it got towards dusk, we had another failed Eastern Whip-poor-will and American Woodcock attempt. For some reason too, I declined rapidly and spent the rest of the night either sleeping or feeling distinctly ill. And as the next day dawned, I was slow to rise still feeling grim - though Mark L was great by getting me going but realising he was going to have to do everything! Though I started off by finding this big boy on the Mizzy Lake trail - a nice Moose (the first of three): -

Moose Algonquin, Ontario 1st June 2016

Having retraced our steps along the Mizzy Lake trail, we got to West Rose Lake and in the bare trees by the lakeside there was our final Algonquin target - a nice female Black-backed Woodpecker! It showed well for half an hour or so before becoming more distant, and was thankfully nice and easy given how grim I was feeling.

Black-backed Woodpecker Algonquin, Ontario 1st June 2016

With time ticking on before the need to go back to Toronto for our flight home, we had a quick walk around the Spruce Bog trail (at the east end of the park) where things were quiet, except for a Moose and this cracking male Chestnut-sided Warbler: -

Chestnut-sided Warbler Algonquin, Ontario 1st June 2016

And so that was that, another successful US trip with decent company and plenty of birds. Highlights for me being displaying Upland Sandpipers, singing Kirtland's Warblers and Bobolinks galore, Henslow's and Le Conte's Sparrows, lekking Sharp-tailed Grouse plus obliging Spruce Grouse and Grey Jays in Algonquin. Not bad for 5 days of birding!

French weekender

Karen and I had a quick break the weekend just gone on the other side of the Channel. Really pleasant time and so easy from southeast London (and cheap - think our wine savings paid for our Eurotunnel trip!). We stuck to the area within an hour or so west/southwest of Calais and were very nicely surprised about the small towns and decent countryside we encountered. Add to that some brilliant seafood (rarely post food recommendations on here but the Fruits de mer at La Marie Galante in Audresselles were very memorable) and a load of gulls, and I'll be back for some second helpings!

Though we stayed in Le Touquet, which is a decent resort town, the gulling is centred on Boulogne-sur-mer and the suburb immediately south called Le Portel. As this is France's largest port, I can well imagine the copious amounts of gulls present in autumn and winter but even in early July the nesting activity was massive - loads of local Herring Gulls plus it was good to see urban nesting Kittiwakes and their young.

Kittiwakes Boulogne-sur-mer, Pas-de-Calais 3rd July 2016

Of everything else, there were a dozen or so Mediterranean Gulls cruising around - the odd one or two settling down.

Mediterranean Gulls Le Portel, Pas-de-Calais 3rd July 2016

Gull rings included three Great Black-backed Gulls from Norway, a Dutch ringed Herring Gull and three Belgian birds (two Herring Gulls and a Lesser Black-backed Gull).

Great Black-backed Gull (JC055) Boulogne-sur-mer, Pas-de-Calais 3rd July 2016 - ringed as a chick at Lille Vigeskjær, Lindesnes, Vest-Agder, Norway on 5th July 2015,  then seen at Ameland, The Netherlands on 1st November 2015 before turning up at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France from 27th November 2015

Lesser Black-backed Gull (UK:AB) Boulogne-sur-mer, Pas-de-Calais 3rd July 2016 - ringed as a chick at Zeebrugge, Belgium on 20th July 2012 and seen to winter in Huelva, Spain (October 2013, February 2014 and 2015); also regularly seen in the Boulogne area as well as back in Zeebrugge, Belgium on 16th June 2016

Anyway, the trip was a good excuse to get out of London after a few hectic weeks and it has certainly given me some food for thought for quick winter gull ring reading trips!  

Michigan day three

There'd been a fair bit of rain overnight, but the dawn skyline at Sault Sainte Marie showed signs of promise as we headed to Munuscong Potholes (about half an hour back south). This was an area that Mark and I decided to do within the last week of the planning phase of the trip, specifically targeting two species - Sharp-tailed Grouse and Le Conte's Sparrow. We considered it was the effort as you'll see.

On arrival at Munuscong, first bird of the day was a low flying American Bittern - superb! This was then closely followed by some blurry shapes in an adjacent field, that as the light got better turned into ten Sharp-tailed Grouse at their lek site. Great to see the violet display patch revealed on their necks, as well as them strutting about revealing their sharp tails!

Sharp-tailed Grouse lek at Munuscong, Michigan 30th May 2016

Whack onto that a couple of flyover Sandhill Cranes and a healthy population of Bobolinks - really nice pleasant open landscape US birding. And very few other people about too. A pretty isolated, remote location benefiting from the US's relatively extensive agriculture.

Bobolink Munuscong, Michigan 30th May 2016

Munuscong is, however, home to a bit of a prize species. American sparrows are pretty fascinating and with Henslow's Sparrow recorded on day one, it was the buffy toned, diminutive Le Conte's we were after here. Typically these scarcer sparrows are always early morning birds and this species was no exception - they seemed to like the wet grassland and although there were probably half a dozen singing males, we only managed to track down this one. Try and spot the bird - it was actually singing from this same spot for a good ten minutes!

Spot the Le Conte's Sparrow...

Munuscong also had some (in my opinion) beautifully plumaged, pristine Ring-billed Gulls, lots of Yellow Warblers, Savannah Sparrows and a couple of Alder Flycatchers. Three species of 'common' sparrow too with Savannah, Song and White-throated. The undoubted pride of place went to this Upland Sandpiper though, that decided to do a display flight and then land on a post right next to the road - exactly what dreams are made of. Or at least that's what I'd really wanted...

Upland Sandpiper Munscong, Michigan 30th May 2016

We had a quick look round the campsite area where a Blackburnian Warbler and Northern Parula were the highlights; Ovenbirds sang pretty frequently but remained fairly elusive, though a Hairy Woodpecker was a decent addition to the trip list.

We drew ourselves away from Munuscong mid morning, knowing that there was a six or seven hour drive ahead. All went pretty smoothly to be honest - the Canadian border lacked the supercilious attitude on the yank side and to top it off, I got caught for speeding (55mph on straight roads with traffic is no use really) and got let off by a lovely Canadian policeman who wished us on our way with 'you'll be blown over by Algonquin'! Let's hope so...

An evening trip out from our base in Huntsville, Ontario produced at least one Eastern Whip-poor-will calling away. Try as we might, among the vast number of midges, we couldn't see the species once again. Can't win them all I suppose.

Michigan day two

I didn't even remember going to sleep the previous evening. After some pretty heavy overnight rain, Sunday 29th May dawned warm and a bit overcast in Tawas. We headed off to Tuttle Marsh first thing where a quick visit revealed a single Trumpeter Swan, the target species, along with a couple of Hooded Mergansers sitting pretty in the early morning light.

Trumpeter Swan Tuttle Marsh, Michigan 28th May 2016

Hooded Mergansers Tuttle Marsh, Michigan 28th May 2016

The main event of any trip to Michigan was up next. Kirtland's Warbler - one of the rare success stories, with conservation and habitat creation boosting the population to c.3,500 birds (up from  a global population of just 167 singing males in 1974!). The species nests in jack pines that are rarely over a couple of dozen feet, and their song rings out from the Huron Forest pretty much wherever this habitat can be found these days. Tours to see this species still happen pretty regularly (see here) although a quick search of Ebird gives you some up-to-date gen on where to find the species too. We did the latter, and though tricky to pin down and get good views, a quality male Kirtland's Warbler performed admirably. Pretty large warblers, at least more so than I'd expected with a nice slate back, rich yellow underparts and nice white eye crescents: -

male Kirtland's Warbler Kobs Road, Michigan 28th May 2016

Black-capped Chickadees, Nashville Warblers and the odd Blue Jay were the only other birds seen. However, it was at the Kirtland's Warbler site we met John Lowry - a well connected Michigan birder - who provided us with some really useful gen for later in the day. But before we left the Tawas area, it was time for a walkabout Tawas State Park again. Numbers were down overall compared to yesterday, but there was a real push of Blue Jays (dozens) as well as about 20 Orchard Orioles. Warblers were on the quiet side with a single Wilson's the highlight along with a couple of American Redstarts while a vocal Willow Flycatcher was good to nail to species.

Willow Flycatcher Tawas State Park, Michigan 28th May 2016

We headed southwest from Tawas, on the basis of some Mourning Warbler info from John Lowry, to Big Creek Road (location here). Here this elusive target was located with relative ease, at least vocally. Given the propensity of the species to frequent and sing from low perches, views were not easy compared to the other warblers we'd been watching but some semi-decent views were had in the end. Eastern Wood-Pewee, Yellow Warbler, American Redstart, Indigo Bunting and Belted Kingfisher were also seen here.

Blue Jay Tawas State Park, Michigan 28th May 2016

And then it was up north a couple of hours to the Amish land immediately to the north of Mio. The real highlight here was an Upland Sandpiper feeding in the fresh pastures, while our first displaying Bobolinks were quality too despite the distance...

Upland Sandpiper near Mio, Michigan 28th May 2016

With an early start required the next day, it was mid evening by the time we reached Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the Canadian border at Sault Sainte Marie. A fair bit of driving done, but with all targets seen, not a bad day's birding.

Michigan day one

I'm sitting here in a motel on the US/Canadian border in NE Michigan thoroughly shattered. It's now Sunday evening but having finished school on Friday afternoon, it was a non-stop evening flight to Toronto and then in the car, a 7 hour overnight drive (which included the predictably anally retentive, jobsworth US border patrol) and then birding non-stop until after dark on Saturday. And then a pre-dawn start with a whole day's birding today to boot. So here's what happened on day one, Saturday 28th May.

After the overnight drive, and a paultry half hour of sleep, the dawn chorus at the junctions of Cloverdale and Broadway Road (near Hastings) started to bubble. American Robins, Common Yellowthroat, Red-winged Blackbirds - all typical mix. But it was for a small near-threatened sparrow that we'd made the journey. With a bit of patience, after tracking down a few birds singing, Henslow's Sparrow revealed itself in the morning half light.

Henslow's Sparrow Cloverdale Grasslands, Michigan 28th May 2016

The fields and surrounding area was pretty birdy too - a singing male Blue-winged Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Swamp Sparrow and a calling Ring-necked Pheasant the highlights while stuff like Killdeer and Yellow Warbler are always nice to see for the first time in a while. And off northeast we headed.

Tawas Point, on the shores of Lake Huron, is one of those famed migration places - perhaps not in the same league as High Island and Magee, it still has an enviable list of yank warblers moving through each spring. Our visit on 28th May was perhaps a little on the late side, but worth the trip if you just have a read through the following highlights - Magnolia Warbler 4, Blackburnian Warbler 1, Chestnut-sided Warbler 3, Yellow Warbler 20+, American Redstart 20+, Northern Waterthrush 1, Veery 1, Cedar Waxwing 75+, Baltimore Oriole 50+, Orchard Oriole 3, Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1, Eastern Wood Pewee 2, Great Crested Flycatcher 1, Scarlet Tanager 6, Red-eyed Vireo 12+, Field Sparrow 1, Savannah Sparrow 3, Song Sparrow 5 and Eastern Kingbird 100+. These figures just show how decent a place this really is, and with the trees relatively stunted views are generally going to be excellent. And little beats yank passerine migration.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak Tawas Point, Michigan 28th May 2016

American Redstart Tawas Point, Michigan 28th May 2016

Red-eyed Vireo Tawas Point, Michigan 28th May 2016

Cedar Waxwing Tawas Point, Michigan 28th May 2016

Chestnut-sided Warbler Tawas Point, Michigan 28th May 2016

Eastern Kingbird Tawas Point, Michigan 28th May 2016

Yellow Warbler Tawas Point, Michigan 28th May 2016

After Tawas had played on our tired minds, we headed back inland for an evening session at Tuttle Marsh - known for its Black-billed Cuckoos and Trumpeter Swans. Those were our targets anyway, but the extensive open water creates habitat for stuff like Belted Kingfisher, Ospreys and Blue-winged Teal too. To cut things short as I am pretty shattered writing this, the cuckoo played ball while the swan needed to wait. Bizarre how we were unable to locate a couple of big, white birds!

Black-billed Cuckoo Tuttle Marsh, Michigan 28th March 2016

Driving out of Tuttle, a productive stop produced Myrtle, Pine and Nashville Warblers along with Chipping Sparrow and a Red-breasted Nuthatch. The late evening into the night entertainment though was harder to come by at Iosco County airfield - singing (but not seen) Eastern Whip-poor-wills and no American Woodcock either. A handful of Common Nighthawks were a little compensation.

Anyway, Michigan is a pretty nice place with a lot of land that isn't eaten up by urban sprawl. A pleasant and refreshing change! A couple of the non-birding highlights so far have included ticking off The Amish, immaturely driving through a town called Gaylord and photographing the sign as well as a few animals including Racoons, Opossums, Musk Rats, Chipmunks and White-tailed Deer. Tomorrow we'll be heading back into Canada after a morning around Munuscong.

Black-billed Cuckoo North Uist!

The term 'dream bird' is used all too often. But earlier this week, it genuinely did happen. Birders of my generation - born in the 80's and then birding hard from the mid 90's - have had to endure endless tales of Scilly in its prime. Now that I've been going a few years, most of those mega rares have repeated during my time with one massive exception - Black-billed Cuckoo. Add to that the apparent demise of the species on the other side of the Atlantic, just a couple of records on the Azores and an all too brief bird on North Ronaldsay a couple of autumn's ago and you've got a species I really never fancied seeing. Not least in May! But last weekend an incredible record unfolded - a Black-billed Cuckoo at Paible, North Uist.

It was genuinely a real no brainer to go or not to go. Mega rarities, that you've been talking about every single bloody year forlornly, don't grow on trees. And a fit and well Black-billed Cuckoo ticked every single box. And so, with a quick flight up from Yorkshire, look what was still lurking when I (and others) arrived...

Black-billed Cuckoo Paible, North Uist, Outer Hebrides May 2016

It was really perky, actively catching caterpillars and flying about from garden to garden near Loch Sandary in the Hebridean sun. Not exactly how I'd expected to see one - thought a shattered, half dead bird in October was more likely. Black-billed Cuckoo was actually a world tick too, a species that I'd not yet seen in the US. So much so that it was only on the morning that the news broke that I'd been listening to and downloading the call! In fact, the species was one of 16 targets that I'm hoping to see in Michigan next week.

A bit of an update

I didn't quite realise how long it has been since I did an update on here. A lot has happened, both birding wise and at work. One of the busiest periods for both, and so having got back from Italy on that first Bank Holiday weekend in May, one of the first things I did was go on an after school twitch to Otford, Kent where the meena race Rufous Turtle Dove showed well on arrival: -

Rufous Turtle Dove Otford, Kent 3rd May 2016

Back in the day, this species was near-mythical. I remember seeing the Orkney bird on a dark December 2002 day and near enough everyone needed it then. I even saw another orientalis race bird in Oxfordshire a few years back in 2011.

The next weekend promised a lot, with a really decent passage of Pomarine Skuas past Dungeness on the Friday. It was good enough for me to get up well before dawn and venture down there. And I wasn't alone, though we were all without the skua passage with a grand total of zero Poms recorded! I did have a nice Black Tern on The Patch and a walk about the trapping area revealed a Whinchat at the far end of the Long Pits. But other than that, Dungeness was really quiet and so I headed back to London early afternoon. A walk about Rotherhithe that evening was pleasant if not spectacular with a Buzzard over my flat, a Bristol ringed Herring Gull on Greenland Dock and then some nice views of an inquisitive Ring-necked Parakeet: -

Ring-necked Parakeet Russia Dock Woodland, Rotherhithe 7th May 2016

1st-summer Herring Gull (L+R) Rotherhithe 7th May 2016 - ringed as a chick in Bristol on 7th July 2015

The next morning, May 8th, was one of those days where I nearly didn't bother getting out of bet. But hell yeah, I'm glad that I did. And so in glorious blue skies I met up with John A at Crossness and we went for a stomp around. Very quiet indeed to start off, and then all of a sudden while on the hunt for a leftover Wheatear in the paddocks, a small finch flew over with a buzzing 'tr-tr-tr-tr (or something like that!) followed by a couple of jangles - and to boot, being only 100 or so metres away and having heard them last weekend, it was quite obviously a Serin! John A concurred and we both moved back to the river, very happy indeed! A Hobby whipped over and then on the river a Grey Plover was by the outfall and 4 Sanderling were in Barking Bay. Add to that a couple of Lesser Whitethroats and a Little Ringed Plover - all in beautiful weather - it paid to stay local!

And what with all that hot weather, who'd have thought a Dalmatian Pelican would turn up? Well it certainly did, and to boot it lingered in Cornwall (and is still there as I write this).

Dalmatian Pelican Polgigga, Cornwall May 2016

Having been seen previously in Poland, its credentials are fine but being honest it's probably never going to get much further than Category D. With a fine male Woodchat to boot at Marazion, the trip to Cornwall was enjoyable if not a little fraught given how it gave us the runaround more than I'd anticipated.