Long Point and Area March 15, 2009

Long Point and Area
March 15, 2009

On a beautiful morning, with spring in the air, we left for Long Point at 09:10h. We checked the feeders before leaving and saw a lone Pine Siskin, with Canada Geese honking overhead.
There was no shortage of birds on the drive down and especially pleasing were the large numbers of American Robin, Common Grackle and Red-winged Blackbird, all recent arrivals in our area. On getting close to the north shore of Lake Erie we saw our first skein of Tundra Swans. The arrival of these birds from their southern wintering grounds is always one of the great highlights of spring in southern Ontario and these early numbers presage the main cohort which should arrive in the next week or so.
We checked the pond at Bird Studies Canada which is still partly iced over but did contain a large aggregation of American Herring and Ring-billed Gulls.
By checking various points in Long Point Bay and panning the area from the Big Creek lookout we saw an astounding variety of waterfowl, including many more Tundra Swans and a small flock of Snow Geese. A juvenile Bald Eagle was cruising above the marsh and entertained us royally. Sandhill Cranes had been sighted earlier, but as much as we searched for the rest of the day, we were unable to locate them, and found no one else who had been successful either.
At Old Cut, where in a few weeks warblers will be much in evidence, we found a Brown Creeper, three Downy Woodpeckers, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, a lone American Tree Sparrow, ubiquitous Black-capped Chickadees and other common species.
It was a very pleasant day of birding in warm spring sunshine. We’ll go back again next week to check on the further arrival of Tundra Swans and to see what other species have arrived.

All species
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Tundra Swan
Wood Duck
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Ring-billed Gull
American Herring Gull
Common Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Horned Lark
American Robin
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Blue Jay
American Crow
European Starling
House Sparrow
Pine Siskin
American Tree Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle