May 10, 2009 - Day 8 - A suggestion to mom

If there is any person in the world who deserves a day to recognize their importance, it is our mothers. The sacrifices made, the patience, the pain endured, the love and care, the commitments...we appreciate the work that goes into being a mom. So moms must have a lot of pull then, right? Well, I have a request for moms out there. Can you all, like, come together and work out an agreement to get the month that Mother's Day falls into changed? I mean, it's right in the middle of prime birding season! Do we have to honour mothers during May? I suggest we change the month to June and merge it with Father's Day. This would also eliminate the confusion a child in a same-sex relationship must feel on these days. We could just have a joint Parent/Caretaker Day and everyone is happy!

Mother's Day did screw up my day of birding but hopefully it's clear that I am being silly. I had a great Mother's Day celebration and I was still able to fit in a trip to Pelee in the morning, Kopegaron Woods in the afternoon, Hillman Marsh in the evening, and went back to Pelee at night to watch the American Woodcock displays again with my friend, Sara (and I sitll made it to over 100 species!). While on the subject of night birding, I obviously listened hard again for Whip-poor-wills but to no avail. I give up on this species. It's just too exhausting to stay so late in the park and then have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning and head straight back.

The only new addition to my May list for the day was a Summer Tanager, but it was a great experience as the bird landed within feet of where I was standing. It's SO nice sometimes to get lucky like this rather than embarking on a wild goose chase for an hour only to be disappointed when the bird doesn't stay in the same location. It was a decent morning (although there were a lot of people).

After a brunch with family, I went to Kopegaron with my brother and the highlight there was an Orange-crowned Warbler. Still no Hairy Woodpecker though. Then I missed Wilson's Phalarope at Hillman Marsh (missing birds seems to be a big trend for me in the last few days!). As much as I complain though, I love being out in the beautiful weather enjoying the birds and birders.

Finishing off the day with the Woodcock displays was a great decision. These birds are a spectacle. The male almost looks like an insect as it launches from the ground, twittering and whistling while ascending higher and higher until it's almost out of eyesight and then plunges to the ground in an awesome display, maneouvering back and forth and impressing the onlooking female. An earlier group was actually lucky enough to witness a pair copulating (hmm, I wonder if I should put lucky in quotation marks?).

Day List

Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Wood Duck
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Ring-necked Pheasant
Wild Turkey
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Dunlin
American Woodcock
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Caspain Tern
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Least Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Yellow-throated Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Blue-winged Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Total Species: 101 - Oddly enough, this is the third day this May that I've got 101 species!!