May 1, 2022 - Day 4 of our birding trip - London to Point Pelee with several stops.

 It was raining when we woke up this morning.  A little rain was not going to stop us.  Arrangements had been made by the OFO to allowing viewing of the Marsh Sandpiper at the Thedfort Sewage Lagoons.  This bird is the first Marsh Sandpiper recorded for Canada and Ontario.  It was blustery and rainy so I only could take a photo with my iphone.  Now I know that bird is there but everyone else must use their imagination.

By the time we arrived the skies were clearing and the rain had stopped.  It was very windy.  We met up with several friends once we parked on the road and, as instructed entered the gates.  OFO President Jeff Skevington was there to say Hi to everyone along with his Dad, Richard.  We also a met up with Paul Legasi of Ottawa who pointed the bird out to us as soon as possible, as birds do fly.  The March Sandpiper was in the back of the lagoon with the Northern Pintail Ducks and actively feeding.  It was smaller than the nearby Greater Yellowlegs.  It had a bit of grey on the head, some brown/grey on the wings.  There were black speckles on its back and breast.  It has a long very thin bill.  A lifer for the three of us and a rare bird.  There were many birders there and we later learned that the mayor also showed up.  We also saw a couple of Trumpeter Swans in an adjacent lagoon.  The wind was blowing and we still had places to visit.  Everyone leaving had smiles on their faces including ours. James Holdsworth was the birder who actually saw the bird first and ID'd the bird.  He was also there and was very happy.

We then drove to Blenhiem Sewage Lagoons.  Here we had our lunch and watched the many swallows flying about.  We found a Barn Swallow and a Cliff Swallow among many Trees Swallows.  Here we had Lesser Scaup and Greater Scaup along with about 7 different ducks that we had seen on earlier on this trip.  Here is the Barn Swallow.

From here we went looking for a Whimbrel in the nearby farm fields with no luck. 

We drove a very circuitous route to Kingsville.  We checked into the Golden Acres Motel where I have stayed 4 or 5 times before.  We then headed to Point Pelee about 25 minutes away.  We decided to walk to the tip.  We did not see much flying about except for the Red winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles.  But then we heard some birds and had Black throated Green Warbler and Rose Breasted Grosbeak (males and females).  Further towards the tip were Blue headed Vireo, and Yellow throated Vireo, see below for the Vireo.

Then we saw a Black and White Warbler and a Nashville.  We walked to the tip and the wind was blowing and it was cooling off.  The tram does its last run at 6:50 pm and so it was later than that when we were done and we walked back to our car in the parking lot.  Someone's fitbit said 6 km.   So it was quite a walk.  The setting sky was very pretty on the drive to leave the park.  We have 106 bird species to-date for our trip.

We picked up some essentials like food and milk and supper on the way home and arrived home at 9:30 pm.  Yes kind of late but the time just flew for the day.   It was a bit cloudy but mostly sunny all day with the temperature reaching 17 degress Celsius.  

I think each of us will sleep well to night.