May 3, 2022 - RAIN DAY Birding!

 We studied the weather yesterday and there were weather alerts etc for rain and storms today.  We left for Hillman Marsh this morning at 8 am.  The sky looked cloudy but not really like it was going to rain.  It was cool, around 8 degrees.  By the time we arrived at Hillman Marsh it was pouring.  

We each took our scope with us and walked to the covered viewing stand.  We encountered about 4 groups of Canada Geese each with a bunch of cute goslings sticking close to Mom and Dad Goose.  They were led into the water and the little ones skillfully paddled in the water.  The rain did not seem to bother them.   

We set up our scopes and we had the whole place to ourselves. Susan gave Barb and Jane an ebird lesson with the real time data of new birds to record to ebird.   Thank You Susan.   It was quite nice to scan the marsh and call out the birds.  New birds here included Semi palmated Plover, Great Egret, and a group of Dunlin.  There was an assortment of ducks here that we have seen already on our trip.  We studied the Bonapart Gulls just in case there was a Little Gull in with the bunch but there were none.   More people started to come through and it was still pouring rain.  Susan found a new way to use her umbrella as it kind of got twisted in the wind, Upside Down!   It would have  made a neat photo but no one had a camera with the pouring rain.  The cameras were in the car, safe and dry.    

There were turtles all lined up on a log.

We decided to go to Wheatley Harbour and the Wheatley Waterfront area.  It was raining harder.  We were a little damp already.  So we stayed in the car mostly.  We saw a Bald Eagle flying with the gulls on the lake.  There were also Cormorants on the rocks in the water.  The water was quite wild.  We saw numerous swallows and gulls flying about.  

We then thought that Wheatley Provincial Park would be a good place to check out.  Deer were at the entrance to the park to check us out.  We stopped at a bridge with a lookout and saw some swallows.  With a bit of bird study we ID' these swallows as Northern Rough winged Swallows.  We drove to a forested area and pished a bit and got a nice little bunch of warblers: Palm, Black & White, Yellow, and Yellow rumped.  It was pretty wet there and the rain was still coming down.  We had lunch in the car in the day-use section of the park.  We drove around some more.  This is a huge camp ground.  We stopped and pished and heard a Winter Wren.  Another new trip bird for us.

What else can one do if it pouring rain: Shopping at Pelee Wings of course!  We checked out the store and we can always find some things to buy....  From here we went to see if we could find a reported Red necked Phalarope In Harrow.  We scanned any pools of water along the way with no luck.  Then we noticed in the GPS map that there was a lagoon around.  Who said that seniors cannot climb fences and at the same time, can't read signs??  We walked around the three cells and found a Redhead Duck and along a fence line a Bobolink was doing its R2D2 call.  

Rain continued but the sky was getting lighter.  We stopped at the grocery store for supplies and then set off for Point Pelee park.  The rain stopped.  We checked out the Des Laurier Homestead location  for a reported Acadian Flycatcher.  No luck.  We then drove on to the Marsh Boardwalk.  We got out and it started raining.  Oh Oh another Pelee Wings store???   Yes, a satellite store.  We went in and looked around and we will be back...the store was closing for the day.  We went as far as the start of the board walk and it was simply too wet.  We saw a beaver in the water from the second level of the viewing tower where we were sheltered a bit.  Some young birders were coming down from the top level and said they saw Willets in the far shore at the back.  Maybe tomorrow we will try for the Willets.  There were sounds of thunder in the distance and the sky was darkening.  Time to get back to the car.  We drove down to the tip of Pt Pelee - still wind and rain.  We then drove home.  Once out of the park, the sky was getting brighter.  Just one of those days with rain all day.  But we have had pretty good weather otherwise.

We ended the day with 129 species for the trip to-date.