Month: May 2016

I’m back in Ontario, hoping to catch the spring migration, to see the eastern birds I’d otherwise miss. I’m starting at Point Pelee, the southernmost point in Canada (if you don’t count Pelee Island and, I believe, a few other dots in Lake Erie).

Point Pelee is a major birding site because it’s the first land birds crossing the Lake encounter. After flying all night, they have to touch down here to rest and feed. Many will lift off once darkness falls and head for northern forests to stake out territories and start breeding. When conditions are right, the woods can be teeming with birds, using the word teeming somewhat loosely. Lots of birds anyway.Turkey’s don’t migrate so they’re always here. Now is the time for gobblers to strut their stuff, hoping to entice the seemingly oblivious hens.

My brother has decided to join me. He’s a sommelier not a birder. Still, having a wine guy around for a few days ain’t all bad. Until he gets here, I bird alone. Like most birders, I  don’t mind that, for a time anyway.

Spring here has been cool and I realize immediately that maybe I’m a week early. Mornings are positively frigid and, aside from the turkeys, not much is moving around. The little trolley train that takes us to the Point might as well be taking us to look for polar bears, it’s that cold. Happily, the air begins to warm as the sun rises higher and, i think, the wind had shifted so that it’s now coming from the south. I won’t need to buy gloves after all.

The warblers have been waiting for this too. I glimpse movement and spot a beautiful Black and White Warbler, moving Nuthatch-like around a tree trunk and then the trees low branches. It’s my first Ontario warbler of the year and it’s a beaut.

I hop off the tram and head down a trail. As the temperature climbs more birds appear. Yellow Warblers are suddenly everywhere, calling from almost every other bush – sweet, sweet, sweet, I’m so sweet.

I’m still convinced I’m a week early. I see a couple of Nashville Warblers and a few other birds but the other warblers and the Orioles, Thrashers, and the like are scarce. I stop for lunch, in this case a huge donut and a coffee and then head out to the Point again. Hope springs eternal!

I arrive in time to see a flock of 50 or so Black-bellied Plovers wheeling around trying to touch down on the small triangle of exposed sand. For some reason, the fact that these birds are desperate to land hasn’t occurred to the group of photographers waiting for this to happen, standing ten feet from the spot. No way these birds are going to land. I back off down the trail. The birds fly by me as I go, still looking to touch down somewhere. I get some great shots and I’m not anywhere near the landing pad.

I’m considerably warmer than I was but I’m beat. I’m learning that donuts don’t have much nutritional value no matter how big they are. My brother is due in and we’ve planned dinner together. Steve’s a thrift shop type of guy (and proudly so) and i have no idea how he’s going to be equipped. With a superb bottle of wine, I hope.

 

 

Cape Saint Vincent (Cabo de Sao Vicente) in Portugal is the precipitous and spectacular tip of southwestern Europe.  Henry the Navigator established his famous nautical training school here and so began the age of Portuguese exploration, which resulted, as we all know, in the Rio Olympics.

Cape Saint Vincent: a watchtower

The Cape has history – lots of it. For the Greeks and Romans, it was literally the end of the world, the place where the sun went down into the sea. Neolithic peoples erected standing stones on the site. Who knows what rituals and mysteries were enacted here all those thousands of years ago. A number of famous sea battles were fought near the Cape too, including one involving Horatio Nelson. And Francis Drake plundered the place 200 years before that.

The Fortress: the one remaining wall

Most of the buildings here are modern, or nearly so. For a place with such great significance, there’s not much here to attract regular tourists though. The great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 destroyed pretty well everything. For birders, it’s a wonderful place to watch migrating raptors when they cross from Africa to Europe. We  missed this by a few days, I think. Some Black Redstarts are here though, some to nest on the rocky slopes and others moving off in their turn to northern Europe.

Black Redstart

The Jackdaws are here too, a pair building a nest somewhere below the rim. I like these mini-crows with their grey heads. Anyone who has watched an English mystery on television, or a Scandinavian one for that matter, will recognize their calls.  When we hear the Jackdaws during the opening titles, we know darn well that somebody has been murdered and that the likeable detective with personal problems will soon arrive on the scene.

 Jackdaws on the edge

It’s been bright and sunny at the Cape though windy, and surfers are already in the sheltered bays 300 feet below us. They’ve got more nerve than I have.  We search the skies for raptors but the wind is from the northwest and certainly not favourable for migrating birds. In any case, we see exactly none. Luckily, a shop that sells those delicious Portuguese custard tarts is not far off. My mother made two kinds of pies from scratch – jam pie and custard pie. I’m not sure how they got her custard pie recipe here in Portugal.

 

 

 

The few Piping Plovers nesting at Sauble Beach, Ontario are part of a small and precarious population that may soon disappear entirely. I knew of only two small groups of these engaging birds there, one near the north end of this beautiful, five mile long beach; the other several miles away to the south.

Merlins, dazzling fast and deadly, take some Piping Plovers and the numerous crows and gulls will certainly eat the tiny chicks. And the beach has plenty of human traffic, particularly in the summer. The birds, of course, don’t know about their predicament. Each year they arrive from their wintering grounds on the southern coasts of the United States and begin to mate, with males fighting it out for the privilege, a long, multistage process. Confusing too. I watched these birds for a half hour and was never sure who was who, nor could I figure out who was winning.

 

Except here. I presume the female is on the right in a  scene that reminded me of a high school dance. In this case it’s deadly serious. Maybe it was at the dance too, now that I think about it.

The conflict begins.

A dramatic turn.

An attack.

Off balance.

Counterattack.

Taking a breather.

Back at it.

The squabbling continued and I left the scene. The birds moved around but stayed  within twenty-five meters or so of where I first saw them. The conflict ebbed and flowed. A crow took an irritable peck or two at them but they avoided the much larger bird and continued their combat. I suppose by now, a week later, they will have mated and the loser will have gone away to accept whatever fate lay in store for him. Soon, the crows will be waiting for the eggs to be laid and the chicks to be born. Later in the day I saw a Merlin in the area. The birds will carry on regardless. I heard it was snowing at the beach this weekend, by the way.