On 9 May 2019, many birders witnessed one of the largest reverse migrations off the Tip of Point Pelee in many, many years. It is almost indescribable how good it was.
This flight was in complete contrast to the flight on 7 May, where the birds were flying north out of the park. Several people suggested I should do an article to describe this reverse migration flight on 9 May so here goes. It started slowly as they all do about 6:40 a.m. when Brandon Edwards noted a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds fly off the Tip, followed by several Yellow Warblers (in a flock), followed by several Baltimore Orioles. There was a brisk SE to ESE wind at this time and it was mostly sunny. I arrived with Kevin McLaughlin about 7:00 to join several other people already there watching the fairly good reverse migration. By this time the warbler mix had changed and several other species were going over, as well as several Baltimore Orioles and a good number of Scarlet Tanagers, and quite a few Indigo Buntings, Eastern Kingbirds, and large numbers of Redwing Blackbirds and Cedar Waxwings. The number of birds going off gradually kept increasing in number, when by 7:30 it was overwhelming to keep up with the birds; it was no longer possible to try to count the birds in any accurate fashion as there were just too many birds. There were always birds in the air at all times, essentially wherever you looked. Many birds were going over fairly high up but many were very low, just a couple of feet above the ground, with dozens of birds flying between people standing on the beach. It was crazy. Many of the birds were landing in the tops of the last couple of trees at the Tip before resuming their flight, which afforded birders with good views of many species. However, when the light was good, many of the warblers could be identified easily as they flew over, especially the brightly and distinctively patterned warblers such as Black-throated Green Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Cape May Warbler and Bay-breasted Warbler. Other species such as Nashville Warbler and Tennessee Warbler and the vireos were much less likely to be identified. And light conditions played a big factor. The sun was at our backs and when it was out, many species could be identified easily if they were low enough. When it became cloudy for brief periods, it was more difficult to identify birds, even the brightly coloured warblers. Orioles and tanagers were always easy to identify as where kingbirds, waxwings, blackbirds and starlings, at almost all heights. Almost as enjoyable as the reverse migration spectacle was the large number of warblers feeding on the Tip, right on the ground, seemingly unaware or unconcerned about all the people (100+) on the Tip. It was amazing. Photographers were having a field day as several individuals of several warbler species were present including Bay-breasted Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, and Magnolia Warbler. It was amusing to watch a Black-throated Green Warbler walking between someone’s legs while they were texting. More amusing was watching a Black-throated Green Warbler land on the bald pate of a photographer! But this was not unusual as many of the birds were fearless, likely due to being highly stressed and in need of fuel, such that they were walking on people’s shoes and landing on cameras. I witnessed four Chestnut-sided Warblers fighting over a largish morsel on the beach. It would have made for an amazing photograph. By 10:00 a.m. the flight had slowed down considerably and most people had left the Tip area. I teamed up with Sarah and Eric Lamond to put together an eBird checklist for the Tip that morning and we came up with these numbers: 100 Black-throated Green Warblers, 80 Blackburnian Warblers, 60 Magnolia Warblers, 45 Bay-breasted Warblers, 40 Yellow Warblers, 30 Chestnut-sided warblers, 15 Black-throated Blue Warblers and 12 Blackpoll Warblers. On top of these counts was an estimate of 2,800 unidentified warblers. There was an estimated 800 Baltimore Orioles, 700 Cedar Waxwings, 60 Eastern Kingbirds, 90 Scarlet Tanagers, 70 Indigo Buntings and 20 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. Of course other eBird checklists from that morning may be quite different from ours and it would be interesting to compare checklists from that morning. Of course these counts (estimates) do not take into account the fact that many of these birds could be recounted multiple times as they fly off the Tip. Many birds attempt to fly off, but abort the attempt only to circle around and fly back and then attempt to fly off again. A Yellow-headed Blackbird from a few days ago at the Tip was seen three times as it attempted to fly south off the Tip, undoubtedly the same bird. However, Josh Bauman observed this same southward flight of birds down the west side of Point Pelee on 9 May, also in staggering numbers from the north end of the park (where there would be little to no recounting), so the estimated numbers off the Tip may be fairly accurate. In talking to several long-time Point Pelee birders who were present that day, none of them could say that they had ever witnessed a reverse migration as good as this one on 9 May. It truly was astounding. Bill Lamond _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
