Big Day Bus: Pearson Metropark 5/10--Green Heron, Spotted Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Least Flycatcher, Wood Thrush, TENNESSEE WARBLER, Nashville Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Indigo Bunting

Thursday at Point Pelee was a full day. Friday was a Big Day. Well before sunrise we boarded a small bus for the one organized event I agreed to do as part of the Biggest Week--Big Day bus tour. I knew that the number of birders would just reach my maximum tolerance (13 birders + 2 guides) and I thought it would be an excellent way to scout out a variety of locations in one day. The idea of a Big Day is to see/hear as many birds as possible, which means if a location looks dead, you don't spend a lot of time trying to dig something up. On the other hand, you do want to get decent looks at the birds; otherwise you're just racking up meaningless numbers, which is okay if you're trying to raise money per bird as in the the World Series of Birding here in NJ, but not so much fun otherwise. The two guides, Larry Richardson and the driver Randy (didn't get his last name, but in real life, he's a dentist), were concerned with balancing the two somewhat conflicting ideas and they did an excellent job throughout the day. The group as a whole had 124 species. Personally, I could count 98 of them, Shari I think could count 100.

Our first stop was Pearson Metropark. The Toledo area has a number of these parks, excellently maintained, multi-use, but with lots of areas left in a natural state, making for great and varied bird habitat. At Pearson we explored a marsh, a lake, woodlands, and a very elaborate glassed-in blind called Windows on Wildlife.

In the marsh we saw our first Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers of the year. The Solitary Sandpiper was standing next to a Lesser Yellowlegs for a while, giving an field guide comparison of the two species.

Lesser Yellowlegs, front, Solitary Sandpiper, rear
Photos: Shari Zirlin

The middle of the park is more park-like, with a lake, trails through woods, mostly oak, from what we could tell--it was odd not to be in pine forests for so long. Nestled on a branch sticking out into the lake was a Green Heron that Larry Richardson got his scope on. Luckily, I came out of the rest room in time to see it. 

A walk along the paths in the wooded areas started out slowly, but then, as it warmed up and the sun broke through the overcast. It was there that I got my first life bird of the trip in a somewhat clumsy and unsatisfactory way. Warblers and other birds were jumping around like mad high in the tree tops and I was on a rather nondescript bird, looking at in diffuse lighting. I thought it was a Warbling Vireo. It turned out to be a TENNESSEE WARBLER. It isn't much of bird to look at and it "song" is just a series of high chips, but it's the first one we ever saw. A couple of days later we heard one singing on the Magee Marsh Boardwalk. 

The next exciting sighting at Pearson was near the tennis courts: Indigo Bunting on the grass. We left Pearson a little before 10 AM with 48 species already on my list.
Canada Goose  5
Mallard  3
Great Blue Heron  2
Great Egret  1
Green Heron  1
Cooper's Hawk  2
Killdeer  5
Spotted Sandpiper  3
Solitary Sandpiper  1
Lesser Yellowlegs  1
Least Sandpiper  4
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Downy Woodpecker  2
Least Flycatcher  1
Eastern Phoebe  2
Blue Jay  2
Tree Swallow  X
Barn Swallow  X
Black-capped Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  3
House Wren  1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Wood Thrush  1
American Robin  X
Gray Catbird  2
European Starling  5
Ovenbird  1
Black-and-white Warbler  1
TENNESSEE WARBLER  1
Nashville Warbler  2
Magnolia Warbler  2
Blackburnian Warbler  1
Black-throated Blue Warbler  1
Chipping Sparrow  1
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  5
White-crowned Sparrow  20
Northern Cardinal  2
Indigo Bunting  1
Red-winged Blackbird  20
Common Grackle  2
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
Baltimore Oriole  3
American Goldfinch  2