The flooding wasn't enough to stop us, but we did see/hear over 10 species of warbler at that location alone! There are a ton of migrants around up here. It's been better than many of the slow days along Lake Erie earlier this spring.
At Silver Islet we found a Northern Mockingbird. A cool bird for the north shore of Lake Superior!
Almost predictable, a Clay-colored Sparrow was feeding under the local feeder:
A cold Cedar Waxwing was nearby watching all the action around the feeders:
We didn't spend much time at Silver Islet. The next stops were at the hotspots in Thunder Bay. Mission Island had a bunch of shorebirds, and several singing Clay-colored Sparrows. From here on, Clay-colored Sparrows remained quite common and lost much of their excitement!
The scenery around Thunder Bay is fascinating with many large hills/mounts, that once must have been islands:
At Chippewa park we found another good bird, an Eared Grebe was far in the distance but not too far for my 50x point and shoot camera!
While we were driving over 100 along the highway towards Rainy River, Mike amazingly picked out an unusual looking bird perched on a post on the side of the road. A quick turn around and we were looking at a Townsend's Solitaire! Nice!
At the Emo sewage lagoons this American Golden-Plover was an unexpected find!
136 Wilson's Phalaropes were at the Rainy River sewage lagoons! Easily beating any of my previous high counts.
The last unexpected find of the day was a Hudsonian Godwit. This Blue-winged Teal was trying to steal all the attention:
Beautiful bird:
Nearby, one of many Brewer's Blackbirds was singing:
That evening we had our first of many Yellow-headed Blackbirds:
We're still on the road today (May 24), and have already finished our visit at Rainy River. We'll be taking our time traveling along the Lake Superior shoreline over the next few days.
This new camera has been great for getting lots of great pictures! I already have a big back log of photos waiting to be posted! There's 15 on this post alone... I'll have to brag about the camera some day when I have more time... Definitely check it out though if you're looking into getting a new point & shoot. The model is: Canon Powershot sx50 hs... all these photos were taken with it.
