Western Ontario: Point Pelee National Park

Point Pelee is a peninsula with its southern most tip being the most southerly point in mainland Canada, and is a spot where birds migrating northward in the spring rest to refuel after crossing Lake Erie. Every May the “Festival of Birds” takes place with many guided walks, and large numbers of bird sightings.

Harris’s Sparrow is a great rarity in this part of Ontario

Red-headed Woodpeckers were present the first day, a small flock of 10 or 12 were there.

It was my first ever sighting of an Orchard Oriole

The Loggerhead shrike is a bird normally found much further south, was probably blown here by the winds.

One of the prettiest little birds you could hope to see is the Prothonatory Warbler, seen here with a Yellow Warbler in the background

Other birds not normally seen here included this Willet (the larger brown bird) and Ruddy Turnstone (the bird with black patchy colouration) accompanying the Dunlin, which is a common sighting.