Wildlife Viewing.
First three weeks of May at Point Pelee is the spring songbird-migration window that draws birders from across North America to the southernmost mainland point in Canada. Warblers arriving overnight off Lake Erie make first landfall on the peninsula's woodlots — Prothonotary, Hooded, Blackburnian, and Cape May among them — feeding within a few feet of visitors before pushing north.
Hillman Marsh's managed mudflats, ten minutes north, hold the regional shorebird story.
The brief.
The spring warbler peak is the first three weeks of May, with neotropic migrants arriving in waves on south winds following overnight crossings of Lake Erie. The migration is a nocturnal flight pattern — birds find themselves over the lake near sunrise, look for nearest land, and drop into the Pelee woodlots to refuel.
Approximately 360 bird species and 41 of 53 regularly occurring North American warbler species have been recorded across the park. Hillman Marsh's Shorebird Celebration (May 1–21) brings Ontario Field Ornithologists volunteers to the Shorebird Viewing Blind for sandpiper, willet, godwit, and yellowlegs identification; rarities have included Marbled Godwit, Glossy Ibis, Yellow-headed Blackbird, and Eurasian Wigeon.
Best season: May for warblers, September for fall shorebirds and monarchs.
2. places.
- 01
Point Pelee NP (Tip and roadway woodlots)
Spring warbler concentration point; 41 of 53 NA warbler species recorded; clusters of hard-to-find species during the May peak.
- 02
Hillman Marsh Conservation Area
87-acre managed shorebird cell with mudflats; rarity record includes Yellow-headed Blackbird, Willet, Marbled Godwit, Glossy Ibis, Eurasian Wigeon.
Today's read.
Cool but comfortable for layered effort · light winds · clean air.