I'm back, and had a great time. I will tell everyone now that I don't have photos to share. There were a few reasons for this, one being that, unlike in 2010, every single warbler on the tip of Point Pelee insisted on staying half-hidden in thick foliage. This is workable with binoculars--you can focus past the leaves and twigs and still get a decent view. It's not workable with camera.

I know at least a few of you were looking forward to the pictures, and I hope to make it up to you at a later date! For now, if you want to see some of what I saw, surf over to Helen Garcia's blog post. Helen was in my group and is an excellent photographer. She captured a few of the high points of our trip, including a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher at the nest, and a Screech-Owl, which was one of my two lifers (new birds).

My other lifer was Black Tern. Black Terns are fastening birds. In a family of fish eaters, they eat insects, and in a family of open-water dwellers, they dwell in cattail marshes. They're reminiscent of oversized swallows as they hawk for food in mid-air. The funny thing is, while I was in Point Pelee, my husband and his mother, on a lark (so to speak), went to Petrie Island, which is one of the few places in our area where Black Terns breed. So by sheer chance, we all saw our first on the same weekend.

Pelee triplist:

American Goldfinch
American Redstart
American Robin
Bald Eagle
Baltimore Oriole
Barn Swallow
Bay-Breasted Warbler
Black Tern
Black-Bellied Plover
Black-Capped Chickadee
Black-Throated Blue Warbler
Black-Throated Green Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Blue Jay
Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
Blue-Headed Vireo
Blue-Winged Teal
Bonaparte's Gull
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Canada Goose
Canada Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Caspian Tern
Cedar Waxwing
Chestnut-Sided Warbler
Chimney Swift
Chipping Sparrow
Cliff Swallow
Common Grackle
Common Raven
Common Tern
Common Yellowthroat
Crow
Downy Woodpecker
Dunlin
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Screech-Owl
Eastern Towhee
European Starling
Forster's Tern
Gadwall
Gray Catbird
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green-Winged Teal
Herring Gull
House Finch
House Sparrow
House Wren
Indigo Bunting
Killdeer
Least Flycatcher
Least Sandpiper
Lesser Scaup
Lesser Yellowlegs
Long-Tailed Duck
Magnolia Warbler
Mallard
Mourning Dove
Mute Swan
Nashville Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Northern Flicker
Northern Parula
Northern Rough-Winged Swallow
Northern Shoveler
Northern Waterthrush
Olive-Sided Flycatcher
Orchard Oriole
Palm Warbler
Philadelphia Vireo
Prothonotary Warbler
Purple Martin
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Red-Breasted Merganser
Red-Eyed Vireo
Red-Headed Woodpecker
Red-Tailed Hawk
Red-Winged Blackbird
Ring-Billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
Scarlet Tanager
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
Short-Billed Dowitcher
Song Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Swainson's Thrush
Swamp Sparrow
Tennessee Warbler
Tree Swallow
Trumpeter Swan
Tufted Titmouse
Turkey Vulture
Veery
Warbling Vireo
White-Breasted Nuthatch
White-Crowned Sparrow
Wild Turkey
Wood Duck
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Heard only:

Blackpoll Warbler
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Field Sparrow
Marsh Wren
Ovenbird
Wood Thrush

Total: 106, plus 6 heard only.
Warbler total: 19, plus 2 heard only.