PELEE APR 29

I birded Pelee today and there was a good selection of songbirds around already (not surprising given the early spring) but they weren't the highlights of the show today. First and foremost was the incredible BUTTERFLY SHOW. The number of RED ADMIRALS in the park today was simply mind numbing. How does one begin to estimate. At almost every place I stopped I was surrounded by dozens if not hundreds of flying RED ADMIRALS. A conservative estimate would be 5 to 10 thousand seen during the day! The trails were littered with wings of dead admirals eaten by a variety of predators. The admiral photo below was actually taken in Texas a few weeks earlier, but this species is an immigrant to Pelee so maybe it ended up there!

Red Admiral - Concan, Texas April 4, 2012

Another butterfly that was remarkably common today was AMERICAN LADY. Almost all were newly emerged and I managed to get great pics of one while we had our picnic lunch at the Dunes.

American Lady, Point Pelee National Park - Apr 29, 2012

Another species that wss pretty widespread was QUESTION MARK. I am not great on ID for this group of butterflies but am pretty sure this the correct ID. If you know better please let me know!

Question Mark, Point Pelee - April 29, 2012

The bird highlight for the day came right near the end. As I was leaving the park one of the participants noticed a I backed up for a blob beside this road, and was stunned to see this sub adult BALD EAGLE sitting only fifty feet off the road. I slowly opened my door and grabbed about twenty frames of the eagle before it moved a few hundred meters to a new perch. I was thrilled to get such close shots of a normally wary bird!

Bald Eagle subadult - Point Pelee Apr 29, 2012