AMERICA ROYALE!

Just got back from Leamington, Ontario where the money is cool and the waitresses are hot! Point Pelee National Park; the premiere spring warbler migration birding site! We camped out for a day and a half and saw 119 species. That number is missing many duck species and smaller sandpipers. A bit of hunting and a scope would have landed us about 135-140. Highlights for me were lifer Canada Warbler 5 feet away until I got tired of looking at him and eventually walked away! Also my ear identifying an unexpected Clay-colored Sparrow. I also i.d.'ed a Blackburnian Warbler by ear.
Just before we left we saw a Mississippi Kite zip over the tree tops. We were told by others that one had been reported in the area so we went to DeLaurie Trail parking lot to see if we could catch it again and get a nicer look. There was a group of 20-30 people there scanning the skies for it already. As we watched a Peregrine Falcon soared over the west side heading north and someone shouted out "there it is!" And everyone went nuts yelling out "kite" and getting all excited. I walked over to the crowd and approached one of the instigators and asked why it wasn't a P-bird and he walked away from me. I went to another guy who had started the ruckus with him and asked the same and he walked away from me also with no answer. After things settled down we were looking around again and spotted a Northern Harrier in the east heading south. A moment later some of the crowd noticed us looking at it and someone again yelled out "There is the kite!" People got all excited again and one of the guys in the crowd got on his 2-way radio and yelled "Mississippi Kite headed south!" I could hardly believe it or stand it and yelled back at the crowd "That's a harrier!" One of the rabble rausers from the last time backed me up and told the crowd the same. We then went back north to the beach and looked one more time there and then for the heck of it back South to the parking lot. When we got to the lot the crowd had dispersed and there was another group of five guys scanning the skies. We watched and saw and quickly identified a Coopers Hawk flying in. The group watched the bird and discussed it and then one of them yelled "That's it, that's the kite!" They went nuts but eventually realized it wasn't a kite and decided it was a Northern Goshawk! Holy Crap! We also got to the park that morning before light and heard a woodcock which we walked out and found. We watched it peent in the grass in the half light for some time which was really awesome. While we watched it we heard a GHOW in the distance and a Wood Duck flew over crying. All before the sun was up all the way and 3 new species for the trip list! Overall the trip was awesome with about 20 warbler species seen and seen well. Orioles & Yellow Warblers were like a plague & I added 3 lifers to my list with Tundra Swan, Mississippi Kite and Canada Warbler! That puts me at 371.