The Ultimate Ontario Birding Road Trip: Ottawa to Point Pelee National Park
In early May of 2025, my dad and I set off on a week long birding road trip to catch as much of the Spring migration as humanly possible. We left from Ottawa with our ultimate destination being Point Pelee National Park. With many epic stops along the way, we were reminded that when it comes to birding (and many aspects of life), its the journey that counts just as much as the destination - if not more.
Ruddy Turnstones in flight // Point Pelee National Park
Our goal was simple - see as many birds and get as many photographs as possible all while camping in some amazing places along the way. Just before this trip, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of buying a van to turn into a camper and was extremely eager to use it more… my dad on the other hand had to settle for sleeping outside in the small pup tent ;p
Nearly all the photos presented here were taken on the Sony a6700 paired with the Sigma 150-600 Sport Lens.
Day 1: Presqu’ile Provincial Park
Our first stop on the trip was Presqu’ile Provincial Park on the north shores of Lake Ontario. I’ve always been a fan of this park - with a history of shipwrecks and prohibition rumrunning, one’s imagination can come alive here. On top of that, Presqu’ile is the perfect habitat and resting ground for migratory birds passing through after their long journey across Lake Ontario. Its home to many shore birds in particular and is a great spot to witness these cute creatures.
We were welcomed to the park by our first Trumpeter Swan of the trip.
Not long after pulling into our site, we headed off for a walk on the Owen Point trail and were rewarded after only a few minutes with our first lifer of the trip, a Redheaded Woodpecker. I didn’t get great photos of this one but we would see another later in the trip.
The trail eventually reaches the shoreline where the beach is fenced off to hikers as it is protected habitat for many various shorebirds. Despite this, there are many well situated dedicated viewing sites along the fence that were incredible places to settle in with the camera and shoot away. There were hundreds of shorebirds all along the beach. We were the only people on the beach and got to watch the sun go down out of sight of any sign of civilization - it almost felt like we were on some remote coastal beach in some far away island archipelago off the northwest BC coast.
Killdeer along the shoreline off the Owen Point trail.
iNaturalist recommended this as being a White-rumped sandpiper although it hasn’t been verified. Happy to hear suggestions if anyone knows for sure.
Similar to above, iNaturalist ID’ed this as the critically endangered Pectoral Sandpiper but it has not been verified.
Many Dunlins were also hard at work along the beach.
A very nice place to end the day. View from the Owen Point Trail looking towards the mainland.
Day 2: Presqu’ile to Long Point Provincial Park
Our stay at Presqu’ile ended early and abruptly. At 4:30am a mean storm began to roll in over the lake and was heading straight towards Presqu’ile. Thundering lightening and the roar of wind and crashing waves caused us to quickly pack up my dad’s tent to avoid getting it soaked. We ended up hitting the road right away to start our drive which worked out well as we got through the Greater Toronto Area at the early hours of the morning and avoided any significant traffic through the area.
Having never been to Niagara Falls myself, we figured we’d work this into our road trip as well. Our first significant stop of the day was Niagara-on-the-Lake where we walked along the trail between Fort George and Fort Mississauga. We even saw a lifer on the way - a Northern Rough-winged Swallow.
Northern Rough-winged Swallow at Fort Mississauga. This one cooperated and sat still for a few short seconds to let me take its picture.
Northern Flicker chowing down on ants in the grass along the trail.
We continued our drive towards Niagara Falls and stopped again at the Brock Monument and walked up the hill to admire the view. On our walk we saw a Red-bellied woodpecker up nice and close, along with our first Baltimore Oriole of the trip and a Great Crested Flycatcher.
Red-bellied woodpecker on the walk up to the Brock Monument. Although these are now quite common in southern Ontario, we rarely see them further north in Ottawa.
Spring is in the air!
Eventually we got to Niagara Falls and stopped to check it out. Pretty surreal to see in person! Made it worth the parking lot’s $36 flat rate. With so many people around though we didn’t stay for long and continued our drive towards Long Point Provincial Park where we would camp for the night.
Hard to do Niagara Falls justice in a photo.
We arrived in the late afternoon to Long Point and had the chance to walk some of the trails and visit the Long Point Bird Observatory which was an awesome experience. Lots of nice trails right at the observatory that were full of warblers, hummingbirds, orioles, swallows, and my lifer Carolina Wren and Orchard Oriole.
Lots of Baltimore Orioles attracted to the feeders with orange slices at the observatory. Also note that many of the birds around the observatory were banded - something we would see the Birds Canada staff do the following morning.
Lifer Carolina Wren at the Long Point Bird Observatory. Looks like it caught a nice juicy spider for dinner.
Ruby Throated Hummingbird sitting on the top of a very small stick in the marshlands by the observation deck. I liked how this photo also captured the spider web with all of its victims.
One of the many Tree Swallows we’d see up close on our trip. Where we live its not so often that I’ve gotten a chance to photograph so many Tree Swallows up this close so I enjoyed taking portrait shots of them over the course of our trip.
Only had a few seconds with this one but managed to get a quick shot of my lifer Orchard Oriole.
Bay Breasted Warbler.
We ended the day with a walk in the nearby Big Creek National Wildlife Area (which was overall quiet other than some baby Canada Geese and some more Dunlins) before having dinner in Port Rowan at Chef Stan’s Saloon.
Baby Canada Goose - Big Creek National Wildlife Area.
Day 3: Long Point (& Birds Canada Headquarters) to Rondeau Provincial Park
We woke up in Long Point Provincial Park to probably our nicest campsite of the whole trip. After having our morning coffee brews and listening to the waves of Lake Erie crashing on the beach opposite the large sand dunes, we packed up and headed back to the Long Point Bird Observatory for another quick lap of their trails.
Good signage at the Long Point Bird Observatory that has no doubt saved the lives of countless distracted birders wandering onto the road.
This morning we got the chance to witness Birds Canada’s banding in action which was really cool. Nets to catch birds were set up all along the property and staff were actively walking around to check them. When they’d find a bird in the net, they’d very carefully untangle it and gently place them in a cotton sack to transport them to the station where they are then banded, weighed, recorded, checked and then released. Although this process can look uncomfortable for the birds, the staff are extremely well trained in handling the birds and no harm is done to them - these studies are essential for the protection and conservation of birds and contributes to knowledge about these creatures worldwide.
Blue Headed Vireo caught in the net - about to get tagged and studied before getting released again unharmed.
Staff member collecting the caught bird for tagging and research.
One of many yellow warblers seen throughout the trip. This one was yet to be tagged.
After an exciting morning at the bird observatory, we headed back into Port Rowan for breakfast and coffee before stopping in at the Birds Canada Headquarters. We were amazed at all the great trails there as well and spent a few hours walking around.
Brown-headed cowbird. Not my favourite species of bird as they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and then have those birds raise their young.
American Redstart.
Tree Swallow in a house near the Birds Canada Headquarters.
Returning back from the Birds Canada Headquarter trails, we chatted with a lady in the parking lot who recommended the Port Rowan Restored Wetlands (an old sewage lagoon) as another great place nearby to visit. We drove over and checked it out. Again, tons of Tree Swallows flying around all over the place. There was a trail around the pond that we almost didn’t walk but at the last moment we changed out minds and decided to hike it - and its a good thing we did! The highlight from this spot was our lifer Ruddy Ducks - a species that I’ve been wanting to see for quite some time. We spent a while watching them swim around and got some photos even though they were quite far away.
Our lifer male Ruddy Duck. Love its stocky blue bill. Great to see birds thriving in these restored areas.
Tree Swallow.
Another really interesting thing to see at the restored wetlands was a Motus monitoring station. These stations are part of an international research community working together to study the movement and behaviour of birds, bats, and insects. The animals are tagged and carry miniaturized tags that transmit information to stations placed across the world. This has been a Canadian research initiative that was started by Birds Canada with support from the Government of Canada and has revolutionized how scientists are able to track large scale bird movement and understand their behaviours.
Motus monitoring station on the shore of the Port Rowan Restored Wetland.
After doing the loop of the pond, we got back in the van and drove along the Lake Erie shoreline, making a few quick stops along the way (like at Port Burwell to see the Ojibwa submarine and fuel up with cappuccinos) until we reached Rondeau Provincial Park. We got set up at our site and then started to walk down the “Marsh Trail” that goes all the way down the peninsula. On the way to the trailhead, I saw my lifer Brown Thrasher!
Brown Thrasher lifer at Rondeau Provincial Park near the Marsh Trail starting point.
We continued down the marsh trail for quite a while, passing by a sign that explained how there were only 20 pairs of Prothonotary warblers left in Canada. This was a bird we were hoping to see so we were discouraged to read this - especially considering how the sign was relatively old and worn out which made us think there were probably even fewer now. Nevertheless, being the stubborn and dedicated birders that we are, we carried on down the trail and took photos of nearly every yellow warbler we saw (and trust me when I say there were MANY) hoping that maybe one of them was a Prothonotary warbler… of course none were.
One of hundreds of Yellow Warblers along the Marsh Trail. “Are you sure that’s a Yellow Warbler?? Take a photo - it looks a little different… maybe its a Prothonotary??” - this phrase was repeated probably a hundred times over the span of 2 hours hahaha.
We didn’t make it all the way to the southern tip of the trail as another gnarly looking storm was rolling in so we headed back to our campsite. We took it pretty easy for the rest of the day and later fell asleep to the sound of Woodcocks, one of our favourite birds, although we did not see one.
Day 4: Rondeau to Wheatley Provincial Park
Our morning at Rondeau Provincial Park after packing up our campsite proved to be one of our most amazing, and unexpected, mornings of birding to date. We drove down to the South Point East trail without eating any breakfast as we thought we probably wouldn’t be too long before hitting the road again. Some people in the parking lot told us to head back up north to the Rondeau visitors center and check out the Tulip Tree trail because there were nest boxes set up over there for Prothonotary Warblers. We couldn’t believe our ears and quickly got back in the van to head there.
Within the first few hundred meters of the trail, we started spotting lifer after lifer… Eastern Towhee, Gray-cheeked Thrush, and (with the help of some other friendly birders) a Black-billed Cuckoo. Not to mentioned dozens of warblers as well.
Black-billed Cuckoo - Rondeau Provincial Park.
Chestnut-sided Warbler.
Eastern Towhee.
Baby Robins in their nest just off the trail.
Gray-cheeked Thrush.
Female Rose-Breasted Grosbeak.
We couldn’t believe all the action. Then, a little further down the trail, someone told us that the Prothonotary Warbler was flying around. The adrenalin was through the roof - we ended up waiting in one spot for probably at least an hour and then finally saw it! Our lifer Prothonotary Warbler - something we were convinced we’d never see.
The nerves made it difficult to get focus and take a photo of our lifer Prothonotary Warbler, especially because it was moving around and not staying in one place for long.
We were so stoked. Our trip had already been incredible and now this seemed like the cherry on top - and we hadn’t even made it to Point Pelee yet! When we were finally leaving the Tulip Tree trail, to top it off we also saw our lifer Yellow-throated Vireos.
Yellow-throated Vireo lifer.
What a wild morning - we were buzzing… but it wasn’t even over yet! We decided to go back down to the South Point trail where we then saw our lifer Blue-gray Gnatcatchers right in the parking lot where they had some tiny nests. The walk was beautiful down to the point. We saw countless more vireos and warblers.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher on its nest.
Magnolia Warbler - South Point Trail, Rondeau Provincial Park.
Philadelphia Vireo.
Eastern Kingbirds.
After this walk, we ended up heading over to check out Erieau, the town opposite the bay from Rondeau. Here we calmed our nerves and finally had some food to eat and reflected on the wild morning. After eating, we walked along the pier where people were fishing. There were lots of Barn Swallows flying around and we even spotted some baby Killdeers on the beach.
Killdeer chick at Erieau.
Barn Swallows.
On the way out of Erieau, we also stopped at the Erieau Marsh Trail. This really kept the good times rolling as within a few minutes of walking down the trail, an Indigo Bunting flew out across the trail - another lifer! We couldn’t believe all the lifers that just kept popping up throughout the day. On top of this, we saw some swan babies for the first time as well.
Indigo Bunting lifer - Erieau Marsh Trail.
Trumpeter swan with two babies.
Barn Swallow.
After this trail, we continued our drive down towards our next campsite, Wheatley Provincial Park. When we arrived, we went for a short hike around the park to stretch our legs after the drive where we were treated again to some more amazing birds (Rose-breasted Grosbeak male, Baltimore Orioles, and another Red-headed Woodpecker) before uploading all the exciting observations from the day to iNaturalist and turning in for the night. We would spend the next two nights at Wheatley and make it our homebase while checking out Point Pelee the next day.
Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak - Wheatley Provincial Park.
Baltimore Oriole.
Red-headed Woodpecker - our second sighting of the trip (and ever). This one we got a better look at and were able to watch it for a few minutes.
Day 5: Point Pelee National Park
This morning started out with a bang. Within a few minutes of waking up, practically with toothbrush still in mouth, a lifer male Scarlet Tanager just swung by to visit us and greet us good morning directly at our campsite. The unmistakable bright red was amazing to see in real life. Not a bad way to start the day at all.
Our lifer male Scarlet Tanager just casually popping by our campsite to say good morning.
A beautiful bird.
Already vibrating with excitement, we got into the car and started our short drive from Wheatley down to Point Pelee National Park. On the way, we were laughing and joking about make believe names of birds we were going to tell people on the trails that we had seen during the day: namely the “Maroon-striped trans-Siberian pygmy owl”. Note to readers: these jokes went over like led balloons in practice and are not recommended lol. At least we thought it was funny!
We drove into the park and headed straight to the visitor center and began exploring the trails around there. Within only a few minutes, what we first thought was a sparrow rummaging around on the ground of the trail not far ahead of us turned out to be another Prothonotary Warbler! An unbelievable start to the day at Point Pelee. We spent quite a while in the area, and found there to be a pair of Prothonotaries tending to what must have been their nest nearby - the female was busy collecting twigs and debris for the nest while the male was also flying around from time to time.
Female Prothonotary Warbler.
Male Prothonotary Warbler.
The male has a striking gold colour that really stands out.
The female busy at work collecting debris for her nest.
So much character!
We continued walking throughout the park and on all the trails nearby to the visitors center. We ended up on the cactus trail where someone told us there had been a Yellow-breasted Chat that was seen earlier - we searched for a while but didn’t have any luck finding it. Need to save some lifers for another day! I did get some photos of some Common Yellowthroats though which I was really happy about (along with a few other species).
Common Yellowthroat along the Cactus trail.
Common Yellowthroat.
Warbling Vireo.
Gray Catbird.
Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Our next stop was the Marsh Boardwalk Trail where we had a small snack from the park store. It was windy and pretty chilly and we doubted that we’d see much other than the swans in the middle of the marsh. Once again we were proved wrong and saw our first Black Terns! These birds were sitting on their nests within the lily pads and weeds of the marsh and were occasionally taking off and hovering around the marsh in the strong wind. Really cool to see!
Black Terns on their nest camouflaged amongst the lily pads.
Black Tern in flight above the marsh.
After the marsh board walk, we headed back to the visitor center where we then got onto the shuttle that takes you down to the very south point of the park. It drops you off at an observation tower where we saw lots of Cedar Waxwings hanging out and the top gives you a great view of the point.
Cedar Waxwing at the observation tower.
Cedar Waxwing.
We then continued down the trail to the very southern tip of Point Pelee. This ended up being one of our favorite moments of the whole trip. The east side of the point was getting smashed by wind and waves while the west side was protected and calm. There were hundreds of shorebirds running around all over the eastern shore; active and running back and forth with the crashing and receding waves. On the tip and within the sheltered west side were masses of all types of gulls - many of which were lifers to us. Very cool spot to see under epic conditions.
One of many Dunlins at the point.
Dunlin. With every strong gust of wind, the shorebirds had to fight hard to not get toppled over and blown away!
The flocks of gulls - including many different species such as Bonaparts gulls and Greater black backed gulls.
Sanderling in white plumage.
Bonapart Gull.
Ruddy Turnstone.
Enjoying the epic weather!
We spent a while at the point. I was taking lots of photos while laying on the ground while my dad was warning me everytime a big wave would crash down and get a little too close. Very epic spot!!
We finished off our day at Point Pelee with a walk around the DeLaurier Homestead trail where we saw some green herons.
Green Heron.
We left the national park feeling very happy with our day! We popped into Leamington to grab something to eat and decided to stop at the Hillman Marsh Conservation Area on the drive back to our campsite at Wheatley Provincial Park. This was another pleasantly surprising location! The area had a dedicated bird watching platform over some marshy fields that were home to many waterfowl and shorebirds who were initially quite camouflaged but again we saw many lifers and interesting species. This place is definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area and was a great place to end the day before returning back to camp.
Northern Shoveler.
Whimbrel.
Blue-winged Teal.
Dunlin (bottom left) and Short-billed Dowitchers.
Lesser Yellowlegs.
Day 6: Peterborough and Silent Lake Provincial Park
Day 6 was a rainy day that consisted of less birding and more driving back towards home. Our main goal of the day was to check out the Canadian Canoe Museum at its new location in Peterborough. I grew up paddling around the many lakes within the Outaouais region of Quebec with my dad so this was a museum we were both really excited to see together. We drove pretty much straight through to Peterborough and enjoyed the museum for a couple of hours. This is an awesome stop for anyone whose passionate about paddling. They even have a great little cafe in the museum that even serves local beer.
The Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario.
Enjoying the museum.
After checking out the canoe museum, we continued our drive back towards Ottawa, stopping at “Lock 27 Tap & Grill” for a great dinner at a really cool location before camping at Silent Lake Provincial Park for the night. Really quiet at the park (some might say silent) with hardly any people (or birds) around.
Day 7: Return to Ottawa
We woke up after a rainy night at Silent Lake Provincial Park and packed up quickly and continued our drive back to Ottawa. We stopped in Bancroft for breakfast and coffee and ended up walking around Millennium Park in town along the Shawashkong (York River). This ended up being a great morning and we even saw a few birds around the footbridge, most notable was a Wilson’s Warbler.
Wilson’s Warbler in Bancroft.
Cool sign near the footbridge at Millennium park in Bancroft.
We were surprised to read about these elk in the area! Would love to come back and photograph those one day.
We made one final stop at Egan Chutes before getting back home. Here, we had a nice hike along the river and saw the water falls. To our amazement, we were treated again with the final lifer of the trip; a Northern Waterthrush! It was singing away beautifully and was lovely to watch. Interestingly, the Northern Waterthrush is actually in the Warbler family and not the Thrush family despite its name.
Northern Waterthrush at Egan Chutes singing away.
Egan Chutes.
We finally got back home to Ottawa where we both experienced some birding withdrawal over the following few days. Very grateful to have had the opportunity to do this trip with my dad and to have seen so many incredible birds along the way! I know we are already looking forward to going back again at some point and excited for our next birding adventures!
Thanks for reading!
