The birding seems like it about to change: the weather is becoming warmer, there are more leaves on the trees, and many migrants have now come and gone. With that in mind, I headed off on Wednesday one last time to Darlington Provincial Park with hopes of seeing a shorebird or warbler (or two).
I got a good early start (before 5:30 a.m.) and arrived to the breaking dawn, hoards of singing birds, and fog moving in off of Lake Ontario. It was a very nice morning, so I quite enjoyed the walk for nearly 3 hours through the park-like forest and along the sandy beaches, and I managed to find 3 new species of the year. Ruddy Turnstones was seen through thick fog and quickly disappeared into the haze as I approached them. I got glimpses of the Canada Warbler and the Cedar Waxwings through the forest canopy.
My other bird of the week was the Eastern Whip-poor-will.
I was given some pretty decent advice on when and where I could locate this bird. The wife and kids were game for a Friday evening drive into the woods, and so we headed off about 8:30 p.m. in search of the whippoorwill. Forty-five minutes later, on a small dirt road near the edge of the dense Canadian forest, I eased the car into park and rolled down the window and the whips were calling just as promised. Then some dogs joined and the mosquitoes found us. We took that as a sign to move on and drove slowly up the road through the moths, bats, and clouds of bugs and stopped to listen to the birds calling several times. And then one whip happened to be sitting in the middle of the road (as if there wasn't a better place to be!). We watched it for a few minutes and it flew off. Quite a sight.
164 Ruddy Turnstone 5/29/2013 Darlington Provincial Park, Oshawa, ON
165 Canada Warbler 5/29/2013 Darlington Provincial Park, Oshawa, ON
166 Cedar Waxwing 5/29/2013 McGlaughin Wildlife Reserve, Oshawa, ON
167 Eastern Whip-poor-will 5/31/2013 Hubbell Road, Peterborough, ON
I got a good early start (before 5:30 a.m.) and arrived to the breaking dawn, hoards of singing birds, and fog moving in off of Lake Ontario. It was a very nice morning, so I quite enjoyed the walk for nearly 3 hours through the park-like forest and along the sandy beaches, and I managed to find 3 new species of the year. Ruddy Turnstones was seen through thick fog and quickly disappeared into the haze as I approached them. I got glimpses of the Canada Warbler and the Cedar Waxwings through the forest canopy.
My other bird of the week was the Eastern Whip-poor-will.
I was given some pretty decent advice on when and where I could locate this bird. The wife and kids were game for a Friday evening drive into the woods, and so we headed off about 8:30 p.m. in search of the whippoorwill. Forty-five minutes later, on a small dirt road near the edge of the dense Canadian forest, I eased the car into park and rolled down the window and the whips were calling just as promised. Then some dogs joined and the mosquitoes found us. We took that as a sign to move on and drove slowly up the road through the moths, bats, and clouds of bugs and stopped to listen to the birds calling several times. And then one whip happened to be sitting in the middle of the road (as if there wasn't a better place to be!). We watched it for a few minutes and it flew off. Quite a sight.
164 Ruddy Turnstone 5/29/2013 Darlington Provincial Park, Oshawa, ON
165 Canada Warbler 5/29/2013 Darlington Provincial Park, Oshawa, ON
166 Cedar Waxwing 5/29/2013 McGlaughin Wildlife Reserve, Oshawa, ON
167 Eastern Whip-poor-will 5/31/2013 Hubbell Road, Peterborough, ON
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