Opening the cottage

The weekend is so rich in my memory, I can hardly evaluate or put it into words. Some highlights included the barbecue ribs, which vanished in a matter of minutes, a climb to the top of Dorset fire tower, playing Settlers of Catan, shooting an extravagant firework display off the end of our dock, and lying there alone with Danny later, watching satellites voyage across the stars. My brother and his wife, Mike and Dawn, stopped for tea on Monday afternoon. That was probably the fourth time I'd seen them in 10 years, and it meant a lot to me that they went out of their way to see us.

The bird listening was excellent, and I had a chance to improve my recognition of a few tricky songs. Here is a list of species I observed (27). Seeing so many species on their breeding grounds is even more exciting than seeing them on migration. The ones in italics were on or immediately adjacent to our property, the rest within a few hundred metres along the road: American Black Duck, Common Loon, Broad-winged Hawk, Ruby-throated hummingbird, Least Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebe, Red-eyed vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Veery, Wood Thrush, Nashville Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Pine Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Chipping Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Pine Siskin.

I recorded the song of a Northern Waterthrush.