Breeding Bird Survey 2006

[vaneramos]

The marshy stream below Lake Fletcher, stop number 37 on the Breeding Bird Survey





Breeding bird survey stop number 36: I am observed by a fox kit


I usually count about 52 species on the Breeding Bird Survey, but this year I had a meagre 50. Several reliable species were startlingly absent: common loon, rose-breasted grosbeak, and song sparrow. It was a treat, though, to hear a scarlet tanager for the first time in five years. The weather started still and clear, but wind gradually picked up, so strong that noisy trees interfered with my ability to hear and identify birds on five of the last seven stops.

Wildlife sightings, on the other hand, were unusually good (too bad they don't count!). At stop number 36 a curious fox kit came and sat on the opposite shoulder watching me. Cat-sized, it shook its ears at mosquitoes, startled at a passing butterfly, and dashed into the undergrowth every time my camera clicked.

Later I saw my first pine marten dash across the road ahead. It looked like a mink but as big as a cat. I passed a two-point buck bounding into the woods. Not 50 metres beyond, a moose cow stood staring short-sightedly. She was close as the fox kit, but while I scrambled for my camera, she turned and disappeared nonchalantly into the wood, nibbling foliage.

~~~~~~~~~~

This time I took my camera along and shot a photo at each of the 50 stop points I visit every year. The gallery on Flickr shows how the scenery changes from 4:54 am at the PetroCanada station in Dwight, to sunrise, to morning mist in the Haliburton Highlands, to some of my favourite scenic stops at Otter Lake, Littlebeaver Lake, and the marshy stream below Lake Fletcher (shown above), to the sideroad leading to my own cottage (if you look closely on the left you can see the Waffle name sign), to the stop near Livingstone Lodge that is usually good for mourning warblers, to the final riverside stop where I observed and heard my first alder flycatcher the first year I did the survey (2000).

I haven't processed the data yet, but once I do, I'll post a full species list.

Comments

[kwangjse.livejournal.com]

Love the fox kit, but the "Morning Mist" photo is awesome.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether you saw the one I posted on Friday:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/vaneramos/364395.html

Here is another favourite:



Mist like this is characteristic of Ontario cottage country on a summer morning.

[kwangjse.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing these with me Van. The Ontario cottage country must be a magical place.

[shawnsyms.livejournal.com]

Sorry I only blew you a kiss instead of grabbing a giant hug. I was sure I'd see you again!

xo

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

No worries. I had a family weekend. Otherwise I would have loved to run into you later in a shadowy corner somewhere. Another time.

[shawnsyms.livejournal.com]

Definitely.

[thewindrose.livejournal.com]

I love scarlet tanagers. We see them occasionally up at our cottage.

When I was a young girl, my father and I built a bird feeder. It wasn't the best design - but it drew in the birds like nothing I've had since. We kept a spiral notebook, our bird identifying book, and a pair of binoculars on the porch. In the course of two years we were able to identify over 100 species of birds that stopped by the feeder or just hung out in our backyard. Someday I would love to do that again.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I started watching birds at my parents' feeder, too. I went on to study wildlife biology at university, so the interest became more than leisurely.

A scarlet tanager usually passes through my parents' garden about once every spring. We never see them at the cottage, but this is the second time I've heard one on my survery route, which passes within a mile of our property. Whereabouts is your cottage?

[thewindrose.livejournal.com]

Our cottage is in about the middle of the state, over near Alma. It's on a little weedy but pretty lake, which was exactly what we were looking for. I put up nesting boxes there already, but I've been waiting on feeders since this summer has been so crazy and we haven't got up there in a few weeks.

But I did buy a bat box!! I would love to have that get used.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I've only been north of Detroit once, on a trip to the Sault with my parents in about 1974.

Bats are delightful. We get a few circling the little bay in front of our cottage every night at dusk.

[thewindrose.livejournal.com]

The spot that our cottage is in is about an hour from where I live. It's a low economic area, but it's very lovely. Not a place to go out to dinner - but perfect for sitting on the dock watching the sunset, which is what we wanted. Where is your cottage?

I love bats - in my old apartment there were thousands of them living in the attic. They would all come out at dusk. The only time I didn't like it was when one of them found their way into my apartment - I got very good at shooing them out.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

My cottage is close to the southern boundary of Algonquin Park in Central Ontario, more than a three-hour drive from here. The nearest town is Dorset. It's surrounded by large tracts of forest, and very secluded.

[thewindrose.livejournal.com]

Sounds lovely!