At 5:10 p.m., yesterday, Friday, May 28th, I heard the Yellow Rail near the entranceway to the marsh boardwalk, which is on the east side of the causeway road after you pass through the entrance gate to Presqu'ile Provincial Park, south of Brighton. He sounded tantalizingly close, but remained invisible. So, too, were the Merlins, invisible, leading to speculation that the hen is sitting. No protests were heard as we viewed the nest from the path extending north from the south loop, west of the Stonehedge staff house, near the east end of the park.
Extremely large numbers of Dunlin in high plumage, intermixed with breeding plumage Ruddy Turnstones, a nice Black-bellied Plover, lots of the usual Ring-billed Gulls, Caspian Terns and a nice little flock of Bonaparte's Gulls (none with black heads) all resting on their breasts, making a lovely tableau on the newly formed zebra-mussel-shell shoal that precedes Gull Island. The sad news is that the shorebird flocks on the beach are greatly diminished from the "old days", and what few we saw were at the south end, probably as a result of excessive "management" by park staff working within the Coney Island school of park management, seemingly designed to restrict birds and birders and make the world better for beach partying. And since I've not seen mention of it here (might have missed it), birders visiting Presqu'ile should be forewarned of the sad business of the cormorant cull, with six thousand of the birds being shot by rifleman to save trees on High Bluff Island, where the cormorants are nesting. Ostensibly this is to save the Great Blue Heronry that formed after the cormorants arrived, but of course most of the herons have, understandably, deserted. Wounded birds tend to haul out on the shoal, the place most attractive to the shorebirds at present, that is visible from the mainland (the westernmost tip of Owen's point). Presqui'le is south of Brighton, Ontario, which is reached via the Brighton turn-off on Highway 401. Follow the road south, into the centre of town, and turn right where the roadwork is being done, through the mainstreet of Brighton, and turn south (left) past the town, where the signs indicate Presequ'ile. Follow that road to the end...it curves right, with marsh on both sides...look for turtles on the road...we rescued a Blanding's Turtle when we arrived yesterday morning, at this point. There is a nominal admission fee for vehicles. Barry Kent MacKay Markham, Ontario.
