Bill Rapley and I spent 3 days casually birding the Bruce, seeing a total of 71 species but spending most of our time looking for nesting birds. Our big breakthrough was in our ability to find Brewer's Blackbird nests. We located 2 nests (one with 3 eggs, another with 4 eggs). These were in two different locations, each of which had 4 pairs of birds in a small territory. The nests were finely woven cups of grass in the ground. We also noted a specific locational pecularity (we won't identify it here to protect other nests) which seems to indicate a preferred sighting for each nest. In total we identified 4 locations with resident Brewer's Blackbirds.
Also high on our priority list was nesting Sandhill Cranes. For the seventh year in a row we struck out. However, at Otter Lake, we were tantalizilingly close. A pair of Sandhills had a 2 day old chick. They were very defensive and one adult was doing a broken-wing act to try to lure us away. Interestingly, their loud vocalizations attracted a flock of 9 other adult sandhills (the largest flock we have every seen on the Bruce) which flew in. Other nesting species noted included osprey, broad-winged hawk, bald eagle, hooded merganser (7 eggs), eastern phoebe (5 eggs), killdeer (4 eggs). Large numbers of tree swallows and eastern bluebirds were also identified. In total, we saw 71 species. The best of these was a blue-gray gnatcatcher on Crane Lake Road that appeared to be territorial. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue May 22 06:41:31 2007 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from smtp.vianet.ca (smtp.vianet.ca [209.91.128.40]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E1E896388A for <[email protected]>; Tue, 22 May 2007 06:41:30 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 25949 invoked from network); 22 May 2007 10:41:30 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?66.186.79.101?) (66.186.79.101) by smtp.vianet.ca with SMTP; 22 May 2007 10:41:30 -0000 User-Agent: Microsoft-Entourage/10.1.0.2006 Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 06:39:50 -0400 From: Ron Tozer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: ontbirds <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Subject: [Ontbirds]Addendum to Algonquin Park birding update of 21 May 2007 X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 10:41:31 -0000 Spruce Grouse: Three were observed along Arowhon Road, south of the old railway, on May 13. Boreal Chickadee: Two were reported along the old railway about 300m beyond the chain gate as one proceeds toward Wolf Howl Pond on May 13. Do not block access through the chain gate. This site is accessible via the Arowhon Road at km 15.4 on Highway 60. See Park Tabloid (available at park gates) for more details. Good birding. Ron Tozer (semi-retired Algonquin Park Naturalist) Dwight, Ontario Directions: Algonquin Park is three hours north of Toronto, via Highways 400, 11 and 60. Follow the signs, which start in Toronto on Highway 400. From Ottawa, take Highway 17 to Renfrew, then follow Highway 60 to the park. Kilometre markers on Highway 60 in the park go from the West Gate (km 0) to the East Gate (km 56). Permits and information are available daily at both gates. The free Algonquin 2007 Information Guide has a map showing the location of sites mentioned in this report. The Visitor Centre (km 43) is open daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., from May 18 to June 28. Recent bird sightings and information can be obtained there.
