Ontbirds subscribers,
I had the pleasure to lead this year's OFO trip to Rainy River on the weekend of June 5-6. There were 16 participants on the trip, coming from places as varied as Ottawa, Dryden, London, St. Catharines, Thornbury, Toronto and Friendswood, Texas! Our group observed a total of 132 species over the two days. Contrary to most years, there was very little to be found at either the Emo or Rainy River sewage lagoons (other than the expected species of ducks). A large, newly-created third lagoon at Rainy River should make this site much more productive in the years to come. A favourite feature of our trip was the excursion to Windy Point. There we had very close views of the Yellow-headed Blackbird colony, a pair of Sandhill Cranes, migrant White-rumped Sandpipers and Sanderlings in breeding plumage, two Forster's Terns and a pair of Piping Plovers at the nest. Here are some details of many of the specialties of the Rainy River area that we encountered: American White Pelican - scores of pelicans were seen each day flying over, on the ground, or in the water, at places like the Rainy River sewage lagoons, Budreau's Oak Grove camp, the Sable Islands, Harris Hill Resort, Burton Island, Gull Rock, Quick Island and Windy Point. Bald Eagle - we had many sightings of adult Bald Eagles (Rainy River lagoons, Budreau Beach, end of Kreger's Road, Quick Island, Highway 600 at the River Road and other spots) and also saw a few year-old birds as well (including one flushed from a roadside kill on Kreger's Road). Sharp-tailed Grouse - both mornings we observed birds dancing at a lek on the west side of Highway 600 halfway between Kreger's Road and Harris Hill. We also saw a bird on the morning of the 5th that was perched in a tree on the west side of Worthington Road 3. Yellow Rail - it was generally a very dry spring at Rainy River, with appreciable rain only coming in the 10 days before our trip. Consequently, there were no Yellow Rails to be found in any of the hay fields in the area. or in the usually poorly drained areas along the east end of Wilson Creek Road. On our first attempt to find this species in the suitable wet sedge habitat of the Big Marsh north of Fred's Road on Saturday evening with most of the group, we failed to hear any Yellow Rails at all (although we knew they had been heard there the night before). After missing them Saturday night, only four of us returned to the Big Marsh Sunday night, but our persistence paid off. About 9:20 p.m. we heard 2 Yellow Rails in the marsh (in which the water was the lowest that I have ever seen it) about 1.2 km beyond the big solitary elm tree. As we walked toward the clicking of the rails with the sun still above the horizon, I flushed one of the rails up from out of the marsh. Instead of flying away from us, it flew directly back at me, and crossed right past us at shoulder height, affording wonderful views of its yellow bill, neck and breast and its golden plumes on the black back. It flew about 40 metres and then weakly fluttered down into the marsh behind us, giving nice views of its white secondaries as it did. Definitely this was a trip highlight! Sandhill Crane - this species continues to become more common at Rainy River, with paired birds seen at more than a dozen sites, among them Worthington Road 3, Blue Road 2, Wilson Creek Road, River Road, several sites along Highway 600, Kreger's Road and Windy Point. Piping Plover - the highlight of our trip to Windy Point was a pair found at a nest, seen defending the nest area from a female Yellow-headed Blackbird that was foraging too close to the nest. Marbled Godwit - one of the first species that we found on Saturday morning, a pair were seen standing on fence posts near our meeting spot at Highway 11 and Worthington Road 3. Later that morning, we found a pair defending a nest site (saw the female come off the nest) in a field on Blue Road 3. The male flew and circled low over our heads, and the agitated female flew right out onto the road behind our parked cars and followed us down the road and back to our cars allowing several participants to take nice photographs. Forster's Tern - among the many Common Terns seen out at Windy Point, we also found 2 adult Forster's Terns feeding. Black Tern - several Black Terns were seen flying over the Big Marsh north of Fred's Road. Northern Hawk Owl - early on the morning of the 5th, we found a Northern Hawk Owl perched high in a tree top to the northwest of the corner of Hartnell Road and Embury Road north of Blue Road 3. Great Gray Owl - on a tip from Alan Wormington, who had scouted the area in early May, we looked for a nest that he had found in a Black Ash woods next to a clear cut on Highway 600. Although we easily found the nest on the south perimeter of the clear cut (presumbably an old Broad-winged Hawk nest by appearance), on both days there was no activity and no adult owls were found in this area, where they had been actively nesting a month earlier, so we assumed this pair had failed. After our Yellow Rail outing on the 6th, we stopped at another area (further south along Highway 600) at dusk, to listen to Whip-poor-wills and watch the flights of American Woodcocks. While doing that, an adult Great Gray Owl flew right over our heads across the road, and began to call repeatedly from the woods behind us. The following day (Monday), I searched this woods next to Highway 600 where we had seen and heard this bird, and I found a female at a nest with at least 2 large young. Another trip highlight, to be sure. Long-eared Owl - on the south end of the River Road (east of the Camp of the Woods), we found a nest with 2 young Long-eared Owls in it, and two larger young which had already left the nest into adjacent trees. These were right beside the road and afforded nice scope views for everyone. Short-eared Owl - we saw a bird flying around near the southwest corner of Wilson Creek Road and highway 600 on the evening of the 5th. Olive-sided Flycatcher - a male was seen singing in the same tall, dead tree on Kreger's Road in which I saw one in 1996, 2001 and 2005. Site tenacity is a great thing! Everyone was able to view this bird through scopes. Yellow-throated Vireo - we found this rare resident of the oak stands singing in the riparian area of the Camp of the Woods directly beside the Rainy River. Black-billed Magpie - this species continues to become more common in the Rainy River area and we saw well over 200 of them throughout the weekend, with a family of 6 young recently fledged from a nest right opposite our cabins at the Harris Hill Resort. Sedge Wren - although the area was fairly dry, we did hear and see this species at more than 20 areas where we found wet, poorly drained meadows. At a couple of sites we obtained nice scope views of this species. Connecticut Warbler - almost our entire group got to see a singing male in the canopy of an aspen stand on the west side of Highway 600 south of Kreger's Road. Clay-colored Sparrow - we found this species singing at dozens of roadside sites throughout the area. Le Conte's Sparrow - although this was a drier than average year, there were still many Le Conte's Sparrows present in some of the wetter hay fields of the area. We had nice scope views of this species at a couple of locations and heard them at a couple of dozen additional sites. Western Meadowlark - one of the first birds of our trip, we saw and heard them singing at several sites, including Worthington Road 3, Worthington Road 2, Blue Road 3, River Road, Wilson Creek Road, Byrnes Road and Highway 600. Yellow-headed Blackbird - besides two that were coming to the feeders of the Harris Hill resort (along with Purple Finches and Pine Siskins), we observed many birds at very close range feeding on the shorelines at Windy Point and in the colony at the extensive cattail marsh there. Brewer's Blackbird - this species was as ubiquitous as ever, found at virtually all the roadsides we travelled. Specialties of this area that we missed altogether included Eared Grebe, Wilson's Phalarope, Franklin's Gull, Red-headed Woodpecker, Western Kingbird and Golden-winged Warbler. I would like to thank Alan Wormington for sharing information on locations where he had found several key species during his May trip to Rainy River for the benefit of our group. I would also like to thank Cheryl and Gary Gauthier of the Harris Hill Resort, who shared their knowledge of local bird sites and provided us with safe travel to Windy Point and comfortable and friendly accommodations at their Harris Hill Resort. Thanks also to Dave Elder, who so popularized this area with OFO members with his birdfinding guides and in leading outings here over two decades, and who has helped me so much over the years in learning where to find the specialties of the Rainy River area. For directions to the sites listed above, please see Dave's site guide to the area on the OFO web site at: http://www.ofo.ca/hotspots/includes/RainyRiverUpdate.pdf Good birding, Glenn Coady _________________________________________________________________ MSN Dating: Find someone special. 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