I birded Rattray marsh for 3.5 hours this afternoon. There were 5
Least Sandpipers, 7 each of Spotted Sandpipers and Lesser Yellowlegs,
11 Killdeer on the mudflats. There were 71 Red-necked Grebes feeding
about 150 m. off-shore. I meet Chris Jackson at the marsh, who was
photographing the Great Blue and Green herons and a Great Egret.
Chris had found the Green Heron nest and showed me where it was
located: it was located on thick horizontal branch of Weeping Willow
leaving over the marsh along sw shoreline. He had seen two adults and
one juvenile earlier in the day and photographed the kingfisher
harassing one of the Green Herons. After Chris left, one adult and 3
newly-fledged young returned to the nesting tree and in the next hour
they flew back and forth from the mudflats, the posts of the carp
fence or the nearby trees, but mostly kept returning to the nest tree.
Two were still in the nest tree when I left. In spit of the fact I
have been birding Rattray Marsh for a long time, I have never found
evidence of breeding--I was really thrilled to see the nest and three
young Green Herons and Chris should get the credit for finding the
nest and young Green Herons. I also found newly-fledged broods of
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Black-capped Chickadees, Song Sparrows and a
newly-fledged Downy Woodpecker. The details of these breeding records
are further elaborated on in e.bird.
Directions: Park at the south end of Bexhill Road which runs south
off Lakeshore Boulevard between Erin Mills Park/Southdown Road and
Mississauga Road. The entrance is marked by a sign and there is map
of the marsh and adjacent woodlands and trails at the bottom the hill
leading to the marsh.
Wayne Renaud (289-828-0043)
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