Sparrow Walk with Gord Belyea and JC Birding

Birding Report by Jane

Bill, Barb C., Lynn C., Connie and I met up with Gord, who kindly agreed to lead the group in search of sparrows.  Gord had not birded this area in a couple of years, he did do some recognizance and told us lots of birds he expected just were not there.  We still wanted to go. Thank you so much for doing this, it was greatly appreciated by all.

The weather prediction was not great - cloudy with rain starting at 10:00, but we started at 6:30, so we had 3 1/2 hours to bird the area.

Before leaving the parking lot, we heard Warbling Vireo and Chestnut-sided Warbler.  Walking the abandoned rail line we heard House Wren (we heard quite a few during our walk). Connie was excellent at hearing and spotting Song Sparrows.  We saw Cedar Waxwing, Brown-headed Cowbird, Downy Woodpecker along with other species.  We cut off the path and onto 'the property'.

We wanted to see Clay-coloured Sparrow and we did. We heard White-throated Sparrow and Field Sparrow.  Only Gord and Barb had a fly-by of the Vesper Sparrow.

We got our fill of Brown Thrashers, such pretty birds.  Who gets tired of seeing them, nobody in my mind.

The best bird of the day was the Black-billed Cuckoo, who just wanted to be seen and photographed.  Absolutely lovely views.  Then on our way back to the car we saw another cooperative one.

While walking the path that parallels Bowesville Road, we did see a few Bobolink and Eastern Meadowlarks, but  sadly no Eastern Bluebird.  Gord said the lady who had maintained the boxes had died and no one had taken over.  We saw two occupied boxes, one by a Tree Swallow and the other by a House Wren.  

While walking back, we crossed a field of tall grass.  Barb and Connie almost lost us at one point or maybe we almost lost them, just saying the grass was up to Barb's waist...  And no reports of ticks.

We heard Ovenbird and Wood Thrush, and saw a Veery on our return trip.  We had to hurry because the sky had gotten quite dark.  

Gord had told me about seeing 14 ring-neck snakes on a bike trip he took, he certainly did not expect to see one on this outing.  But we were fortunate and saw one - a small snake, it is an olive brown colour with a yellow ring around its neck (see photo).  The worms we saw in Ecuador were so much bigger.

We birded until 10:00.  The two guys did not have rain coats, so they were drenched when we got back to the car.

The ladies got into Connie's car and did the bird list.  We decided not to bird any more, so it was a relatively short day for us.

Interesting we did not see a Black-capped Chickadee or European Starling!!!

At the car Gord was talking about canoeing and he told us about him being a model.  Check out the video here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPlgWoLRNuI

 Note that the Yellow Warbler is sitting on a nest, barely visible through the leaves.

Jane Burgess

Addendum: Gord corrected the snake - it was a Red Bellied Snake.