April 28, 2020
This tour is south of the Pakenham tour and includes both Taylor and Clayton Lakes.
On the way out of town m,we stopped at the CTC arena to check on our ravens. Looks like they have fledged! The babies are as large as adults.
We took the Old Almonte Road so as to maximize our viewing possibilities. We saw our first of many Eastern Phoebes and a cooperative Brown Thrasher, as well as displaying Wild Turkeys.
On Golden Line Road, we saw many Song Sparrows.
We passed through Almonte and took Old Perth Road. We stopped at every creek and wetland and were rewarded ducks, Mourning Doves, a Swamp Sparrow, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and other marsh birds.
We drove up to Wolf Grve Road, then took Upper Perth Road to Drummond's Ponds. There was a herd of cattle which kept blocking our view, until they waded across the ponds. But at least they attracted cow birds. We also saw a Killdeer.
Next we headed north on Conc. 12 to Taylor Lake where we had our lunch. We saw Common Mergansers, Common Loons, an Osprey and Tree Swallows.
We backtracked to Bowland Road where we saw an amazing array of bird houses.
Then it was on to Clayton Lake. We went around to the Command Bridge on Galbraith Road. We saw two Trumpeter Swans plus a flyover.
Then there was another phoebe and grackle showing well.
Then it was back to Clayton where we check the boat launch and trail across the road.
We took Bellamy Mills Road over to Conc, 7B where we could hear, but not see, dozens of Chorus Frogs.
We took Conc.8 past the Mill of Kintail, which was closed, stopping at the Almone lagoons viewing area and tower.
There were lots of distant Scaups, Goldeneye and Buffleheads in the ponds, but the star of the show was a perched Red-tailed Hawk that dropped to the ground from it's perch.
We drove into Almone and took March Road all the way to Hwy 417 and home. We made a brief stop to check on the ravens at Baseline and Geeenbank. No adults were at the nest, but we could see a mouth or two of very young ones.
