Submitted by John Dickson
Many keen birders from near and far have been visiting Point Pelee again this year to see the migrants arriving to rest and refuel in the diverse habitat there before continuing northward. However, the local birding this Spring has been quite rewarding with a lifer for me too, first hearing, then seeing a Sora in a nearby wetland area.
Each day I have seen reports of new arrivals, including many sparrows and warblers, hummingbirds, and even Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Eastern Kingbirds, Bobolinks, Indigo Buntings, even Scarlet Tanagers, along with the many Hawks and shore birds too. On Monday while I biked along a wooded path by the river through Harrison Park, the clear musical tones and phrasing of a bright orange and black male Baltimore Oriole reached me from overhead, and soon there was another one, quite nearby adding his own song in response to the other.
Although I have been seeing many Spring wildflowers – pink, blue, yellow and white here and there, including numerous Red Trilliums a few weeks ago, the hillside along the Mile Drive that was blanketed in White Trilliums yesterday was a pleasant and welcome surprise. On a ride this morning, I saw several wild fruit trees with pretty blossoms on display.
Many of us have observed bees, butterflies, and moths, as well as salamanders, snakes, turtles, frogs, and toads, either sunning themselves, or motoring along on their own personal adventures.
5th Annual Earth Film Festival
The Grey Sauble Conservation Foundation’s exciting 5th annual Earth Film Festival fundraiser offers two events in one evening, Thursday May 19, at the Roxy Theatre. Don Sankey, Foundation Chair, tells us that a Social time and Silent Auction start at 6pm, until the beginning of Bruce Grey Monarchs with the renowned Audrey Armstrong and followed by the award winning film Fight of the Butterflies, narrated by Gordon Pinsent. Tickets are only $25. and are available at the Roxy box office. I can personally vouch for the excellence of both presentations, for their quality photography, research and up to date science.
Young Naturalists with Miriam Oudejans
On Sunday May 1st, the Owen Sound Young Naturalists met on a cold and cloudy afternoon at Isaac Lake for a first time bird outing there, climbed the marsh observation tower and walked down to the boat launch at the Lake to see what birds were migrating through from points South. Due to the weather, the birds were scarce but the highlight was seeing and hearing several Wilson’s Snipe circling around above the marsh, drawing attention to themselves with the distinctive whirring sound of their wings, also known as “winnowing.”
Over a period of two hours, 24 different kinds of birds were seen including a Common Loon, six Great Egrets, an American Bittern, four migrating Sandhill Crane, a light morph Rough-legged hawk and several American Widgeon (ducks) in the marsh.
The group also learned about Merlin, an easy to use free phone App that gives users the ability to identify birds in the field by sight and sound. Created by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Merlin is a great tool for both new and experienced birders. Other resources for budding birders can be found online at the Birds Canada website, including family activities on the webpage The Roost. https://www.birdscanada.org/the-roost/ One link takes you to “Find The Birds,” a fun and new educational video game created by Canadian highschooler, Adam Dhalla.
The young naturalists and their parents found a new appreciation for birds and everyone agreed that Isaac Lake was a neat spot to visit and worth coming back to explore further, perhaps on a sunny summer morning!
Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory Celebrating 20 Years
Congratulations to the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory, (BPBO) now celebrating 20 years. Here is an excerpt from their weekly blog, posted at www.bpbo.ca
“At Cabot Head, we often watch hungry birds literally in a feeding frenzy, indifferent to our presence, being so intent on getting fat again. Midges are a great source of food and their emergence in huge numbers in spring greatly helps birds. And with a little help from (unknowing) friends, birds enjoy an even easier meal: there are many, many inactive, old spider webs around, which act as a perfect trap for midges, uncollected by still dormant spiders. Warblers, nuthatches, sparrows, we have observed them all pecking and eating midges from these spiderwebs using a little caution and much bill cleaning (rubbing the bill on a small branch to get rid of the sticky threads). Spiderwebs may look messy but in an interesting twist they are providing much needed calories to hungry migrants. So, let’s keep spiderwebs in our gardens and parks!”
To close, a quote from Wanderings of an Artist by Paul Kane, who in late Spring of 1845 journeyed to this area, producing exquisite paintings of First Nations people at Saugeen (the mouth of that river) and here in Owen Sound, before departing once more via Georgian Bay and the Thirty Thousand Islands where “we continually lost ourselves in its picturesque mazes, enchanted with the beauty of the ever-changing scenery, as we glided along in our light canoe.”
