May 27 - Ajax waterfront

[Shortsighted]

I thought I would check-out the waterfront sections of beach for shorebirds. Yah, I'm feeling optimistic and somewhat delusional. Ajax is not too far from Pickering to make the trip a trek but the sections of beach are small and usually populated by people with their dogs. Nonetheless, I gave it a try. Lots of gulls for sure. I chose a section that has an alternate thoroughfare that discourages excursions on the short stretch of beach. The only peep that I saw was a killdeer and it had itself a nest among the pebbles.





The path from the main drag leading to the beach passes through a dark wood and almost immediately I spotted a flycatcher. At first I thought it might be an Eastern Wood Pewee but it may just have been a Least FC.



Back out in the bright sunshine I came across a small group of Cedar waxwings feeding on white blossoms.





To my right, under the shade of another tree were a couple of American goldfinch



Up above in the shadows was a Baltimore oriole



Then I headed north along a path that suggested possible warblers. I waited patiently for a female American redstart to emerge and it didn't oblige so I settled for a male Yellow warbler. Not too shabby.



Then I turned around a retraced my steps and visited the waxwings again



The constant parade of noisy pedestrians and ferocious cyclists was driving me nuts so I headed home. I should expect no less than chaos on a clement Saturday

[Ally]

Love the killdeers.

[Shortsighted]

I returned a couple of times to the same section of beach in Ajax to see how the killdeer nest was doing. The first return visit revealed that the nest was corralled by small pieces of driftwood as some fanciful expression of a fort if done by kids, or as a device to alert pedestrians of the nest and eggs which are hard to detect among the group of small stones, thereby preventing them being stepped upon. I suppose that the construct had some utility toward that aim but it also attracts attention in a negative manner. Also, upon approach the nesting killdeer would hop onto the makeshift driftwood corral fence and just stand there like a guard dog.



Today's visit was a disappointment and something that I've become all to familiar with. The stick-sized pieces of driftwood that were previously arranged to corral were now scattered about as if hit by a drone strike. Russian drones do not possess such a range. The eggs were gone and there was absolutely no sign of a nesting hollow. Was this devastation the result of a dog, a coyote, a punk kid or predatory gulls? Gulls might want the eggs but would be unable and unwilling to exert the effort needed to scatter the wood. No prints were found at the scene of the crime.There was no sign of the killdeer. Possible witnesses to the crime have all remained silent.