Today started off without the promise of any chance of fair weather and the promise was kept. The winds out of the SE were approx. 25 kph with gusts to approx. 35 - 40 kph which helped to keep birds and insects down and probably contributed to the migration slow down. One plus was that it was not cold out.
As Naish McHugh and I stood at the first gate waiting for the participants to show up we observed a Merlin as it quickly flew past and just before starting out a nice Blue Budgie was seen on the grass and then again as it flew off following a Red-winged Blackbird, strange pairing, "not that there's anything wrong with that".
At 8:00 am 21 of us started off through the west side of The Base and as we walked we noticed a few Chimney Swifts overhead and before we knew it we had 300+ of these little birds wheeling over The Base. Birds were scarce but we did find Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos, Magnolia, Wilson's, and Yellow-rumped Warblers as well as American Redstart and overhead a Common Loon was spotted.
It was now off along the causeway out onto The Spit proper and it was easy going as we had a tail wind. Out there we found many Cormorants of course, Mute Swans, Gadwall, A. Black Duck, Green and Blue-winged Teal, N. Shoveler, Hooded Merganser, a passing Black-crowned Night Heron and another Merlin. On Peninsula D we observed Downy Woodpeckers, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, Nashville, N. Parula, Magnolia, Cape May, Black-throated Blue, Yellow-rumped, Redstart and Wilson's Warblers.
It started to rain at around 11 am and wisely the remaining participants decided to catch the Conservation Authority shuttle van back to their autos about 12 pm but Naish McHugh, Ed O'Conner and I not being wise :roll: continued on in the on and off rain and the constant wind. We found a few more birds such as N. Flicker, Tree Swallows, Palm Warbler, Belted Kingfisher, more Hooded Mergansers, A. Kestrel and a few more of the same Warblers found earlier.
It was now time for us to wise up so we also called it a day and caught the van back at 2pm. Not a disappointing outing but disappointing weather.
Norm Murr
