Good evening birders.
Today Alfred Adamo and I went up to the Carden Plain area to check on early arrivals and we found some nice birds.
As we drove up Cty Rd 6 north out of Kirkfield we stopped at the lift locks where we had a close up view of an overhead Broad-winged Hawk.
Along Wylie Rd we found Common Snipe, Sandhill Crane, Upland Sandpiper, several Common Ravens, Brown Thrasher, 2 Loggerhead Shrikes (Oposide Bluebird Box 10), Purple Finch, Nashville, Chipping, and Vesper Sparrows, Eastern Towhee and many Eastern Meadowlarks. At the north end of Wylie Rd we turned left (west) and drove along Alvar Rd and along here we found Nashville, Yellow-rumped and Black-throated Green Warblers as well as Purple Finch again.
At the end of Alvar Rd we turned left (south) on Lake Dalrymple Rd and along here were a pair of Osprey building a nest.
We then proceeded back through Kirkfield on Cty Rd 6 and turned right (west) and drove to Rockview Rd and along here were more Thrashers and a Cooper's Hawk. We turned right (west) at Eldon Station Rd where Jean Iron told us about both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs in a flooded field and after locating them we drove to Prospect Rd, turned Right (north) and drove up to the southern marsh. Here at the marsh we found both Sora and Virginia Rails.
We then drove a little further up Prospect to the next marsh (just south of Cty Rd 48) and here we again found Virginia and Sora Rails as well as 2 Moorhens, American Bittern and a Belted Kingfisher.
A note of caution
At the north marsh on Prospect Rd as we stood on the public road shoulder an Aggregate Co. pickup truck pulled up and the driver stared at us with an angry look without saying a word, just stared. I went over to him, said hello and said we were listening to Rails and Bitterns calling. He still stared with a angry look and I explained that we were viewing Marsh birds and that is what the Rails were. He finally reached out and pointed at a new sign up the road (in the marsh) (It said NO TRESPASSING - PLEASE RESPECT OUR PROPERTY RIGHTS and had a picture of an Osprey and Binoculars on it). He angrily told me it was his property, I said we were not on his property but on the public road looking over the marsh. His answer was that he didn't look into my backyard and that we were not allowed to look into or over the marsh. Allowing that that was ridiculous and reminding him that we were on public property he still said it wasn't allowed I asked him if that meant that I was not allowed to look into a field as we drove by he answered it just isn't allowed and drove off. We continued recording our sightings and he never returned. This is just a heads up for that location as this man looked like he could react physically if angrily confronted (MY Opinion).
DIRECTIONS
WYLIE RD / SEDGE WREN MARSH / PROSPECT RD
Wylie Road is north of Kirkfield in Victoria County and Kirkfield itself is on County Road 48 east of Highway 12 and well north of Whitby and about 130 km from Toronto if you follow the roads and not a Crow.
From the centre of Kirkfield go north on County Road 6 passing under the Lift Lock on the Trent Canal and drive about 2
