Yesterday I managed to head down to the County Line Woods looking for some of the rarer breeding birds. My list from the drive only the road the forest is on, I think was quite impressive if I do say so myself. I was driving about 10-30km/hr for the whole road on my way to the forest, my first birds of interest was a single American Golden-Plover (getting kinda late isn't it?) in a flooded field all by itself...or so I thought, but after a few seconds a Ruddy Turnstone popped out behind the ridge...then another...and two more! That was a nice sight! As soon as I got to the actual forest I got very excited, I'd never been there before and could tell it was a very nice chunk of Carolinian Forest. Among the first birds I heard when I had gotten to the edge (while in the car still), Ovenbird and Veery. Gotta love the carolinian zone! Soon enough, after driving around the whole forest, I had gotten, from my car, two very good birds, both year birds, both species at risk. A Cerulean Warbler (#224) singing up in the tree-tops, and TWO singing Hooded Warblers (#225). And lucky for me, they were both on the Lambton side of the road! I even got a recording of one of the Hooded's singing.
Soon enough I was off into the forest, and 3 more year birds, Orange-crowned Warbler (#226), Alder Flycatcher (#228), and in between those two....a White-eyed Vireo! (#227)! I had heard it singing, reconized the call but couldn't put a name on it. After a little while of searching through the leaves, I managed to get a good enough look at it for an ID.
Other notables from the walk incl:
-Broad-winged Hawk
-Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
-Yellow-throated Vireo
-Mourning Warbler
-Blue-winged Warbler
Also when I got back into the car and started driving away, I had Another Hooded Warbler, but this time calling from the Middlesex side of the road...New Middlesex bird as well!
But I was not done with year birds for the day! On the drive, I visited and stopped at a few places that looked promising. And at one of these locations, I got one more Good Year bird. a Golden-winged Warbler (#229). I heard it call twice in the distance doing its classic "Bee Bz-Bz-Bz" call.
So the last day of May, provides SIX new year birds.. 4 of which are rare breeders in ON, and two of them are Species at Risk.
This was a very good day.
Good Birding!
