Sunday, June 5, 2011

Where the Waters Divide

The weather does not get any better than this.  Today was calm, clear and not too hot.  A nice day to go to Walpole Island, part of the largest freshwater delta in North America.  Lambton Wildlife Inc. (Sarnia) organized a field trip to check out the bird banding operation on the island.  It has only been in operation for a couple of years but is quite successful and will provide data about bird movements on the island.
Carl A. Pascoe (master bander) and Rachel A. Powless (songbird bander) from Michigan operate the station.
Today was their last day for the spring and they showed us a few birds that were caught and banded this morning.
Carl A. Pascoe with Baltimore Oriole

Some information about the operation is on the website at:   http://www.ntarp.org/index.html

Yellow Warbler

Later we walked a bit of the oak savannah at the north end of the island.  This spot and the prairies will be spectacular two months from now.

Some scenes:

spiderwort in bloom

Juvenal's Duskywing--abundant today



Note:  Walpole Island is First Nations Territory and to see anything off road, specific arrangements must be made through the Heritage Centre.

2 comments:

  1. Great writeup Blake. Have you birded the Marsh Habitat? I imagine it would mostly done by boat.

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  2. Dwayne,

    We did quite a bit for the breeding bird atlas, but again, it was by special arrangement and required guides.

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