Brier Island 2014

We had a good start to the weekend, weather on Saturday was nice - lots of birds singing in the yard.
Made the usual stops on the way - found the Ring-necked Ducks in the pond and a Blue-headed Vireo at the Wentworth Lake wilderness path. A few miles up the road Carmen and I found several Cliff Swallows gathering mud for nest building, the first time we'd seen them in a few years.

Cliff Swallow

We got to Brier Island early afternoon and after meeting up with Mark and Gretchen and setting up camp one of the first sights was a family of Canada Geese. There were also a pair of Brant on Peter's Island, unfortunately too far away for a photograph. The weekend was slow birding wise, we didn't get favourable winds to bring the birds in but we did get several warbler species and a few Baltimore Orioles. A few Horned Larks on the beach was a first for Gretchen.  On the island we managed to identify 67 species as well as a few others on the trip there and back. Probably the highlight of the trip was watching several dozen chimney swifts make several passes before the majority entered a chimney at Bear River as we finished eating a picnic supper before separating for the trip home.


Baltimore Oriole and forsythia.

Chipping Sparrow

Canada Geese