13 August 2009

Getting Out of the House

Went for a walk today.
Of course, I had to take a train to where I went for the walk, but one can't have everything.

View Lynde Shores Bird Walk in a larger map

I saw 21 birds I could identify, plus two small songbirds that were more or less "Theropoda incertae sedis" and some eclipse ducks I may attempt to opine about later.

The identified birds were:
american coot — family group! distant and dubious but not too distant
blue jay
canada geese
caspian tern
cedar waxwing — bunches
chickadee — came within arm's reach; there were sunflower seeds on a small platform at one of the observation stands, and food is important when you're a chickadee
common grackle
common moorhen — family group! sprinting over the vegetation and kek-kek-keking!
crow — post-West Nile, actually rather scarce birds
double-crested cormorant
eastern kingbird
goldfinch — a great many, to go with the copious provision of seeding thistles
great blue heron
herring gull
mallard ducks
mourning dove
red-winged black bird
ring-billed gull
song sparrow
tree swallow
tricolored heron — from the road on the way back. Sitting on the marsh board walk railing, which provided an excellent scale reference.
turkey vulture — sitting on an abandoned ferro-concrete silo and glowering a mighty glower.

Total time was 13h30 leaving the GO station to 18h15 returning. About 10 km of distance traversed. Not utterly sluggish but I should definitely go for this sort of walk more often.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

fursto lives a stones throw from there! if you would like to go back sometime, let me know. i have yet to see her house & am overdue for a visit. it's a much pleasanter drive with company

Graydon said...

Thank you!

This month is going to be collapsing into stuffing most of my stuff into storage and finding a cheaper place to live, I'm afraid, but I appreciate the offer.

Anonymous said...

i have a spare room. i'd lalso say i'm thinking of the same logistics :P but need to pare material possesions down quite a bit more than i have been tackling. i could likely store some stuff for you at least. i think i've left an e-trail back to my LJ acct now... but you can also find me at magma.ca under the name the doesn't die ;)

ping me for my phone and we can talk more/easier