I drove through rain to get to the Farm. But I don’t have much faith in weather forecasts so I thought….maybe the opportunity will come. And it did….sort of. It stopped when I got there so I opened a few nets, nets that I could close easily should it start up again. And it did. So we collapsed them and then reopened a couple in a lull.

There were VERY few birds around. Yesterday, the trees were dripping with them; everywhere you looked you saw warblers flitting. Not today. There was the odd flit…here and there…but no major flitting. But some of the flits were worth chasing: Northern Parulas and Cape May Warblers.

As I’ve said on a number of occasions, the Farm is work in progress. And as there weren’t a lot of birds to go after we (or at least two of us) decided to carry on building the wood chip trail. The Gosnells had delivered a number of large piles of wood chips a few days ago. The plan is to lay them out on the heavily used trail sections that, with use, have become muddy and worn. This will make walking easier and less messy (Haldimand mud is notorious) and will tend to keep travelers on a narrow path and let the verges grow back in. So, while Keira and Riley held down the birding end of things, Keira’s dad, Oreleo, and I (well, mostly Oreleo) worked on laying down the chips along the trail. The new trail, now known as the “Oreleo Highway” is quite extensive and will help maintain the trails and the habitat.


Banded 5:
1 Gray Catbird
2 Red-winged Blackbirds
2 Myrtle Warblers
ET’s: 40 spp.
Rick