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Hi there, Last night Suzanne Borkowski and I did the Tangier to Mooseland Owl Survey route, which we have done now for 5 years. It was a beautiful evening, with no precipitation, no wind at all and a brilliant night sky. The sight of so many stars, away from the light pollution of the city, is one of the reasons I love doing this route. We stopped for a brief visit with Karl Tay at "Swallow Hollow". Long time members of the Bird Society will know Karl. He told us that the ice just went out of the lake (River Lake) on Wednesday. He has been seeing lots of Purple Finches, a dozen or so Evening Grosbeaks and lots (50+) of Dark-eyed Juncos at his feeders. Five Fox Sparrows showed up recently. There is a pair of Hooded Mergansers on the lake, though a large number of Common Mergansers moved through earlier, and he is hoping for Wood Ducks again this year. Karl saw a Woodcock two weeks ago, in the snow at Easter, and several of his neighbours have also reported them. It was a good night for owling, though not as good as we somehow felt it should be. The lovely crescent moon lit our way until shortly before midnight. We heard 4 Barred Owls, 2 Great Horned Owls, and one Northern Saw-whet Owl during the survey, which is about average for this route. As usual there were others which revealed themselves outside of the survey times and so couldn't be included. One Barred Owl which we had been listening to flew over our heads at the end of the stop, and then began duetting with a second Barred Owl, very close by, which we hadn't detected before at all! Other night sounds included the wails of several loons, the low steady roar of water at the dams, and the quacking of a very few Wood Frogs, the first I have heard this year. We did not hear any Spring Peepers, and I have yet to hear any. We saw three Porcupines during the evening, all moving beside paved roads, where I suppose they were attracted to road salt. A number of small moths which might have been "winter moths" were about, as well as a few much larger ones. The oddest sight was a smallish light-coloured BAT which briefly flitted about a street light on the outskirts of Mooseland. It appeared silvery but that might be a distortion due to the artificial light. I remembered that James Hirtle had reported one from his Lapland route last week - I don't remember bats being mentioned before as a phenomenon on Owl routes. What species would they be? Cheers, Patricia L. Chalmers Halifax
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