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A late report on a visit to the large pond at Avonport Station yesterday. This pond is difficult to get a good look at as it was created with embankments that look like dikes, You could drive right past and hardly see the water surface. The other side being wooded and inaccessible except through a private farm. However if you park and wander up and down you can actually get some limited but good views of most of it. I was quite surprised yesterday when I made the effort. The first thing I noticed were 4 DC Cormorants, 2 were out on the surface feeding, the other two appeared to be nesting! One was occupying a large mound of vegetable matter that may have started out as a Muskrat pile. It would not move and when I became so annoying that I put up virtually all the other birds in the area, it simply crouched down. Its mate similarly kept a low profile very near by. A GB Heron was feeding well when I arrived and was quite tolerant until I kept moving about to photograph it, then it took off. Thinking about this afterwards, it is probably not as unusual as it first appears. This pond is only about 4Km from The Boot Island national Wildlife Area, where I believe both species breed, both locations being in one of my Atlas squares. There were also 6 Black Ducks, 12 GBB Gulls and at least 8 Barn Swallows at the pond. At least 10 Red winged Blackbirds were very active with some spirited chasing going on. A Red Tailed Hawk made a very low pass but didn't seem to bother anything very much. The number of Pheasants in the area is quite notable, I saw 7 Males within about 2 km of the pond, there must be quite a population. John Belbin - Hantsport
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