[NatureNS] Trout Lake

From: "john belbin" <jbelbin@ns.sympatico.ca>
To: "Naturens" <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:33:28 -0300
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I spent the weekend as a guest at a cottage on Trout Lake, Annapolis County
and managed two walks in that time. It is relatively quiet at this time but
there is still a variety of things to see.
There have been a pair of  Black-backed Woodpeckers resident at the north
end of the lake this summer. We found them easily, noisily working the dead
spruce and pine trees. They are remarkably large when you are used to
looking at their Hairy and Downey cousins. The male was particularly
attractive with that golden crown. We also saw YB Sapsuckers and flickers
and a few WB Nuthatch.

We ran into a group of nondescript brownish birds that were clearly very
young and we were having a hard time identifying, until their Yellow-rumped
Warbler parents showed up and led them away. There is an astounding number
of Humming Birds near the lake, they seem to be everywhere. The 5, mostly
single tube feeders at the cottage had a minimum of 25 birds squabbling
mightily whenever we looked. Virtually all seemed to be juveniles or young
females. We only saw one male in breeding plumage in all the time we were
watching. There were Hermit Thrushes in several locations, some were still
calling, they seemed to be the juveniles.

The Loons on the lake did not manage to breed this year and have now left.
My host told me that they seem to mostly ignore power boats and canoes, but
get very upset when a kayak appears. We could also not find the usual
Kingfishers or Black Ducks and must assume that they have left as well.

Also in the area were Cedar Waxwings, White Winged Crossbills and large
numbers of Juncos,  BC Chickadees and Goldfinch. We could find no Boreal
Chickadees.  A few Ruby crowned Kinglets were very active.

Fritillary Butterflies were very common, especially the Greater. There were
some extremely large Dragonflies but I could not identify them. Pickerel
Frogs and many small first-year frogs and toads were near the lake. A White
tailed Deer and a Garter Snake both crossed the road in front of us.

On Sunday we climbed up Hiram Layte Hill and found a sign warning of
imminent roadside spraying. We ignored it assuming no such thing would occur
on a Sunday, but later ran into a very polite Bowater employee who smelled
of spray and informed us that the spraying was taking place on the other
side of the hill. Apparently they plan to do the same thing to a stretch of
the old Lawrencetown Road. After some prodding he admitted that they were
using "Vision". We turned around and went back to the cottage.

John Belbin - Hantsport


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