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I've been detained indoors much of the fall, a situation made worse by reading daily on this list about all the interesting sightings being made across the province. I was bound a determined to get out this weekend. Tempted by so many reports of snowy owls and red-bellied woodpeckers, I decided to spend Saturday morning on and around the marshes between Wolfville and Grand Pre. I rolled out of my driveway on my bike at sun-up and headed down to the walking trail that extends east from Oak Avenue along the bank. I had to walk the bike through the trail, which was too narrow and slick for safe biking while looking and listening for birds. It was here I was optomistic about seeing the RBWO, but no luck. Lots of the usual suspects (CROWS, CHICKADEES, BLUE JAYS) and I flushed a couple of RUFFED GROUSE out of a thicket. Overhead some crows were toying with a RED TAILED HAWK, and later a BALD EAGLE. After a while, I turned away from the fringe cover and headed north out onto the marsh itself. There were recently made WHITE-TAILED DEER tracks in the soft mud. When I climed the railway embankment, I was surprised to see an ORANGE-VESTED HUMAN (M, with shotgun) looking cold, bored and birdless, and on the marsh road (where I remounted my bike) there were many empty shell casings. I decided to proceed carefully and do my best not to look like dinner. I had a great cycle across the marsh to Long Island Road, proceeding to Evangelene Beach and then out to the eastern end of Long Island Road to the dyke. Lots of gulls and seabirds (not my union), but the most interesting part of the trip for me were the birds congregated in the thickets and near the houses and farms on Long Island Road: LARKS, CHICKADEES, MOURNING DOVES, GOLDFINCHES, SONG SPARROWS, and other sparrows I couldn't get an exact fix on. There was lots of activity here, especially as the sun gained strength. There was a ponderous BALD EAGLE in one of the big trees overlooking the Evangelen Beach corner (as usual), but where I spent the most time was watching a RED-TAILED HAWK perched in a tree on the west end of the road. As I stood there making my biboculared study of the fellow, I became aware of some funny scratching noises near my feet and looked down to see a great little male DOWNY WOODPECKER working his way up and down the cat-tail stocks in the ditch dead in front of me. I left-off with the hawk and conversed with him for a while. Up close like that I got to see his wonderful toes at work on a cat-tail stock in a way that you don't notice as easily when they're holding onto tree trunks. I spooked in excess of 60 AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS out of the drainage ditch that lay south of the road, and later a smaller number of MALLARDS. Nowhere near the hunters. As it approached 9:30, the wind picked up and the sun came out stronger, making the landscape suddenly seem more rich and colourful. I dismounted at the east end of Long Island Road at the dyke and walked down to the water's edge for a look across the guzzle. The tide was maybe two-thirds out. At one point found myself walking over a lush, thick seaweed that looked and felt somewhat like the fur on some giant animal's back. There was a considerable bramble of bushes on the tidal plane, with large red rose hips which looked almost luminous. There was a large group of dark-coloured sea birds floating out in the basin - too far away to see any markings to help me identify them. I turned back for home at this point, with a headwind now. I didn't mind it once I was back on the main road, where most of the birds I'd seen earlier were still hanging around. The headwind hampered my hearing, however. It had been a great morning, but I was disappointed that I had seen neither snowy owl nor red-bellied woodpecker and was wondering whether it had been childish of me to even think that I might. All you can do, I was telling myself, is put yourself out there and hope for the lightning strike. ... And then it struck. A black and white ladder-backed bird flew across the road directly in front of me. I think I had the binoculars up before I even had the bike fully stopped, afraid it would leave the fencepost before I could get a good look and be sure. But there it was! A RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. I had a good long look before it disappeared up the road and was gone, leaving me grinning like a fool on the shoulder of the road. * * * Sunday morning, I picked up a friend and headed to one of my winter paddling haunts at White Rock. We saw a pair of MERGANSERS, BLUE JAYS, CHICKADEES, and 4 WT DEER down to the water's edge for a drink. Still some oak and beech trees holding onto their rattling leaves. Creeping up and peeking over the dam, we had a nice long eye-level look at a BALD EAGLE who was sitting in a large hemlock below the dam. It was sort of like hovering in the air beside him, courtesy of NS Power. The real excitement for me was to see a BELTED KINGFISHER. I thought he would be long gone for the winter. Now how will I ever manage to go back to work on Monday? Andrew Steeves Wolfville, NS
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