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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --Boundary_(ID_SmUwXJplOm9hszSoS3zqpw) Content-type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Ken McKenna Box 218 Stellarton NS B0K 1S0 902 752-7644 Hi all I did some scouting for possible routes for an upcoming field trip from Churchville- Elgin- Maple Lake areas of Pictou Co. this morning. The latter site is in a priority Butterfly Atlas square and I spent a little time searching out any early butterflies as the temperature rose near noon. I knew some new migrants had arrived as at the first stop, I was greeted by an American Bittern flying from the vicinity of the beaver dam in Churchville. Along the Brook Rd. in Churchville, I had a singing Hermit Thrush, 3 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers , a White-throated Sparrow, a singing Brown Creeper and a fly-over Redpoll. In Springville, near the cemetery, an E. Phoebe was singing. En route from there to Grants Lake, I had another Phoebe singing near a barn. Along the Millstream Rd. beyond Grants L., another group of Sapsuckers, a Wilson's Snipe and a Pileated Woodpecker peaking out from a nest hole it has been working on for the last couple of weeks. Nearby another Brown Creeper was singing. At the bridge near the St. Colomba Church in Elgin, another Phoebe. In Centredale, there were Phoebes at both the bridge on Cameron Lane and near the old cemetery. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet was singing near the pipeline in Centredale. At the start of the Maple Lake Rd., there was another Phoebe at the bridge and a second one singing near an abandoned house known to have had nesting Phoebes in other years. In the Maple Lake area, there were couple more Ruby-crowned Kinglets singing and four Palm Warblers. The lake was hosting 17 male and one female (popular gal!) Ring-necked Duck as well as a pair of Common Goldeneye. I wonder if the goldeneye will nest in the area. I have not known them to have nested here, but they have many times in the nearby Trafalgar area. A duck that was hard to ID because of a tucked head finally lifted it to reveal a female Long-tailed Duck. It must have touched down in migration as the site is a fresh water lake near the interior of the province about as far from the ocean as you can get. A faithful Rusty Blackbird was singing on a territory first pointed out to me years ago by Margaret Kenney ( a lifer for me at the time). Margaret was a charter NSBS member and a great influence on local birders in Pictou Co. She is missed, but still lives on in the Rusty Blackbird for me. Near noon, I saw a Mourning Cloak at roadside scat just south of Maple Lake. More Palm Warblers were singing along this route. While checking out bogs for butterflies I was surprised to see a lone Bohemian Waxwing hawking hatching insect life. Maybe it was taking butterflies as there were none in the area! The water level in the bogs is quite low and the whole area seems very dry for April. Several balls of amphibian eggs in the water ( maybe salamander-Jim W. ?) might be in danger of drying up before they develop. Near Speichts L., I saw an orange butterfly, possibly a Comma. I took a so-so photo. Near Perch L., I was photographing a migrant Yellow-rumped Warbler when a shadow caused me to look skyward and catch a quick snap of a male Northern Goshawk. Just beyond this were 4 Boreal Chickadees and another Palm Warbler. Flickers and Ruffed Grouse were widespread today and a Grouse the flew across the Rd.in the Nancy's Cellar area looked a lot like a Spruce Grouse.I tried to track it down, but was not successful. At home a few Tree Sparrows are still at my feeder as well as several varieties of finches which were lacking everywhere in the woods today. Hope you all got out for a taste of spring today! cheers ken --Boundary_(ID_SmUwXJplOm9hszSoS3zqpw) Content-type: text/html; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19046"> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Ken McKenna<BR>Box 218 Stellarton NS<BR>B0K 1S0<BR>902 752-7644<BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Hi all</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I did some scouting for possible routes for an upcoming field trip from Churchville- Elgin- Maple Lake areas of Pictou Co. this morning. The latter site is in a priority Butterfly</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Atlas square and I spent a little time searching out any early butterflies as the temperature rose near noon. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I knew some new migrants had arrived as at the first stop, I was greeted by an <STRONG>American Bittern</STRONG> flying from the vicinity of the beaver dam in Churchville. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Along the Brook Rd. in Churchville, I had a singing <STRONG>Hermit Thrush</STRONG>, 3 <STRONG>Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers</STRONG> , a White-throated Sparrow, a singing <STRONG>Brown Creeper</STRONG> and a fly-over Redpoll. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>In Springville, near the cemetery, an <STRONG>E. Phoebe</STRONG> was singing. En route from there to Grants Lake, I had another <STRONG>Phoebe</STRONG> singing near a barn. Along the Millstream Rd. beyond Grants L., another group of <STRONG>Sapsuckers</STRONG>, a <STRONG>Wilson's Snipe</STRONG> and a <STRONG>Pileated Woodpecker</STRONG> peaking out from a nest hole it has been working on for the last couple of weeks. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Nearby another <STRONG>Brown Creeper</STRONG> was singing. At the bridge near the St. Colomba Church in Elgin, another <STRONG>Phoebe</STRONG>.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>In Centredale, there were <STRONG>Phoebes</STRONG> at both the bridge on Cameron Lane and near the old cemetery. A <STRONG>Ruby-crowned Kinglet</STRONG> was singing near the pipeline in Centredale. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>At the start of the Maple Lake Rd., there was another <STRONG>Phoebe</STRONG> at the bridge and a second one singing near an abandoned house known to have had nesting Phoebes in other years. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>In the Maple Lake area, there were couple more <STRONG>Ruby-crowned Kinglets</STRONG> singing and four <STRONG>Palm Warblers</STRONG>. The lake was hosting 17 male and one female (popular gal!) <STRONG>Ring-necked Duck</STRONG> as well as a pair of <STRONG>Common Goldeneye</STRONG>. I wonder if the goldeneye will nest in the area. I have not known them to have nested here, but they have many times in the nearby Trafalgar area. </FONT><FONT size=2 face=Arial>A duck that was hard to ID because of a tucked head finally lifted it to reveal a female <STRONG>Long-tailed Duck</STRONG>. It must have touched down in migration as the site is a fresh water lake near the interior of the province about as far from the ocean as you can get. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>A faithful <STRONG>Rusty Blackbird</STRONG> was singing on a territory first pointed out to me years ago by Margaret Kenney ( a lifer for me at the time). Margaret was a charter NSBS </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>member and a </FONT><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2>great influence on local birders in Pictou Co. She is missed, but still lives on in the Rusty Blackbird for me. </FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2>Near noon, I saw a <STRONG>Mourning Cloak</STRONG> at roadside scat just south of Maple Lake. More <STRONG>Palm Warblers</STRONG> were singing along this route. While checking out bogs for butterflies I was surprised to see a lone <STRONG>Bohemian Waxwing</STRONG> hawking hatching insect life. Maybe it was taking butterflies as there were none in the area!</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2>The water level in the bogs is quite low and the whole area seems very dry for April. Several balls of amphibian eggs in the water ( maybe salamander-Jim W. ?) might be in</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2>danger of drying up before they develop. </FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2>Near Speichts L., I saw an orange butterfly, possibly a Comma. I took a so-so photo. Near Perch L., I was photographing a migrant <STRONG>Yellow-rumped Warbler</STRONG> when a shadow caused me to look skyward and catch a quick snap of a male <STRONG>Northern Goshawk</STRONG>. Just beyond this were 4 Boreal Chickadees and another <STRONG>Palm Warbler</STRONG>. </FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Flickers and Ruffed Grouse were widespread today and a Grouse the flew across the Rd.in the Nancy's Cellar area looked a lot like a Spruce Grouse.I tried to track it down, but was not successful. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>At home a few Tree Sparrows are still at my feeder as well as several varieties of finches which were lacking everywhere in the woods today. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Hope you all got out for a taste of spring today!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>cheers</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>ken</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML> --Boundary_(ID_SmUwXJplOm9hszSoS3zqpw)--
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