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I had a great day of hiking and pretty good day of birding at Kejimkujik Seaside Adjunct this morning. I left the city 5:15 am and started birding at 7:05. I only managed 16 species in 3 hours (plus 1 hour 15 returning) but it was a fabulous day to be at the coast. There was nothing out of the ordinary except for perhaps the sheer number of Savannah Sparrows at different spots. At one spot in particular, on the motorized trail behind the dunes about 3/4 to the end of the beach it seemed like I was surrounded by dozens of them all zip, zip, zeeaing intermittently all around me. I think I was a bit unlucky in the marsh because it looked like a great habitat but I only saw 2 Green-winged Teal and 14 Bufflehead. If only there were trails going back to all the ponds behind the front ones--I bet it would be an amazing place. I would have had several more species but being the rookie I am I missed identifying quite a few. 2 raptors on the way to the beach in the morning and on that same walk down I heard quite a few Dark-eyed, swamp, chipping, orange-crowned, palm sparblers--how long does it take before you can distinguish between all them! I don't know what they were but their sound did seem less musical than a junco. At one point on the trail behind the dunes it seemed like I was being followed by some Yellow-rumped Warblers but I couldn't confirm it. Also at the very end of the beach I saw a black bird fly over with rusty wings. I don't think it was a Rusty Blackbird though. It was flying with 2 or 3 stiff wings beats then coasting for a second or two and continued that pattern. I also missed some birds whose sounds I didn't recognize and where in sensitive habitat where I couldn't get any closer. I was surprised I did not see a single shore bird--they must have no taste for aesthetics. I would definitely go there again but next time I would chose not to go all the way to the end of the beach and explore trails going to the south end peninsula instead. Though Birding Sites of NS mentions that some of the beach will be closed for the Piping Plovers sometime around the end of April and I'm not sure how much of the place gets closed down. On the main path to the beach, there is a bird migration monitoring site setup by Acadia University. The antenna at this site is broken and bent over so that the top is nearly touching the ground. It has Phil Taylor's contact name and number on it. Does Phil Taylor monitor this feed? If so, I can email a pic of the site. Let me know if I should call the number to find out what email to send the pic to. Keith Lowe Halifax
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