By Nikki May
Early on the morning of July 12th, a few keen birders from Saugeen Nature met to do the last ‘square bash’ of the third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. Members of SN have been going out twice a year for the last 4 years to assist in the gathering of breeding data for Atlas 3. This morning, we were planning to cover the second half of the Allan Park square that we had begun surveying the Tuesday before.
We were hoping to get the numbers of species recorded in the square above 100 to meet the informal goal set by the supervisor of the Grey County Atlassing work. Earlier in the year the number stood at 86, but by the morning of July 12th it was up to 95, thanks to the Tuesday survey and some earlier work we had done at Angus Inksetter’s farm. One of our favourite finds on the Tuesday was a Virginia Rail which called from a roadside marsh. John Reaume had played a recording of the Rail’s call a few minutes earlier, with no immediate response, and we had moved on to other observations. We were just about ready to get back in the car to leave and the Rail called from a reed thicket about 15 feet from the car. What a treat!
On the Saturday we surveyed a wide variety of meadows, wetland and woodlands, in hopes of hearing species like Wood Thrush, Blackburnian Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Vesper Sparrow and Clay-coloured Sparrow. We heard and recorded a large number of breeding species, but unfortunately not the target species. Altogether on the Tuesday and Saturday we recorded 59 species. They are listed below for the interest of club members. Beside each species name is the level of breeding evidence we recorded. H for Habitat and S for Singing mean possible breeding, while
M for Multiple, A for Agitated, and P for Pair mean probable breeding. FY for Fledged Young and FS for Adult carrying a Fecal Sac mean confirmed breeding evidence. X stands for present in square but not likely breeding there.
1. Ruffed Grouse (H)
2. Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) (M)
3. Mourning Dove (S)
4. Black-billed Cuckoo (S)
5. Virginia Rail (S)
6. Killdeer (S)
7. Ring-billed Gull (X)
8. Turkey Vulture (H)
9. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (FY)
10.Hairy Woodpecker (S)
11.Northern Flicker (S)
12.Eastern Wood-Pewee (S)
13.Eastern Phoebe (S)
14.Great Crested Flycatcher (S)
15.Eastern Kingbird (S)
16.Warbling Vireo (S)
17.Red-eyed Vireo (A)
18.Blue Jay (S)
19.American Crow (S)
20.Common Raven (S)
21.Black-capped Chickadee (A)
22.Tree Swallow (S)
23.Barn Swallow (S)
24.White-breasted Nuthatch (S)
25.Red-breasted Nuthatch (A)
26.Northern House Wren (S)
27.Winter Wren (S)
28.European Starling (H)
29.Gray Catbird (A)
30.Brown Thrasher (FS)
31.Veery (S)
32.American Robin (A)
33.American Goldfinch (S)
34.Grasshopper Sparrow (S)
35.Chipping Sparrow (S)
36.Field Sparrow (S)
37.White-throated Sparrow (S)
38.Savannah Sparrow (A)
39.Song Sparrow (S)
40.Swamp Sparrow (S)
41.Eastern Meadowlark (S)
42.Baltimore Oriole (A)
43.Red-winged Blackbird (P)
44.Brown-headed Cowbird (P)
45.Common Grackle (S)
46.Ovenbird (S)
47.Northern Waterthrush (S)
48.Black-and-white Warbler (A)
49.Nashville Warbler (A)
50.Common Yellowthroat (S)
51.American Redstart (A)
52.Yellow Warbler (S)
53.Chestnut-sided Warbler (A)
54.Pine Warbler (S)
55.Black-throated Green Warbler (A)
56.Scarlet Tanager (A)
57.Northern Cardinal (S)
58.Rose-breasted Grosbeak (S)
59.Indigo Bunting (A)