June 7, 2025 – Berkeley Square
On June 5th and 7th, Angus Inksetter, John Reaume and Nikki May surveyed the Breeding Bird Atlas square around Berkeley for bird species. They discovered 44 species on Thursday and over 50 on the Saturday morning, adding 3 additional species to the existing Atlas 3 records for square. There is quite a bit of overlap in the species found on these two days, but the outings were a lot of fun, and very rewarding.
The Berkeley square has a great variety of habitat. It is rich in wetlands, streams, hayfields and woodlands. There are large ponds and lakes, a couple of ANSIs and at least two county forests, as well as at least one conservation area. We plan to hold some outings here for Saugeen Nature in future years. On the Saturday a real highlight was watching a Green Heron hunt and capture multiple prey in a wetland over a period of 15 minutes.
Indigo Bunting – Photographer John Reaume
The following is the list of species found and some idea of the numbers of each that were seen.
Indigo Bunting – 3
Red-eyed Vireo-2
American Robin – 16
Song Sparrow – 13
Eastern Wood Peewee-2
American Redstart-3
Great Crested Flycatcher-4
Black-capped Chickadee-2
Pine Warbler-3
Red-Winged Blackbird-16
Dark-eyed Junco??-would this species breed in Grey county?
House Wren-4
Yellow-rumped Warbler-6
Cedar Waxwing-3
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Common Yellowthroat-7
Ovenbird-9
American Goldfinch-11
Nashville Warbler-6
Swamp Sparrow-3
Blue Jay-8
Marsh Wren
American Crow-4
Northern Waterthrush-4
Wood Thrush
Veery
Blue-headed Vireo
Indigo Bunting – Photographer John Reaume
Chipping Sparrow-2
Scarlet Tanager
Baltimore Oriole
Bobolink
Northern Flicker-2
White-throated Sparrow-4
Black and white Warbler
Winter Wren-2
Red-breasted Nuthatch-2
Mourning Dove
Savannah Sparrow
Alder Flycatcher
Purple Finch
Brown Thrasher
Yellow Warbler
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Great Blue Heron-3
Wilson’s Snipe-2
Mallard
Pileated Woodpecker
Least Flycatcher
Green Heron-2
Duck sp
Grackle
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Canada Warbler
Warbling Vireo
Barn Swallow
Mourning Warbler
Ruffed Grouse
The following species were recorded by the Merlin App, but we could not confirm them. The Catbird call on the Saturday overlapped with the singing of the Brown Thrasher, and we suspect that the Thrasher was actually imitating a Catbird call.
Hermit Thrush by a marsh?
Carolina Wren?
Catbird/Thrasher imitation?