PBTC Birding on the Bruce 2018

Wednesday May 30, 2018 turned out to be a beautiful sunny day as a large number of birders gathered at the Dyer’s Bay parking lot for the start of our annual Peninsula Club birding drive/hike.

The turn-out of 31 enthusiastic souls was a modern day record but the birds were not the least bit intimidated and showed up in pretty good numbers as well. The highlight of the day for those who managed to stay around until the bitter end (or should we say bittern end) was probably the fabulous looks we got of the American Bittern just a few metres north of Dyers Bay Road, although the spotting of a Golden Eagle was not exactly “chopped liver,” and the flowering tree full of Cedar Waxwings was a photographers delight.

Thanks to the very keen eyes and ears of all the attendees we managed to count 55 different species, significantly exceeding last year’s total of a mere 47. The count is even much more impressive when you consider the fact that we missed some pretty common stuff such as Double-crested Cormorant, Wild Turkey, Black-capped Chickadee, Ovenbird, American Tree Sparrow, House Sparrow, etc. So there seems to be room to increase our numbers next year.

Here is the list of what we did see and/or heard.

Common Loon American Bittern Great Blue Heron

Great Egret Canada Goose Wood Duck

Mallard Blue-winged Teal Common Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser Turkey Vulture Osprey

Northern Harrier Red-tailed Hawk Golden Eagle

Merlin Sandhill Crane Sora

Spotted Sandpiper Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull

Mourning Dove Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Northern Flicker Eastern Phoebe Eastern Kingbird

Tree Swallow Barn Swallow Blue Jay

American Crow Common Raven House Wren

Eastern Bluebird American Robin Gray Catbird

Brown Thrasher Cedar Waxwing European Starling

Blue-winged Warbler Yellow Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler

American Redstart Common Yellowthroat Northern Cardinal

Indigo Bunting Chipping Sparrow Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow Bobolink Red-winged Blackbird

Eastern Meadowlark Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird

Baltimore Oriole American Goldfinch

Thanks to all the birders who came out this year and contributed their eyes and ears to our excellent adventure. We look forward to seeing you all again next year. If you couldn’t join us this year but have even a slight interest in our avian friends then why not pencil in Wednesday May 22, 2019 on your calendar. That’s the tentative date for next year. It’s a lot of fun and there is NO EXPERTISE REQUIRED!!