We walked over to Sam Smith Park this morning to take part in a bird walk. Although most of the migratory birds have passed, the leader of the walk was able to identify quite a few species. I may not have recorded all of them, but here is my list:
Whimbrels
Red-necked Grebes
Mute Swans
Canada Geese
Mallards
Gadwall
Ring-necked Gull
Mourning Dove
Hairy Woodpecker
Tree Swallows
Barn Swallows
Blue Jays
American Robins
Gray Catbirds (heard several times but not seen)
Warbling Vireo
Yellow Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbirds
Common Grackles
Baltimore Orioles (males and females)
American Goldfinch
Goats Beard
We had a very good time, we learned about birds and we learned more about the park. Our guide was a fellow named Bob who was very knowledgeable. I would barely catch a glimpse of a bird as he casually identified it. I’d like to do more bird walks this year and increase my knowledge more. I can identify all kinds of mayflies, loads of fish, plenty of mushrooms, and I’m getting better at trees, but I confess my bird knowledge is not great -yet.
What's this?
I wonder what the strange yellow item is in the photo above. Does anyone know? It’s in the rotted out trunk of a large maple that remarkably is still standing.
male Baltimore Oriole
I bet the folks who were hauling around two-foot long camera lenses got some excellent shots of this male Baltimore Oriole. It’s the yellow-orange splotch in the middle of the photo above. The female was also flying around the same tree.
Mute Swans and Mallards
Mute swans are nesting around this pond. There are plenty of them in the lake as well. The ducks there are mostly mallards, but one Gadwall was spotted as well.
Tree Swallow
There are loads of Tree Swallows in the park, including this one, perched into one of the houses recently installed just for them. There are also plenty of barn swallows, which are nesting under the viewing platform at the pond.
27th Street 
Nice light on the goats beard!
Great new blog Mr. A. looks like you had an interesting walk this morning. Thanks for letting me know about this! I think that the orange sack might be a spider’s egg!
Tim
Wow, that’s quite the variety. Looks like a fabulous way to spend the day. Living downtown I see mostly pigeons and magpies. ;P
the link works fine for me š
For those interested in learning more about birds, bees, animals, trees, wildflowers etc it is hard to beat some of the field naturalist clubs that are scattered around the province. These groups have meetings, newsletters, websites and most importantly they make lots of field trips where they get out into the field or woods and learn about stuff. Some of the clubs like you to actually cough up 20 bucks to join but many of them are quite happy to have non members join their ranks on the outings. Here is a website that has links to many of the Ontario groups and I think it is worth poking around a bit in some of the websites. Never know when you will find a raptor walk in your area.
http://users.vianet.ca/turbrent/nipnat/Links/Field_Naturalists_Clubs.html
Ber careful with google though and dont search naturists in error unless of course you are looking for folks who run around the woods naked.
I had occasion once to talk to a couple of folks from the Brereton Field Naturalists Club (in the Barrie area) and they assured me that non members were quite welcome at their outings, just show up. Don’t know if that is still the case or not but here is a link to one of their newsletters which will give you an idea of what they did during that month or so:
Click to access BlueHeron_2008_April.pdf
that pdf link is broken but if you cut the link off after org, you can enter the website and follow the links from there.