What happened on the Baillie Birdathon?

It dumped rain and a rather harsh wind on us all of the first afternoon and evening! But was I put off? No (but my dad suggested postponing it!)

On Friday we went to Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Weed Lake and as many Marshes and Sloughs as we could get to.  On Saturday we went to Lac Des Arc and the Beaver dams and a special little marsh near my house where we picked up an unusual bird in the form of a Sora.

Now, if you’re queasy or your favourite bird is the Rock Pigeon, you might want to skip ahead a paragraph… because before we actually started counting we checked a known Peregrine Falcon nesting site and saw a bird eating a pigeon alive – but not, however a Falcon as  you may think; a Common Raven was sitting on a still-flapping Rock Pigeon!

Even with the rain, we saw a total of 50 species that first night!  My highlights would be: a Willet, the large number of Red-necked Phalaropes and four Wood Ducks. One disappointment would be the small number of shore birds we saw.

The BowKan Bird count was not quite as successful as last year, but we did see some interesting birds including Yellow and Orange-crowned Warblers, an Osprey and 6 kinds of Swallows.

Click Baillie Birdathon 2013 Species List for a full list of the birds we saw.

My fundraising goal was $300, but with so many kind and generous people around I’ve overshot and raised at least $550, with donations still unfinished. But don’t think it’s too late to donate! There’s still time if you want to.