Breeding Bird Survey – Beaton Lake Route #258
After completing the Shoals survey route, we headed to White River, Ontario and got a motel room for the night. The forecast had threatened rain and thundershowers overnight and Nature delivered on that promise.
The Beaton Lake breeding bird survey route begins in White River and heads north from there along a paved highway.Although the pavement is solid, the gravel shoulders are narrow in many places so, as the driver, I had to exercise caution at each survey point. On the one hand, I had to get off the road so as not to impede traffic in any way, while at the same time I had to remember to give Gerhard enough room to get out without tumbling down the embankment. A bit tricky in a few places along the route.
The Beaton Lake route heads northeast of White River and the terrain is much hillier and more rugged than the first two routes that we surveyed the previous two days. Although we were expecting rain showers or thunderstorms to prevent us from completing the survey, the weather threatened all morning but only developed into a misty rain for the last few survey points.
We saw a few bears along the route, had one moose run along side the car for a short distance, and then had a rather wet fox sit nicelyfor a photo session.
This moose ran along side of or car for a short distance before stopping and walking across the highway behind us. Thankfully, it didn’t try to cross in front of the car.
This fox was in the ditch right beside the road when we pulled up. I had the 105mm lens on the camera and didn’t expect to get much of a shot. As I rounded the back of my car, the fox decided that it was time to depart and headed uphill. I expected that this would be all that I would see of the fox, but it surprised me by going short distance up the hill and then sitting there watching us while I returned to the car for my 300mm lens.
