Breeding Bird Survey – Singe Lake Route 373
Sunday was our travel day and we drove safely from Ottawa, Ontario to Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park (approximate. 1000 km). To conduct breeding bird surveys, we need to be at the first point on the survey route at about sunrise, which in June is about 5AM. For the Singe Lake route that meant that we needed to leave our tents at about 4:30AM. Last year there were very few mosquitoes and black flies. This year those little blood sucking insects were present in large numbers and were awake before we were.
The Singe Lake route follows an established logging road which is in current use. The route crosses Highway 101 beginning to the north of the highway and finishing about 25 km south of the highway. Each of our BBS routes consists of 50 observation points with each point being approximately .8 km from the previous point.
For the most part, the soil along the Singe Lake route is sandy or a gravel sand mixture with a high percentage of Jack Pine and other conifers compared to some of our other routes.
South of the highway, we encountered our first black bear.
There are a number of small lakes and wetland areas along the route and, this year, marsh marigolds were in full bloom.
The route ends at the junction with the Ivanhoe Lake road. Last year we traveled this trail but this year decided to stick with the more traveled roads.
