June 4th, 2013 – Once again, I’m out in Northern Ontario along with my birding friend Gerhard Bruins conducting breeding bird surveys to add to the databases of Environment Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service. Four days of early mornings, plenty of black flies and mosquitoes, and a few nights sleeping in tents. We would prefer to tent but this year the Ontario government has decided not to open a couple of the Provincial camp sites that we normally use. Happily Ivanhoe Lake wasn’t one of the closed sites since it is the one that we drive to on our first day (900 km from Ottawa to Ivanhoe). (iPad photos used for quick uploading enroute. Nikon photos will be added later.)
An added bonus at Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park was a flock of Bonaparte’s Gulls that were scouring the water ripples along the beaches for food items. This individual bird seemed to have the process and the location down pat.
June 6th – three surveys completed and one to go. So far plenty of birds have been dutifully recorded by Gerhard based on sightings and songs. Added to the feathered counts, we have sighted numerous rabbits, a few fox, a wolf, a lynx, plenty of bears and tonight our first bull moose. Today we are back in Wawa, where water, water everywhere seems to have been the theme since last Fall and local lakes and rivers continue to be at high water and flood levels and the waterfalls are putting on quite a show.
June 7, 2013 – Another beautiful day to be outside. Although the temperature was only +4C when we left the motel in Wawa at 4:30AM, the temperature has now climbed into the mid teens with no clouds in the sky and only a light breeze.
June 8, 2013: Safely back home after 3000+km of driving and many, many hours checking for birds at the 200 observation locations that constitute our data gathering points on four separate routes.
 – – – – – – – – – Northern Ontario BBS 2013 posts completed – – – – – – – – –
The following links relate to this June 2013 Breeding Bird Survey:
Day 1 – Ottawa to Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park
Hey, it’s mhat from the Ivanhoe gate house! It was great to meet you- I hope you had great success with your surveys! Thank you for staying to chat for a few extra minutes, I really appreciated it 🙂 take care, stay safe and best birding to ya!
Nice meeting you too Mhat. I will be adding more posts relating to the Breeding Bird Surveys over the next few weeks (dreadfully behind in my posting activity). I’m really happy that you mentioned the Bonaparte’s Gulls when we arrived since we might have missed them otherwise. I’ve posted one of my images of the Bonaparte’s Gulls to my Flickr account here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rjhayphotography/9002411394/
I’m really glad you managed to capture a shot of the bonaparte’s gull- they’re so interesting! I had never seen one before. Initially I thought it was a tern by it’s flight characteristics. 🙂 I’ll check out your Flickr pics shortly. Take care!!
Hey! Thanks for mentioning me in your photo! It was my pleasure passing on bird info to people who actually care :p