Spring Has Arrived

Spring has finally arrived in the Long Point/Port Rowan area as evidenced by some the birds coming through on Sunday May 4^th.

Around 4:00 in the afternoon two American White Pelicans passed over our house heading westerly over the Inner Harbour of Long Point Bay.  Panic ensued as we tried to gather camera, binoculars secure our dog and visiting pets and head out after them. 

We were lucky to catch another brief glimpse of them (possibly ten minutes later) from the Bird Studies Canada property on Front Road.

Here is a shot from our front yard looking over the Inner Harbour, maybe 600 metres away.

Later that day Graham took some shots of a Sora hiding out in the decommissioned sewage lagoons on Hunter Drive North.  That is up on the top of the page.

You may know that the sewage lagoons are being turned into a table wetland. 


More information is attached at http://www.longpointbiosphere.ca/programs-projects/port-rown-sewage-lagoon-naturalization-project/

Guests are expected at our B & B (http://www.bbcanada.com/13914.html) this weekend.  They’ll find lots of backyard bird feeder activity including some male Baltimore Orioles (three, in fact) who arrived on Saturday and, as I finish typing this sentence, our first Ruby Throated Hummingbird of the year.

Bird Watching Basics at BSC

Bird Studies Canada (BSC) has an interesting looking event next Saturday (April 26) at their national headquarters in Port Rowan.


The “seminar” is an introduction to bird-watching basics. Seminar might be a misleading term as I suspect much of the morning will be spent in the field.


Activities get underway at 9:30 a.m.  The price is right (i.e., it is free.)  Registration is required, however, by contacting 519-586-3531 ext. 128 or education@birdscanada.org.


BSC bills the morning as “an ‘everything you wanted to know about bird watching but were afraid to ask’ experience.”


You’ll need to come prepared for the weather.  That could mean anything these days, of course.


The Simcoe Reformer had a nice story on BSC last weekend.  Jeff Tribe’s piece provided a good reminder that Long Point/ Port Rowan is one of the best places in the world to see migrating birds. Here is that story. http://www.simcoereformer.ca/2014/04/09/bsc-birding-for-beginners-seminar-april-26.


More details about the event are at http://www.norfolktourism.ca/events/bird-studies-canada-pledge-to-fledge-beginning-bird-id-program/