Huron Fringe Birding Festival 2022

June 2 - Birding the Bruce with Pete Read

Pete’s tour started at 7:00 am and we were told to be 15 minutes early plus allow 30 minutes for registering for the festival. Then add 15 minutes of travel time to the park, and we had a very early wake up and cold breakfast in our hotel room. That’s birding!

We quickly registered and were distracted by a pair of noisy Great Crested Flycatchers flying around the parking lot.



It turned out that these tasks took less time than expected, so we had a chance to admire the orchids near the Visitor Centre.



Pete is a well known and popular guide that we have been with at Pelee and OFO before. He passed outs maps and a list of his intended stops for the day. The sweep vehicle was driven by Doug Apperson, who was the event coordinator for the trip. Doug made sure that each car had a walkie talkie and that nobody got lost.

We made several stops along Elsinore Road, which had lots of wetlands on both sides of the road. At every stop we heard Marsh Wrens, but did not see a single one. We did see lots of Eastern Kingbirds though, and a couple of Wilson’s Snipes, some Blue-winged Teals and a Green Heron along with common birds.



Our next stop was at the Rankin River bridge. Best bird was a fly-past Least Bittern that was not photographed. We could see an Osprey hunkered down in its nest and a cormorant perched over the marsh.



Next we went to Isaac Lake Road where we saw some Blue-winged Teals at the lake, a Bobolink across the parking lot, and a Virginia Rail in the marsh along the road.



Our next stop was at local birder Jarmo Jalava’s house on Red Bay Road where we got another bluebird, but missed the hoped-for Red-headed Woodpecker. We did see Brewer’s Blackbirds on the wire along the way.



At Sky Lake, we saw Caspian Terns and a Great Blue Heron. We heard a Pied-billed Grebe and saw a Sandhill Crane fly across the road and bury itself behind a fence in the long grass.



We headed up Hwy 6 past Co Rd 9 to the Bruce Peninsula Tourist Association covered picnic site for lunch. The temperature had dropped, and the chilly winds made it very uncomfortable. We were able to warm up inside the building and enjoy the use of the washrooms.

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After lunch, we parked at the Bruce Trail Forty Hills Access and went for a short hike. After 10 minutes, Pete turned around as we were hearing no birds.



Instead, we headed north making a few stops near Cape Chin and eventually getting onto Lindsay Road 40 where we hiked along listening to Indigo Buntings, Warbling Vireos, American Redstarts, Blue-winged Warblers and Golden-winged Warblers. Colin pointed out a pair of Northern Flickers. It was a great road for birding!



Pete declared us out of time, so we reluctantly returned to Hwy 6 and drove south to Red Bay Road where we saw the Brewer’s Blackbirds again.



Red Bay Road connected to Co Rd 13 which we followed into Southampton and then to MacGregor Point Park where Colin & Hilda had left their car for the day. We both drove back to our motel to freshen up, then went for supper at Swiss Chalet. It was a long day with a lot of driving, mostly on new roads for us, and we did see Blue-winged Warblers!!