Canadian Nostalgia

A blogging pal of mine David Gascoigne who lives in Ontario recently posted A Day at Long Point,  words and pictures of a visit he made to Long Point Bird Observatory (LPBO), 130 kms south of his home. He kindly mentioned Another Bird Blog in his post, knowing that I visited Long Point some years back (1989 and 1990) when I spent 7 weeks as a bird banding volunteer. 

Since 1960, Long Point Bird Observatory LPBO has operated a research station at the eastern tip of Long Point where scientists study migration (bird, bat and insect) and other aspects of natural history. The observatory opens some of its accommodations to visitors interested in joining in the research, education, and training programs. The point itself is the longest (about 40 km) freshwater sand spit in the world and is the most remote wilderness location in southern Ontario and a Globally Important Bird Area of 400 + species. 

 Long Point, Canada - courtesy of Birds Canada

For David, and as a bout of pure nostalgia on my own behalf I am posting a number of pictures from the two visits. The years 1989 and 1990 were pre-digital cameras and the pictures posted here were taken with slide film and a 35mm Pentax Me Super. After being stored in a cardboard box for many years the slides were eventually transposed via a not very good slide copier into digital images, hence the very poor pictures for which I apologise. However the species encountered and pictured here together with the memories they invoke more than make up for the poor images, although none would pass muster for a present day blog other than this self-indulgent post. 

The pictures were taken at two LPBO field stations, Breakwater and Old Cut. Breakwater is an hour or more boat journey across Lake Erie and about 8km from the observatory base station of Old Cut. The Breakwater station was, and I believe still is, a very small cabin with bunks and mattresses for up to 4 people in one tiny communal bedroom. In April and May it was very cold, even with four bodies crammed into the miniscule space, the occupants sleeping in daytime clothes to ward off the icy nights. We bathed in the great outdoors where the outside toilet overlooking Lake Erie marshes provided a unique place from which to engender a somewhat original bird list. 

Banding at Long Point

Breakwater cabin - Long Point

The working base of Long Point, the Old Cut Research, Education and Training Centre now includes a comfortable house with all the amenities, research laboratories and specimen collection, visitor centre and even the LPBO Shoppe (not in my day). There is a small library, living room, office space, laboratory and 5 bedrooms with bunks. The odds are that visitors will share a bedroom with members of the opposite sex at any of the three field stations. Many a good friendship blossomed at LPBO. 

Below are just some of the species encountered at Long Point, Canada. 

Cardinal

Cerulean Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Hooded Warbler

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Wilson's Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Yellow-breasted Chat

Whip-poor-will

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Wood Thrush

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Black and White Warbler

Scarlet Tanager

Red-eyed Vireo

Tennessee Warbler

Baltimore Oriole

Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

Indigo Bunting

Blackpoll Warbler

Great-horned Owl

pellet - Great-horned Owl

Thanks for jogging my memory David. Should you revisit LPBO again soon I hope you can join in banding that wonderful array of spring warblers. Better still, make sure you get to handle lots of Cardinals and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. 

The flag of Canada

Most of all, please pass on best wishes to my Canadian friends and to Canada. 

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Nothing doing today, no birding, no ringing, unless you count a walk around the bird free zone that is Stalmine in November. Well I tell a lie, there were a few Dunnocks, one Lapwing – yes one, a couple of Grey Herons and somehow a single Fieldfare, with the best bit a flock of 30 Goldfinches around the village hall as Sue and I neared home after a couple of miles trek completed with always one eye each on the dark grey cloud to the south.

I changed the header picture because the Redwings have gone. Gone to the pleasant, warm Med where we would all be if we had more sense rather than here in the UK where it just rains, and rains, and rains….

Over in the right hand column on the map of the world some of my readers live in warm or even hot countries where rain or wind is something out of their daily experience, where generally they can bird each and every day without weather hindrances. They must read some UK bird blogs and wonder why UK birders obsess about the weather. Well it’s true we are preoccupied by the weather and so would they be if they had to live here. Here I am assuming that most of the red dots readers are loyal participants and examine my blog regularly through choice and their love of birds, not as an accidental result of Googling “long-legged dark female”.

So I put a Robin at the top. A nice seasonal but unexciting bird that is very winter appropriate as we near the dreaded “C” word, the word that even the most dedicated birdwatcher dare not utter for fear of conjuring up visions of their mother-in-law in a red outfit, but which may entail submitting to worldly pressures to soon lay down the bins for a day, or with luck a half day.



So whilst it’s goodbye for a while to Redwings I hope to see some more soon where they might qualify again for pride of place at the top of the page. But I worry that in using a Robin, it isn’t a “good” bird but the opposite, a “bad” bird. I read a piece in a newspaper last week aimed at Joe Public where the author two or three times used the phrase “good birds” in listing exotic birds that can or should be sought, then by implication that common birds should not be entertained. Now of course we all know what was meant by “good”, as in rare or semi rare, exciting or exceptional etc., but excuse me, aren’t for all birders but especially those just setting out or contemplating birding, all birds “good”? So I shouted “you plonker, what use is that to a novice” and in a rage screwed the paper up, vowing not to read such nonsense again.

So here’s a bad bird, a bird so bad it rarely merits a mention on bird blogs or websites, so awful that a few lines in a bird report is all it can muster. A bird that even ringers avoid, unless they are Trainers who can at least then pass it on to a trainee with a sigh of relief and a knowing smile. A Wren, admired for climbing up your sleeve from a bird bag or flying through the open hatchback and crapping on the dashboard before disappearing under the seat, escaping from the weighing device prematurely or wriggling through three net pockets then spinning like a top. Don’t we just love them really?



Amongst the overall dross there are a few good birds, as I recalled when I set up the slide copier again. Several hundred slides divided by three at a time = a lot of hours clicking away, but at least it’s raining as I may have mentioned previously. Undeterred I came across three crackers from Canada that stuck together in a box avoiding all those common, over populous bad birds like Chipping Sparrow, House Wren or White–throated Sparrow that clog up the best birding lists.

I could change my mind about Rose-breasted Grosbeak being good, probably the most vicious bird I ever encountered, a bill like a blunt pick axe and a grip like an ever tightening mole wrench. Oh the joy of looking along a net ride to see six awaiting my attention as happened one memorable morning at Old Cut.



Not much doubt about Black and White Warbler, the goodest bird ever, closely followed by Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Not the usual exhausted, moribund, soon to expire October specimen that turns up on Scilly to furnish many a tick list, but an example from May as fresh as a Canadian spring daisy.





Now here is a really ugly bird, brown and black with more hairs on its face then your old granny and a gape like the Mersey Tunnel, a Whip-poor-will. Actually I suppose it could be good because it’s a good tick but it might be bad, especially if I have seen one and you haven’t but that’s what it all about I think. Now I’m really confused.



Well at least we can hear one sing.