Summer Series - Trip #2 Report

9 birders enjoyed a lengthy walk along the Chambly Canal and the Richelieu River in Carignan, Quebec, a part of the Trans-Canada Trail network. It was a bright, sunny morning but actually a little cool for June 30th, but overall very pleasant.

No one other than myself had visited this region before. We all believed that this might make for an excellent birding spot during the migration period given the great selection of habitats several marshes, river front, grassy meadows and forested areas. A long gravel bicycle path winds through the site. As the morning progressed, the bike traffic became fairly heavy at times.

We completed the morning with a total of 33 species. In addition we had two fox sightings. The second sighting was the most exciting, as the fox headed along the path in front of us carrying a late breakfast...what appeared to be either a groundhog or muskrat that was almost as big at the fox himself! The "Bird of the Day", and a surprise to most of us, was a total of 6 Common Goldeneye spotted on the Richelieu River. Here is our complete species list for the day: Am. Black Duck, Mallard, Common Goldeneye, Double crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, Killdeer, Ring-billedGull, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker,Least Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, American Crow, Tree Swallow (largenumbers), Cliff Swallow, Black-capped Chickadee, House Wren, American Robin, Gray Catbird, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Baltimore Oriole, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow.

Thank you to those who attended this morning.

Sheldon