BPQ Field Trip to Oka, October 24th

Top 10 List of Benefits of Leading a Field Trip of 1!

Number 10 - Less grumbling about itinerary or leader’s guiding ability
Number 9 - Leader wins all arguments on questionable ID’s
Number 8 - Less worry about species count ending in the digit 9 and having
Sheldon drag us back out to search for just one more!
Number 7 - Less chance of being skewered every 5 minutes by Mary-Ellen’s rapier-like wit
Number 6 - Fewer feelings of guilt about not sharing coffee and snacks
Number 5 - Easier math when deciding if the group needs to be split
Number 4 - Oka’s floating boardwalk easier to negotiate
Number 3 - Leader’s estimates of numbers at count time go undisputed
Number 2 - Great species to birder ratio!

And the Number 1 benefit of leading a field trip of 1? - Smaller trees needed when nature calls!!

As you have no doubt deduced, Saturday's forecast of heavy rains and strong winds kept members from braving the elements for our trip to Parc National d'Oka. Having come over from Hudson on the new high speed (and ever higher cost) ferry I decided to soldier on and see what was around between rain showers. I followed our usual itinerary and checked out the beach, walked the trail to La Grande Baie and checked out the short paths near the visitor centre. The beach and lake were fairly quiet with the exception of my first Snow Buntings (4) of the season, a few Black Ducks and Mallards, and a distant flock of scaup.

La Grande Baie proved more interesting and with no one else on the floating boardwalk it was easier to scan and identify. A large group of 800+ Ring-necked Ducks was present along with numerous other species including large numbers of American Wigeon and Gadwalls.

My complete list of 41 species included

Great Blue Heron - 3, Canada Goose - 50, Wood Duck - 12 , Gadwall - 100+, American Wigeon - 100+, American Black Duck - 12, Mallard - 50, Northern Shoveler - 2, Northern Pintail - 1, Green-winged Teal - 12, Ring-necked Duck - 800+, Scaup sp. - 100, Bufflehead - 1, Common Goldeneye - 2, Hooded Merganser - 10, Cooper's Hawk - 1, Ring-billed Gull - 20, Great Black-backed Gull - 3, Mourning Dove - 1, Downy Woodpecker - 1, Hairy Woodpecker - 1, Northern Flicker - 1, Blue Jay - 6, American Crow - 12 , Black-capped Chickadee - 40, White-Breasted Nuthatch - 4, Brown Creeper - 1, Golden-crowned Kinglet - 2, Eastern Bluebird - 1, American Robin - 150, European Starling - 50, American Tree Sparrow - 2, Fox Sparrow - 4, Song Sparrow - 1, White-throated Sparrow - 2, Dark-eyed Junco - 150, Snow Bunting - 4, Northern Cardinal - 1, Red-winged Blackbird - 2, Rusty Blackbird - 3, American Goldfinch - 3

Layers of wet clothing - 4

Let's hope for better weather this week - Wayne