I took a chance on finding lodging last evening in Gore Bay Manitoulin Island after the long drive from North Bay (I finished the Johnny Carson audio book en route and am now well into a biography of Edison.)
Luck was with me as I found a room above the real estate office. Two problems however – super SLOW wifi and an overhead light in the room which flashed on and off twice a second all night. Nothing I could do as I was the only one in the building.
3 am comes awfully quickly and that is when I departed for the starting point of the Gore Bay Breeding Bird Survey. This one worries me as, in previous years, I have had to drive through foot high grass to a very remote road’s end. This year though, there has been a logging crew here and the road was well used.
Surprisingly, despite the fact that a clear morning was predicted, there was 4 and a half hours of fog.



Bird photography was next to impossible except for this Crow.

Just as I finished at 9:30 the fog cleared.

My most interesting birds during the survey were a Whip-poor-Will, Sandhill Cranes, and a Northern Harrier. Most common birds were Robin, Red-eyed Vireo, Ovenbird, Crow and Raven.
MYSTERY PLANT
I will identify it at the end of the post.


Next the drive to Massey for tomorrow’s survey.









I stopped once for a short hike

and was rewarded with some gorgeous wildflowers.















MYSTERY PLANT
This one can be found almost anywhere in dry open places and is named for what it looks like – Pussy-toes


NATURE POETRY
Tis June, and all the lowland swamps
Are rich with tufted reeds and ferns,
And filmy with the vaporous damps
That rise when twilight’s crimson burns. – George Arnold (1834–65)
Miles Hearn
Love the name of the plant pussy toes. Does it meow when blown in the wind?
I would be interested to see the form the survey takes and what the perimeters are. I had a friend farming on Amherst island who took part in bird counts at the island sanctuary . And Cherry was active in studying windmill impact on bats and other Island animals. I was there to help with various sheep farming events like Spring lambing, sheering and docking but there was no time in the day to be present in the bird sanctuary then. I look forward to hearing about the study and findings when your walks begin in the Autumn. Fingers crossed that they do!
We all miss those walks and look forward to your posts happily.
The lady- slipper does look like a ballet shoe… so tiny and perfect.
Is it cooler where you are? It sure is hot in Toronto! What a bummer with that “flickering” light in the room you were lucky enough to get. Very nice scenery, beautiful plants/flowers. Thanks, Miles!