Most of the photos I have posted today are poor quality images, just for the record for our annual May Species Count. On these counts, so many birds are far, far away and often partly hidden. There is no time to stop and wait in case the bird becomes more photogenic, but at least we saw them : ) These are the last of the Count photos that I will be posting. Now I am only two days behind.
Saturday, 6 June 2020: our temperature just after noon is 14C (windchill 14C). Sunrise is at 5:23 am, and sunset is at 9:47 pm. An overcast day and we are supposed to get rain this afternoon. Tomorrow is forecast to be another rainy day.
After finally getting to sleep around 2:30 am on the morning of 31 May, I was woken an hour later by a huge crash of thunder, along with some lightning and heavy rain. My alarm clocks had been set for 4:30 am, so I ended up with about an hour of sleep to last me the whole day for the annual May Species Count. There were just four of us covering this particular area, SW of the city, travelling in three cars. It worked out well, as it was easy to socially distance, especially as we were driving most of the time. At lunch time, we all sat in our own cars in the parking lot at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park and ate our lunch.
When I first got up, I was really hoping that the rain would end, even if just for my drive on the highway to get to our meeting place. Thankfully, it did stop and even brightened just a little. I had planned to get there a few minutes early, so that I could check a favourite spot, knowing that the forecast was for more rain. I was thrilled to find five Wilson's Snipes perched on fence posts, waiting to be photographed : ) They are one of my absolute favourite birds to see and photograph.
Our total number of bird species seen is 67, unless I hear otherwise, though as usual, I did not see every species on the list. We had a great day, with such a mix of bird sizes and colours. The couple had kindly brought along their spotting scope, too, which enabled us to see three very, very distant Bobolinks, down on the ground in a grassy field. A joy to see the straw-coloured patch on the back of the head.
Feeling so fortunate to be able to enjoy a day such as this, knowing what extreme and understandable pain and anger our neighbours south of the border are experiencing this week (not to mention for years).
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