On a lovely mid-September morning, 14 birders and nature lovers enjoyed a walk at Algonkian Regional Park. The weather was cool albeit a bit humid and the skies were overcast. Proceeding from the boat ramp east towards Sugarland Run, the group encountered a few warblers: Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart and Black-and-white, among the more numerous summer residents and year-round resident birds. On the way back towards the boat ramp, a briefly-seen Swainson’s Thrush was the highlight.
As the weather started to warm up, part of the group departed and part of the group relocated to the pavilion and waterpark area on the other side of the park. This change of scenery appeared to do the trick. We found several warblers in the cut-through trail between the cabin road and the waterpark. High up in the trees and with pretty terrible light, we were unable to identify all the warblers and birds we saw. However, we definite caught sight of Canada, Chestnut-sided, Northern Parula, Black-and-white, and American Redstart warblers. As the walk ended, we had a nice grouping of three woodpeckers – Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker and Northern Flicker – in the space of just one minute.
All told, the group found a total of 43 species on a comfortable but low visibility morning.