Thrashers & Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Posted on July 4, 2011 at 03:44:16 PM by Peter Monahan
Went up Wylie Rd early Sunday morning [July 3]. I hadn't been there yet this year and was saddened by the huge number of 'no birding' signs there. The first 100 meters north of the Mcnamee Rd/Kirkfirld Rd they were posted every 15-20 meters and at least every 100 meters for a km north of that. I notice that they say "Respect property rights & No trespassing". I hope that few birders would actually cross fences onto private land and I know how sensitive this subject is in Carden - we have a cottage there and have seen what happens to a planned land sale when someone says "There's a shrike nest on that [land].
I was also very impressed by the number of new pull-offs constructed by the Couchiching Conservancy. Stopped briefly into the blind too, and was dive-bombed by irrate barn swallows who have nests inside, thought the two fledglings sitting on a beam a meter from my head were quite unperturbed by my presence.
Highlights of the morning: I saw two different Brown Thrashers having dust baths [2 locations], with on stratching its head with one foot, like a dog with fleas, and apparently gobbling up the results from the road. I saw 6-8 Thrashers all told, as many as I typically see in a whole season some years. The second 'bather' was about 2 meters from a Great Crested Flycatcher who was doing the same thing. Finally, the two flew up into the bushes and I drove slowly up to see if they might still be in view. When I stopped, there was a small flycatcher perched on a branch about 15 feet from the car window. Eye ring; two wing bars; notched tail and yellow from throat to tail: a Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher! That was just at the north end of the marsh area on Wylie Rd.
I also met a Lindsay birder who said he'd heard a Black-throated Blue and when he stopped had a Canada Warbler come out of the bushes in response to some gentle pishing. I can't vouch for that myself but he said is was at the junction of Wylie Rd and Alvar Rd, on Alvar, south side just west of the intersection.