}} In the company of feathered friends
Sheltering at home means a chance to observe the birds of Kawartha Lakes
The beautiful wood duck can be found in wetlands from Ontario to Florida.
I was out of breath as I burst through the door. “Kids, come quick,” I managed to gasp out. “There’s a couple of sandhill cranes in the neighbour’s field!” My daughter lazily turned the page of her book and, without looking up, said with the patience of youth, “Mom, calm down; we’ve seen them lots of times before.” I could feel my lecturing voice come on. “Maybe you don’t realize it, but I was 40 years old before I saw a sandhill crane for the first time …” They both kept reading, clearly unimpressed.
SYLVIA KEESMAAT
Sandhill cranes, bobolinks, merlins, hooded mergansers, wood ducks, woodcocks — the birds that populate the dreams of birding enthusiasts — all live here, in our midst, cheek by jowl (or should that be beak by fowl?) with the sparrows, blue jays, and house finches that we commonly find in our yards. Perhaps you have seen them. Perhaps you have made your way out to the marshes of the Ken Reid or Pigeon River Headwaters conservation areas and seen the common yellowthroat or the belted kingfisher. Perhaps you have climbed the trails of the Windy Ridge or the Fleetwood Creek conservation areas and seen the chickadees come when you call. Or perhaps you have been to that mecca of birdwatching — the Carden Alvar — in search of the endangered loggerhead shrike. The Carden Alvar, with its unique ecosystem, is a flat limestone landscape. On this vast plain are alvars — places where globally imperilled native grasses and wildflowers grow, and which occur only in southern Sweden and around the Great Lakes Basin. The Carden Alvar has almost religious overtones for birders in Ontario — birders like Hendrik Hart, who used to come up five or six times every spring when he was younger. He would stay at a local hotel and spend every day from 5 a.m. to dusk watching for the rare birds that make the alvar their home: upland sandpipers, blue-winged warblers, and the snipe that seemed particularly attracted to the deep and wide potholes on Wylie Road. While city-dwellers like Hart have to make a special trip to enjoy the rich birdwatching opportunities of the Kawartha Lakes, those of us who live here have a privilege that many birders can only dream of. We are able to engage in the slow, patient observation of many species throughout the seasons.
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