Being Saturday I decided to give the tip a miss today as I felt it would be extremely busy. Instead, I concentrated on areas north of the visitor centre, some I'd not been to before.
To start with I walked the Tilden Trail, seeing Black-throated Green Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and a new bird for the trip, a Yellow-throated Vireo. The trail eventually led to the Cactus Field, a promising looking area of scrubby bushes and trees. I'd already heard that there was a Yellow-breasted Chat here, and what a show the bird gave, singing and perching in full view for minutes on end at not much more than head height. Nearby I found a female Eastern Bluebird, in rather muted colours.
Then I walked the path from Sleepy Hollow to Dunes, seeing a pair of Great Crested Flycatcher, and in tall trees by the parking lot both Blackburnian and Magnolia Warblers. They stayed high all the time and it was definitely a case of warbler neck watching these.
The final visit was back to the Delaurier Homestead where I managed to photograph the Brown Thrasher that I'd first seen yesterday. This site produced warblers again, notably Tennessee, Nashville, and Parula, all in the same small area. The Tennessee was singing for some of the time.
A fabulous Red-sided Garter Snake was found on the walk from the Cactus Field to Sleepy Hollow. It was sunning itself on a log and was surprisingly tolerant of it's admiring audience, just a few metres away. A juvenile was also present.
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| Yellow-throated Vireo |
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| Northern Waterthrush |
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| Yellow-breasted Chat |
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| Eastern Bluebird female |
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| Red-sided Garter Snake |
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| Blackburnian Warbler |
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| Great Crested Flycatcher |
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| Brown Thrasher |
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| Tennessee Warbler |
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| Tennessee Warbler |
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| Parula Warbler |
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