Baillie Birdathon:  Started it at 10 on the 15th trying for Owls.  Standing along the road with a tape playing of Screech Owls we heard three responces.  Further along the road we tried for Great Horned Owls but managed to attract an OPP cruiser.
"What are you doing?"
"I"m trying for owls. I'm in a birdathon."
"What's a birdathon?"
"It's where people sponsor me and I try for as many species as possible."
"Are you shooting owls?"
"No listen to the tape, I'm trying to attract owls to the sound on the tape."
All this is happening with a blinding white light shinning in my eyes and the tape of a Great Horned Owl growling and hooting away on top of my car.  My wifes response was that at least this time I wasn't in my boy scout uniform which refered to a time when we were first going to together and were parked along the road only to be disturbed by another OPP cruiser.
    Great Horned Owls are not known to respond to tapes so after trying a few more places and coming up empty Gerda and I called it a night.
    Bright and early or at least early I headed out to the park to pick up Gavin Bennett.  I picked up American Robin, as soon as I stepped out the door but didn't hang around.  On the way to the park I managed a few more species, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Northern Cardinal, Song Sparrow.  There was nothing at the lagoons when I picked up Gavin  but a Green Heron flew over giving us a good species.  We headed towards the point hoping for a real flurry of warblers.  This was not to be and we spend some frustrating time trying to pick out a few warblers siloutted by the rising sun.  We had lots of Yellow Warbler, a Yellow Rumpted Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and that was about it.  Disappointing and already our numbers would be limited by this lack. Some White-crowned Sparrows helped a little.
      From the look-out we had Common, Caspian Terns, Ring-billed and Heron Gulls, a Red-breasted Merganser and loads of Double-creasted Cormorants. Bufflehead were spotted on the far side of the point.  A single shorebird was spotted which we identified as Solitary.  Mallards were also seen here as in other places along our route.   
    We went back to the banding station to see if they had done any better and picked up a Least and Willow Flycatcher plus a Nashville Warbler.  At least the banding was not producing much more than we were seeing.  We picked up some more common stuff like Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Gray Catbird, Baltimore Oriole and heard Veery and Wood Thrush.  On the trip we heard a number of Wood Thrush. 
     Moving out of the park we tried along the feeder canal which produced a Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Blue-winged Teal and lots of Canada Geese. 
      We moved to the lagoons created by Mozaic and picked up a Ruddy Duck and American Widgeon.  Disappointing in the lack of ducks. Lots of swallows and we had lots of Barn and Tree Swallows all along the route.  Rough-winged Swallows were also seen in several locations. Purple Martins were spotted on few martin houses.
      We headed back into town stopping along the road to view a muddy puddle area which produced some Dunlin.  We saw this species in a few other areas as well.
      Not wasting much time we headed up river getting a Mute Swan and stopped at the Osprey nest about half way between Dunnville and Cayuga.  The female was on the nest and later from the other side of the river we saw another circling the nest with the one still on the nest.  I would have been disappointed not to find them.  A Red-bellied Woodpecker was an added bonus.
    We went through Cayuga and crossed the bridge taking the west side of the river.  I had hoped for Bluebirds along this road but we didn't score on this one.  
     Going down several side roads I thought I heard Bobolinks and sure enough we had both Bobolink and Eastern Meadowlark.  It's been a year  since I have seen either.  We encountered them in several other areas proving that my Rock Point area is seriously laking in pasture land which would support both this species.  We also got an Upland Sandpiper along one of those roads.  A real score as far as I was concerned.  Refreshing to see that these species can still be found. A barn along one of these roads had quite a number of Turkey Vultures with wings spread.  We of course saw quite of few of this species soaring as they normally do.
    Crossing the bridge at York we continued up river to see if the Bald Eagle was still in the area just south of Caledonia.  Nest is in  tatters and no eagle to be found.  This one we missed out on although we looked at the shallows  across from York and all along the river. 
     Stopped in at Ruthven to see what they had and picked up a Blue-winged Warbler held by Audrey.  We looked around and added Indigo Bunting,  Field Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow.  We went along some of their census route and some really muddy net trails but didn't add anything else.  A very busy place with lots of people.
    We took the west road from Cayuga to Dunnville along the river and cut south to hook up with the lake again.  Again only Dunlin and nothing much else in the form of shorebirds.  Mallard and Black Duck in one spot and again a disappointing run. Headed into James N. Allan Provincial Park but added nothing new to our list.  We headed back to Rock Point knowing that we were late for anything they might have.  
     I decided that I had enough for the morning and left Gavin at the trailer.  At that point we had 78 species.
     Gerda and I headed out again around 4 trying for some species that I thought we might find.  I knew where an American Kestrel could be found and sure enough we found one even if it was missing most of it's tail.   We went down the Swazy Road and I tried a tape of Scarlet Tanager which produced on a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Great-creasted Flycatcher only Yellow Warblers were in evidence along this road.  Heading into town again I wanted to try the bridge for Cliff Swallows.  We parked in the Bar-b-Que and while waiting for a sighting of a hamburger and fries two Sandhill Cranes flew along the river right in front of me.  Of all the people in that place not one other person even noticed them.  I turned around twice wanting to point them out but no response.  Didn't get my Cliff Swallows which should have been an easy one.  Tried at a little swamp and got a Virginia Rail to respond.
Heard a Spotted Sandpiper again next to the Mozaic ponds. Picked up an Eastern Bluebird on the way back to the park but added only an American Redstart. Lots of Yellow Warblers wrestling around the look-out.  Around seven after trying for Sora we left the park only to find our last species a couple of Wild Turkeys eating in the field next to Downey Road.

FINAL SPECIES COUNT-  88.  I didn't do as well as I thought I might.  I expect with a good flurry of warblers I would have been over the 100 mark which was where I had hoped to be.   (I know some species are missing from the above account but believe me, we saw them.) 

Thanks to Gavin and Gerda for the help through the day.