by finding a beautiful pintail duck sitting in a pond very close to the side of 
     
     the road. 
     
    

    
     The hunt continues. This time with a 
     
     specific goal in mind. Neither Roberta nor I 
     
     had a Swamp Sparrow on our life lists and Ray 
     
     knew where to find one. I guess they knew we 
     
     were coming for there were none to be found. 
     
     The side trip was not a waste. A Swainson's 
     
     Thrush made a special appearance just to keep 
     
     us from being disappointed. The day is wearing 
     
     on and it is time to change our style. Our 
     
     list is fairly full. We must now look for only 
     
     the birds we haven't got instead of enjoying 
     
     all the birds. We are approaching the P.E.I. 
     
     National Park, a kingfisher is high on our 
     
     priority list and we have all seen 
     
     kingfishers at Campbell's Pond. Wouldn't you know, there is no kingfisher to be 
     
     found at Campbell's Pond on this day. We did manage to find in the area 
     
     cowbirds and a House Sparrow which up to this point had alluded us. Dusk is 
     
     approaching and we have a few more stops yet. The first being Bubbling Brook 
     
     Trail. A good choice indeed for the sought after Swamp Sparrow was there 
     
     waiting. Adrenalin flowing and time running out, we know there are still some 
     
     species to get. Covehead Bridge was the next stop. The terns were busy and the 
     
     gulls increased our numbers very quickly and, thanks to parks and their 
     
     protection cage, a Piping Plover was added to our list. Easy you think, Ray 
     
     thinks he has an Arctic Tern flying around up there. The sound is different. 
     
     After some discussion we find the particular bird making that funny noise , and 
     
     sure enough the colouring is a little different as well, an Arctic Tern. I'm 
     
     thinking, there can't be anything else. We are stopped having another look at 
     
     some peeps. Suddenly all the peeps start to fly. What scared them? Well, what 
     
     ever it was is sitting in a tree. The discussion 
     
     begins again, Kestrel or Merlin. Finally located 
     
     in the scope, he was co-operative, it was a 
     
     Merlin. A drive through to Rustico Island hoping 
     
     for an owl is futile, so we make our way home. 
     
     What we discover while looking at our list is we 
     
     have missed a lot of should-be-easy birds, the 
     
     Mallard for instance. The Great Cormorant is 
     
     another. Roberta assures us the Killdeer we 
     
     missed is nesting in her back yard. It as the 
     
     kingfisher had, has chosen this particular 
     
     moment to disappear. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     The total is impressive, 99 species, the day was rewarding, a great day in 
     
     fact. Watch out P.E.I. Next year we will make it over one hundred. 
     
    
   
   
    
     :§. 27 53\ 37' .S‘ .77 =‘ 27 
     
    
   
   
    
     <i——- 
     
    
   
   
    
     Piping Plover tracks are 1/2" in length 
     
     _ 4 _