Hike around Lake Laurentian
I went for a walk near lake laurentian, at around 7:15PM.
Aside from the typical robins, starlings, chickadees, red winged blackbirds, grackles and crows, the first more unique bird i saw was a Gray Catbird, which i wasn't able to get a photo of. Walking more into the woods, i saw several thrushes, three of which were hermit thrushes, and one veery, as well as a red squirrel. Its worth noting that the air was full-and i mean full- of blackflies, which got worse the closer i got to the water. At the edge of the lake, i spotted a few wood ducks, and managed to get a photo of one (first time getting a picture of one) right before they flew away. Going back up the trail, i followed it to a large pond, where i saw a pair of Canada geese, a pair of mallards and three ring necked ducks, who took off as soon as they saw me. Hearing rough calls overhead, i saw a Caspian Tern swooping over the pond to the neighboring lake. There were also two white throated sparrows near the underbrush. I also saw a dead Northern Water snake in a puddle, who seemed to have weird tumors near its tail. As it was getting dark, i left the trail and started walking back. I saw what appeared to be an eastern Phoebe flying passed me into a tree, although it could have certainly been an Empidonax Flycatcher. The last bird i saw was a merlin, that flew right over me. There were several birds i heard but didn't see, including kinglets, red breasted nuthatch, northern flicker, song sparrow, savannah sparrow, sandhill crane, American goldfinch and yellow rumped warbler. I also heard American toads, spring peepers and i believe a gray treefrog.
