I have always wondered how long it would take me to go around the entire Porcupine Lake on a bicycle while noting all the species of birds I observe. There was only one way to find out. I did it yesterday; It took me 5 hours.
I had biked and walked around the whole lake before but I had never actually birded the entire circumference of the lake in one shot. I usually bird only half or a third of the lake at once when I'm biking or walking because I'm extremely slow; when I look for birds I like to take my time, double-checking each i.d. and watching every bird for a while; in other words, I like to enjoy every minute of it!
I chose a weekday because the trails are less busy than during the weekend, and there's nothing like being completely alone surrounded by birds and nature. I started at White Waterfront area, cycled the 8.5 km that surrounds Porcupine Lake, counter clockwise, all the way back to my starting point. It was around 13°C when I started at 10:40am and it became really warm (23°C) by the end. I finished at 3:40 pm.
I had biked and walked around the whole lake before but I had never actually birded the entire circumference of the lake in one shot. I usually bird only half or a third of the lake at once when I'm biking or walking because I'm extremely slow; when I look for birds I like to take my time, double-checking each i.d. and watching every bird for a while; in other words, I like to enjoy every minute of it!
I chose a weekday because the trails are less busy than during the weekend, and there's nothing like being completely alone surrounded by birds and nature. I started at White Waterfront area, cycled the 8.5 km that surrounds Porcupine Lake, counter clockwise, all the way back to my starting point. It was around 13°C when I started at 10:40am and it became really warm (23°C) by the end. I finished at 3:40 pm.
As you can see in the photo, the lake was calm. The trees have no leaves yet, which makes May the ideal month to observe songbirds.
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| Porcupine Lake - Dead Man's Point Trail 19 May 2016 |
The first half included the trail that starts at Station rd and goes all the way to Dead Man's Point and Bob's Creek Marsh. This trail had the most activity, mostly because it was earlier during the day and it was just starting to warm up. The warblers and kinglets were concentrated in patches of spruce and in the deciduous trees that are just starting to show some buds. I didn't take many photos.
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| Blue-headed Vireo Porcupine Lake (19 May 2016) |
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| Blue-winged Teals Porcupine Lake (19 May 2016) |
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| Black-and-white Warbler Porcupine Lake (19 May 2016) |
The second half of the loop was much quieter. I saw that the swallows (Cliff, Barn and Tree) are returning to their normal activity near Bannerman's Park. The cold snap of last week had forced hundreds of them to seek insects on the water at Bob's Lake and Three Nation's Lake. At Bannerman's, I observed 9 Least Sandpipers. We usually see more migrating shorebirds in May at Porcupine Lake but it's been a strange migrating season; these were my first for this year.
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| Least Sandpipers Porcupine Lake (19 May 2016) |
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| Redheads Porcupine Lake (19 May 2016) |
I plan to do a full circle of the lake every year in May. I saw 57 species, including 13 species of warblers, but I think there should have been more birds in general. I didn't see any Grebes, Herons, Ospreys, Merlins, Dunlins, Dowitchers, etc. We usually see a larger variety of birds at Porcupine Lake in May. But May is not over yet, so there is still time. So far, 139 species of birds have been observed in the last 3 years at Porcupine Lake (eBird data) and the list will likely keep growing.
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