Big Nickel Birding: A Sudbury Sunday Night

July 17

It was our first evening in the region of Greater Sudbury, not quite as exciting as a Sudbury Saturday Night but it would do just fine. After dinner, my brother returned to work and he suggested Jean and I check out a neighbourhood trail for an evening stroll. The Robinson Lake Trail is an easy one kilometre of gravel path and boardwalk.

We accessed the trail from a municipal park and ticked Cedar Waxwing, American Goldfinch and Song Sparrow as we walked towards the boardwalk.

Common Yellowthroat were calling from all directions in the marsh and a family of Mallards had found a spot for the night in the stream that empties into Robinson Lake. Yes, I was ticking birds for a new county list. Mallards, Double-crested cormorants and Ring-billed Gulls were not overlooked. 

Walking through the stand of birch, I hoped to find a more worthy tick. No FOY warblers or a much sought after Pileated , but the Northern Flicker and Hairy Woodpeckers (2) were a nice accompaniment to the robins spotted in the small patch of wild in northern suburbia.  

After a couple of incidentals and some birding on a Sudbury Sunday Night, the county list stood at 13 species. Jean and I would have 3 full days available for Big Nickel Birding so adding birds to the list was not going to be a problem. Finding the target species was another matter.