Grimsby Wetlands, Grimsby, ON , July 31, 2020. On a tip-off I made a pre-breakfast run to an obligingly convenient wetland in hopes of seeing Virginia Rails. It was time well spent. The wetland was once a sewage settlement pond, then a decade or two ago the municipality upgraded its sewage treatment facilities and was persuaded to allow this noisome site to be turned back into a natural(ish) state. The alternative might have been 100 acres of lakeside housing but, inasmuch as new residential developments often feature street names celebrating the land’s previous use then maybe Wastewater Way or Aeration Avenue didn’t quite cut it. Anyway, now we have a big, shallow pond turned mudflats and a good birding destination. At my early hour it was quite delightful.
I had no trouble spotting Virginia Rails: first an adult with six or seven black-fluffball young, then another two adults with one and two young respectively. And there were a few single adults working their way along the cattail border; I think I saw fifteen at least. Virginia Rails and their lookalike kin, Soras, are notoriously difficult to see. I sometimes hear them and occasionally get a momentary glimpse, but more often than not I’ll stare long and hard at a patch of barely moving vegetation and see nothing at all. But when I do get a sighting, a decent one, it can be well, My Bird of the Day.
Just as engaging this early morn were several Spotted, Least and Semi–palmated Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, and a scattering of Killdeers. Maybe the Killdeers were locals but the others were certainly early southbound migrants, perhaps failed breeders.
