June 22 2018. Kerncliffe Park, Burlington ON. In early May I wrote about Sora seen in the old worked-out quarry on the edge of my town. Today I went back there, not just to check on the Sora, I was taking part in an event called a bioblitz, a concerted effort to inventory all living things over a large defined and ecologically mixed area. My companion and I elected to spend our time inventorying this old quarry as well as a neighbouring tree-fringed grassland. Much of our effort went into trying to recall the names of common plants, many of them considered roadside weeds; still it was an interesting morning and it inspired me to make an effort to tidy up my knowledge of herbaceous and woody plants. I stood for a long time dumbfounded by a couple of obviously different willows realizing they were clearly not the same species but having no idea what they might be and realizing I have work to do.
We made our way to where I had last seen the Sora and to my surprise there was no sign of them but instead there were a couple of Virginia Rail chicks foraging quite openly for food. Around them the parents uttered short ‘keek‘ alarm notes and made high-speed dashes from one thick cluster of cattail to another. There was no earthly way I would ever photograph either of the parents, they emerged from what always seemed like the least likely place and made a panicked, half-run-half-fly, dash to the other side of open water.
The consolation was that the chicks were totally unconcerned about the risks of being in the open so were easily photographed. They obviously did not yet understand what their parents knew very well, that they were exposed to predators, not the least of them were many Northern Water Snakes sunning themselves or swimming around, my bet is that a very young rail chick would be an easy meal for one of the larger snakes.
Our task was to note living things of all kinds. In the quarry we recorded 38 herbaceous plants, 36 trees and shrubs, 1 mammal (Black Squirrel) and 20 birds species including Blue Jays, Northern Flickers, Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Kingbird and of course Virginia Rail, Bird of the Day.
You motivated me to visit Kerncliff yesterday. I almost gave up after a half on hour in the heat but, just as I turned to head back along the boardwalk, a juvenile appeared in the open. They’ve definitely grown in the past few weeks.