Ressor Pond: very little of note, other than several Greater Yellowlegs out-numbering the Lesser Yellowlegs. This is a pretty unusual ratio for southern Ontario in July.
There were 2 Common and 1 Caspian Terns, a handful of Great Blue Herons and the same lingering Trumpeter Swan.....
The KFN property was also pretty lifeless.. We had few shorebirds ( a semi sand and some least's).... a few Herons (including an ugly/molting adult American Bittern, followed by a stunning fresh Juv. American Bittern).. . and a fairly expected group of ducks (similar to previous visits: Being Northern Pintail, Gadwall, Red-breasted Mergies etc)... Note worthy was the same summering Tundra Swan (see below) and a pair of Redhead! Which I'm guessing could be fall migrants?
Same Tundra, photo taken a few weeks ago.
So yeah, nothing crazy on the bird front, but it was an odd visit all around. The strangest part of the day was the people:
Case A). --- In Kingston, we stopped in a local outfitters store advertising a big sale. We received the usual annoying treatment of every employee asking if they can help us with anything, but it went a step further when they downright followed us around as if we were criminals (watching our every move)... It actually went far enough that a store manager instructed another employee to "follow them" (us) up to the 2nd level of the store... After we insisted we wanted to look up there in the first place (he said actually said "you wouldn't find anything that fits you up there, you shouldn't go up"... Hey, guess what buddy... I was LOOKING... not trying on everything to see if it fits. So in the end, there was no way they were getting our business!
Case B). --- after being chased out of the last store, we decided to grab some lunch at a local "seat yourself" veggie-friendly restaurant. We sat in a booth, a good 10ft away from the front counter, and waited a steady 10 minutes before getting up and decided we must have to place our orders at the counter, before choosing a seat???
So we arrived at the counter, placed our orders (to a rather spaced-out waiter/cashier... Who seemed as entertained by the menu as we were)..... He follows up the order with a curious question of "OK, so do you know where you want to sit then?" .......... umm........ yeah buddy! Remember standing here and watching us sit 10 feet away at that booth? for 10 minutes? without menus or any idea on how to get food at this place? Try delivering it there!!!!!
-- anyways once again it's not uncommon (i guess) to run into some odd ducks while exploring commercial opreations, which makes case C all the more bothersome to me:
Case C.) --- We openly discussed the possibility of there "being something in the water" that was maybe causing our strange encounters (that, and how the frogs and garter snakes on Amherst have a surprising amount of Orange on them,, water?).... as we strolled out onto the KFN property.
We notice we are about to be overtaken by another birder with a scope... We slow down a bit (figure we could arrive at the same time, since one usually flushes up a few bitterns etc (see above).... Yet to our total dismay, in what was possibly his best attempt at barking/being condescending - he yaps "ARE you a member of the KFN??" --- (and that may not do it justice... Picture this grumpy old man saying it while deciding there should no longer be rainbows in the world) --- to which I replied "uhh yep"... before (without a reply/smile/glance/hello/how are you) he put his head down and continued to march past us.... We actually stayed fairly close to the grump for the next 30mins as we birded along... And he really didn't acknowledge out existence again.
Thankfully he had a birding companion 100ft behind on the trail, who eventually caught up, and couldn't have been nicer. Not that we talked much, but provided the typical birder smile and wave at the very least.
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I always wonder why birders end up fighting among each other, when there are so many people out there who don't give a darn about birds. Heck, I can't even understand why birders don't team up with hunters more often (considering we'd be a much larger group in conservation of land etc)...... But for cryin out loud, you can be grumpy all you want, but please, please don't try and spread it.. Keep it to yourself!
And that ladies and gentlemen, is hopefully one of the very few rants you'll ever see on this blog.
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