2024 Birding in Moosonee - The Near North in September

 We met-up with Rhonda the leader of the outing and several people had joined us for the outing.  We traveled out of town about 40 km to a burn site to look for the Black backed Woodpecker.  We did see a Palm Warbler and Kinglets etc.  It was very hot out there and it was just getting too much to be out there in the sunshine.  Emily and I and Diane walked back to the parking lot by the highway.  So only Kathy was there.  We figured out that we could not go on.  It was going to be more than 30 degrees and it was really hot already.  So we decided we would call it a day.  Then we figured out that if we left then and there we could maybe get to Emily's before dark.  We said our farewell and thank you to Kathy.  Once we got to Emily's I sent a farewell to everyone as we left so suddenly.   Well we left at noon and arrived in the dark (last half hour really) at Emily's.  We only had one pit stop but there were constru...

 Today's plan was to spend the morning birding around the Moosonee airport.  It was a cool morning but a hot afternoon.  We rode to the airport (10 minute trip) in a pick-up truck and I was in the back of the pick-up.  We wandered around the airport area and got some birds but not much.  We then got picked up by the pickup truck and went back to the hotel.  For lunch  we had the rest of the leftovers.  We had a bit of a break and then we walked up to the train and did a trail on the other side of the track.  It was a party area trail with lots of garbage and a rough area.  It was really hot and the idea was to walk in for an hour and then turn around and return.  The highlights included a Boreal Chickadee and a very pretty American toad with nearby orange fungi.  After we walked back in the heat, we put our luggage in the pickup truck and then walked to the train for our 5 pm departure.  The trip back was fine but the last...

 It was a cool overcast morning when we got into Billy's boat to travel to Moose Factory.  There was a bit of a wind.  We arrived at the dock in Moose Factory and headed to a nature trail.  This was a boreal forest.  There was plenty of birdsong.  One memorable sighting was a juvenile White winged Crossbill being fed by its parents.  There was a small flock of them.  Henrique explained that WWCR breed any month of the year as long as there is a good food source.  There are plenty of pine cones here. We continued and had a quick view of a Canada Jay.  For the first time I saw Nuthatch (Red) for this trip.  And we had Dark eyed Juncos and Henrique heard a Boreal Chickadee in with a group of Black capped Chickadees.  Good views were had.  From here we traveled by truck to Moose Factory Heritage building to view some crafts and more history about Moose Factory.  There were many black and white photos.  From here we t...

 We had a day long trip by boat.  Billy was the captain of our boat to James Bay.  The other captain of the boat was George.   The river was in high tide when we left at around 9:30 am.  Our group is large so our boat took on 10 not including Billy and another boat took the rest of the group.  There is a little cab on the boat with windows so in bad weather one is pretty sheltered from the wind and rain.  The front window comes out and 4 of our group sat in the open front half which is exposed.  We were very comfortable and the day started out at 14 degrees and by noon it was hot day.  Probably around 26 degrees.   Along the river we could see bush and trees and shore.   After about 40 minutes we could see the start of James Bay, suddenly, the tall trees were fewer and there was more bush and grass.  Once on shore at Ships Sand Island, the environment included bushes, boreal plants and mostly sand and muck. ...

 Today our morning outing was a walk to the Moosonee Lagoons.  The road we took was nice and flat, no hills to climb.  It was about a 4.7 km birding walk to the Lagoons.  We were fortunate that even though there were heavy machines on the road, we were allowed to proceed.  We were very careful to  dump trucks and called out "truck" to have everyone in the group to move to the side of the road.  The trucks were also careful as likely word had gone out on the truck channel to watch out for the birding group. It took us the better part of two hours to get to the Lagoons.  We stopped for Bohemian Waxwings and the strange looking juveniles.  We had some warblers: Yellow rumped and Nashville and Golden crowned Kinglets.  Woodpeckers included a Yellow bellied Sapsucker, Downey and Hairy.  We went past a cemetary that had carefully tended gravesites.     The Lagoons were very different compared to the ones in the Ottawa area....

 This morning we left at 9 am on the Polar Bear Express Northland train to Moosonee.  The scenery was mainly bush up close and coniferous and deciduous trees.  We went by large ponds and the beautiful Coral Otter Rapids and the spectacular Moose River.  The train was comfortable and we were seated by a large window.  It was just lovely to stare outside and gaze at the September Scenery flying by.  We did not see many birds on the train.  Some Sandhill Cranes flying and other on the train had Red tailed Hawks and Canada Jays.  Emily and I went for breakfast in the dining car.  My breakfast was delicious and Emily enjoyed hers also.  We arrived in Moosonee around 1:45 pm.  It was warm and sunny but there was a brisk chilly wind.  Our luggage was picked up and brought to the hotel and we walked the three or four short blocks to the Super 8 Motel.  We quickly got settled in our room and we were out the door to walk down to the...

 Our hotel room overlooks the train tracks.  This morning a 7 passenger car train came down the tracks run by Ontario Northland.  I watched the train switch tracks where train reverses and then to go forward to get onto another track.  Then the train reversed and disappeared down the tracks.  A mystery train.  From what I could see, no one was on it except for the train engineer and there was a train worker walking beside it, changing the track control.  Apparently there used to be a train from Toronto to Cochrane up until 2022 when it was cancelled by Premier Ford.  This year he stated he would bring back the train to Cochrane.  This maybe was the train.  Ford indicated that he wanted this started up for tourists to take the Polar Bear Express to the northern towns.   The same train just came by and stopped in front of the train station.  It has two more cars added to it.  These are two flatbed train cars with new ca...

 Really the trip started yesterday when I left Ottawa at 8 pm in light rain for Emily's folks' place at Round Lake.  Doing this short drive on Friday made the trip two hours less today.  On the Friday night the rain was light with a medium downpour in Kanata through to Arnprior and to Renfrew.  I took highway 60 at the turnoff from Highway 17 to Highway 60.  This is the road I am most familiar with so with the limited visibility of a dark night.  It was an OK drive.  The rain stopped further down highway 60 and there was less traffic.  I kept scanning for animals coming onto the roadway and saw none.  I arrived at Round Lake around 10:15-30 pm.  We chatted for a bit and then I went to bed. It took a while to fall asleep. Saturday September 7. We hit the road around 9:15 am and it was overcast with some light precipitation.  All the way the weather was dropping to a low of  5.5 celsius around North Bay.  The wind was brisk....