Forsaken Visions of Futures Past (What?!)

White-winged Scoter Melanitta fusca deglandi

White-winged Scoter Melanitta fusca deglandi

Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax

November 7, 2020, Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Notre-Dame

  Another tardy birding report, with more yet to come. I last visited Parc Jean-Drapeau on a March 5, 2020 Pine Warbler twitch, that surely was 25 years ago (The Before Times!).

  Being on Île Sainte-Hélène that day felt like being in Asia somehow…the balmy weather (18 and hazy), bare trees, and calendar were all wildly out of sync. The vast tourist-friendly expanses of concrete and polished metal completed the mirage.

  Île Notre-Dame had more of a Cuban vibe. Weedy paths were strewn with the mouldering remnants of a 1960’s vision of the future. Gangneung’s 6-month-old-yet-crumbling Olympic installations had a similar feel to them.

  It didn’t feel overly birdy at any particular moment, but the species count was nickel and dimed up to 28 species. A lone White-winged Scoter loitered with the more common waterfowl in the southeast corner of Lac de l’Île Notre-Dame. A Black-crowned Night Heron was seen on Île Sainte-Hélène from Pont des Îles. A Red-bellied Woodpecker spotted on Île Sainte-Hélène felt notable. At dusk, a bat sp. was shimmering over the reeds on the western bank of Lac de l’Île Notre-Dame.