Discovery Phobias!!!!

So after reading some news of the abundance of the red-headed woodpeckers and the tufted titmice down at the Pinery Provincial Park, we decided to make a last minute camping trip. We headed down on Friday after work with hopes of seeing both species of birds. The weather was very nice, which made birding a breeze. On the way we stopped at the Mitchell sewage lagoons for a very short walk and saw for the first time a bunch of semi-palmated sandpipers. Then back into the car.

Once at the Pinery we saw lots of birds fluttering all around as we explored the park. We ended up heading to an area where I heard the red-headed woodpeckers had a nest but as soon as we got there we discovered it was in fact a pileated woodpecker's nest. It was very neat to see but I was a little disappointed because I was super excited to see the red-headed and at a nest too. Anyway, so I move in for a closer look at the nest. We watched, as the adult returned with some food then the babies would pop their little heads out begging for the food. It feed the babies and then went to go get more food. All of a sudden I feel something crawling up my leg. I look down and it was a TICK!! I quickly tried to brush it off but it had a firm grip. So I quickly picked him off and before I could look through my lens again I felt something crawling up my other leg. It was ANOTHER TICK!!! I repeated the above steps and grabbed all my stuff and quickly got out of dodge. I realize now the very low possibility of actually getting lyme disease but at the time I was definitely not thinking so positively. I was just freaked out. I asked my girlfriend to check my legs again and they where fine. We continued down the trail but I walked funny the entire way back as I tried to not touch anything and anytime I did accidentally touch something I had to check to see if there was a tick there. My girlfriend was laughing most of the way back. For some weird reason I lost the ability to be calm and rational. It is strange how that happens sometimes. I wonder if seeing a sign that stated "STAY CALM" would have helped me then.

Anyway, we continued exploring the park but where are the abundant birds we were looking for? We didn't see them anywhere. Finally my girlfriend catches a glimpse of a red-headed woodpecker. We followed it and watch it for a while but it is so quick and flew long distances between landing and when it did land it was always at the top of the tree. All this made it very hard to get any good pictures. I got a couple for proof but I am not going to bother posting them.

So now comes Saturday. We wake up early and started exploring again. The weather was not as kind to us but we still got to see a lot of birds. Unfortunately we still were not seeing the abundance of those two species and in fact we still had not seen a tufted titmouse. Finally near the end of our stay we hear a strange call so we stop to listen and try to find the bird. There it was, a tufted titmouse at the top of a tree and once again not an easy bird to photograph. It was jumping all over the tree and then all of a sudden gone.

So all and all it was a good trip. We saw lots of birds including three more new ones ffor me.