Memories of Lake Erie’s Northern Shore

2023-05-13 Long Point on Lake Erie

While visiting with my friend Judy in Ontario Canada, she offered to escort me to a few of her favorite birding destinations, and Saturday we spent the day on the road, driving for about 250 miles. We began the day driving west, toward the northern shore of Lake Erie. Our target was called Long Point, where a wetland peninsula juts into the lake extending in a southeasterly direction. Such land structures seem to attract migrating birds, and are sometimes called ‘traps’ because once the birds find themselves there, they tend to linger.

Our route to Long Point included a slight detour through the nearby town of Aylmer, where we explored briefly for birds. Eager to reach Long Point, we didn’t spend much time in Aylmer. Once we reached Long Point, we drove to a location called Old Cut, where birds and birders congregated. We spent most of our time in a grove of tall trees, risking neck strain; a condition birders call ‘warbler-neck’. There was no shortage of migrating songbirds in the grove, and sometimes they would pop out from the deep shade and provide a photo-op for those of us with cameras. After several rewarding hours in the grove, we resumed our tour of the region.