My fiancé Doran and I spent two weeks in the Maritimes in late May/early June: first we spent some time in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where Doran (a comic book creator) had a booth for all three days of the Y-Con Gaming & Comics Convention, followed by three days in the Annapolis Valley to visit family, and finishing with a few days in Moncton, New Brunswick where Doran had a booth at East Coast Comic Expo for a day and a half. These are places I never would have planned to visit for birds and dragonflies on my own, so it was a great opportunity to explore some places completely off my radar! I prepared for the trip the same way any contemporary naturalist would prepare: I investigated iNaturalist, explored eBird, and goggled over Google maps looking for places that had an intriguing variety of birds, odonates, and habitats in order to come up with a short list of places to visit around each of our AirBnBs. I wanted to see (or hear) and document as many species as possible with three main goals in mind: (1) to find some East Coast lifers whose range is limited to the Maritimes (White Corporal and Mantled Baskettail being at the top of my list); (2) to find some species that live in the Ottawa-Gatineau region but are difficult to find, mainly due to the inaccessibility of habitat (such as emeralds in bogs or clubtails and snaketails in rushing creeks); and (3) add as many ode records as possible to Nova Scotia and Moncton in order to increase the general knowledge of the species that live there.
Our initial arrival in Yarmouth didn’t bode well for the trip: we drove through several rain showers before encountering a thick bank of fog around Digby that didn’t let up until we reached Yarmouth. We found our way to the AirBnB, an apartment attached to a house on Milo Lake, just after dark and settled in.
The next day dawned sunny and calm, but a little cool. Until now I had never birded Yarmouth county before, and started with zero species in eBird. I went for a walk around the neighbourhood- although we were in the city, the lots were large, with lots of wild trees and vegetation growing in their natural state between lots. I found 24 species on that first walk, the best birds being the Ruby-throated Hummingbird perching on a wire, a Merlin calling insistently from a stand of spruce trees on a corner lot, a Great Blue Heron flying up the lake and several warbler species. I heard a Blackpoll Warbler singing, my first of the year, but the rest appeared to be residents: American Redstart, Yellow Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, Common Yellowthroat and at least two Northern Parulas.
The next day we checked out the town. I found a small trail in the city that looked promising – Broad Brook – that followed the edge of a duck pond. I was hoping for odes as well as water birds, but it was too cold – 16°C – to see any. However, I did hear a Ring-necked Pheasant and saw a pair of wigeon on the water. There were also several mallard families, one of which clambered up on the shore and approached us looking for food. A Swamp Sparrow, a couple of Tree Swallows, and a couple of Killdeer brought the number of species seen or heard to 24.
My real explorations began the following day with a visit to the Hebron Recreation Complex just north of town. I found it via my eBird searches; it is a hotspot with a total of 83 species. Although it is primarily a place for humans to play – there are softball diamonds, tennis courts, picnic tables, and at least one playground outside of the main building which functions as a community hall – the 2-kilometer Forchu River Trail loops around the perimeter of the complex, passing through mixed forest, over boardwalks, and alongside the river on one side and a cemetery at the back. I thought it would be a good place to find both birds and odes with the river nearby, as I was particularly looking for odes that inhabited streams and creeks.
It was a weekday, so I thought it might be quiet. There were quite a few cars in the parking lot, though I didn’t see a single person outdoors upon my arrival. I followed the trail toward the river, eager to start my search. The day was mostly sunny, and predicted to get quite warm – it was cool when I started, and I was comfortable wearing a jacket over my normal T-shirt and hoodie. Not too cool, however, for insects to be flying – it didn’t take long to find my first butterflies, a Northern Azure and Arctic Skipper, and my first damselfly – a male Eastern Forktail! I loved the red branches it was perching on…it’s not every day I see them on branches like this.
When I reached the lookout I discovered it wasn’t much – just a short trail through the vegetation with a nice view of the Forchu River curving from the north. There was no wooden boardwalk or elevated platform, which would have made it the place perfect. The sun was shining on the river, and I saw an emerald patrolling the reeds at the edge of the water. I heard a Ring-necked Pheasant calling from across the river, and it sounded close.
I continued on my way, stopping at a second lookout which provided a bit of a wider open area to look out onto the water, then into a sunny area transected by a boardwalk. There was presently no water beneath it, but the ferns and vegetation suggested that the soil was quite damp. I saw a Hobomok Skipper and not much else.
By the time I reached Riverside Cemetery it was warm enough to take my jacket off and stuff it in my backpack. The trail cemetery is separated from the trail by a quaint stone wall which I thought was charming. A groundskeeper was mowing the lawn, and if he hadn’t have been there I would have totally climbed over the wall to look at the headstones.
A small track meandered off to the side from where the main trail angled back toward the recreation complex, and the sunlight splashing on the vegetation in a clearing up ahead enticed me to take a closer look. The detour was worth it, as here I found my first dragonflies: a Lancet Clubtail and an immature male Common Whitetail!
There was a small stream here that formed a wide pool before running through a culvert. It reminded me of the one at Trail E4 in Marlborough Forest, with spiketails and jewelwings and strange emeralds possible inhabitants. However, I didn’t see any other odes in the clearing, other than one small dragonfly that looked like a whiteface flying deeper into the vegetation beyond the trail.
I left the clearing and returned to the main trail where I was swallowed up by a dark forest and accompanied by the songs of several Black-throated Green Warblers, Ovenbirds and Red-eyed Vireos. Shortly after I reached the end of the forest I encountered a school group of kids heading in my direction. None of them spoke to me, though I carried my net, and I started to wonder if it was alright to be here on a weekday.
I decided to check the river one more time before I left, and I was glad that I did for I found new some damselflies! One was a male Aurora Damsel that didn’t stay long, and one was a Fragile Forktail, a species that seems to find me no matter where I am.
I checked the vegetation for other odes and saw one colourless damselfly that had just emerged from its larval skin. I bet if I had stayed longer I would seen more climb out of the water and finish the process of transformation from crawling underwater critter to an aerial predator.
Overall I enjoyed my two and a half hours at the Hebron Recreation Complex. Once I got away from the main recreation complex in the center of the property it really did feel as though I was in a larger forest or conservation area by myself. I ended up finding 36 bird species, most of which were heard only, and five identifiable ode species, which is five more entered into iNaturalist than there had been previously. Perhaps an afternoon visit would have turned up more odes – anything is possible. I was thinking it would be a place worth revisiting…but then I discovered Chebogue Meadows!
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