Night Hike Quick Post

Just got back from a 3 hour night drive along Black Rock Road with Fernando. We loaded up in the F150 and drove down the treacherous rocky road with hopes of owls, nightjars and creepy crawlies in our heads.

First of all, the night sky is incredibly beautiful here. Probably exceeding an Algonquin Provincial Park night sky in my opinion, up until now the gold standard in my mind. Seeing them through the mountains almost made it more romantic.

We drove about 10 km in the dark, high beams blasting, spotlights scouting the landscape and NADA. We saw a jaguar, that ended up being a dog and some small spiders, frogs and bats but that was not the excitement we were after.

Wolf Spider I think?

A stop at a stand of trees lead to hearing a Mottled Owl and a Spectacled Owl very faintly via coaxing them with playback. At this time we were tired and kinda dissapointed, we turned around and my dad spots a Mottled Owl!!

It's always cool seeing owls as opposed to hearing.

We then drive through a recently ploughed field (at which I thought there was a non zero chance of us tipping or getting stuck) we had drove through this field on the way there with no luck. On the way back however we saw Common Paraques and TWO Northern Pootoos! They are fascinating. The eye is unlike anything I have ever seen. It looks fake. An incredible bird to see we are all very happy.

We had an incredible morning also but I will have to write it later as I am too tired.