If you wish to be surrounded by hermit thrushes (and occasional other thrushes), the Parc National de la Mauricie has got it for you , especially the section called “Rivière à la Pâche”. This section is a mix of camp sites and walking trails of various degrees of ruggedness where the hermit thrush is the de facto emblematic bird. So in my search for hermit thrushes, I went to that section late morning until mid-afternoon and chose a light trail called “Sentier Familial” (family trail) for recording convenience. I was rewarded not only with multiple hermit thrushes, but also a Swainson’s thrush, another species of interest. Other birds included a Blackburnian warbler, two black-throated green warblers, two ovenbirds, a red-eyed vireo, and at one point a fleeting ruby-throated hummingbird. I stayed in this section for the entire excursion, as the idea is to get the most out of a given area and a given bird as I can.
Here are three highlights in chronological order.
In the first recording, we are between the Swainson’s thrush and the first hermit thrush. The hermit thrush is the more harp-like bird, whereas the hermit thrush is the more melodic one whose sentences start with a clear whistled note.
In the second recording, we are up close to the hermit thrush. We can also hear a second one in the background as well as that same Swainson’s thrush. Also in this recording is a Blackburnian warbler in the foreground and a red-eyed vireo near the end in the background.
Finally, in the third recording we are among multiple hermit thrushes, black-throated green warblers and ovenbirds. That’s the one with a passing hummingbird.
A truly memorable excursion at one of my favourite national parks and the best publicly accessible place in my humble experience for Hermit thrushes and Swainson’s thrushes in the same area.
