This past week, we have been touring South Central Ontario with family from England. While the weather was cool and the forests damp and buggy, it proved to be a good time for birding. On our circuit, we managed to see a few rarities as well as one of my nemesis birds, the golden-winged warbler, a bird I had very much wanted to see before next month’s move to British Columbia. The rarest bird seen, was the piping plover of which there are less than ten breeding pairs in Ontario. The bird had been extirpated, but assisted by willing volunteers, there have been a few returning to the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Huron. This bird is endangered, in all of its habitat as beaches are taken up by indiscriminate development and human activity.