Ontbirders
In order to fill in the picture of whether Isabel-driven sea birds reached
the Ontario shoreline of east and central Lake Erie the answer is no [not
yet?].
We spent a good part of the last 3 days searching for storm waifs along the
Lake Erie shoreline at the east end of Elgin County at Port Burwell, Port
Bruce and Port Stanley and have not seen any land or water birds that could
be attributed to Isabel.
On Friday morning in driving rain and wind we watched a strong migration
of Common Terns and Bonaparte's Gulls moving west along the Lake Erie
shoreline at Port Bruce. Late Friday afternoon, however, there were only
Ring-bills and Herring Gulls. On Saturday there were very few Bonaparte's
Gulls or Common Terns (dozens compared to 100s on Friday and 1000+ of each
the previous two weekends) at any of the three ports. The same today at
Port Burwell and Port Bruce even though the winds were fairly strong out of
the southeast. Nor did we find anything of note at the Port Stanley or
Aylmer Sewage Ponds or Aylmer Wildlife Area ponds or at any of the small
irrigation ponds en route. The only dead, beached bird so far on any of
these beaches is a single Double-crested Cormorant at Port Burwell. The
only "new" bird that we spotted in the three days was a juvenile plumaged
Little Gull at Port Burwell today. [We have seen up to nine adult and 2nd
year plumaged Little Gulls at this Burwell over the last three weekends].
Dave Martin, Linda Wladarski, Ross Snider, Terry Ricker
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Harrietsville, ON
Dave Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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