Late this afternoon I went to the Tollgate Ponds in Hamilton to look for any early fall-migrant shorebirds. But only a single individual was present -- an American Avocet in gorgeous breeding plumage. The bird was sleeping, so I could not determine the sex of the bird.
The bird was in the same pond that had the Wilson's Plover. Alan Wormington, Leamington ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Jun 22 18:20:45 2004 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from fep4.cogeco.net (smtp.cogeco.net [216.221.81.25]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17EC3488C5 for <[email protected]>; Tue, 22 Jun 2004 18:20:45 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mainoffice (d141-159-105.home.cgocable.net [24.141.159.105]) by fep4.cogeco.net (Postfix) with SMTP id 18AED1EDA for <[email protected]>; Tue, 22 Jun 2004 18:26:37 -0400 (EDT) From: "Cheryl Edgecombe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 18:26:41 -0400 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1409 Importance: Normal Subject: [Ontbirds] Hamilton Naturalists Bird Report - RARE BIRD UPDATE - AMERICAN AVOCET - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 22:20:45 -0000 An American Avocet found by Barry Jones this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. continues to be seen in the same location as the Wilson's Plover was at Tollgate Ponds off of Eastport Drive in Hamilton at 6:00 p.m.. Good birding, Cheryl Edgecombe Directions from Toronto: Take QEW to QEW Niagara. At the exit to QEW Niagara you will see a sign for Eastport Drive. Get onto Eastport Drive and it will wind its way around and over the Burlington Lift Bridge. Continue to follow Eastport Drive past the first Tollgate Pond (large square pond on right) and just east of this there will be a muddy area where they are filling in the pond that was there. The bird is running around on the mud in this area. Good views with a scope but can be seen with binoculars. Directions from Niagara: Take QEW Niagara to Centennial Drive. Get off at Centennial and go north to lake. Turn left at the lights and follow Van Wagners Beach Road past Hutch's Restaurant to a set of lights. At the lights, turn left (Beach Blvd) and follow to Eastport Drive . You will see signs for Eastport Drive, it is a right turn not too long after you get on Beach. Continue along Eastport Drive. The muddy area which it is located on the left just before the large square pond.

