A Great Gray Owl spent the afternoon perched at the edge of a mixed woodlot beside Lakeshore Road on the west edge of Port Hope yesterday, November 26. It has not been relocated so far today. This seems to be the first sighting significantly south of Algonquin Park in the current Great Gray Owl movement. The vole population along the lakeshore between Port Hope and Newcastle seems good - plenty of Rough-legged Hawks hunting the fields today, even one feral cat was spotted with vole in mouth. The homeowners who found the owl are birder-friendly, but it does not seem likely that the owl is still at exactly the same location. It is more likely to be found by a thorough search of the Lakeshore Road and sideroads, though a few birders including myself who were out looking today had no luck.
Directions: Exit Hwy.401 at the Welcome/Port Hope exit, Exit 461, and go south on Toronto Road (Hwy.2) to the traffic lights where Hwy.2 turns east into downtown Port Hope. Turn right/west here onto Ridout St which soon becomes Lakeshore Road and drive westward. The owl was seen yesterday on the north side of Lakeshore Road only about 1.5km west of the traffic lights, just before Lakeshore Road goes under a small railway bridge (known locally as the Hole in the Wall). There is a huge new monster house on the south of the road just before the bridge and a smaller home on the north side, 5766 Lakeshore, and it was on the edge of the woodlot behind the latter that the owl was seen. Margaret Bain, Cobourg [EMAIL PROTECTED]
