I Spent the last two days on Amherst Island. We left early today and drove back to Ottawa just in time for a bit of dusk birding. Altogether, we had great success.
Amherst Island, Monday Dec 27: * one Boreal Owl in the Owl Woods (thanks to the Scotts) * one Snowy Owl KFN property * three Short-eared Owls (1 on KFN property, and 2 more a few kilometres south of Stella) * two Northern Harriers (KFN property) * eight Rough-legged Hawks * six Red-tailed Hawks * one American Kestrel (Stella) * one Merlin (south shore) * two Northern Shrikes * five Red-winged Blackbirds (south shore) Amherst Island, Tuesday Dec 28: * one Snowy Owl (KFN property) * one Saw-Whet Owl (Owl Woods) * three Long-eared Owls (including two very tame birds in the Owl Woods) * one Northern Shrike (east of Stella) * three Rough-legged Hawks Ottawa, Tuesday Dec 28: * five Great Gray Owls mainly along March Valley Road. Happy New Year Tony http://www3.sympatico.ca/beck.tony/ Directions courtesy Neily World: http://members.rogers.com/larry.neily/birdguide.htm To Amherst Island: Amherst Island is approximately 2.5 hours south of Ottawa and 16 km west of Kingston, Ontario. Take Highway 417 from Ottawa west to Highway 416 (exit 132). Follow 416 SSE 80 km to Highway 401. Turn right onto 401 and go 128 km to exit 593. Exit south on County Road #4 (formerly Highway 133) and proceed 9 km to Millhaven on Lake Ontario. Turn right or west on Hwy 33 (Bath Road), watch for the ferry dock in 200 metres. A round-trip on the ferry costs $5.00. It leaves every hour on the half-hour from 7:30 AM onward. The first ferry in the morning is an exception leaving ten minutes earlier than thereafter, at 6:20 AM. To March Road: >From Highway 417 (The Queensway) take exit 138 (Eagleson/March Roads). If >travelling west, the 0.6 km offramp sends you right or north onto March Road. >If driving east, a 0.4 km offramp brings you to Eagleson Road, where you will >turn left or north onto it and in 0.5 km join the westbound offramp traffic on >March Road (it changed names as you went under the overpass). Both groups will >now follow March Road north 1.0 km to Herzberg Road. Turn right or north on >Herzberg. As March Road bends to the left you actually end up going the same >direction you were before the turnoff. Follow Herzberg north for 1.3 km, where >it crosses what's left of Sandhill Road and the railway tracks and becomes >Fourth Line Road, recently renamed March Valley Road. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Dec 28 19:46:41 2004 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from smtp100.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com (smtp100.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com [206.190.36.78]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 18A039F422 for <[email protected]>; Tue, 28 Dec 2004 19:46:41 -0500 (EST) Received: from unknown (HELO downstairs) ([EMAIL PROTECTED] with login) by smtp100.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com with SMTP; 29 Dec 2004 00:47:24 -0000 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: "Ian Cannell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ontbirds" <[email protected]> Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 19:47:34 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 Subject: [Ontbirds]EIGHT GREAT GRAY OWLS NEAR ORILLIA. X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Ian Cannell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 00:46:41 -0000 Following the great start to the day at Halls Road (posted earlier for me by my son, Andrew), Jay Peterson and I travelled on to the Orillia area to try for the Great Grays reported by Bob Bowles. We were successful! We saw a minimum of eight plus two more at the end of the day that were within 1000 metres of two that we'd seen in the morning. So, together with the one we'd seen at Halls Road we saw 9 to 11 Great Grays on the day. I got what I wanted for Xmas. All but one of these owls were on either the 7th or 8th Concession of Ramara. The other one was on Woodland Avenue. Thanks, Bob, for the info. and directions (repeated below). Two of the owls were seen at about noon, the rest at about 4pm. Take hwy 12 east from Orillia to Mulhy Point Road and turn right then follow this road to the end at conc. 8 then turn left. Woodland Avenue is just south of Orillia. Also seen in the general vicinity were: Two flocks of Snow Buntings; about 200 in one and 25 in the other. Two roosts of Turkeys; 15 in one and four in the other. The latter were perched about 50 metres up in the top of some trees, more like Turkey Vultures than Wild Turkeys. Several N. Shrikes. Another Dark Phase Rough-legged Hawk (i.e. in addition to the one we'd seen on Halls Road). Ian Cannell Concord, Ontario.
