Did a three-town excursion. Birds seen - 1)West of Barrie --pure white SNOWY OWL and SNOW BUNTINGS (over 300).
2) Burlington Lift Bridge - Adult PEREGRINE FALCON, SURF SCOTERS, WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, lots ducks 3) La Salle Park on Hamilton Harbour - white juvenile SNOW GOOSE, Young COOPERS HAWK 4) Lake Ridge Rd - Whitby - 2 GREAT GRAY OWLS 5) Halls Road Whitby - BARRED OWL, NORTHERN SHRIKE, LONG EARED OWL (heard crying just north of south path, not seen) 6) Thickson Woods - GREAT HORNED OWL (heard not seen-"who's awake") Directions: SNOWY OWL - 400 Hwy to Barrie, Take Bayfield St west to Hwy 26, then follow 26 to Edenvale. Set odometer to 0. Continue 3km on Hwy 26, left on Strongville Rd. Set odometer to 0. About 1km south is the Strongville Gospel Hall. About 0.6 km on left, a flock of over 300 snow buntings. Continue till the road jogs right and then quickly left. Right there are 2 silos. The snowy owl was on top of a utility pole there. LaSalle Park. - Queen E from Toronto past 403 to North Shore Blvd exit - go about 3 km west on North Shore Blvd to LaSalle Pk Rd, turn left and go down to the parking lot on the water. Burlington Lift Bridge - (Coming from Toronto) After pass 403, take Eastport Drive exit off Queen E and turn left at lights. You can see the green lift bridge on your right. Drive across the lift bridge. You can park on your right just past the bridge. Peregrine often on bridge cables or green bridge supports.Channel full of ducks and scoters etc. Halls Rd - Take 401 east from Toronto to exit 410 (Brock St) and go south to Victoria and turn right and travel about five minutes to Halls Rd on left. Turn left and go down to two pathways into the marsh on left. Owls along roadway and down pathways. Lake Ridge Rd - first light west of Halls Rd on Victoria (Victoria becomes Bayley Rd at Lake Ridge Rd). Owls half way down on right. Thickson Woods - take exit 412 off 401 and go south almost to lake. If you park there in the parking area you may hear the GH owl near dusk from Thickson Woods on your left. Good birding. Mike Johnston Cobourg From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Feb 6 00:04:29 2005 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from tomts10-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts10.bellnexxia.net [209.226.175.54]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4143BCDA63 for <[email protected]>; Sun, 6 Feb 2005 00:04:24 -0500 (EST) Received: from personaldil636 ([64.230.107.95]) by tomts10-srv.bellnexxia.netSMTP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for <[email protected]>; Sun, 6 Feb 2005 00:04:07 -0500 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: "Ott User" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 00:04:43 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.1 Subject: [Ontbirds]Townsend's Solitaire - Ottawa X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 05:04:29 -0000 Saturday, Feb. 5th: The Townsend's Solitaire showed up frequently between 1:30pm and 2:20pm (almost every 15 minutes) stopping to eat the berries on the branches near the front of the driveway at 38 Rothwell. Last time I saw it was between 2:30 - 2:40pm. There is also a Barred Owl (pointed out to me) at the street corner near 38 Rothwell. There is a house under renovation or construction on the same side of the street as 38 Rothwell. The owl is sitting up a tree just behind the house on the left. One of the residents on the street mentioned that the owl had been there for quite some time now. Directions courtesy Larry Neilly: On the afternoon of Feb. 2, 2005, a Townsend's Solitaire was found in the Rothwell Heights area of Beacon Hill North, Ottawa, ON. It was still present Feb. 3, 2005. It was seen singing and feeding in a Common Buckthorn bush at 38 Rothwell Drive. Take the St. Joseph Boulevard / Montreal Road exit from Highway 174 (old Highway 17), turn left or west on St. Joseph which becomes Montreal Road as you pass under 174. Proceed west 1.1 km, then turn right or north onto Ogilvie Road. Go north on Ogilvie for 0.1 km and turn left or west onto Naskapi Drive. Proceed 0.9 km west until Naskapi joins Rothwell Drive, then continue west then northwest on Rothwell for 0.4 km to # 38, between Wick Crescent and Delong Drive. W.H. Ottawa From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Feb 6 11:20:07 2005 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from gouda.execulink.net (gouda.execulink.net [199.166.6.56]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A5E1ACA13C for <[email protected]>; Sun, 6 Feb 2005 11:20:07 -0500 (EST) Received: from EAGLE (ppp415.ac1.56k.execulink.com [209.239.6.99]) by gouda.execulink.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with SMTP id j16GKsG21637 for <[email protected]>; Sun, 6 Feb 2005 11:20:54 -0500 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: "Doug White" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ontbirds" <[email protected]> Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 11:20:50 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.1 Subject: [Ontbirds]Also Hawk owl south of Sudbury Saturday X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 16:20:08 -0000 Returning yesterday from a succesful finch viewing, already posted, I spotted an owl on top of a tree. I turned around, and it came to sit on the pole just in front of my car. Stayed quite a time,enough for photos, and positive identification as a Hawk Owl. This is in the "military Area" on #69 south of Sudbury, and just south of the Transport Inspection pull-ins. Was on the west when first saw it but came over to the east. Time was about 11.30. Ann White [EMAIL PROTECTED] From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Feb 6 11:29:32 2005 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from web88010.mail.re2.yahoo.com (web88010.mail.re2.yahoo.com [206.190.37.197]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 6CD9DCA0B1 for <[email protected]>; Sun, 6 Feb 2005 11:29:32 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Received: from [70.24.83.71] by web88010.mail.re2.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sun, 06 Feb 2005 11:30:20 EST Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 11:30:20 -0500 (EST) From: RON FLEMING <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: OFO Bird Sightings <[email protected]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.1 Subject: [Ontbirds]Newmarket Great Grays and Shrikes X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 16:29:32 -0000 It is becoming more difficult to find Great Gray Owls in the Newmarket area. Whether that is due to the birds having moved after "hunting out" certain fields, having reverted to more nocturnal hunting, or to mortality is uncertain. Perhaps it is a combination of all three factors. Whatever the case, days of multiple sightings (Keith Dunn had 11 one day in January as he worked the back roads near Keswick) in this area may be past. Having said that, I did find one Great Gray hunting in the fields on the east side of Dufferin Avenue (south of house # 18705) Friday evening around 5:30 and another one early Saturday morning on the south side of Miller Sideroad not far west of Bathurst Avenue, perched on a big round sign that alerts people travelling east that there is a new stoplight at Miller and Bathurst. This morning (Sunday) I could not find any owls (including the Snowy that has been lingering in the vegetable fields near Jonkman's Corners since at least early January). I did, however, find three Norterhn Shrikes (inviting the birders' chuckle: "three shrikes - yer out!"). One was perched on the roadside wire above the entrance to the Cardinal Golf Course maintenance yard on Keele Avenue north of Hwy. 9, another was in a tree north of Canal Road on 5th Line, and another was perched in a small tree by the roadside on Bathurst Avenue North, well north of Queensville Sdrd. Yesterday there were two coyotes roaming the fields south of Jonkman's Corners (where Canal Road crosses Simcoe Road, a north-south line out of Bradford). There was also a Wild Turkey gobbling noisily but I could not pinpoint his location. All of these areas are just west and north of Newmarket proper, accessible from Hwy. 9 by driving north. The roads in the Holland Marsh area can be frustrating to follow since they take many jogs and never seem to follow a straight line. Still they are bounded by Hwy. 400 on the west and Canal Road on the north, so you can reconnoiter when necessary. A good map helps. As a peripheral observation, I still find it remarkable how many raptors you can see along Hwy. 407. Driving from Newmarket to Stoney Creek yesterday afternoon I counted 32 Red-Tailed Hawks, one American Kestel, and one Rough-legged Hawk. Anyone who knows why these highway corridors attract hawks so much is welcome to e-mail me privately. I have my own theories which are merely hunches, not hard science. Ron Fleming, Newmarket
