This morning Pelee had a mini-wave of spring migrants. The tip had an E. Towhee, a Tree Swallow, a Field Sparrow, and dozens of E. Phoebes. The parking lot on the W. side near the tip offered a big raft of ducks - mostly Goldeneyes, Greater Scaup and Red-Breasted Mergansers. But there was one Long-Tailed Duck among them, and a cluster of about 30+ Surf Scoters, several White-Winged Scoters, and a female Black Scoter. The Woodland trail had my first Fox Sparrows (2), Winter Wrens (1), and Flickers (3) of the year. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Mar 30 16:09:02 2005 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from beaver.pch.gc.ca (beaver.pch.gc.ca [198.103.196.130]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 658C9638E5 for <[email protected]>; Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:09:02 -0500 (EST) Received: from fisher.pch.gc.ca by beaver.pch.gc.ca via smtpd (for [199.212.94.68]) with ESMTP; Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:17:23 -0500 Received: from EHULSMTP01.in.pch.gc.ca (ehulsmtp01.in.pch.gc.ca [167.33.1.48]) by fisher.pch.gc.ca (8.12.9/8.12.9) with SMTP id j2ULHMNl022550 for <[email protected]>; Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:17:22 -0500 (EST) Received: From osc-notes.apca.gc.ca ([167.33.130.27]) by EHULSMTP01.in.pch.gc.ca (WebShield SMTP v4.5 MR1a P0803.345); id 1112217442343; Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:17:22 -0500 Importance: High X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Sensitivity: To: <[email protected]> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:17:22 -0500 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on OSC-NOTES/SVR/PC/CA(Release 6.5|September 26, 2003) at 03/30/2005 04:17:22 PM MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Subject: [Ontbirds]Greater Snow Goose jackpot - Cornwall X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 21:09:02 -0000
Just when we thought it was over, they surprised us all. The 12,000 Greater Snow Geese sighted earlier at two intervals were only the vanguard. At 3:00, another flock of 15,000 -17,000 flew almost overhead in long skeins, wavy Vs and every flock description imaginable (It took almost 5 minutes for the birds to pass). 15 minutes later, a second massive flock of 11,300 passed over but were towards the north end of the city and heading in a northeasterly direction. This is the best chance for birds that might head towards Alexandria or Riceville/Bourget. The day's total of approximately 40,000 birds equals the largest gathering of Snow Geese ever recorded in Eastern Ontario, a flock on the ground north of Lancaster, photographed from the air in 2001 by the Canadian Wildlife Service. To the best of our knowledge, no birders saw that flock. Brian Morin Cornwall
