Well, despite three tries today, I must be the last standing Ajacian to not see the Laughing Gull ... not sure I'm proud of that distinction. I did find an adult Red-throated Loon with 32 Commons at the foot of Hall's Road at 6:45 this morning and 10 Black-bellied Plovers in the "Laughing Gull" field at 6:30. Two were still present in the next field to the west off Cty 23 at 4 p.m.
The Sobey's Ponds had 6 Semi-palmated Plovers, one Dunlin, two Lesser Yellowlegs, about 10 Least Sandpipers and about 6 Spotted Sandpipers. Thickson's had two Orchard Orioles, and several Canada, Blackpoll, Mourning, and Wilson's Warblers at 6:30 - 10:00. Thickson's Woods is at the foot of Thickson's Road south off the 401. Sobey's Ponds is west of here immediately in front of the huge Sobey's Warehouse on Bayly/Victoria. Hall's Road is located west of that - go south off Bayly/Victoria, just east of Cty Rd 23. Geoff Carpentier Ajax From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun May 29 17:55:11 2005 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from web88003.mail.re2.yahoo.com (web88003.mail.re2.yahoo.com [206.190.37.190]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 4DACF63A28 for <[email protected]>; Sun, 29 May 2005 17:55:11 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Received: from [70.28.198.110] by web88003.mail.re2.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sun, 29 May 2005 18:12:59 EDT Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 18:12:59 -0400 (EDT) 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] York Region Sightings (and an interesting Caspian Tern display) X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 21:55:11 -0000 In a sort of "Murphy's Law" of birding, during a casual morning stroll through my atlassing square yesterday to tie up some "loose ends" re:breeding status, I observed no less than 11 species that my Birdathon team and I could NOT locate last Saturday when we scoured York Region from top to bottom! (At a combined pledge total that translated into $30/species, 11 species represents a tidy little sum.) This list included BROAD-WINGED HAWK, RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, WILD TURKEY, GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET, EASTERN WOOD PEWEE, WILLOW FLYCATCHER, NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, and BLACKPOLL, BAY-BREASTED, TENNESSEE and WILSON'S WARBLER. All of these except the Willow Flycatcher were observed in the early morning as I birded the Porritt forest tract and the adjoining "Pangman Springs" property northwest of Kennedy & Aurora Roads. The flycatcher occurred farther south, singing and flycatching by the roadside less than a km west of Kennedy Road on the north side of Bethesda Sdrd. In a short period of time (6:30 - 9:30 a.m.) I lucked into 17 warbler species. (Last Saturday after 18 hours of birding we had only 15 - such are the fickle fates of birding). As expected, there were numerous juvenile birds and females in the mix. There were at least ten MOURNING WARBLERS singing on territory in different parts of this area. Aside from the birds listed above, there were also numerous local nesters like Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Winter Wren, Veery, Wood Thrush, Bobolink, E. Meadowlark, and White-Throated Sparrow, to name a few. I also observed one PILEATED WOODPECKER and one YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER, both species proving to be a little harder to find. On Friday morning, Bruce Brydon observed a BLUE-WINGED WARBLER and what appear to be two resident CLAY-COLOURED SPARROWS on the west side of Bathurst Street north of Green Lane in NW Newmarket. One interesting (I hope) observation regarding bird behaviour was a Caspian Tern with a fish in its mouth doing a courtship display in one of the sod fields at the north end of Bathurst St. yesterday afternoon. I presume the fish-holder was the male; he circled the (presumed) female numerous times with the fish, ducking his head in a ritualistic manner several times, all the while holding his wings slightly up as he circled her slowly. This went on for almost 10 minutes. The fish-holder flew up at one point, did a big circle while calling (without dropping the fish), then landed next to the object of his desire once again. To my surprise, he eventually ate the fish himself although the (presumed) female made several squawks and open-bill gestures toward the fish. I guess beauty is in the eye of the fish-holder. If there are any experts on Caspian Tern behaviour out there, please Reply to Sender if you have any comments or observations regarding this interaction. Ron Fleming, Newmarket DIRECTIONS: The Porritt Tract and "Pangman Springs" can both be accessed by driving north of the Aurora Road along Kennedy Road. Both properties are basically long rectangles that stretch westward to the next concession, which is Warden Road. Porritt is easy to find - just look for the big radio tower, which sits in the middle of the parking lot. Hike west from there. The Pangman property a little farther north has a catch: you can only go about halfway across it before you reach a No Trespassing sign. This is due to the fact that the rest of the property is now owned by Trails Youth Initiatives out of Toronto, which gives inner-city kids a chance to get out into nature. In both sites, bird activity was a bit busier in the western sections. As always, of course, the birds do tend to move around, so instant gratification is not guaranteed! As for the NW Newmarket location described above, the property is not "overtly" public; it is owned by Ontario Nature (FON) and only limited use (i.e. atlassing) is permitted.
