Seen both last evening with HNC and again this morning. Several other warblers and usual spring birds.
Daphne Payne, Hamilton Ruthven is on Hwy 54. Go south on Hyw 6/Upper James St. from Hamilton, turn left at the first light in Caledonia and drive appox 17km, passing York. Ruthven is on the right. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Jun 2 21:07:16 2005 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from helios.kos.net (unknown [64.201.45.11]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 56A7363CE3 for <[email protected]>; Thu, 2 Jun 2005 21:07:16 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 2317 invoked from network); 3 Jun 2005 01:25:42 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO D3ZD7M31) (64.201.46.9) by helios.kos.net with SMTP; 3 Jun 2005 01:25:42 -0000 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: "Terry Sprague" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ontbirds" <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 21:25:43 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit 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 Subject: [Ontbirds]Quinte Area Bird Report for week ending June 2nd, 2005 X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 01:07:16 -0000 WEEKLY BIRD REPORT FROM PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND THE QUINTE AREA for the week ending Thursday, June 02, 2005 At the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area, the migration is starting to slow down as the season comes to a close, but there have been a few interesting days. On the 27th there was a large fall of birds at the Point with 317 birds of 41 species being banded, with the following notables being seen on that day, 35 EASTERN WOOD PEWEES, 25 YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHERS, 35 TRAILL'S FLYCATCHERS (Willow and Alder species), 30 LEAST FLYCATCHERS and 5 GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHERS. One YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, 4 WARBLING VIREOS, 25 PHILADELPHIA VIREOS and 120 RED-EYED VIREOS were also recorded. Thrushes were also well represented with 30 VEERY, 6 GRAY-CHEEKED, 120 SWAINSON'S and 5 WOOD THRUSH. Twenty NASHVILLE WARBLERS were seen as were 40 CHESTNUT-SIDED, 160 MAGNOLIAS, a CAPE MAY, 10 BLACK-THROATED BLUES, 15 BLACK-THROATED GREENS, 40 AMERICAN REDSTARTS, 8 OVENBIRDS, 5 MOURNING and 40 WILSON'S WARBLERS. Six male SCARLET TANAGERS provided a good splash of colour as did 20 INDIGO BUNTINGS. Other days have been quiet but 100 BRANT flew past on the 31st and a sick looking LONG-TAILED DUCK has been offshore for the last few days. The AMERICAN BITTERN behind the lighthouse can be heard on most days, a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK flew over on the 1st as did an OSPREY. Up to 8 RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS are visiting the feeders daily and an OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER was seen on the 30th. The only PURPLE MARTIN of the spring flew over on the 28th and CEDAR WAXWINGS are starting to increase with a peak of 100 seen on the 1st. The Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory closes for the season this weekend and will open again in mid-late August. Other observers birding the Prince Edward Point area on May 31st found 2 MOURNING WARBLERS behind the banding station, and another 2 near the lighthouse, where there was also a WILSON'S WARBLER. An OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER was also seen at the lighthouse, with another turning up behind the banding station, as well as a YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. Unlike weeks past, the well trampled trails in the Point Traverse Woods were quiet, with only two SWAINSON'S THRUSHES turning up. Babylon Road yielded both a GRASSHOPPER SPARROW and a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW. Ten BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS were found in a field between Black River and South Bay. At Sandbanks Provincial Park's West Point, there was still plenty of warbler activity around on May 26th, with 5 CANADA WARBLERS, and several BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLERS and COMMON YELLOWTHROATS. Sandbanks continued to add to its laurels as a prime birding area by offering a TRUMPETER SWAN off the West Lake sand dunes earlier in May. Incredibly, there is still a GREAT GRAY OWL at Moira Ridge Farms at 162 Leslie Road, near Roslin, where it has been since winter. A photo of it arrived the other day, and owners of the property, Heather and Cliff Maclean says the owl shows no sign of leaving any time soon. An interesting observation came in this week from Gull Pond, where a once vibrant GREAT BLUE HERON colony appears to have suffered some sort of trouble. The observer when approaching the usually noisy nest site, at one time comprising some 100 active nests, found the area strangely silent, except for a handful of herons around the site, or feeding. Sighted were six TURKEY VULTURES on as many nests. The vultures would move from nest to nest and it appeared they were feeding on the dead young contained in the nests. Only two nests of GREAT BLUE HERONS appeared to have herons sitting on them. It is a mystery what has happened to this once noisy colony along the south shore of the county, just east of Point Petre. However, in the mudflats below the Ducks Unlimited berm at the site, there were 2 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, 1 SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, 1 LEAST SANDPIPER, 2 SPOTTED SANDPIPERS and 2 WILSON'S SNIPES displaying overhead. Four BLACK TERNS were also seen flying about the marsh.Of particular interest was a dowitcher seen which the observer believes may have been a LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER. A lone BRANT was seen June 1st in a field behind the Wellington Legion, and there were three GREEN HERONS exploring one backyard on the shore of Fish Lake today. Winter has been over for some time, but feeders are still humming with activity. A Point Petre feeder has a RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER, as does a feeder on Glenora Road. Another feeder, east of Elmbrook had an EVENING GROSBEAK ON May 25th, and a RED-HEADED WOODPECKER made a surprise visit to a feeder at 2800 County Road 1 on May 31st, where there was also a PINE SISKIN on May 26th. A feeder operator in Wellington on May 31st got a real treat when EUROPEAN GOLDFINCH joined a flock of AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES at a Niger feeder. On Ridge Road, southwest of Picton, WILLOW FLYCATCHERS and EASTERN BLUEBIRDS have shown up, and a GREEN HERON also passed over one day this week. Across the border, at Trenton, a backyard there has a female PILEATED WOODPECKER on a suetlog, a WOOD THRUSH singing from an adjacent woods along with a SCARLET TANAGER, and a YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER drumming away on a metal plate on a hydro pole. And that's it for this week from Prince Edward County and the Quinte area. Our thanks to Nancy Fox, Don Craighead, David Okines, Joanne Dewey,Cliff McLean, Eileen Robbins, John Miller, Donn & John Legate, Michael Jaques, John Charlton, Silvia Botnick, Andy White, and Mia Lane for their contributions to this week's report. This report will be updated on Thursday, June 9th. Bird sightings maybe forwarded to [EMAIL PROTECTED] anytime before the Thursday 6:00 p.m.deadline. This report also appears on the NatureStuff website under BIRDING where this week's featured photo is the Moira Ridge Farms GREAT GRAY OWL, mentioned elsewhere in this report. Terry Sprague Picton, Ontario [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.naturestuff.net
