A beautiful October 1st brought with it several interesting southbound migrants today. This morning Mike Van den Tillaart and I hiked through the "Scout Tract", one of the regional forests east of Newmarket and Aurora. We chanced upon three excellent pockets of passerine activity. There were large numbers of RUBY-CROWNED and GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS (approx. 100+ of each), several YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS and BLUE-HEADED VIREOS, one NASHVILLE WARBLER (actually that one was in Mike's backyard), one OVENBIRD, a healthy influx of DARK-EYED JUNCOS (25+), one BROWN CREEPER, and a noisy confluence of RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES (40+) blowing some wild avante garde jazz on their little nasal trumpets. Travelling west on St. John's Sdrd. on our way back to Aurora/Newmarket we observed several raptors: an AMERICAN KESTREL, a juvenile NORTHERN HARRIER, a RED-TAILED HAWK, and several TURKEY VULTURES. We added one more raptor at McKenzie Marsh in north Aurora: a female/juv. MERLIN. This is the 5th merlin I've seen in York region over the past six weeks, the most I've had in an autumn migration here (...bear in mind that we have no specific raptor-migration vantage point, so these are random sightings from here and there in York). Aside from the Merlin, McKenzie Marsh also had several Great Blue Herons, a single GREATER YELLOWLEGS, one PIED-BILLED GREBE, one BLACK DUCK, two AMERICAN WIGEON, and two COMMON MOORHENS. Later in the day (4:00 - 5:00 p.m.) I checked the Holland Landing lagoons and found lots of lingering waterfowl. There were - of course - many Mallards and Canada geese, but also numerous GREEN-WINGED TEAL (approx. 100), BLUE-WINGED TEAL (approx. 40), WOOD DUCK (12), NORTHERN PINTAIL (6), NORTHERN SHOVELER (3), and RUDDY DUCK (3). There were still two LESSER and one GREATER YELLOWLEGS wading around in the first lagoon. Of the many sparrows flushing from the southern fenceline and bullrushes, I managed to get good looks at several WHITE-CROWNED, WHITE-THROATED and SONG SPARROWS. The most interesting bird, however, was a small grebe in the third lagoon that had a tiny upturned bill, a small head (with a dark strip up the nape), and the appearance of having a disproportionately big "butt". I scoped it for several minutes and finally concluded that it was an EARED GREBE due to those first impressions and the fact that its dark "cap" extended down behind the eye and into the cheek area. Still, I wasn't entirely positive, so I stuffed those mental notes into the dog-eared binder of my mind and carried them quickly back to the van. Happily, my impressions were consistent with Sibley's descriptions of that species in basic plumage. The Holland Landing lagoons are at the eastern terminus of Cedar Avenue, a short street which runs east from Yonge Street in the town of Holland Landing (look for the white wagon wheels in the driveway at the corner). Holland Landing is just north of Newmarket. The McKenzie Marsh is in north Aurora, just east of Yonge Street on St. John's Sdrd. The Scout Tract is situated south of Vivian Road (also known as Mulock Drive when in Newmarket). It is accessed by parking on the west side of McCowan Street less than a km south of Vivian Rd. (Note that McCowan is interrupted by a ravine if you are coming from the south.) Ron Fleming, Newmarket
