I had to work last night and needed to sleep for a couple of hours
before departing around 11:00 am to drive over and try my hand at
seeing the Ivory Gull that has been seen and photographed the past
couple of days. Before I left I checked the posts and noted that it
had not yet been reported this morning. If the bird had been found
again today, friends from Maryland were going to drive over on
Wednesday with hopes of seeing the bird on Thursday. For one friend,
the Ivory Gull is his holy grail bird and I would dearly love to be
with him when he sees it. That's not saying anything about how great
I will feel when I see it. Anyway, now I don't know how to advise my
friends. Here's the scoop.
There were thousands of gulls out there today, perhaps 90% Ring-
bills, 7% Herring, 2% Great Black-backed and the remaining 1% an
assortment of the other interesting gulls. This is my own very
unscientific breakdown and someone may choose to quibble with the
numbers, but you get the picture. There was a lot or a little of
everything out there and an Ivory Gull could easily have been amongst
them. Additionally, I was surprised to see that the west side of the
Pelee peninsula is all ice - hugh chunks; whereas in Wheatley Harbor
to the north (and on the east side) of Pelee the water was completely
open. An Ivory Gull, having found it's meal early, could have easily
been all by itself out on the ice and no one would have been the
wiser. There were lots of folks out there looking. Judging from
license plates, Ontario and Michigan were well-represented, of
course, and I also saw plates from Ohio and Pennsylvania. Of the
birders I spoke with, someone had a Lesser Black-backed, another had
a Glaucous and a Thayer's, another had an Iceland. There were also
several Bonaparte's. Nice as these birds are, none were the bird of
everyone's quest. Nevertheless, I just got the feeling that the
Ivory Gull is still around. Here's why. On Sunday and Monday, it
was observed in the vicinity of both bridges feeding near the shallow
water. In the photos that have been posted, the bird appears to be
standing on ice or snow at the edge of these marshes. Also, I noted
today that there are areas of ice on the marsh water. On both days
it flew off around 2:30p - 3:00p and was not relocated after that.
It may be coming to the marsh near the bridges to feed and then
flying off to spend the night on an ice flow. It may never been seen
again, but it could be seen again tomorrow or the next, and possibly
even reported yet tonight (though it's dark now.) This is probably
way more than anyone is interested in reading - but, what a great
bird! Hopefully, it will be seen again.
Finally, regarding our recent thread on birders about the lack of
gulls in Michigan - well, it's clear why. They've all decided to
spend the winter in Ontario. If you go, you'll see what I mean.
It's an impressive sight.
Here's hoping the Ivory Gull is re-found. Good luck to anyone who
tries.
Cathy Carroll
Dearborn, MI
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From: "Karl Egressy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 18:33:38 -0500
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Subject: [Ontbirds]Short-eared Owls at Fisherville area.
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Hi Birders,
Taking advantage of the great weather Today, Marienna and I drove down =
to Fishersville area.
We stopped at La Salle Marina for about two hours.
By the time we got to Conc. 6 it was 1:30 PM.
There was no sign of Owls neither of the regular spots.
We then drove around. We found two dark morph and one light morph =
Rough-legged Hawks along Cheapside Road.
We went back to Conc. 6 at 3:50 PM. We followed the flight path of a =
female Northern Harrier until it landed on a fence post.
We were very happy to see eleven SHORT-EARED OWLS lining up nicely on =
the same fence where the Harrier landed.
An other seven Owls were sitting in the nearby tree, right along the =
fence.
A few minutes later a Male Northern Harrier joined to the female, =
perching right beside her.
What an amazing sight! Eleven beautiful Owls and a Harrier couple =
nicely lining up on the fence.
(They were about 250 meters from the road. You need a scope)
We left when the light was fading away to see yet an other Rough-legged =
Hawk.
Direction: Conc. 6 is in Haldimand County (MapArt Ontario Road Atlas =
Page 17, U 28)
Once you are on Conc. 6 then you look towards the Raptor =
Conservation field.
The fence I saw the Owls on, was on the left-hand side of =
that field.
The tree was the very first tall tree along the fence.
Good luck.
Cheers,=20
Karl & Marienna Egressy
www.kegressy.com
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