I did a quick check of the Holland Marsh vegetable fields west of Newmarket/south of Bradford late this afternoon and had two Snowy Owls. Both birds were west of Keele Street. One of them was sitting on the ground in the fields north of Strawberry Lane (approx. 500 m west of Keele), the other was sitting on top of the last wooden hydro(?) pole just west of house #390 Woodchopper's Lane (there are 9 or 10 poles that run north, perpendicular to the road). Both birds were well back from the road; they could be seen with binoculars, but more satisfying looks required a spotting scope. I did not have an opportunity to check Canal Road itself or any of the roads that run off of it on the north side of the Holland River. At the Cawthra Mulock nature reserve east of Dufferin a long walk through a beautiful snowy landscape yielded two Ruffed Grouse but virtually nothing else birdwise. Earlier in the day, while walking my dog along very suburban Clearmeadow Blvd. in south Newmarket, I watched a big Cooper's Hawk (female, I presume) cross the road in front of me and slice between two houses in pursuit of a passerine. When I was passing by the spot where she had gone, I could see the sleek accipiter sitting on a wooden fence in one of the back yards. The bird it had been chasing did not appear to be on the end of any talons, though I had no binoculars with me to be sure. Ron Fleming, Newmarket Keele Street runs north (and south, for that matter) from Davis Drive/Hwy. 9, which leads east to Newmarket from Hwy. 400. Woodchopper's Lane is the first left turn from Keele as you drive north (where Keele crosses the canal via a little bridge); Strawberry Lane is further north by a few kms. Both lanes only run west from Keele. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Jan 21 18:44:21 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts16.bellnexxia.net [209.226.175.4]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AABAC63B3B for <[email protected]>; Sat, 21 Jan 2006 18:44:21 -0500 (EST) Received: from personaldil636 ([64.230.106.117]) by tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.netSMTP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for <[email protected]>; Sat, 21 Jan 2006 18:44:22 -0500 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: "Ott User" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ontbirds" <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2006 18:44:17 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=response 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]Snowy Owl - Ottawa X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2006 23:44:22 -0000
As many already know, there have been quite a few Snowy Owls reported in the Eagleson, Fallowfiield, Brownlee, Akins and Richmond "block". Something caught my attention this afternoon while driving along Brownlee close to Shea. A dead Snowy owl was still hanging upside down on a pole....seemingly held on with only the one talon. I thought it was a rather odd position for it to have expired in hanging there like that. Would be interesting to know what was the cause. Last time I was there was a week ago so not sure how long it's been dead. I did happen take a photo of it. http://www.pbase.com/golfpic/image/55128762 W.H. Ottawa, Ontario. Direction to Snowy Owl: >From Ottawa, take 417 west and exit at March/Eagleson. Stay left and follow Eagleson until you reach Brownlee (Brownlee is the second street after Fallowfield). Turn right on Brownlee and head toward Shea.
