At 3:30 p.m. today, Monday, January 23rd, the Slaty-backed Gull was still at the south-west corner of Hillman Marsh, crossing back and forth between the channel that leads out of the marsh to Lake Erie, and standing on the shore on both sides of the channel.
It was visible from the south Hillman Marsh parking lot at the north end of East Beach Road. However, at 3:53 p.m. it flew up and over to the north side of the Couture Dike and out of view. I would suggest checking the parking lot first, since it is a long walk to get to the Dike to see the water on the north side. Todd Pepper Leamington, Ontario [EMAIL PROTECTED] From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Jan 23 23:15:07 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts20.bellnexxia.net [209.226.175.74]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 927CD63B8B for <[email protected]>; Mon, 23 Jan 2006 23:15:07 -0500 (EST) Received: from jean-bapu1sw48i.sympatico.ca ([69.158.117.92]) by tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.netESMTP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for <[email protected]>; Mon, 23 Jan 2006 23:15:07 -0500 Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.2.1 Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 23:15:28 -0500 To: [email protected] From: Jean Iron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Subject: [Ontbirds]Barnacle Goose record in Ontario X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 04:15:07 -0000 We have just learned from Pierre Bannon of Montreal that a Barnacle Goose was shot by a hunter last fall 2005 near Hawkesbury (east of Ottawa along the Ottawa River) in eastern Ontario about 3-4 km from the Quebec border. This bird was a wild bird banded in Scotland. The ring number was 1291440-SW7 with a Darvic white ring with letters XAL. Steve Percival of Durham in the United Kingdom reported the banding details to Jean-Francois Giroux of the University of Quebec in Montreal. Percival wrote, "Excellent to hear from you and particularly regarding this exciting recovery. It was a bird that we ringed on Islay on 9 November 2004 as a juvenile (i.e. 1st winter) male, on the RSPB reserve at Loch Gruinart on Islay, Scotland (55.83 degrees N, 6.34 degrees W). Of the many thousand that have now been ringed in this population I think that this is the first to have been recovered in Canada (and I think anywhere in N America). After ringing on Islay we don't have any other records of this bird though. The ring number matches with the darvic code so there's no argument about the record." Most Barnacle Geese seen in Ontario are probably escapees so this record of a banded individual will be the first record for Ontario pending review by the Ontario Bird Records Committee. We thank Pierre Bannon of Montreal and Michel Gosselin of the Canadian Museum of Nature for keeping us informed about this important record of a wild Barnacle Goose in Ontario. Ron Pittaway and Jean Iron Toronto ON [EMAIL PROTECTED]
