My apologies if others have posted the same information-sometimes Ontbirds postings arrive in my Inbox hours or even days late.
This morning a small group of us saw the TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE starting at about 10:15. It was still around when I left at about 10:45. The bird had been reported as visiting a "warm water outflow" at #7389 3rd Line Rd north of Kemptville. The outflow is hard to see from the road. When standing facing the north edge of the property, which abuts a woodlot, one can make out a depression in front of a kind of box-like structure in the property's garden. The water in is in the depression. It took a while for us to see the solitaire. It did eventually come to drink but spent more time in the woodlot. It occasionally perched high (and conspicuously) but was more often at mid-levels where it was very hard to make out against the grey trunks and branches. Fortunately it did move about a fair bit. Note that, contrary to what was said in the original posting, parking on 3rd line does not appear particularly difficult. But perhaps the people at #7389 prefer not to have cars in front of their property. At any rate, it is not a long walk in from Dilworth (surely less than 500 metres). Tom Hanrahan, his friend Bill and I were fortunate enough to also see the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD at around 11 AM on McCordick Rd near North Gower. It was in the trees around the barn at #6848. This is a little south of the actual sign with 6848 on it. After a while the mocker flew across the road to #6867 and disappeared. According to the property owner of #6848, the bird actually spends more time at #6867. On the way home I was surprised to see an immature Cooper's Hawk perched out in the open on a wire right by the side of the road on Cedarview just south of Fallowfield. It calmly watched the cars go by in the middle of "downtown Barrhaven". Unfortunately the only place to park did not allow me a view of the bird from the car. When I got out, it flew away. Directions to solitaire spot (from Gordon Pringle's original message): Take Highway 416 south from Ottawa. Before reaching the Rideau River near Kemptville, take exit 42 on Dilworth and drive east approximately 1 km to reach 3'rd Line Rd. on the left. This is before reaching the Baxter Conservation Area on the right. The house is approximately 500 meters in on 3'rd Line Rd. and is on the right at #7389. Parking is difficult on 3'rd Line so it is recommended that you park on Dilworth and walk in. You may walk in the drive to stand in front of the house and observe to the left. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Feb 23 19:32:25 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from fep4.cogeco.net (smtp.cogeco.net [216.221.81.25]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 50CEC6506B for <[email protected]>; Thu, 23 Feb 2006 19:32:25 -0500 (EST) Received: from mainoffice (d141-150-198.home.cgocable.net [24.141.150.198]) by fep4.cogeco.net (Postfix) with SMTP id 57F1269E9 for <[email protected]>; Thu, 23 Feb 2006 19:32:24 -0500 (EST) From: "Cheryl Edgecombe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 19:32:27 -0500 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Subject: [Ontbirds] Hamilton Naturalists Club Birding Report - Thursday, February 23rd, 2006! X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 00:32:25 -0000 On Thursday, February 23rd, 2006, this is the HNC Birding Report: Black-crowned Night Heron Turkey Vulture Mute Swan Tundra Swan Trumpeter Swan Wood Duck Canvasback Ring-necked Duck Greater Scaup Long-tailed Duck Bufflehead Common Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Bald Eagle Merlin American Coot Ring-billed Gull Glaucous Gull Red-bellied Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Shrike Brown Creeper Another quiet week in the Hamilton Study Area this week. A couple of new things to report, the return of Ring-billed Gulls has begun, many more are seen each day on the bay and at Windermere Basin. If one has patience to sift through the mess, they may be rewarded with a Laughing Gull as we did four years ago. Glaucous Gulls continue to be seen on the bay as well. Another new bird seen in the week was a Wood Duck seen at LaSalle Park yesterday. Along with the Wood Duck at LaSalle, all three species of Swan are there, American Coot, Greater Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck, Bufflehead, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, Common and Red-breasted Merganser. Bald Eagles continue to be reported around the area with an adult bird being seen behind Olympic Arena and a couple of juvenile birds at Carroll's Point on the Bay. Another adult Bald Eagle was spotted at the corner of the highway 99 and Harrisburg Rd.. At Shell Park today, Red-bellied, Hairy and Downy Woodpecker were at the top of the pipeline near Rebecca Street along with a dozen Robins. A Northern Shrike is also being reported from the park this week. In Bronte Creek Provincial Park campground located off of Upper Middle Road and Bronte Road, six Long-eared Owls and one adult Northern Shrike were seen last weekend. In the odds & sods this week, a Brown Creeper was seen on the Northshore Trails, down at the bottom of the High Level Bridge five Black-crowned Night Herons were seen , a Turkey Vulture was reported over Binbrook four days ago and a Merlin has been seen in the area of Central Park in Burlington almost daily. It looks like things are beginning to move, hopefully we'll pick up some decent birds like the Ottawa area has been experiencing lately. Keep looking! Good birding, Cheryl Edgecombe 905-381-0329 HNC Hotline
