Once again, the Tricoloured Heron (Egretta tricolor) is fishing about the Niagara River across from the Dufferin Islands park, the parking spots are hard to come by, but it is worth the effort. Daisy and I met some very nice OntBirds members there this morning, good birding to you all.
We watched the heron come and go for about 5 hours this morning, Saturday August 12th, 2006 ... it would feed for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes, then take off to another location accross the river for some Buffalo Wings, and then return to Canada for a cold beer. Amazing to watch this bird catching minnows that were sailing by at a very high speed., lighting accuracy with it's neck and beak, it actually brought in 2 minnows in one dive.. a photo on the website is there for proof! Sometimes it would inhale 3-5 minnows inside of a minute! Here is one shot from today. http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y281/rammy111111/TriColouredHeron10.jpg More on the website here... www.rayswildlife.com Thanks to everyone who has sent me comments regarding my photos, it is my pleasure to share them with all of you fine folks. There is a comment window under each image, feel free to post your thoughts there if you wish. Today was one of my best birding shoots ever, and i hope to have all the editing and photos posted on my website tomorrow. Good Birding!! regards, ray and daisy Diane and Kayo Roy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: The adult Tricolored Heron remains at the same location above the Falls in Niagara Falls. DIRECTIONS: Once in Niagara Falls drive along the Niagara Parkway above the Falls to Dufferin Island. Lots of tourists there at this time of the year and parking can be a real problem. Go to the south entrance road to Dufferin Island and park here. IT IS FREE. Walk back across the Parkway towards the Falls and look for the small GATE HOUSE HYDRO building (less than a 5 minute walk). It is just south of the much larger old Toronto Hydro Building (sometimes called the Engineerium building). There is a little parkette between these two buildings....walk along the NORTH side of Gate House building to the river edge. Look for the park bench closest to this small building, the heron was opposite this bench feeding on small fish standing on some very close shoreline rocks. Kayo Kayo Roy 13 Kinsman Court Fonthill, ON L0S 1E3 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For instructions to join or leave ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/ontbirdshow.htm ONTBIRDS Guidelines may be viewed at http://www.ofo.ca/ontbirdsguide.htm Raymond J Barlow 13 Sandra Crescent Grimsby Ontario Canada L3M 4Y8 www.rayswildlife.com --------------------------------- All new Yahoo! Mail --------------------------------- Get news delivered. Enjoy RSS feeds right on your Mail page. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Aug 12 23:28:29 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from bay0-omc1-s18.bay0.hotmail.com (bay0-omc1-s18.bay0.hotmail.com [65.54.246.90]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3940F63F9E for <[email protected]>; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 23:28:29 -0400 (EDT) Received: from hotmail.com ([65.54.161.37]) by bay0-omc1-s18.bay0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sat, 12 Aug 2006 20:28:28 -0700 Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Sat, 12 Aug 2006 20:28:28 -0700 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Received: from 65.54.161.200 by by106fd.bay106.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP; Sun, 13 Aug 2006 03:28:28 GMT X-Originating-IP: [216.46.155.105] X-Originating-Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "Maris Apse" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 23:28:28 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed X-OriginalArrivalTime: 13 Aug 2006 03:28:28.0827 (UTC) FILETIME=[8B48C6B0:01C6BE88] Subject: [Ontbirds]Yellow-crowned Night-Heron - Blenheim S.L. X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 03:28:29 -0000 Hi all, This juvenile plumaged bird was in the first lagoon to the right. It was at the edge of the cattails near the NE corner ~18:00 to-night and I barely got my bins on it before it flew up and out of sight. I walked part way down the berm, but could not find it so went on to the last lagoon to look at all the shorebirds. There were many Yellowlegs, mostly Lesser, ~ 12/15 Dowitchers (1 possible Long-billed, but too far to be sure), 10 Spotted, 5 Pectoral,~ 8 Least, ~ 20 Semipalmated, 2 Baird's and finally 1 Stilt Sandpiper plus ~5 Semipalmated Plover and ~15 Killdeer. I decided to try to locate the Heron by walking around the south end and as soon as I turned the SE corner immediatelt spotted the bird at the edge of the cattails again. This time it afforded me great scope views at only ~15M, for about 2 minutes - ample time to note all the features. It then flew across the lagoon to the large roadside trees, south of the tower giving me a great look at the very gray flight feathers. I could not see the bird in the tree from roadside - it may have flown down to the lagoon as I was fiddling with the lock. Cheers! Maris Directions: ~ 1 Km north of Hwy #3 on Lagoon Road, which is just west of Blenheim. You must have a permit, which gives you the combination lock #, from the town office. This is available free during business hours or can be downloaded from the Blenheim website - but unfortunately I do not have the addresses at hand (in Ontbirds archives?) Maris Apse 10094 Red Pine Road, Box 22, RR #2 Grand Bend ON N0M 1T0 (519) 238 - 8415
