Yesterday between 12:30 and 2:00 pm I birded the boardwalk trail along the nw side of the main marsh from the bottom of the hill off Bexhill to the lake hoping to find some rarities pushed up from the tropical drepression: lots of tired and tame birds and lots of dead Monarch butterflies.
Large flocks of five species of swallows over the marsh and 45+ Red-necked Grebes just off the outflow of marsh to the lake. I found 15 species of warbler (more like May!!! in variety and abundance... ) the most common being Nashville, Black-throated Green, American Redstart and Magnolia with a few Canada's, Bay-breasts, two Mourning Warbers and one Louisiana Waterthrush. The heavy rain have raised the level of marsh considerably, hence washing out the beach-bar/dam ... the result: the sandbars were just beginning to be exposed with 7 species of shorebird including nine Stilt Sandpipers and six Sanderlings. Directions: Bexhill runs south off Lakeshore Road about 0.5 km west of Clarkson or Erin Mills Parkway. It can also be accessed via Lakeshore Road south off the QEW from Mississauga Road. Park at the bottom of Bexhill and walk down hill, turn left at bottom and start birding. Wayne Renaud From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Sep 4 12:26:45 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from web88011.mail.re2.yahoo.com (web88011.mail.re2.yahoo.com [206.190.37.230]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 0128F63A4D for <[email protected]>; Mon, 4 Sep 2006 12:26:45 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 6117 invoked by uid 60001); 4 Sep 2006 16:26:45 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=rogers.com; h=Message-ID:Received:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=tLHxBWmNAUIok4VpYadshadiKReZw+eWwJVRlTZHW3UdZRL1tUo10Qd1T2GxPz0ZrglwQI/iWK08A4MY2wI2Nxav7F0RiHjVkxmuTk/20CMpP2/Cw81Jf3vftMuPSWLAz0oNy5apfim/0pQ0PtHGT6svUBcmKHd3URkP6KhwJZA= ; Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Received: from [74.120.141.233] by web88011.mail.re2.yahoo.com via HTTP; Mon, 04 Sep 2006 12:26:45 EDT Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 12:26:45 -0400 (EDT) From: RON FLEMING <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: OFO Bird Sightings <[email protected]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.1 Subject: [Ontbirds]Holland Landing/Beeton on Labour Day X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2006 16:26:45 -0000 Although shorebird numbers were down noticeably this morning, there were still several interesting birds at the Holland Landing lagoons early in the day. The American Avocet discovered last Monday was still present; it is usually seen in the 4th lagoon but flew from there to the 2nd cell when I was leaving at 9:30. A second avocet reported Saturday morning has not been seen again. Gord Cameron discovered a White-rumped Sandpiper along the SE shore of the 4th lagoon at 9:00 a.m. and there were at least 20 Stilt Sandpipers in the 2nd cell today. (Chris Dunn and Julia Marko counted 27 there yesterday afternoon!) There is still at least one Short-billed Dowitcher in the 2nd lagoon. There was a little conga line of birders arriving as I was leaving; if you were among them and saw anything else of note, please post. I received an e-mail from Ian Stanley yesterday reporting a Yellow Rail, which he saw wandering out of the reeds at the south end of the 3rd lagoon on Friday. This species is very hard to find in Ontario, but if you happen to flush an odd little bird with buff and black striping on the back and a white rectangle (speculum) in the wings, you may have hit the jackpot. It is worth keeping your eyes peeled for this elusive little rail if you visit the lagoons. The Beeton sod fields held a lot of Ring-billed Gulls, Killdeer, and a smattering of Horned Larks this morning, but little else. The Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Black-bellied Plovers observed by me yesterday morning and Frank Pinella yesterday afternoon were not present when I was there between 10:00 - 11:00. (For the record, these birds were seen in the general vicinity of house #5671 on 10th Line, which is about 1.5 kms west of 15th Sdrd. just northeast of Beeton.) I bumped into John Schmelefske who was also out birding the sod farms in search of the latter birds; he had one Semipalmated Plover as consolation and, as I drove south on 15th Sdrd., I had an American Kestrel and a Cooper's Hawk to cheer me up. Ron Fleming, Newmarket DIRECTIONS: The Holland Landing lagoons are just north of Newmarket, which in turn is about 30 minutes directly north of Toronto. From Davis Drive/Hwy.9 in mid-Newmarket, turn north at the lights on Yonge Street (the Upper Canada Mall will be on the NW side of this busy intersection). Drive past all the "big box" stores in the north part of Newmarket (past Tim Horton's, Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Future Shop, Costco, Silvercity Cinemas, etc.) and past the Victory Church to the stoplights beside Brooklin Concrete and the Newmarket Inn (this is about 2 kms north of Green Lane). Turn right into Holland Landing and follow the curving descent to the lights at the bridge (don't take the left near the bottom of the hill). The bridge crosses the railway tracks, then the East Holland River. Go north past Mount Albert Rd. You will be on Old Yonge Street. Keep going north through town, past Beckett Ave. You will go through a little curve in the road where there are conifer stands on both sides, then you will pass Doane Rd. on the right. About a km after that you will see two white wagon wheels and a Maximum 60 sign; this is Cedar St. Turn right (east) and follow it to the dead end. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Sep 4 13:54:02 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from mx5-2.spamtrap.magma.ca (mx5-2.spamtrap.magma.ca [209.217.78.137]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4A92463BAD for <[email protected]>; Mon, 4 Sep 2006 13:54:02 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mail3.magma.ca (mail3.internal.magma.ca [10.0.10.13]) k84Hs1qA009337 for <[email protected]>; Mon, 4 Sep 2006 13:54:01 -0400 Received: from oemcomputer.magma.ca (ottawa-hs-64-26-148-87.d-ip.magma.ca [64.26.148.87]) (authenticated bits=0) by mail3.magma.ca (Magma's Mail Server) with ESMTP id k84HrxjG011360 for <[email protected]>; Mon, 4 Sep 2006 13:54:00 -0400 Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2006 13:54:29 -0400 To: [email protected] From: Gordon Pringle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-magma-MailScanner-Information: Magma Mailscanner Service X-magma-MailScanner: Clean X-Spam-Status: Subject: [Ontbirds]Juvenile Western Sandpiper, Shirley's Bay, Ottawa X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2006 17:54:02 -0000 Monday, September 4, 2006 1:52 pm There is an Ottawa telephone alert in progress as follows: From Bob Bracken, Chris Lewis and Bernie Ladouceur on their Seedathon run (Delayed till today): A Juvenile Western Sandpiper, probably male, at the base of the Shirley's Bay Dyke from 10:45 till 11:15. Associating with two White-rumped Sandpipers. Directions: Shirley's Bay: From Ottawa take Hwy. 417 west to the Moodie Drive exit and turn north (right) on Moodie Drive and continue to Carling Ave. Turn left at Carling Ave. and follow Carling to Rifle Road. Turn right (north) on Rifle Rd. Park at the lot at the end (boat launch). Walk back to the road, and continue through the gate on the Department of National Defence property. There is a trail on your right (clearly marked with vehicle "No Entry" signs) which heads into the woods, and, eventually to the dyke. **** PLEASE NOTE**** YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE RANGE CONTROL OFFICE BEFORE ENTERING THE DYKE AREA-- Call (613) 991-5740 and request permission to visit the dyke area for birding. Gordon Pringle 1236 Henry Farm Dr. Ottawa ON K2C 2E2 613-224-0543 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
