Kayo Roy, John Black, Brian Ahara and myself met up for some birding around Port Weller East this morning, and I finished up the day by heading down the Niagara River during the afternoon. The definite highlight of the day had to be the flock of 6 PURPLE SANDPIPERS which we found in the morning feeding along the rocks on the lake side of the "foot" (out towards the east tip) of Port Weller East . We had long, great looks as they fed a mere 10 yards from us as we looked down from the bluff! Also seen was a fly-over dark phase ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, and SNOW BUNTING. After a couple rather quiet stops at the mouth of the River at Niagara-on-the-lake and Queenston, I stopped at the Adam Beck overlook, where the adult basic CALIFORNIA GULL was showing nicely at its preferred spot on the rocks just beyond the "point" to the left of the Robert Moses Dam. This makes it year #14 for this species showing up at this locale on the River! I then headed to the falls area, checking only above the falls, which held a good number of the expected species for the time of year, as well as about 15 NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS, feeding on the upstream end of Goat Island across the River. Above the control gates where viewing can be tricky, given the active construction, there were several thousand ducks; mostly both SCAUP species and CANVASBACK, as well as REDHEAD, RING-NECKED DUCK, and COMMON GOLDENEYE. Viewing back from the American side just beyond Goat Island from the Robert Moses Parkway, was a male EURASIAN WIGEON feeding out in the River separate from the large Athya flock, but loosely associating with Mallards, American Wigeon, and Gadwall. This is presumably the same bird that was seen last weekend above the falls near the barge. A great day to be out! Jim Pawlicki Amherst, NY Port Weller east can be accessed from Seaway Haulage Rd. just east of the bridge over the Welland Canal from Lakeshore Rd. in St. Catharines. Niagara-on-the Lake is well signed at the mouth of the Niagara River at Lake Ontario, and Niagara Falls from Niagara-on-the-Lake south along the Niagara Parkway. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Nov 12 18:41:03 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from BAYC1-PASMTP03.bayc1.hotmail.com (bayc1-pasmtp03.bayc1.hotmail.com [65.54.191.163]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DDEB2638FD for <[email protected]>; Sun, 12 Nov 2006 18:41:02 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Originating-IP: [70.51.219.136] X-Originating-Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Received: from sympatico.ca ([70.51.219.136]) by BAYC1-PASMTP03.bayc1.hotmail.com over TLS secured channel with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 12 Nov 2006 11:06:28 -0800 Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 14:02:45 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v553) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: Tony Beck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.553) X-OriginalArrivalTime: 12 Nov 2006 19:06:28.0436 (UTC) FILETIME=[A822D940:01C7068D] Subject: [Ontbirds] Golden Eagle, Lapland Longspurs, Sandhill Cranes, etc. - Ottawa East X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:41:03 -0000
Hello Ontbirders Despite damp cold, and an occasional mild drizzle, we had an excellent morning birding through the agricultural fields south of Orleans, east of Ottawa. A subadult Golden Eagle flew southeast relatively low over Frank Kenny Road, just south of Innes Road. Directions courtesy of Neily World: http://ca.geocities.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/merblu16.htm A flock of about 20 Lapland Longspurs were observed over Frank Kenny Road between McFadden and Huismans Roads (south of Navan). They formed a separate flock, but occasionally came within proximity of a group of about 300 Snow Buntings. Directions courtesy of Neily World: http://ca.geocities.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/merblu10.htm At around 11:00am, an astounding 68 Sandhill Cranes were observed together in a plowed field west of Milton Road just south of Smith Road. Shortly after arriving, they broke into several smaller flocks and spread out over the fields, remaining west of Milton. Directions courtesy of Neily World: http://ca.geocities.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/merblu8.htm We counted 16 Rough-legged Hawks, 4 Red-tailed Hawks and 7 Northern Harriers throughout the morning. We also observed many variably sized flocks of Snow Buntings, the largest reaching close to 400. Cheerio Tony Beck 158-B Woodridge Cr., Ottawa, Ont. K2B 7S9 (613)-828-5936 website: http://www3.sympatico.ca/beck.tony/
