This is some more information regarding the Razorbill sighting I
reported earlier from site via my Balckberry.
I arrived at the site below Fort Mississauga at about 10:30 am and
met John Ralston from Sault Ste. Marie and a mother and daughter from
the Hamilton area, I apologize for not getting their names.
Shortly after 11:00 I spotted a dark bid well out in the lake and
well west of the green buoy, which is more like 500 metres plus
offshore. The bird had a very chunky shape but was facing/swimming
away from us. John and I figure now that this was likely the
Razorbill but at the time we were not prepared to hang our hats on
some limited observations at long range.
At about 13:06 I had just started to scan the river starting at Fort
Niagara and working downstream. There is a open grassy area
downstream of the fort and I spotted the bird near the middle of the
river but closer to the Canadian side in line with this grassy area
maybe 200 to 250 metres from the shore All four of us had great
looks at the bird as it stayed on surface for about 20 minutes with a
couple of dives and drifted out into the lake. During this time the
bird was observed to be preening and spread its wings on a couple of
occasions. The bird was facing upstream most of the time.
There was partial sunlight on the bird and John managed to get some
excellent digiscope shots. We lost the bird in the wake of
a Canadian Coast Guard boat which passed between us and the bird
(but not close to the bird)
Unfortunately another group of birders from North Bay and South River
left just before we spotted the bird and returned about 10 minutes
after we lost sight of it.
John has indicated he will post some of his shots to the OFO web pages.
Based on what we observed it may be that the bird flies upriver a bit
and then drifts back towards the lake. This would account for the
sightings reported upstream of Fort Mississauga
Directions per the previous emails to this list can not be improved on.
-
Bruce Wilson
Barrie, Ontario
Life Member NMRA Member Gauge 0 Guild Member Scale 7 Group
