An interesting day of birding between Christmas shopping and watching the feeders from my office window in my home in South Burlington along Tuck Creek just north of Lakeshore Road. Most interesting were three (!) mockingbirds flying over Fairview Street near Walker's Line at 10:30 this morning. While this species can usually be encountered in this area (regular resident), I have never seen three birds flying together. Along Tuck Creek behind my house, a flock of 26+ Robins is feeding on some berries. These birds have become a regular occurrence over the past few years (until the berries are gone). In addition, it is a busy day at the feeders--8 cardinals, 2 blue jays, 2 downy woodpeckers, 2 rose-breasted nuthatches, 2 white breasted nuthatches, 8+ house finches, 20+ juncos, 12+ mourning doves, 1 white-throated sparrow and 16+ house sparrows. Almost not worth monitoring the stock market. _________________________________________________________________ Be one of the first to try Windows Live Mail. http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=5d21c51a-b161-4314-9b0e-4911fb2b2e6dFrom [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Dec 21 15:40:21 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from tomts40-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts40.bellnexxia.net [209.226.175.97]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8BE1C63478 for <[email protected]>; Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:40:16 -0500 (EST) Received: from queens5kg564bn ([216.209.110.96]) by tomts40-srv.bellnexxia.netSMTP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for <[email protected]>; Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:40:16 -0500 From: "Peter and Jane Good" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:40:07 -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 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3028 Importance: Normal Subject: [Ontbirds]Kingston CBC and other sightings to Dec 21, 2006 X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:40:22 -0000
The Kingston Christmas Bird Count was conducted last Sunday Dec. 17th and included most of the city as well as Garden Island, Simcoe Island and the west end of Wolfe Island. As was the case elsewhere across the province conditions were very mild which proved to be both a bonus and a handicap. The tally now stands at 104 species plus two more for the count week with the possibility that more results may yet come in from feeder watchers. We had record high counts for 5 species: Common Raven 7, Wild Turkey 149, Northern Harrier 69, Redhead 5044, and Am. Coot 194, of which 159 were in a single raft that was totally coots (except for one Redhead) off Wolfe Island. Good birds included 3 Double-crested Cormorants, 4 Great Blue Herons, 2 Snow Geese amidst 21,414 Canadas, 335 Tundra Swans, and 7 Snowy Owls. I'm always amazed at the number of singletons that show up on any bird count; this one was no exception. We tallied one of: Red-throated Loon, Red-necked Grebe, Ruddy Duck, Peregrine Falcon, Little Gull, Marsh Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Bohemian Waxwing, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and Chipping Sparrow. Also in the singleton category but even more unlikely on a Kingston Christmas count were a Virginia Rail, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, our first ever Eurasian Wigeon (it has been present in the Kingston area since Oct. 12th) and a splendid-looking male Baltimore Oriole. Other sightings locally were several good birds near Mallorytown Landing, east of Gananoque, last Saturday: a Bald Eagle, a Glaucous Gull, a Bohemian Waxwing with 70 Cedar Waxwings, 50 Snow Geese and a Snowy Owl. Two Screech Owls were singing Monday night, one near Enterprise, the other at Camden East. And yesterday, birders trying to see the oriole found on the Christmas count at Lemoine Pt. had to settle for a Northern Shrike. Merry Christmas Peter Good Kingston Field Naturalists 613 378-6605
