Ontbirders,
Today (January 12), I went to see the oriole that has been present since December 16 at the feeders of Al and Eva Hurst in Yarmouth (near St. Thomas). I arrived at 1:20 pm and found the bird actively feeding with House Sparrows, House Finches, and Purple Finches. I observed the bird frequently over the next 40 minutes. I managed to get a few digiscoped photos, one of which is quite good. In my opinion, this bird is a Baltimore Oriole, based on the following observations: 1. There are distinctly contrasting wing bars. 2. The median covert bars are uniform, and do not show any dark "teeth" intruding into them. 3. The lores are pale and not much of an eyeline is evident. 4. There is uniform colouring from the crown to below the eye, with no yellowish supercilium. I'm sure this will be disappointing to those who may have wished for a Bullock's Oriole. I will try to get a photo posted to the Ontbirds photo page. Please feel free to disagree with my identification - I won't be too disappointed if I'm proven wrong! Here are Dave Martin's excellent directions: Yarmouth Centre is located at the intersection of Talbot Line / Hwy # 3 and Yarmouth Centre Line, just east of St. Thomas in Elgin County. The address of the property is # 44415 Talbot Line and the house is on the southeast corner of this intersection. There is a sign on the east side of the driveway saying GAMMONS RV and Appliance Repairs. You can drive in this driveway about 20 metres so that you can see the feeders behind the house [south side of house]. The driveway is a loop driveway into the owners business so just park to one side of the right side of the loop and watch out the car windows at the feeders which are only about 10 metres from the driveway. Once you've finished watching you can drive around the loop and back out to the highway. Gord Payne London, Ontario vireo at sympatico dot ca
