Saw a first year Cooper's Hawk at Britannia Woods today about 3pm. It was in a tall deciduous tree on the north side of the small bay southeast of the area where the Great-horned Owls are usually seen and at the extreme southwest corner of Mud Lake. A Pileated Woodpecker was in the same tree not far f rom the Cooper's.
Directions from the Queensway: Exit onto Pinecrest Road north (exit 129), north on Pinecrest to Richmond Road, right (east) onto Richmond Road, use left lane to cross Carling Avenue, turn left (north) at the traffic light just past Carling Ave and onto Poulin Avenue. Continue to end of Poulin, turn left on Britannia Road, continue to Cassels St. and turn right, continue to end of Cassels St. opposite the Britannia Yacht Club. Turn right on the road that goes to the Britannia Water Filtration Plant and proceed (about half way to the plant) to the path entrance to Britannia Woods on your right just before Mud Lake. The path borders Mud Lake - head south (away from the Ottawa River) and stay on the main path until you get to the south end of Mud Lake. Take the path that borders the south side of Mud Lake and scan trees bordering the southwest corner of the lake. Don Wigle Ottawa From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Jan 25 19:16:39 2007 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from tomts13-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts13.bellnexxia.net [209.226.175.34]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C2E0F63978 for <[email protected]>; Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:16:38 -0500 (EST) Received: from trentu.ca ([216.209.98.33]) by tomts13-srv.bellnexxia.net (InterMail vM.5.01.06.13 201-253-122-130-113-20050324) with ESMTP id <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:16:37 -0500 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:16:35 -0500 From: Fred Helleiner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: [email protected] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: [Ontbirds] Presqu'ile Birding Report for Week Ending January 25, 2007. X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:16:39 -0000 In some respects, birding at Presqu'ile Provincial Park has been more interesting than in any previous week this winter. At least one rarity and three species of owls have broken the spell which has made birding reports repetitive for several weeks. As part of the Brighton Winterfest activities, birders and others wanting to visit the Park will be admitted free this Sunday. Three species of swans were at the calf pasture at the end of last week, including two Tundra Swans on January 19 and a Trumpeter Swan on the following day. At least 200 Mute Swans are around the Park almost every day. Three Gadwalls were at Salt Point on January 23. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of ducks of the genus /Aythya/ that move into Presqu'ile Bay to feed whenever there is open water and then retreat to the open water of Lake Ontario at dusk to avoid being frozen in overnight. The vast majority are Greater Scaup but there are also a few Canvasbacks and plenty of Redheads, prompting the Park naturalist (actually "Natural Heritage Education Leader") to remark, "It's as good as Waterfowl Festival there now!" On January 19 there were at least four Lesser Scaup and a Ring-necked Duck at Salt Point. There is no way of knowing whether the latter was a newly returned migrant or one that had been undetected in the area since the fall, but last year an extremely mild spell in January brought one back to Presqu'ile on January 13 after several weeks of real winter. The highlight of the week for rarity-seekers was a Barrow's Goldeneye that showed up near the lighthouse on January 22 and was re-discovered east of Chatterton Point on January 24. Hooded Mergansers are occasionally seen at Presqu'ile in winter, but no one has reported seeing any since December 30. A Common Loon was still in Presqu'ile Bay on January 19, the latest date on record for the Park. Another record late date was set on January 23, when a Great Blue Heron flew past 94 Bayshore Road. There were still four American Coots present on January 24. This may prove to be the first winter in which that species successfully over-winters at Presqu'ile. An immature Bald Eagle flew past the lighthouse on January 24, and another of that species, perhaps the same one, was at the Nature Centre on the following morning. A Rough-legged Hawk flew over the calf pasture on January 24. A birder on an off-trail trek through the woods on January 20 spotted first a Great Horned Owl catching some warming rays while perched in a tree in Newcastle Woods and half an hour later a Barred Owl doing the same thing in Jobes' Woods. A Snowy Owl was seen on High Bluff Island two days later. Since the discovery of a Black-backed Woodpecker and an American Three-toed Woodpecker in "the fingers" in November, a number of birders have hunted unsuccessfully for either of those /Picoides/ woodpeckers there but have never conceded that the birds are no longer there. On January 23, after a snowfall the night before, fresh spruce scalings that were unmistakably from one of those species were found on the snow near the shed in the woods. It might pay to keep searching. The tapping of two Pileated Woodpeckers nearby gave one birder hope of finding the rarer ones. After an apparent absence of almost three weeks, the Northern Shrike at the calf pasture was seen again on January 24. A Brown Creeper was seen near Salt Point on that day. To reach Presqu'ile Provincial Park, follow the signs from Brighton. Locations within the Park are shown on a map at the back of a tabloid that is available at the Park gate. The channels separating Gull Island from Owen Point are no longer considered safe to cross. Questions and comments about bird sightings at Presqu'ile may be directed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- -- Fred Helleiner 186 Bayshore Road, R.R. #4, Brighton, Ontario, Canada, K0K 1H0 VOICE: (613) 475 5309 If visiting, access via Presqu'ile Provincial Park.
