Location: London Landfill Observation date: 1/27/07 Directions: If you are interested in gettting a look at any of these birds just go to the London landfill and talk to the supervisor. From down town london follow Wellington well out of town across the 401, turn on the second set of lights on the other side of the 401 (Manning Dr.) follos it until you come to the landfill. Make sure to check in at the front gate when you enter. Also outside the dump on White Oaks just to the west of the dump is a good site to watch the gulls they fly backa nd forth between the dump and the fields and go right over your head in small steady numbers, ideal for identification. The birds are active and they could turn up anywhere around the dump.
Notes: Since I biked out to the dump from downtown London I was hoping for some very good birds. I wasn't disappointed. My dad and I are hot on the trail of a Thayer's gull and it is always nice to get a world bird. (If anyone can help me with id I should be able to alleviate my doubts which are few to begin with). Also the Lesser Black Backed is only one less than a lifer for me. Number of species: 14 Red-tailed Hawk 3 Rough-legged Hawk 1 Ring-billed Gull 50 The number fifty is an approximation, I had to approximate with any gulls there in numbers larger than two or three because they kept flying beyond where I was allowed to go. Only a small fractin of the gulls were visible to me at any one time. Herring Gull 5000 Another approximation, but maybe on the high end, in any case there were enough to fill the sky. Thayer's Gull: I indentified this bird by it's dark outer primaries which got lighter as they went inward. It seemed pale to be a Thayer's but I have very little experience with them. I think that the dark tips and pale underwing and body settle it though. I recognize it as not an Iceland or a Glaucous which also suggest Thayer's. I noticed on the top of the wing a patch of feather's which was considerably lighter than the rest of the wing which I believe to be the greater coverts and pssibly the other overwing coverts. I would appreciate anyone with Gull knowledge giving me some tips. I have also considered that it may be a hybrid of some nature but have little knowledge about gull hybridization. Iceland Gull: 3 Lesser Black-backed Gull: I believe this bird to be a third year. I got several fieldmarks including the small size the contrasting mantle and wingtips and a strong possibility of yellow feet. I couldn't concretely get the yellow feet but the other fieldmarks seem to be enough. Glaucous Gull: 1 This bird was clearly younger than a third year bird based on the uniform buffy colour. Identified based on overall size and the relatively large and heavy bill. Great Black-backed Gull 30 Rock Pigeon 3 Horned Lark 30 European Starling 4000 American Tree Sparrow 1 House Sparrow 20 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://www.ebird.org) ____________________________________________________________________________________ No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go with Yahoo! Mail for Mobile. Get started. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mail From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Jan 27 20:10:21 2007 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from smtp106.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com (smtp106.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com [68.142.225.204]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 79EF463493 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 27 Jan 2007 20:10:21 -0500 (EST) Received: (qmail 44557 invoked from network); 28 Jan 2007 01:10:22 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.0.2?) ([EMAIL PROTECTED]@74.112.2.121 with plain) by smtp106.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com with SMTP; 28 Jan 2007 01:10:22 -0000 X-YMail-OSG: zuwUlCkVM1luPVMmvFNOseddBD733FfyJucdM2xOm8X1y58u19enaZeM2HTvSSo9yA-- Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed To: Ontario Bird-list <[email protected]> From: Gene Denzel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2007 20:10:20 -0500 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) Subject: [Ontbirds] Vaughn birds: Merlin, Sharpie, long-eared owls, rough-legged hawks X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 01:10:22 -0000 This morning a group from the Richmond Hill Naturalists and the West Humber Naturalists took a swing through the lands still undeveloped W of Hwy 27 and N of 16th Sideroad. There were lots of feeder birds, but the highlights were a 1st year Merlin (initially thought to be a sharpie until looked at through a scope with a nice long close study), on Major MacKenzie Rd just W of Hwy 27, and a couple of Rough- legged Hawks, the best one a beautiful white-morph on Major Mac just E of Huntington. While studying the Merlin, a Sharp-Shinned Hawk came in behind us on another tree, and gave us a good comparison of plumages. There were also numerous red-tailed hawks as we drove around. At the NAshville Cemetary (off Huntington Rd) in the cedars there were 5 Long-eared Owls, who upon being harrassed by a big flock of Blue-Jays did some neat fly-arounds. On some freshly laid manure along McGillavry Rd just North of 16th on the East side, there were a number of Horned Larks fairly close to the road giving great views. Gene and Charlene Denzel 9 Idleswift Drive Thornhill, ON L4J 1K8 905-889-7888
