En route from Hamilton to Newmarket this morning I followed up on Gene Denzel's
Saturday report about Kleinburg-area birds and abandoned the 407 for feathered
fare. At the Nashville cemetary I found two Long-eared Owls. Unfortunately,
one of them flushed and drew the attention of some local-and-vocal Blue Jays,
so I decided not to bushwhack in search of any others lest they suffer the same
harrassment. For the record, this kind of restraint (which I must admit I did
not have as an eager novice) is recommended; it's hard to pull in the reins
when your excitement is high, but its much better for the birds if you do. I
think owls, in particular, get chased a lot. Not to sound like a grumpy old
teacher (which actually I am, come to think of it...), but bear in mind that
they need to devote their energy to hunting and surviving rather than fleeing
from humans.
Anyway, a little further south, on McGillvray Rd., I bumped into two birders
who were also following up on Gene's report (you're a popular man, Dr. Denzel).
They directed me to the Horned Larks in the field just south of the driveway
that leads into the main farm at # 9471.
I set up my scope and counted 72 Horned Larks plus 11 Snow Buntings. I could
not find any Lapland Longspurs but the spirit of Gerry Bennett, whose birding
turf this once was, would surely say "keep checking".
When I turned north again on McGillvray, a commotion in a roadside bush
caught my attention: it was a Northern Shrike chasing Tree Sparrows. He never
nabbed one, but the flock of 60 or more sparrows that had been cavorting
happily in the weeds when I first arrived was soon lying low. Along the south
side of Major Mackenzie Drive where it crests the hill west of Hwy. 27 there
was a wintering flock of about 20 American Robins. (I'd like to have done a
better count but it was a bad place to stop).
Back home in Newmarket, I grabbed my cross-country skis and drove out to the
North Tract east of town to follow up on Chris Dunn's report aboutWhite-winged
Crossbills. This large section of York Regional Forest runs from the east side
of McCowan Road all the way over to Hwy. 48. There are thousands and thousands
of crossbill-friendly conifers. Still, during one of my many stops for oxygen,
the calls of some anomalous winter finches (i.e. not goldfinches, not house
finches, and not pine siskins) caught my attention and I looked up to see a
flock of about two dozen birds moving south then east just about the treetops.
I can't swear that they were Chris's crossbills, but the flight calls
(different than their more characteristic two-tone trills) were certainly
similar to those recorded on the Stokes Guide to Bird Songs that I checked when
I got back to the van.
Interestingly, when I got home to check my e-mails Chris Dunn and Julia Marko
had sent a message saying they'd seen and heard the crossbills again Sunday
morning. Their original post from Friday describes the area well: "At 10:30
a.m. there was a flock of between 25 and 30 White-winged Crossbills at the
North Tract of the York Regional Forest, about 6
km east of Newmarket. The birds were vocal, feeding on spruce cones by
the side of McCowan Road, about 250 m south of Davis Drive. Directions: From
the 404, take the Davis Drive exit and follow Davis Drive east to McCowan Rd.
This area is known as Vivian and the North Tract is sometimes referred to as
the Vivian Forest.
Ron Fleming, Newmarket
P.S. Gene Denzel: Sorry I was unable to make the Kleinburg trip. Icy road
conditions between Newmarket and Kettleby prompted me to turn back that morning.
From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Jan 28 20:18:36 2007
Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: from tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts20.bellnexxia.net
[209.226.175.74]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id
3D06A6347F
for <[email protected]>; Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:18:36 -0500 (EST)
Received: from brucedb4u2q8ov ([70.51.209.200])
by tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.netESMTP
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
for <[email protected]>; Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:18:36 -0500
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "Bruce Di Labio" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "ontario birds" <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:18:36 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
format=flowed;
charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3028
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3028
Subject: [Ontbirds]
Eastern Ontario: Double-crested Cormorant,Common Loon and Cackling
Geese
X-BeenThere: [email protected]
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2007 01:18:36 -0000
Hello Ontbirds
Spent the day birding along the St. Lawrence River from Cornwall to
Prescott. Overall it was an good day with a number of interesting birds. In
the Cornwall area, 1 Double-crested Cormorant, 4 Common Loon, 2 adult Bald
Eagle and 2 Cackling Geese were found. In the waterfowl category, 1,104
Common Goldeneye, 798 Common Merganser, 949 Mallard, 285 Canada Geese, 30
Am.Black Duck, 4 Red-breasted Merganser and 1 male Hooded Merganser were
sighted between Cornwall and Prescott.
Near Johnstown, a Belted Kingfisher was observed feeding in a small
patch of open water. Earlier in the morning we made a brief stop in the
Casselman/Ste. Rose area and observed 4 Snowy Owl and 100+ Lapland Longspur.
good birding,
Bruce
Directions: The Cornwall Power Dam is located just west of the town of
Cornwall off Power Dam Road.
Directions: Ste.Rose: From Hwy 417 east of Casselman take exit 58 and
proceed north
on Cty Rd 8 until you come to Concession 20 Rd . Turn right (east) on
Concession 20 Rd. which is between and Conc. Rd 19 (north) and Conc. Rd 21
(south).
If you require additional information, please email me privately.
Bruce Di Labio
400 Donald B. Munro Drive
P.O.Box 538
Carp,Ontario,K0A 1L0
(613)839-4395 Home (613)715-2571 Cell
Di Labio Birding Website
Courses and Field Trips
http://www3.sympatico.ca/bruce.dilabio/
