Dear Fellow Birders, Birding has been great down in the Long Point area lately, with most of the good birds being seen in the vicinity of Big Creek. Today there were 98 Sandhill Cranes, 100+ American Coots, 13 Pied-billed Grebes, 1 Hooded Merganser, 15 Ruddy Ducks, 400-500 Tundra Swans, 3 Canvasback, 4 Redheads, 5 Rough-legged Hawks, 5 Bald Eagles, and 6+ Northern Harriers. Big Creek has largely frozen over, there are only a few spots now where the river is still open, including at the bridge along Lakeshore Rd (which had 20+ Coots the other day) and where it meets the Inner Bay at Hwy 59. The latter is where all of the waterfowl listed above is congregated and are very easy to see and photograph from the bridge. About 100m further south along Hwy 59 you can see part of the opening that Big Creek creates at the Inner Bay and this was where all 98 cranes were coming into roost tonight (which is interesting as I am not aware of cranes regularly roosting on ice), also there may have been more that had come in to roost before I had arrived. Other birds of note seen recently include a Eastern Meadowlark, Great Horned and Short-eared Owl at the back of the Bird Studies Canada, two Eastern Screech-Owls in the boxes on the north side of Concession A near the Bayou Club, Snow Goose, Gray Partridge near Backus woods, Turkey Vulture, Golden Eagle, hundreds of Brown-headed Cowbirds, the occasional Red-winged Blackbird or Common Grackle, several Rusty Blackbirds at Turkey Point, and lots of Horned Larks and Snow Buntings along the concessions. A drive along Lakeshore Road west of Hwy 59 to Gore Rd and up to Conc. A and back over to Hwy 59 is usually productive and will also take you by the Bayou Club.
Directions: Exit the 401 at Hwy 59 near Woodstock and follow it south all the way to Port Rowan. There is an intersection here, to the left is Front Rd (which takes you by the Bird Studies Canada office on the right), and Lakeshore Rd to the right. If you continue straight on Hwy 59 you will come into Big Creek which is the large marsh that will surround you. Mike Boyd Long Point, Ontario From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Jan 29 21:30:15 2007 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from mta1.aucegypt.edu (mta1.aucegypt.edu [213.181.245.106]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 52C8A634AF for <[email protected]>; Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:30:14 -0500 (EST) Received: from aucegypt.edu (smms1.aucegypt.edu [213.181.245.108] (may be forged))l0U2SC3d015753 for <[email protected] >; Tue, 30 Jan 2007 04:28:17 +0200 Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:25:35 +0000 Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Sensitivity: 3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable From: "darling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "ontbirds" <[email protected]> X-XaM3-API-Version: 4.1 (B122) X-SenderIP: 24.141.162.41 X-PMX-Version: 5.3.0.289146 Subject: [Ontbirds]Fisherville: Short-eared Owls, Lapland Longspurs X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:30:15 -0000 On Concession 6, just north of Fisherville, Haldimand County, between Fis= herville Road and the Selkirk Townline there were 8 Short-eared Owls at 4= :15 p.m. today in the first conifers coming from Selkirk Townline by the = side of the road, and seven more widespread in the same area at 5:15. Closer to the Fisherville Road end on the north side of Concession 6 ther= e was an L-shaped line of manure that attracted a large flock of Horned L= arks. Among them were at least four Lapland Longspurs. Sandy Darling
