On Thursday, February 15th, 2007, this is the HNC birding report: TURKEY VULTURE WILSON'S SNIPE HOUSE WREN
Northern Shoveler Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup White-winged Scoter Long-tailed Duck Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Ruddy Duck Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Bald Eagle Rough-legged Hawk Iceland Gull Glaucous Gull Eastern Screech Owl Great Horned Owl Short-eared Owl Pileated Woodpecker Brown Creeper Eastern Bluebird Hermit Thrush Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow White-throated Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird Rusty Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird Winter hit us hard this week in the Hamilton Study area. Tuesday and Wednesday brought oodles of snow to the area and bitter wind chills have inhibited people from venturing out to find birds. However, a few great birds still lurk about including a big surprise find this week! Let's cut to the chase shall we? Last Saturday, in the late afternoon, along the Sheldon Creek Trail (which can be accessed off of Burloak Drive just up from Lakeshore Road), a HOUSE WREN was found in the small evergreen trees which have been planted by the Town of Oakville along the south side of this trail just east of Burloak. The bird was seen again on Sunday, an excellent find! Hopefully the bird has survived this weeks snow and bitter cold temperatures and has likely been around a while so may be worth another look for diehard winter listers. A Brown Creeper was also seen in the area. Another great winter bird seen this week was a WILSON'S SNIPE. The snipe was beside the Paris to Cambridge Rail Trail along the Grand River at the second kilometer post north of the Willow street parking lot. At this western end of the HSA, a TURKEY VULTURE was also viewed over St. George last week. The lakeshore has been pretty quiet these days which is unusual for Hamilton. Now that the bay has frozen over, ducks have moved into Windermere Basin and out to the lake. Today at Windermere Basin a quick check found Northern Shoveler, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck and Double-crested Cormorant. Further along on the lake, at Gray's Road and Sayers Park be prepared to bring crampons, rope and other assorted climbing gear as the ice has piled up high along this side of the lake with strong east winds blowing during the storm. Not much to report along this shore today. A good number of birds were seen at Spencer Smith Park today including, Greater Scaup, White-winged Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, and Red-breasted Merganser. After twenty minutes in the bitter cold I decided that waterfowl was best observed today in Sibleys Guide with an accompanying glass of wine. Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit and we can search for whatever has been blown in with the weather. On the frozen bay, a number of Bald Eagles were seen on the ice this week and Glaucous Gulls also have been seen near Canada Centre for Inland Waters. Iceland Gull was also seen on the frozen wasteland as well. In the passerine department, a good place to visit this week is the Valley Inn. A group of eight Red-winged Blackbirds have decided to stay around, Brown-headed Cowbird, Song, White-throated and White-crowned Sparrow all being seen here this week. Along the Northshore Trails this week Pileated Woodpecker and Fox Sparrow were highlights here. At nearby York Road, two Wild Turkeys and a Rough-legged Hawk were reported from the area. A few owls to report in my odds & sods this week. Short-eared Owls were discovered as a yard bird east of Cayuga this week, what an treat to have these flying around! A Great-Horned Owl made an appearance up in Millcroft. An Eastern Screech Owl was seen in a yard on Mountain Brow in Hamilton just shortly after a Long-eared Owl made its appearance a couple of weeks ago. A Pied-billed Grebe is still in the unfrozen portion of the Desjardins Canal. A Rusty Blackbird made an appearance there too! A Hermit Thrush was seen at Websters Falls and four Eastern Bluebirds were seen at Smoky Hollow on Waterdown Road and on Kemp Road up in Grimsby last weekend; an awesome display of colour against a white background. That's the news for the week, bundle up and get out there, send me something to write about next week! Winter listing is almost over! Good birding, Cheryl Edgecombe HNC Hotline 905-381-0329
