Evening all, Thought it might be a good evening to check and see if the local Woodcocks had arrived, and sure enough, when I got to their regular spot, it was almost 8:00pm and at least 7 were actively calling and doing display flights in the clear evening air. They are located 2 concessions west of Exeter, off 83 highway on Ausable Line. Turn left (south) and go about 100 yards. There is a split rail fence and a gate. The property is posted as No Trespassing, but the Woodcocks can easily be seen flying, from outside the property, from the concession roadway. Much to my surprise, a few were actually flying out of the harvested cornfield across the road from the property. Happy Spring, and Good Birding.... Rick Thornton Exeter ON
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Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.15/728 - Release Date: 3/20/07 8:07 AM From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Mar 22 21:57:09 2007 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from fep2.cogeco.net (smtp1.cogeco.ca [216.221.81.28]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AA6F76347F for <[email protected]>; Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:57:09 -0500 (EST) Received: from videoedge (d141-150-198.home.cgocable.net [24.141.150.198]) by fep2.cogeco.net (Postfix) with SMTP id E23195C0; Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:57:10 -0400 (EDT) From: "Cheryl Edgecombe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:57:01 -0500 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2869 Importance: Normal cc: Dagmar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Ontbirds] Hamilton Naturalists Club Birding Report - Thursday, March 22, 2007 X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:57:11 -0000 On Thursday, March 22, 2007, this is the HNC Birding REport: SNOW GOOSE SANDHILL CRANE COMMON RAVEN Canada Goose Tundra Swan Wood Duck Gadwall American Wigeon Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Ruddy Duck Red-throated Loon Horned Grebe Red-necked Grebe Great Blue Heron Turkey Vulture Bald Eagle Red-shouldered Hawk Rough-legged Hawk Killdeer American Woodcock Iceland Gull Common Raven Eastern Towhee Fox Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Tuesday marked the beginning of spring and finally, it looks like the next few days are going to live up to expectations. Colder weather earlier in the week hampered and stalled migrants in the Hamilton Study Area but in the next few days, I expect great things to come about. One of the hotspots this week and typical for this time of year is the Niagara Peninsula Hawkwatch at Beamer Conservation Area in Grimsby. Brave volunteers endure extremes of weather this time of year with hopes of having a successful day of hawkwatching. This week has seen a significant movement of Bald Eagles, Red-shouldered, Red-tailed, Coopers and Rough-legged Hawks. An early push of migrant Turkey Vultures has also kept counters busy. I expect with the clearing out of this weather system, things will start to move again tomorrow. Other migrants seen at Beamer this week include a SNOW GOOSE seen with a flock of Canada Geese, Wood Ducks, Tundra Swans and a few Great Blue Herons moving through. Today marked the first migrant Fox Sparrow of the season. A COMMON RAVEN flew over the tower last Sunday. If you have a chance to visit Beamer on a day with South winds, its well worth the trip. Also seen today in the very flooded fields up on the Hamilton Mountain were two Green-winged Teal at 1st Road East and Mud Street, Northern Pintail and a group of 16 Tundra Swans at 5th Road East South of Powerline Road and four Northern Shoveler on Powerline Road. A heads up to this area, many of the fields up here are extremely flooded making it attractive to migrating ducks and early shorebirds. These areas should be checked frequently! Also in the area today were thousands of Blackbirds, combinations of Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles and Brown-headed Cowbirds. Now is a good time to look for those Brewers! Out on the bay, many of the Bald Eagles have found less and less space to sit on the ice. Eight of them were counted today. The bay has opened up quite a bit this week. Last weekend, more ducks were being seen on the bay and we had great looks at a snow white Iceland Gull along the ice at Eastport Drive. Red-throated Loons, Horned Grebes and Red-necked Grebes were seen on the bay as well. At nearby Tollgate Ponds, Red-necked Grebe, Ring-necked Duck, Gadwall, Lesser Scaup, American Wigeon and Ruddy Duck were present. In other new migrant news a TREE SWALLOW was seen today at Bronte Harbour which brings me to a great omission two weeks ago, a TREE SWALLOW was seen at the bridge in Caledonia, a record early sighting. Sorry about missing that one on the report! An EASTERN TOWHEE was heard and finally seen in the Middletown Marsh area last weekend another great date for an early migrant. Last Saturday I flushed two AMERICAN WOODCOCKS from an orchard near Cumberland and Harvester. By this weekend, these birds should be peenting in all the traditional spots. A SANDHILL CRANE made a nice addition to a yard list calling over a house near Concession 8 and Westover Road in Flamborough this morning, Earlier in the week a migrating Red-shouldered Hawk was seen here. This weekend should be interesting! Please keep me posted on arriving migrants and other goodies. Thanks for all your reports. Good Birding, Cheryl Edgecombe HNC Hotline 905-381-0329
