WHAT AN AWESOME DAY FOR BIRDING! Hello birders. I spent the day in the field away from my studies to look for Cave Swallows in the Long Point area (NO SUCCESS!) with a university buddy, Tim Snieder. We made a stop at the Brantford Airport because well... we just happened to be going by there and I remembered about the Gray Partridge found there sometimes. So without breaking any laws "knock on wood" we traversed a local field and after about 20 minutes managed to SUPREMELY ACCIDENTALLY flush 2 GRAY PARTRIDGE at the exact moment Tim called out 2 Eagles coming over. I took a quick glance and sure enough they were both immature GOLDEN EAGLES which then dropped out of their heavy beated flight and circled not 150m above us. Definately cooler than the looks we were getting at even the closest birds at Hawk Cliff two weeks ago. We also managed to flush half a dozen Meadowlarks (presumably Easterns) and several pipits. So with those 2 great birds down we headed for Long Point which sucked royally with no tanager or swallows. I decided to try the Big Creek marsh for the last hour of sunlight (3:30pm - 4:30pm). We ran into 2 banders from Long Point. One of them was a Brit and while the 4 of us were scanning from the 1st wooden tower Tim thought he heard the Brit (sorry I forgot your name!) mumble the word "IBIS". So he quickly said "excuse me? did u say Ibis?". Obviously the young man had no idea how rare a bird that is for the region so we all freaked and looked into the direction he was pointing and sure enough an ibis was flying up out of the marsh! We managed to see it three other times at a fair distance except for once where I had it fly right over my head from the dyke and utter 3 cackling call notes. We followed it during its last flight but it was just a dot in the sky somewhere over what looked to be the Old Cut field station marsh where I just gave up watching it. So we had no idea if it was an adult or juv. or what species it was considering 2 White-faced Ibis' have already been reported from Ontario earlier this fall. We also had an imm. NORTHERN SHRIKE at the BSC headquarters grounds, a single 'LESSER' SANDHILL CRANE among about 80 'greater' in the Big Creek Marsh and at least 150 Dunlin there in the far southwest mudflats viewed from the second tower. ***BARN OWL - word of mouth says there was a single bird seen at the tip of long point in the past week or two. Directions: Brantford Airport - from 401 west exit HWY 24 SOUTH to CAMBRIDGE. Continue south along 24 to HWY 403, exiting west. Take the hwy 4 exit south and continue for about 2 county roads and turn east onto Robinson Rd. The birds were found in the fields on the northeast corner of the airport grounds (the partridge being resident and the eagles being migrants obviously!). Big Creek Marsh - from 401 west exit HWY 59 south, jogging west to the town of Courtland on Hwy #3 and continuing south on HWY 59 which eventually brings you right along the inner bay at Long Point. Big Creek Marsh is opposite the bay and there is a small parking area on the west side of 59. I suggest birding from the second (northwest) tower. Cheers, Andrew Keaveney UofGtwitcher _________________________________________________________________ Send a smile, make someone laugh, have some fun! Start now! http://www.freemessengeremoticons.ca/?icid=EMENCA122_______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For instructions to join or leave ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdssetup.php ONTBIRDS Guidelines may be viewed at http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdsguide.php
