The best local concentration of waterfowl is in Elevator Bay with 11 species reported on Wednesday. There is nothing particularly rare but the mix of ducks seems to change from day to day and the task of sorting through a flock of a thousand sleeping scaup to find something different is more than a bit of a challenge. Sharp-shinned Hawks seem to be raiding feeders all over the area; Opinicon, Gananoque, Camden East, Bedford Mills, and within the city. A Cooper's Hawk has been patrolling the Queen's campus all week. Six Bald Eagles were reported this week from a variety of locations but the best numbers for these and other raptors are still on Wolfe Island. There are at least a half a dozen Snowy Owls as well as a few Barred and Short-eared. There does seem to be some movement of Barred Owls this winter as we are seeing good numbers all across the southern portions of Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties. Great Horned Owls have started calling in the Camden East area. Both the Violet and Napanee Dumps have lots of gulls including both Iceland and Glaucous but viewing these is complicated by the fact that the Violet dump is only open a few days a week and at Napanee the birds are often out of sight behind the "landfill mountain". Finch numbers, still dominated by redpolls, are down. The weather has been erratic, to say the least, and this is having an effect on feeder populations. A few miscellaneous observations; Belted Kingfishers at Elevator Bay and Collin's Bay, Pileated Woodpeckers at Camden East and Bedford Mills, and 11 Ruffed Grouse visiting a feeder just outside Tamworth.
Cheers, Peter Good Kingston Field Naturalists 613 378-6605 _______________________________________________ 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
