Ontario Birders; I thought I might update people on the what is happening bird wise in the Sault Ste. Marie Area.
It has been a relatively good winter locally. Obviously the most dramatic story is the absolutely massive numbers of Pine Siskins. The numbers are still growing and I have literally hundreds at my feeding station all day-every day with 2-3 "green-morph" birds most days. I am going through a 50lb bag of Nyjer seed and a 50 lb bag of black oil sunflower seeds every 10 days along with bags of millett and safflower seeds, corn, suet and grit. I have 8-10 large bags of Nyjer seed out at all times and they are covered with Siskins as are all the other feeders and ground. It is a continuous feeding frenzy. Mixed in are a fair number of Common Redpolls a few Hoary Redpolls and a smattering of Goldfinches and Purple Finchs. If it continues like this I will be broke by spring. At one point earlier in the winter White-wing Crossbills were everywhere but they seem to have thinned out considerably. Small numbers of Pine and Evening Grosbeaks on the roadsides and a complete absence of Red Crossbills rounds out the finch report. Along with the finches I have a wintering Norhtern Flicker (very rare for winter in this area) and today a female Black-backed Woodpecker was in the dead Spruce trees behind my house- making 5 sp. of woodpeckers for my yard today. I have 100s of dead Spruce trees on my property and this is my second Black-backed in the last few years. I have had 4 American Three-toed Woodpeckers over the last 3 winters but none as yet this year. Given that we have 5 feet of snow it is a bit of a challenge getting around back there. On Whitefish Island in Sault Ste. Marie there has been a very reliable Rusty Blackbird hanging around the trail and a sizeable flock of Robins both unusual in winter locally. Both sp. of Waxwings and both Redpolls are also present in this area. There have been at least 4 Boreal Owl reports locally one in Bruce Mines hung around for a month. I of course haven't seen any of them. Just south of us in the Rudyard, MI area there have been up to 5 Snowy Owls, 3 Hawk Owls and 1 Great Gray Owl. Dave Bell a very kowledgeable and keen local birer had a juvenile Golden Eagle flying over the Sault earlier in the week. It was with a Bald Eagle which is the commonest wintering raptor in the area. There were several Gyrfalcon sitings and some photos from the farming areas south of Sault, MI earlier in the winter but none the last couple of weeks. Interstingly Sault Ste. Marie has never really attracted much attention from "Ontario Birders" given our distant location. This contrasts dramatically to Sault Ste. Marie area of Michigan which is considered a prime birding hotspot all year around by birders from Michigan, the other Great Lakes states and really from across North America and further afield. The Sault Area (defined by the Sault Naturalists as the area within a 50 mile diameter circle with the centre at the international bridge) Checklist includes over 360 documented species including such megararities as Black Rail (banded), Short-tailed Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, Wheatear (4 records), Barn Owl, Ancient Murrelet (4 or 5 records), Cave Swallow, Black-throated, Cassin's, Brewer's and Golden-crowned Sparrows, all 4 Longspurs, Inca and Common Ground Dove, Tufted Duck, Virginia's Warbler, Clarke's Nutcracker, Lewis's Woodpecker(2 records), Slaty-backed Gull and Wilson's Plover to just name a few. There are several Michigan birder's who have seen well over 300 sp. at Whitefish Point alone (which in area is smaller than the tip area of Point Pelee). The fact that many (but certainly not all) of the prime local birding areas are in Michigan has also certainly contributed to the relatively muted interest in the Sault Area in Ontario birding circles. Any one passing through the area is welcome to contact me by E-mail for an update or advice on local birding spots. Good birding Kirk Zufelt _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
