The Kingston Field Naturalists held their annual spring round-up last weekend. The cool windy weather reduced the number of species seen, but some good birds were tallied nevertheless. Amherst Island still had Rough-legged Hawks and a Snowy Owl. At the northeast end of the island we heard Wild Turkeys; to my knowledge they haven't been recorded on Amherst before. Shorebirds on the KFN property included lots of breeding Spotted Sandpipers and Wilson's Phalaropes, good numbers of Dunlin and Least Sandpiper as well as single Semipalmated Sandpiper and Plover. The highlight of the day was a Marbled Godwit that flew in and posed in front of the group as we looked at the more mundane species.
There have been more warbler arrivals at the Queen's University Biological Station (QUBS) this week: Bay-breasted, Chestnut-sided, Tennessee, Canada, Blackpoll and lots of Cerulean. Two Brewster's hybrids were noted; one on the Opinicon Road and another near Enterprise. Both Black-billed and Yellow-billed Cuckoo have returned to QUBS and another Black-billed was calling near Camden East yesterday. The KFN Chimney Swift project is meeting with some early success. Swifts have already visited the camera-monitored artificial chimneys that were recently installed atop buildings at Queen's. Various roosting and nesting sites are being monitored; the old Willmott's Dairy chimney at Princess St. and Bath Road had 77 birds last week. Two other sightings of "good birds" complete this week's missive; a Red-headed Woodpecker on Howe Island last Friday and a Tufted Titmouse at Chaffey's Lock on Wednesday. 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 information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
