During our Baillie Birdathon for Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory, a Western Grebe was found off the lighthouse at 6am this morning, Saturday May 23rd. The bird was about 500 metres offshore in calm water and well seen by scope. It was found by Dave Okines (whose computer is down) and also seen by the rest of the team: myself, Eric Machell, and Andrew Chapman visiting from the UK. We were on the pebble beach just east of the lighthouse, and the bird was directly in line with the smokestack from the generating station on the US shore. We studied it from 6am-6.10am but then had to get on with our Birdathon. We looked for it again just after 10am (our 24 hour count was from 10am-10am), but by then a chilly NE wind had started ruffling the water and we were pretty tired and did not refind the bird, but it might well be worth a search.
Directions to PEPTBO - (taken from a previous post of Dave's) Prince Edward Point is in the extreme south-east corner of Prince Edward county. From the 401 head to Picton then follow County Road 8 (opposite the Harbour Inn), heading South East out of Picton for about 3km and then turn right onto County Road 17, follow this until you can turn left on to County Road 16 (signed to the Black River Cheese Factory), this road is County Road 13, turn right and follow this road to the gravel road that ends at the Observatory (approx 25km). You can either park at the Observatory and walk the bumpy road around the harbour to the lighthouse, or drive this road slowly, with care. Margaret Bain Cobourg [email protected] _______________________________________________ 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/
