WEEKLY BIRD REPORT FROM PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND THE QUINTE AREA FOR THE WEEK ENDING Thursday, May 28, 2009
At Prince Edward Point this past week, the American bitterns are still to be found in the area and two green herons flew over on the 26th. The canada geese numbers are slowly building up with at least 25 adults and 25 young present. Brant were moving on the 23rd and 26th with 250 and 1510 counted on those two days. The wood duck in the harbour has 11 young, offshore the numbers of WHITE-WINGED scoter and long-tailed ducks are diminishing with generally only a handful of each present, 4 bufflehead appeared on the 23rd and 1 was seen on the 24th and 26th. A flurry of red-breasted mergansers on the 26th produced 140 in a couple of hours. A broad-winged hawk was seen on the 24th and a merlin is present most days. A peregrine falcon made a meal of a dunlin ten feet from an observer on the 22nd and it reappeared again on the 24th. Five species of shorebirds have been seen this week and include peak counts of three least sandpipers on the 22nd and 250 dunlin on the 24th. Also seen on the 24th were 132 whimbrel which went past in two flocks. Four common terns went past on the 26th. Black-billed cuckoos are being seen daily and yellow-billed cuckoos were seen on the 22nd and 23rd. Whip-poor-wills have been heard calling in the evening and one was observed sitting on a branch all day near the lighthouse on the 24th. The red-headed woodpecker continues to be elusive and appears every couple of days. An olive-sided flycatcher was seen near the docks on the 24th and a total of 9 species of flycatchers have been seen this week. Vireos seem to plentiful this year with good numbers of red-eyed vireos being seen in the woods. The only ones grateful for all of this rain are the cliff swallows who are happily building nests on the buildings around the harbour. A very late brown creeper was trapped on the 23rd while ruby-crowned kinglets are rapidly decreasing with only singles being seen now. Thrushes are still moving and 45 swainson's THRUSHES were seen on the 22nd along with 8 grAy-cheeked thrushes. The EUROPEAN starlings have fledged their young which can now be seen following their parents through the trees demanding to be fed. The cedar waxwing flock has mostly gone and the numbers have dropped to about 70 a day now. Twenty-four species of warblers were seen during the week just to show us spring migration isn't quite over yet. A golden-winged warbler was found singing at Point Traverse on the 22nd and 6 Tennessee warblers were seen that day as well. Up to 80 yellow warblers are being seen daily but most of them are the local breeding birds. From 20 to 50 magnolia warblers are being seen in a day and blackpoll numbers are still going strong with up to 15 being seen daily in the bushes and trees. Most of the other species of warblers have decreased but American redstarts are going strong with up to 20 a day being counted. Mourning warblers peaked this week at 4 on the 23rd and Canada warblers are being seen daily. A pine warbler was singing around the harbour on the 23rd. White throated sparrows are hanging in with singles seen on the 24th and 26th, a white-crowned sparrow was seen on the 27th and 28th. Good birds seen for the week include a house sparrow on the 27th, our first one of the year at Prince Edward Point, a white-eyed vireo was singing in Point Traverse woods on the 22nd and a female hooded warbler was trapped on the 22nd. Finally, our Birdathon in aid of the Observatory on the 23rd would not have been complete without the finding of a yet another rarity; this year we found a western grebe swimming offshore from the lighthouse, this is the second record of this species here and occurred just 7 months after the first. The Quinte Area Bird Report would like to thank David Okines, Bander In Charge at the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory, for his hard work in providing a weekly summary of sightings and banding activities since mid-April, which has been incorporated weekly into this report. We look forward to more of his submissions when the fall banding season starts up in August. Across Prince Edward Bay from Prince Edward Point, the Kaiser Crossroad flooded cornfields continues to draw birds and watchers of birds. In addition to SORA, 2 AMERICAN BITTERNS, BELTED KINGFISHER, CASPIAN TERNS, BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON (May 24), and GREAT BLUE HERONS, both the north and south pond hosted a flurry of shorebirds this week. Over 1,000 DUNLIN have been present since the 22nd when a major influx of the species was noted in the Quinte area, and with them have been SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS (4), GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS and SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, LEAST SANDPIPERS, BAIRD'S SANDPIPER, SANDERLINGS, SPOTTED SANDPIPERS, and turning up this afternoon were the first 3 RUDDY TURNSTONES of the season. Ducks have included CANADA GEESE, AMERICAN WIGEON, GADWALL, MALLARDS, RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS and 1 NORTHERN SHOVELER. Definitely worth a visit this year as long as the rains persist and water levels remain as they are. Elsewhere across the region, BLACK TERNS at Lake on the Mountain and at East Lake, LEAST BITTERN in east Big Island Marsh, CHIMNEY SWIFTS circling above the Parrott Riverside Trail in Belleville, VIRGINIA RAILS and SORA in centre Big Island Marsh, SANDHILL CRANE along South Big Island Road, and CLAY-COLORED SPARROWS at Gorsline Road, Babylon Road and Kingsley Road. Another RED-HEADED WOODPECKER has shown up in the County, this time on North Big Island Road. A YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER showed up in a backyard on Fry Road, and another in Stirling has been pounding away for a couple of weeks on an eves trough. BLACK-BILLED CUCKOOS were calling in backyards at George's Road and at 23 Sprague Road this week. A VEERY appeared in a Barker Street backyard in Picton this morning. Bird feeders are still going full tilt, only with slightly different clientel. ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS, INDIGO BUNTINGS, BALTIMORE ORIOLES and RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS are the order of the day, and one feeder south of Picton along County Road 10 has seen over 20 BALTIMORE ORIOLES at one time at nectar feeders there. In the same backyard, an oriole feeder in one location had a male BALTIMORE ORIOLE, a RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD and an INDIGO BUNTING all sitting at an oriole feeder beside a swimming pool. Don't you just hate people like that! Both HAIRY and DOWNY WOODPECKERS were reported at individual nectar feeders in other areas across the region. Although thinning out in numbers, PINE SISKINS are still hanging in there at feeders throughout the County as well as in Wooler. We always like to finish off the report with something a bit out of the ordinary. This week, we have two stories. One story involves a Big Island couple who enjoys watching the comings and goings of birds while having breakfast. One morning this week, they were joined by a pair of TURKEY VULTURES who worked vigorously less than 30 metres away tearing apart a bloody carcass, consuming pieces of the heart with great enthusiasm. And this story in from the Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre in Napanee. Operator Sue Meech reports that two OSPREYS were down in a yard in the Tyendinaga area near Deseronto, and had been in combat. The local police were called and the officer picked up both birds and put them in his cruiser. While en route to the Napanee facility, the two OSPREYS continued to duke it out on the back seat. They were both severely wounded with fractured and dislocated wings and slash wounds all over. They both had to be euthanized. And how was your week? And that's it for this week from Prince Edward County and the Quinte area. Our thanks to David Okines, Borys Holowacz, Kathy Felkar, Mike Burge, Kathy Willis, Sue Meech, John Blaney, Helen Graham, Lyle Anderson, Pamela Stagg, Ron Weir, Henri Garand, Steve Bolton, Dave Jolly, Brian Durell, Charles Crowe, Rosemary Kent and Henry Pasila for their contributions to this week's report. This report will be updated on Thursday, June 4th, but sightings can be e-mailed any time before the Wednesday night deadline. Featured photo this week on the Main Birding Page of the NatureStuff website is by Borys Holowacz of a flock of DUNLIN feeding at Prince Edward Point. In the online edition of the Quinte Area Bird Report, photo of a BALTIMORE ORIOLE at a nectar feeder is by Bob Willis of Picton, photo of a YELLOW WARBLER on its nest is by Sydney Smith of Wellington, and photo of a BLACKPOLL WARBLER at Prince Edward Point is by Borys Holowacz of Ameliasburgh. Terry Sprague Prince Edward County [email protected] www.naturestuff.net _______________________________________________ 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/
