On Friday August 7, 2009 this is the HNC Birding Report: AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN CATTLE EGRET BLACK VULTURE
Blue-winged Teal Redhead Pied-billed Grebe Great Egret Black-crowned Night Heron Osprey Broad-winged Hawk Sora Common Moorhen Semipalmated Plover Lesser Yellowlegs Ruddy Turnstone Bonapartes Gull Long-eared Owl Olive-sided Flycatcher Common Raven August is moving along and so far not much movement of passerines or shorebirds this week. We have had a few good birds remaining or coming to the area this week. A surprise guest was the appearance of a BLACK VULTURE to some lucky observers doing the peregrine watch at the lift bridge. This ratty looking individual sailed over them and continued along the path of the hydro lines going out of sight over the Burlington lakeshore last Monday. A search that day and the next did not turn it up but searching for a needle in a haystack is difficult. The AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN seems to have taken up residence at the islands off Eastport Drive with visits during the day to the Dundas Marsh. This bird was last seen and photographed yesterday. Also still likely present although not reported in a couple of days, the CATTLE EGRET found last Friday, has been seen hanging out near the horse barns of the farm two doors down from the Waterdown Garden Supply on Highway 5. It was seen following a horse fairly close to the road on Tuesday. A migrating Bonapartes Gull also flew over the facility there. No sign of the Laughing Gull. A Common Raven was seen about 20 minutes north of the facility. Two more Common Ravens have been seen a couple of times this week at the quarry on Brock Road between 4th and 5th Concession West. At the Grimsby Sewage Lagoons this week, Hooded Merganser, Redhead, Pied-billed Grebe (juvenile), Sora, Spotted Sandpiper and several Black-crowned Night Herons were present. The water is still high here for shorebirds. Up on the mountain on 8th road east, conditions were deteriorating although rain showers did dampen the field a bit. Further west on the mountain in Blackheath a tilled field gave a new yard bird to a local birder, Semipalmated Plover, in addition to Least Sandpiper and Lesser Yellowlegs. At the Smithville Sewage Lagoons this week water levels were too high for shorebirds however an exciting nesting record of Common Moorhens and a Pied-billed Grebe were notable. At the storm water ponds on the North Service Road near Guelph line several Lesser Yellowlegs are present. This could be good habitat for shorebirds if the water levels continue to drop. At the flooded field on Britannia between 4th and 5th Lines in Oakville only Lesser Yellowlegs were present here but again the landscape always changes and a day can bring in any rarity or change. An exciting news item this week was the photograph in the paper of Long-eared Owls which successfully bred at the Eramosa Karst Conservation Area up on the mountain in Hamilton. In the odds and sods, down at the Windermere Basin, two Great Egrets and a Blue-winged Teal were present in the middle pond. Ospreys were present at the Valley Inn, over the high level bridge and just north of Binbrook this week. A group of three Broad-winged Hawks were seen circling at Tremaine Road and Derry Road. An Olive-sided Flycatcher was seen at the Summit Bog near Copetown last weekend. Ruddy Turnstones were reported at Bayfront Park in Hamilton. This is the basics of the report this week as I am doing it remotely and forgot to bring all of my sightings and checklist with me! Sorry to those whose sightings I have missed. Good birding. Cheryl Edgecombe HNC Hotline 905-381-0329 _______________________________________________ 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/
