Waterfowl have increased both in numbers and variety this past week. Most harvested cornfields are filled with Canada Geese. At the Collin's Bay Penitentiary these were mixed in with 13 white Snow Geese and a pair of Sandhill Cranes at the start of the week. Red-breasted Mergansers were off the shores of both Wolfe and Amherst Islands. Eight Common Goldeneye were off the east end of Amherst on Monday and a Long-tailed Duck was seen along the south shore of Wolfe on Wednesday. Others of note included 2 Horned Grebes off Amherst, 4 Ruddy Ducks in Little Cataraqui Creek, an Am. Coot and a medium sized raft of scaup in Elevator Bay.
Shorebird numbers, as expected, are down. On Monday the KFN property had 2 Black-bellied Plover, 4 Greater and a single Lesser Yellowlegs, 3 Pectoral Sandpipers and about 50 Dunlin. On Wolfe on Wednesday, there were several Greater Yellowlegs and 3 Dunlin. Owls have not yet started to put on a show. There was a Barred Owl in the city last week and from Amherst two N. Saw-whet Owls; one roosting in a garage on the 11th and another in the Owl Woods on the 18th. As migration progresses we get some lingering species and some not-too-subtle hints that winter will soon be upon us. There was a hummingbird near Camden East last Friday, 2 Fox Sparrows at Elginburg on Saturday, an Eastern Bluebird on the Florida Road, a Brown Creeper and a Hermit Thrush on Amherst, and a N. Shrike on the K&P Trail last Sunday. On Amherst on Monday there was an immature Black-crowned Night-Heron, a Common Yellowthroat, a couple of Am. Pipits and about 10 Bonaparte's Gulls. An Eastern Phoebe lingered near Elginburg until Tuesday and 4 Purple Finches were at Bedford Mills 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/
