There were 3 Snowy Owls on Amherst this week; 2 on the KFN property and
another near the firehall. The raptor survey is still finding Short-eared Owls
to the east of Stella at dusk; 4 this week with one of them harassing a
Red-tailed Hawk that chose to roost on a too-conspicuous fence post. Barred
Owls were seen again at Lemoine Pt. and at the Queen's Biological Station and
there was an E. Screech Owl in Cartwright's Point.
Bald Eagles are still abundant north of the city; 13 at Lake Opinicon and
another 3 near Devil Lake. A N. Goshawk was at Glenburnie on Sunday and
yesterday a Cooper's Hawk spent much of the afternoon roosting on a beam at the
open end of a barn south of Camden East.
There's considerable open water but no great numbers of waterfowl as yet.
Eighty Red-breasted Mergansers and about 60 Tundra Swans were on Wolfe on
Tuesday and 4 Lesser Scaup were in the Cataraqui River on Monday. Canada Geese
have started to move into cornfields north of the 401 now that most of the snow
cover has gone.
Numbers and variety of gulls have improved. Ring-billed are retuning in small
numbers and the concentration of gulls on the Amherst ferry channel is
considerable. Wednesday had 2 adult Glaucous and 3 Great Black-backed alongside
hundreds of Herring. The Violet dump had 1 Glaucous and 1 Great Black-backed
and the Lansdowne dump; 16 Great Black-backed, 1 Glaucous, 3 Iceland and a
Lesser Black-backed.
The Tufted Titmouse is still at Wilstead, a Bohemian Waxwing was seen in
downtown Kingston last Saturday, a pair of N. Shrikes put on a show at Lemoine
point on Monday and a lone male Purple Finch was singng at Camden East on
Tuesday.
Signs of spring are becoming more and more obvious; the sap has run very well
the last few days and the crows, doves and woodpeckers are much more vocal.
There were 30 Horned Larks on Wolfe and a Red-winged Blackbird on the Florida
Road last Friday, an Am. Robin on a lawn in the west end of Kingston on
Wednesday and a Song Sparrow at Camden East yesterday.
Cheers,
Peter Good
Kingston Field Naturalists
613 378-6605
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