A fine male Eyrasian Wigeon was in the first pond at the Port Perry lagoons at midday today, Friday April 30th. It was with several American Wigeons, Northern Shovelers, both teal, and a few Gadwall and Northern Pintail. There were still good numbers of diving ducks, including Bufflehead, Ring-necked Ducks, both scaup, and a pair of Common Mergansers. The first and fourth ponds are quite low, with reasonable edge habitat, but shorebird diversity is still poor - 16 Greater Yellowlegs, 23 Lesser Yellowlegs, 6 Killdeer and one Spotty.
A permit is necessary to access the lagoons and the fee has gone up to $10 this year. Quoting Geoff Carpentier's previous post: "Permits may be purchased at the Durham Region Transfer Site located at 1623 Reach Rd, Port Perry during the following business hours .... Tuesday,Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. To get to the transfer station, travel north on Hwy 12 past Port Perry [Hwy 7A] to the next traffic lights [Regional Road 8 = Reach Rd.] and travel east to #1623 on the north side of the road. The lagoons are one road north of the transfer site, east off Hwy 12 on Concession Rd. 8 [don't get confused as, despite the fact that these roads are both numbered "8", they are two different roads - one is a regional paved road, the other a dirt concession road.]" 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/
