With the forecast, we thought we would only bird the river for a short while today. Even though the wind was quite strong, there were several spots where we were somewhat sheltered. And there were a lot of gulls to look through. We only saw two other birders and they were new to gull-watching, so we wonder what we could have missed. Here is what we had:
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE one juvenile in the gorge near the Horseshoe Falls. We got very wet here from the mist so we did not check many of the birds that were further downriver and across from the American Falls. Little Gull one adult at the Whirlpool (Spanish Aero Car). Lesser Black-backed Gull 2 adults above the falls, 1 third-basic and two juveniles at the power plants from the Adam Beck overlook; perhaps one of the same juveniles on the roosting rocks along the Ontario shoreline, about ½ mile upriver from the Adam Beck overlook. Iceland Gull about six, all at Adam Beck. Thayers Gull one juvenile at Adam Beck. CALIFORNIA GULL one adult at Adam Beck. We had this bird in flight for about an hour between 2:30 and 3:30. Another or possibly the same adult CALIFORNIA GULL has been seen off and on at the NY side of the river at Goat Island, which is between the brink of the Horseshoe and American Falls. The bird at Goat Island was reported as recently as yesterday. There were pretty good numbers of large gulls above the falls but wind made scoping difficult. Some Bonapartes above the falls as well but not really a lot of them (low hundreds). However, at the Whirlpool, there were a lot of Bonies I estimated 4 to 5000. Lots at Adam Beck and downriver from there though we never checked lower Queenston. Good numbers of large gulls at Adam Beck. Directions: All of these spots are within about a six mile stretch of the Niagara River on the Canadian side, from the control gates near Chippewa (an obvious structure that sticks well out into the river with a pull-off on the downriver side where one can see lots of gulls but it was windy here today) to the Adam Beck overlook, which is on the south side of the Ontario Hydro power plant and directly across from the NY Robert Moses Power Plant. All places can be accessed from River Road (also known as the Niagara Parkway). Good birding! Willie ---------------- Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com http://www.betsypottersart.com _______________________________________________ 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/
