It has been a good week locally; lots of waterfowl, good concentrations of gulls, an unusual number of "late" birds and a rarity. Two hundred and twenty Tundra Swans were tallied on Wolfe Island last Saturday along with 25 Canvasbacks, a Snow Goose and a White-winged Scoter. There were 5 Ruddy Ducks in the Cataraqui River on Saturday, and a dozen Trumpeter Swans at Chaffey's Lock on Tuesday. The 3 Wood Ducks remain in the river at Napanee. There were 8 Horned Grebes on Amherst Island last weekend and two Double-crested Cormorants were reported; one at Prince Edward Point on Saturday and the second in Kingston on Wednesday. There are also lots of ducks and gulls at Westport including a 1000 Common Mergansers, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers and a half dozen Gadwall. Both the Lansdowne and Violet dumps were checked this week. Lansdowne had a Lesser Black-backed and a Glaucous and Violet an Iceland. There were 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls in Elevator Bay last Saturday. Amherst and Wolfe Islands are both hosting large groups of Short-eared Owls. The Owl Woods was almost vacant at the beginning of the week with only a single Barred Owl and the Lemoine Point Barred Owl was seen again on Monday. Amherst also has large numbers of N. Harriers and Rough-legged Hawks. Feeder watchers have noted Sharp-shinned Hawks and several lakes north of the city are hosting Bald Eagles. There was a Merlin on Amherst this week and a Peregrine on Wolfe. The Queen's University Peregrine has returned to its roost on Botterel Hall. Good birds for the winter listers included Golden-crowned Kinglets on Garden Island and at Bath, Am. Robins in the city and on Amherst, a Winter Wren at the Queen's Biology Station (QUBS), Great Blue Herons on both Wolfe and Amherst, 5 Killdeer at Bath on Sunday as well as Swamp, Song and White-crowned Sparrows. There was a Red-winged Blackbird at the Cataraqui Cemetery and a Brown-headed Cowbird at Violet on Saturday and 2 Common Grackles at PEPt on Sunday. Six Eastern Meadowlarks on Amherst last Sunday were a pleasant surprise. Noteworthy winter birds were Common Redpolls at PEPt, Battersea and on Wolfe Island, up to 50 Pine Siskins at a Camden East feeder, and a N. shrike on Amherst. Flocks of Bohemian Waxwings were seen at Elginburg, QUBS and north of Yarker and a pair of Evening Grosbeaks were seen on the feeder with the Varied Thrush at Moscow. It seemed to cooperate for everyone that went to see it yesterday. 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/
