The winter listers locally are finding some good birds despite the deep snow and some very frigid temperatures. There was a Great Blue Heron at the Kingston ferry dock on Wednesday, 10 Rusty Blackbirds near the Glenora ferry on Monday, 15 Red-winged Blackbirds on Amherst Island and 10 Am. Robins at PEPt with another 20 at Waupoos along with 2 N. Flickers. Song Sparrows were reported from Waupoos, Gananoque and Amherst Island. Red-bellied Woodpeckers are regular on both Howe and Amherst Islands. A bit unusual was a pair of Common Ravens near the south end of Gardiner's Road in the city. Amherst had a good week for owls with N. Saw-whet, Barred, at least 3 Great Horned, a dozen Short-eared and the very cooperative N. Hawk Owl along the south shore. No Snowy Owls were reported this week and numbers of Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks are down. The N. Harriers seem to have abandoned Amherst for points south. A Barred Owl was at Bellrock and E. Screech Owls were seen on Howe Island and near Moscow. Bald Eagles are widespread and abundant; 2 at Waupoos and Amherst and singletons at Bellrock, Dupont and PEPt. There are at least eleven species of waterfowl at the Dupont lagoon; everything from Tundra Swans to Hooded Mergansers with a few Am. Coots in the mix. Most visitors to Amherst are reporting Ring-necked Pheasants and large flocks of Wild Turkeys were at Conway and north of Camden East. N. Shrikes were seen on Amherst and at PEPt. A single Glaucous Gull was seen in the Kingston harbour last Saturday and another was at Millhaven yesterday. Snow Buntings, Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls are well distributed but not in particularly large numbers. (78 Common Redpolls at Bedford Mills on Tuesday was a bit of an anomaly.) Four flocks of Bohemian Waxwings were reported; at Yarker, north and south of Camden East and at PEPt. The Varied Thrush continues to patronize the feeder east of Moscow. 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 [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
