While driving through a new housing development in northwest Newmarket this evening (7:05 p.m.) I was pleased to see a Common Raven fly up to the roof of a house then back down again. I have observed ravens in the Newmarket area more frequently these past 5 or so years but it is still a species that warrants some eyebrow raising.
The bird flew over to large pile of excavated dirt where several other large black birds were sitting. I assumed the others were crows and that the raven's presence would start quite a ruckus but the raven settled in among them without a fuss so I stopped the car and got my binoculars out. To my surprise all six birds turned out to be ravens, heavily beaked, some shaggily "bearded", and, when they flew off to the west, all were conspicuously wedge-tailed and deep-voiced (at least those that called). The street I was on is Harvest Hills Blvd. It runs east-west, parallel to and less than half a km south of Green Lane. The ravens were near the west end of Harvest Hills, just south of a roundabout in the road. This area is about one km east of Bathurst Street in NW Newmarket. Newmarket, in turn, is directly north of Toronto along the Yonge Street corridor, approx. halfway to Barrie. Ron Fleming, Newmarket _______________________________________________ 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/
