Good evening. Today Ian Cannell and I visited The Long Point area with plans to head on to the Niagara River later.
At Long Point we missed the 2 Cattle Egrets that were found first thing in the morning at the Hahn Unit of Big Creek Marsh (opposite 2335 Front Rd, west of Hwy 59) by this much but we did find 100+ Sandhill Cranes with most of them being on the east side of Hwy 59 a few hundred yards south of 1st Concession Rd and hundreds of Tundra Swans in the fields and over Big Creek Marsh and many hundreds of waterfowl on Inner Bay which also held 500+ American Coots. We drove around again for awhile looking for the Egrets without luck and before we left we did find 75+ American Pipits, Merlin and Rough-legged Hawk. There were lots of blackbirds and robins in the area as well. From Long Point we then drove to Fort Erie and at the first parking lot just north of Bertie St. we stopped to look at the hundreds of Bonaparte’s Gulls close to the shore. After awhile we decided to move along but just before leaving I was looking the gulls over and explaining a field mark and without realizing at first I centered on a juvenile Black-legged Kittiwake flying around right in front of us. We observed this bird as close as 50 feet in front of us as it flew around. We noted that there were about 1000 Bonaparte’s between this parking lot and the railway bridge a little north down the river. Time to leave but we were confronted with a closed Niagara Parkway and several surrounding streets due to the Santa Claus Parade so we decided to head up to the QEW and drive straight down to the river mouth and try for the Razorbill, besides we were running out of day. We arrived at the river mouth with an hour or so to bird but not knowing where to look for the Razorbill we decided to bird from Queen’s Royal Park at the foot of King St. Though we did not get to see the Razorbill, we tried hard, we did find an adult Pacific Loon not too far off shore as it floated past from up river, an adult Red-throated Loon and a Common Loon further out. We also noticed the White-winged Scoters mentioned by Willie D’ Anna along with at least 6 Horned Grebes. It was while I was scoping up river that a flock of Bonaparte’s Gulls flew through my scope and in the middle of the flock was an adult Little Gull. We may have dipped on the 2 target bird species but it was a nice day and we did okay in the long run. Directions:- LONG POINT AREA - CENTERED ON PORT ROWAN Port Rowan is southwest of Hamilton, to reach it you can drive south on Hwy 6 from Hamilton, passing through Hagersville and turning right, west in Jarvis onto Hwy 3, drive to Simcoe and turn left, south on Hwy 24 and follow this to Hwy 59, ( it curves to the west south of Simcoe) and your in the Long Point Area. Turn left (south) on Hwy 59 at Hwy 24 and Port Rowan is straight down Hwy 59 (about 6 kms) on County Rd 42 (Lakeshore Rd), Big Creek Marsh, etc. are just a little further south of County Rd 42. Or you can exit Hwy 403 just west of Brantford. Exit at Hwy 24 South at Exit 91 and drive south through Simcoe and follow it to Hwy 59, ( it curves to the west south of Simcoe) and your in the Long Point Area. The wood lots, fields, marshes etc. are north, south, east and west of Port Rowan. Norm Murr 303-48 Laverock Ave. Richmond Hill, Ontario L4C 4J5 _______________________________________________ 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/
