This morning, following up on the alert post by Dave Worthington, I
arrived at the site at 11:00 am and after a short search found the two
Buff-breasts feeding east of the bridge on a sparsely-vegetated area
of the flood plane with Killdeer and Canada Geese. They were watched
for duration of an hour by myself and several other local birders
including Doug Lockrey and Alan Woods. We all have scopes and were
able to see the standard field marks of pale buff face, neck and
breast with fine spots, yellow legs and think bill. They were a
distance estimated to be about 200 to 300 meters but with front
lighting. At 12:20 pm they flushed with a half dozen Killer, flew sw
over Brock Road and landed in a cultivated area when a new subdivision
is going, still visible from the bidge. This areas is surrounded by a
high fence and I was able to find the birds after they landed. I
left the area at 1:15 pm. The habitat there is really perfect for
migrant shorebirds but we did not locate the Bairds Sandpiper but
recorded Spotted Sandpiper and Lesser Yellowlegs.
Directions: take the 401 to Whitby and the Brock Road exist and go
south; the bridge is about 4 blocks south of the #401. The road there
is quite wide and most birders were parking there but parking areas
are available at the harbour just south of the bridge and a block
north of the bridge.
Wayne Renaud (289-828-0043)
_______________________________________________
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/
