The fields west of Holland Landing and east of Bradford flood each spring, creating excellent stop-over sites for migrating waterfowl. Kevin Shackleton noted the arrival of Tundra Swans on March 28 and there were still a dozen of them on the west side of Bathurst St. N. as recently as yesterday... unfortunately I could not find any today.
Fourteen duck species including American Wigeon, N. Pintail, Wood Duck, GW & BW Teal, Redhead, and N. Shoveler, have been observed there over the past three weeks (many thanks to Doug Jagger who made an intrepid mud-march down Hochreiter Road on April 2nd to make an official I.D. on many of these). Eleven duck species were still present today on both sides of Bathurst St. N. a scope is recommended if you go looking for them. Three Greater Yellowlegs discovered by John Watson on April 13 have been joined by twenty others since then. They tend to be on the east side of Bathurst, across from the ATV Farms building. John also had the FOY (First of Year for the region) Tree Swallows that I am aware of on April 13. Bruce Brydon had two Horned Grebes at the same location Sunday, as well as a large flock of blackbirds (mostly grackles and red-wings) in the trees south of the open area. He estimates 40-50 Rusty Blackbirds were in the mix. I found a smaller flock of ten Rusties in those woods today. In the same area (specifically the laneway that runs east into Holland River Marina) there were ten Caspian Terns and 20 Bonaparte's Gulls this afternoon. At the northern terminus of Bathurst there were two Ospreys on a nest in the distance - Kevin Shackleton noted them there last weekend. Also present were two Northern Harriers and one Broad-winged Hawk today. Just northeast of this location (as the crow flies), both Kevin Shackleton and Irving Himel have noted a nesting pair of Bald Eagles, numerous Great Blue Herons (Kevin counted 70), and a pair of Osprey on the north side of Ravenshoe Road in SW Keswick. The last wintering Snowy Owl that I am aware of was seen by Irving two weeks ago. Kevin had an Eastern Phoebe at Silver Lakes Golf Course in north Holland Landing on April 13; I found my FOY Phoebe at the Cawthra Mulock Reserve in NW Newmarket today. Also present there today were three Wood Ducks, two Hermit Thrushes, a single Ruffed Grouse, three Northern Flickers, and countless Golden-crowned Kinglets. I had my first Swamp Sparrow of the year at Silver Lakes this afternoon. Going back to an April 1st stakeout at dusk, Kevin Shackleton and I had two American Woodcock "peent"ing and doing their "Dance of the Timberdoodle" thing. One was at Silver Lakes and another on Bathurst Street N. Ron Fleming, Newmarket York Region is directly north of Toronto and south of Lake Simcoe. For more specific directions to Bathurst St. North, Silver Lakes, or the Cawthra Mulock Reserve email me directly. _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup
