Ontbirds subscribers, This morning, a little after 8:00 a.m., while watching for Whimbrel and Brant flocks over the lake, I spotted an adult Arctic Tern flying past my front yard off Crystal Beach Boulevard going east to west. It was in quite close to shore providing an excellent view. Immediately apparent was its very short-billed and small-headed appearance and the overall darker gray colour of the ventral body plumage of the bird than that of a Common Tern. The dark gray extended well up toward the head, leaving a very strikingly narrow area of white between the dark cap and the gray which bordered the cheek area. The upper surface of its wings was very light, with whitish secondaries and a real translucent look to the whitish primaries, with no wedge of dark in the outer primaries as on a Common Tern. The only dark marking in the primaries was a very thin, dark terminal trailing edge to the primaries on the under surface of the wing. The long tail combined with short head and bill imparted a very diff erent set of proportions from a Common Tern in flight. As is usually the case, its flight style also seemed more buoyant and effortless than that of a Common Tern. The bird continued on west past Thickson Point.
This afternoon from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. I watched the singing Acadian Flycatcher in Whitby in the woods that border the east fork of Corbett Creek a little to the west of Intrepid Park as posted yesterday afternoon by Carol Horner. Despite the habitat here being less than ideal, this bird appears to be on territory, and it sang many dozens of times in the time I was watching it. It sang often from the canopy of one very old and immense willow near the edge of the creek. Be careful to identify the bird by song, however, because in the general area I also found 2 singing Willow Flycatchers, 1 singing Alder Flycatcher, 3 singing Least Flycatchers and 2 silent Yellow-bellied Flycatchers. Several Yellow-bellied Flycatchers were also seen to the west in the adjacent Thickson's Woods. Here, again, are Carol Horner's directions to the Acadian Flycatcher: From Thickson Rd south of the 401 go east on Wentworth, then south on Boundary Rd. Where the road curves and becomes Phillip Murray drive, access the waterfront trail. Walk west along the trail, cross the boardwalk over the marsh. The bird was seen and heard at the west end of the boardwalk where the marsh meets the wood lot. Glenn Coady Whitby - See more at: http://birding.aba.org/message.php?mesid=711657&MLID=ON&MLNM=Ontario#sthash.IstEJTwS.dpuf _______________________________________________ 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 Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide
