David Szmyr and I studied a juvenile Pacific Loon in Kempenfelt Bay in Barrie from 5:20 to 6:15 PM. I managed some very distant photos. At times the bird was within 500 m from shore, and it stayed in the same general area for the duration of the observation. It was a smallish loon, noticeably smaller than the abundant Common Loons and similar in size to a Herring Gull sitting on the water. The back was very dark, head/nape with classic rounded shape and somewhat lighter in colour then the back (more charcoal coloured) small white area on face, bill dark and not tilted upward like Red-throated Loon, shap demarcation between white throat and dark sides of neck. OBRC reports will be submitted by Dave and I. I will post photos on my blog (joshvandermeulen.blogspot.com) later this evening.
We first spotted the bird from Minet's Point Park, located on the south side of Kempenfelt Bay. The bird was seen within a ~200m stretch of water directly in front of the park (due north). Loons are currently staging on Lake Simcoe as they do every year at this time. Earlier, Dave counted 1740 of them from the same vantage point - this is a record high count for Ontario, I believe. Red-necked Grebes, Red-throated Loons and Little Gulls are easily seen on Lake Simcoe through October and November, and all of those species were present today. Directions: Highway 400 North, exit Essa Road in Barrie, continue east to the Barrie waterfront. Turn right on Lakeshore, left on Minet's Point Road/white Oaks Rd. Park will be on the left. Good birding, Josh Vandermeulen joshvandermeulen.blogspot.com Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ 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
